A Yucatán Adventure

Walking next to a Sacbe, a raised Mayan road.

The gang in a taqueria in Santa Elena

Sacbe means “white road” in Mayan, and sacbeob (the plural!), raised paved roads, connected ceremonial sites and sections of Mayan cities and some even connected Mayan cities to each other. In 2021, as I drove between Mayan ruins in the Puuc Hills it occurred to me that biking sacbeob between Mayan sites would be the ultimate gravel adventure. This thought inspired the idea of doing a bike tour in the Yucatan.

In the end the route I planned did not involve riding on any sacbeob, but it did involve some great roads, both gravel and paved.

This was an exploratory tour: I was aware of routes that might dead-end, worried about roads that might be unpleasant, and paths that might not exist. Though I had almost everything arranged - from the route to hotels and some (but not all) restaurants, there were unknowns. Despite this (and perhaps because of it) nine friends signed on to accompany me on what turned out to be an epic visit of colonial conventos, Mayan ruins, cenotes, and small towns.

We covered 200 miles or so in five days. They were almost all exhilarating miles, taking us down old rail paths (our most gnarly gravel), small back roads, an old hacienda rail trail, dirt roads, and up to the highest point in the Yucatan.

Making Pollo Pibil

And I did not want to do just Mayan ruins; I wanted the trip to provide a glimpse into how the Mayan live today. A tour in Telchaquillo gave us a flavor, literally, of local Mayan life. At a garden we learned about local herbs, vegetables, and fruits used in Mayan cuisine, we helped prepare a pollo pibil which cooked underground while we learned about local weaving and embroidery. After a Mayan purification ceremony and a swim in a cenote we ate the pollo pibil. It was delicious.

One my favorite days was riding the Ruta Puuc through what is the only hilly part of Yucatan. The elevation on the map looked worse than what it really turned out to be.

An amazing part of the route, the Ruta Puuc takes us past four significant Mayan sites, closely spaced and all populated by tens of thousands of people a thousand years ago or so. We visited three sites, Labná, Sayil, and Kabah all within twelve miles of each other. The greatest of the sites on the route, Uxmal, we saved for the next day so we could savor its splendor. It’s hard to describe what it is like to see the ruins of a civilization that had such sophistication in its astronomy, art, and organization.

Mirador at Sayil

Another favorite road was an old hacienda rail trail. Many haciendas used a light rail system that consisted of about two inch rails set on metal ties that were laid on flatten ground. The rails were only about 30 inches apart, and the carts that fit them were pulled by mules.

We got to ride a mule-pulled cart at the Hacienda Sotuta de Peon. After a tour of what is the only remaining functioning sisal plantation we were taken through agave fields to a cenote for a swim.

Our last day we packed up our bikes and spent some time site-seeing on foot in Mérida. The town is lovely just to walk around. We managed to squeeze in visits to two markets, two restaurants, a couple of cantinas, and a jazz bar as well a museum tour.

On the road

Dinner in Mérida

Lunch at the market in Muna

The dogs were very friendly.

The food in Mexico is delicious and the Yucatan cuisine did not disappoint. We ate at small market restaurants, family taquerías, some fancy places, and explored the snack aisles in the little bodegas.

Mexico is full of friendly people, and we were welcomed everywhere. The drivers were courteous on all the types of roads we were on.

We also made new friends among our little group, and deepened some friendships that already existed. We may have to do some more exploratory trips together!

We have a tour coming up that you can sign up for in Europe, and we are contemplating offering a Yucatan adventure for next year. Stay tuned!