Man, talk about a tough but rewarding day. It’s 6 PM and I feel as if we’ve been going for 100 hours. Of course, locking myself out of the room while the guys sat around the pool didn’t help. Kin Ha motel is a huge place and it takes some effort to walk up front through the iguanas that live under the sidewalk. There’s a childhood nightmare in the making if I ever heard one.

This motel is on the tour bus route. Yesterday a couple of buses pulled in at night. Today there are more. If you stay here, get a room early and ask for a bungalow as they all have covered patios with seating.

So, yesterday I had a flat again which I plugged. Today the tire is losing some air, but not much. The chain worries me more. In San Antonio I had service scheduled and bought a spare chain. At the service I specifically said that if there was any question about the chain it should be swapped. The mechanics at Joey Harrison assured me that the chain was fine and would go for 4,000 more miles. Here I am a couple of thousand miles from home in a foreign country forced to deal with this issue. When I turn the rear wheel there is a clear flat spot in the chain and each day it is more pronounced. I’ve lubed the chain religiously. Something has to change.

One of the motel employees, Ludy, takes us around town. Most of the shops in town are closed. We do find one motorcycle shop and they look at the chain like it is some kind of new technology. I expect them to say “we use ropes on our bikes.” Next we go to a vulcanizer to see if he can fix the tire, but the owner isn’t in. He’ll be back soon however, so I pull the rear wheel and wait. He’s back soon and I can’t look as he takes huge tire irons to the rim. Quickly he patches the tire and Don and I struggle to remount the wheel without turning into huge grease spots.

Meanwhile, Mike and the hero of our story, Ludy, are searching for a place that will swap the chain, and find one. It actually looks like a semi-professional shop. Great! We drop the bike off and head back to the motel where we have a nice buffet breakfast.

After we eat we hop a minibus to the ruins. Minibuses and taxis are everywhere. In some states the taxis are all the same color. In all states they drive aggressively and you learn to spot them for fear of your life ending. Stand by the side of the road anywhere and you can flag one down. They are cheap, albeit a bit cramped. We’ve seen them on roads in the jungle where you would never expect to see one. I almost think I could raise my hand while I’m typing this in Florida and one would pick me up.

The best part of the minibus is that it drives through all the vendors at the entrance. Palenque has two fees, one at the entrance to parking and one at the entrance to the ruins. Through the jungle the ruins absolutely leave us speechless. Surrounded by the jungle and built into the hills this is easily the most beautiful site to which we have been. There’s a huge amount of climbing involved and I can’t remember seeing one ruin you couldn’t climb. We find the tallest one and climb the extremely steep steps to the top.

After seeing the view, I know I would have walked up barefoot through broken glass to see this. Between the jungle, ruins and mountains, you come close to crying. It is that beautiful. I can’t emphasize how big the site is. In the summer you’ll need strong legs, determination and lots of water.

On the way back to the entrance/exit Mike and Don take one path while I walk through a jungle path and see a Toucan. Fabulous. Outside in the vendor area I buy a green coconut. The vendor slices off the top with a machete and gives me a straw. This had been on my “to do” list since I started to see them along the roads by the gulf.

Back at the motel we re-enlist the services of Ludy. He is now the 4th member of the Mui Macho Muchacos and is having as great a time as we are. The owner of the shop says it was a big job to change the chain. Between the tire and the chain work I spend $13.00. In the US, writing up a quote for the work would have cost that much.

Before we head back to the motel we walk around the town and eat lunch at an out of the way open air stall. Our waitress, Abigail, is a cute 16 year old who works with her family. Children are your best bet for English as they all take it in school. We are the first Americans that Abigail has seen in her restaurant. The meal comes with molle which is not my favorite, but it is still good. Don gets a fried chicken dinner that is great. Fried chicken is just that and doesn’t have any breading.

We hail a cab back to the bike and I follow the boys back to the motel. Not only is the chain noise gone, but the bike isn’t stumbling anymore. The chain was so bad it was putting a strain on the engine. Tomorrow we start the push home.