The rain of stars (December 9-14)

On Saturday we left Cuernavaca in order to start searching for a boat to the Caribbean islands. After 4 days we found ourselves in the peninsula of Yucatan, where we started our Follow The Road Trip last January. It was a long way – about 1500 km.

Accommodation in Veracruz...

The first night we spent in Vercruz, in the high grass with advertising posters near the beach. We checked the jacht club of Veracruz, but they had no foreign boats stopping by.

Spending night in a huge park for lovers in Villahermosa

Next day we slept in a big park for lovers in Villahermosa. During the night loud music from the amusement park and children playing in the nearby playground were a little bit disturbing our sleep…

The third day we did not manage to reach Merida – we had to stop about 150 km before it, short after the Campeche city in one village on the main road. We asked for accommodation in psychiatric hospital, but they could not help us and advised to check the public security (police) office building on the main road.

Sleeping under the roof of village police station

Here we asked the officer for help and he invited to place our tent under the roof next to his vehicle. We were just a few meters from the road, so the whole night we heard heavy trucks passing by…

By the way, during this month there are a lot of pilgrims travelling on the main roads of Mexico. All of them are carrying torch for the virgin Guadalupe. We do not know all the story exactly, but all this thing started 475 years ago. Once the virgin Maria (here, it seems, they call her Guadalupe) appeared on a boy’s T-shirt, and in that area (North of Mexico City) a Villa de Guadalupe village was established. The 12th of December is the day of the virgin. For this the pilgrims from different villages travel to Villa de Guadalupe and come back to their places carrying the torch in their hands. Mexico is a huge country, so some of the pilgrim groups travel only to the nearest bigger cities with the churches of name of Guadalupe.

The pilgrims travel either by running or by bicycles. Very often they are escorted by a bus or a truck, which transports all the group. Only one person at a time is running, and the rest are waiting for a turn in the bus. They change each 3-4 kilometers. The same are with the bicycles. 1-3 of them are cycling – the rest are following in a truck or in a bus. Sometimes we saw groups of 10-15 cyclists without supporting transport.

The pilgrims travel during the day and the night. They get free food and drinks in the villages they are passing by. Some of them are doing this journey because they have seriously ill family members, and by accomplishing the Guadalupe route, they believe that the ill person will get better.

This month the church in Villa de Guadalupe was visited by 7 million pilgrims, which shows how big this tradition is.

Our friends house in CHixchulub beach

And now, let’s get back to our trip. On Tuesday we finally reached the North of Yucatan. For the last 2 days we are staying with our friends from Chicxulub (village on the sea, 50 km North of Merida) – Jorge and Patricia, whom we met here in the beginning of our trip in January. Since June 2006 they are living in a big house right on the beach.

We also visited Puerto Progreso harbour (7 km from Chicxulub) in order to check possibilities getting a cargo ship over there. We asked few companies which operate the routes from this harbour, but had no results. One of them has routes only to US and the other company is controlled by a Cuban office, so they do not have authorities to accept strange passangers on the boat.

Last night we were watching a marvelous rain of stars. We had a great opportunity to wish what we want and wait when the dreams will come true… 🙂

On Friday we will travel to Cancun. We hope to find some places where foreign yachts are travelling around the Caribbean.