Maya Biking Experience

Riding a bicycle on an 11-kilometer (6.6 miles) trek through Maya villages, visiting a Maya archaeological site and a working hacienda, then having lunch with a Maya family are the high points of this itinerary. The Yucatán is a wonderful place for bicycle riding as it is so flat; this makes it easy for even the novice rider.

Our publisher, an avid cyclist, joined the tour one Sunday morning and had a great time. Departure is from the Hotel Caribe downtown. From the hotel, everyone boards public transportation to the village of Tixkokob – the village famous for hammock making. Here they visited the huge colonial church, the typical market where they saw all kinds of fresh food, stopped at one stand for a sampling of coconut empanadas, and then went on to visit several stores selling the traditional Yucatecan hammocks.

After this little tour on foot, they headed over to Doña Mary’s house where they picked up the bicycles, which are Mercurio mountain bikes. After doing some stretching exercises, each person adjusted their seat for leg length and checked their tires. This is important to do so that you have a comfortable ride. Seats that are too low and tires without enough air make for a strenuous, uncomfortable ride.

The 11 km. trek from Tixkokob to the hacienda and archaeological site Aké was a very interesting ride where they got to really see the locals and their homes, their backyards with huge fruit trees, chickens and turkeys running around and kids waving and yelling “hola” as they rode by. It was quite an experience for the kids AND the visitors!

Arriving at the hacienda, they toured the henequen rope factory that has been running and using the same techniques for a hundred years. They then headed over to the archaeological site where a group of people were in a circle doing a ceremony of some kind; as it was March 21, it may have been related to the spring equinox.

An hour and a half later, they loaded the bikes onto a pick-up truck and headed back to Tixkokob, to Doña Mary’s for a home-cooked lunch of pollo pibil and Yucatecan spaghetti. It was quite a privilege to be there.

Ake-Sitio-Arqueologico-by-Juan-Manuel-Mier-y-Teran

After lunch, they once again boarded the public transportation and headed back to Mérida, just in time to catch some of Mérida en Domingo in the downtown area.

This is an excursion for people who like bike riding, are somewhat fit and want to see the Yucatán from a different perspective.