My First Bike Ride to the Wild Side!

I've been wanting to do this for a long time, but I was never brave enough to try.  A big thank you!! To Tom and Toby for helping me make it happen!!!!

Cozumel is an Island, about 48 km long and 16 km wide.  One road, the transversal, goes across the middle from West to East.  Another main road goes around most of the island, following the shoreline.  

The main town is on the West side of Cozumel and faces the mainland.  The East side, The WildSide, as I like to call it, faces the open ocean.  So the wind there is often strong and the waves are big.  It's mostly undeveloped except for one small hotel, about 8 beach clubs and an awesome bike path between the road and the long beautiful wild beach.  

Tom, a 72 year old American friend who just retired from operating his coffee shop and lives here, rides his bike around the island twice per week.  About 65 km each time!!  He's been offering to bike with me.  That'd be nice.  But I'm so much slower than him.  So not ideal.

But Toby has a bike like mine.  Good. Not great.  He's faster than me too, but is ok with slowing to my speed.  So this week, we did it!!!!!  

We biked, with a small head wind, from our apartment to The Wild Side on the transversal to Mesacitos, the first beach club there.  Tom passed us along the way.  He met us at Mescalitos.  We drank and ate a little.  Rested.  Tom biked back home.  I rode with Toby to the next beach club, Punta Morena, on the bike path along the shore.  Magic!!!!!  After a swim and rest, we biked home, with the wind in our back.  With only one stop for pastries and milk at a small local corner type store.  

I am so happy we did it!  It was an awesome experience in so many ways!!!!

Pictures

1 & 2)  Me and Toby riding on the wild side.  So incredibly beautiful!  There's something about moving, at bike speed, that makes it all so much more interesting.  Maybe it's the slow change in the view, and finding new delights with each view, like lizards!

3) We rested in these hamaca at Mescalitos for a while.  Mine was such a pretty turquoise colour!!

4) Me and Toby.  Such a fun happy day!

5,6, 7)  Look for the blue elephant!  Tom and Barbara kept saying.  When I spotted this happy guy, I thought this was the blue elephant.  It wasn't.  The intended blue elephant came later, and wasn't as fun.  I'm glad we stopped here though.  We saw these cute dogs, this kind and resourceful lady plating seedlings in old refrigerators, for her nursery, and some kids bouncing on an old mattress.  Delights!

8) A kid playing a video game at a small store on the transversal.  She seemed to be enjoying herself a lot.  Which is great.  But somehow, the existence of a video game kinda in the jungle, captivated us. 

9) We were looking for ice cream and a break on our way home.  This little store didn't have ice cream.  So we shared a litre of whole milk and some pastries.  Delight!!