From Pine Forests to Pineapples and Palm Trees – Mexico’s Tropical East

22 Cycling Days

1590 km

22.436 m ascent

_{Oaxaca to Bacalar}

Sierra Madre de Oaxaca

We left Oaxaca and cycled towards the mountains. One last mountain ranges was left to cross before we’d reach the coast for the first time in ages! Before though, just outside of Oaxaca, was a small highlight that we didn’t wanna miss: The Tree of Tule (Spanish Árbol de Tule). With a circumference of 46 metres it is the widest known tree of the world! Funnily enough, from far away it looks just like a fairly big, ordinary tree. We parked our bikes, paid our entrance fee of 20 Pesos and shortly after we stood in front of the giant tree, admiring it. Its weight is estimated to a total of 636 tonnes and its age to 1500 – 2000, depending on the source. Various birds call the treetop their home and we even spotted some green parrots!

From there, we headed towards the mountains and slowly but surely, uphill was the only direction. At the foot of the mountain range, we passed through the small town of Teotihuacán del Valle, which is mainly known for its production of handmade rugs. These are sold all over Oaxaca and the surrounding area and seem to be a popular souvenir. For the rest of the day, we cycled uphill, slowly but steadily. The gravel road was beautiful, though there was just as little shade as there was traffic…

From 3000 to 100 Meter 

It was incredibly hot the following day too. During our lunch break, my bike computer had unfortunately been left in the sun and was showing 51 degrees. We couldn’t really enjoy the lovely downhill section in the afternoon, knowing very well that we’d have to cycle straight back up again afterwards! We reached the top of the pass the next morning, and stood at almost 3000 metres. From there, it was downhill almost all the way to sea level. We’d been looking forward to the descent ever since Oaxaca! Unfortunately, it had already started raining while we were packing up that morning, and now we were standing at the top in thick fog. We wrapped up warm, put our rain gear on and set off on the descent. The first 20 kilometres still involved a lot of uphill sections in between, and visibility was sometimes down to just a few metres. The temperatures were close to freezing, and with the rain and the wind, we were really really cold. A collapsing, abandoned shed at the side of the road looked almost inviting given the circumstances and we stopped for lunch. We even made ourselves some hot chocolate in an attempt to warm up a little. Hard to believe that just yesterday even being in the shade was too hot!

After the lunch break, the road finally started going downhill properly. Whilst we had spent the last few days cycling through pine forests and mountainous terrain, after just a few turns we found ourselves in the rainforest. It became increasingly jungle-like, with huge germs, enormous leaves, banana plants and waterfalls. Unfortunately, because of the rain, we had virtually no view, but it must have been fantastic! Luckily, it was getting warmer and warmer, and in the evening at the campsite I even went for a short swim. The night wasn’t very restful, unfortunately, with lots of mosquitoes, a noisy church and some neighbor who was convinced that just before six in the morning was a great time to light fireworks. 

A new climate zone and vegetation

The next few days, we struggled with the higher temperatures and humidity. The landscape around us had changed completely, we sped along on flat, tarmac roads, admiring the vegetation. Bananas, coconuts, papayas and even pineapples were growing everywhere! Sugar cane was cultivated and processed here too, which was easy to tell by all the sugarcane laying at the side of the road. It seemed that, especially for transporting sugar cane, the motto was: If you load more, you might still arrive with enough regardless of how much falls off during transport”…
We often stayed in motels, as wild camping was quite difficult with all the farming going on. One evening, whilst looking for a spot to to wild camp, we came across a couple of older men working in a pineapple field. They advised us against wild camping in this region, offered us a cup of coke and we asked them all about pineapple cultivation. Did you know that they tie the leaves of each individual plant together to protect the fruit from the sun? The things you learn on the road!

Mexican Hospitality

At the moment, it seemed as though a lot of people were delighted to see us. People were waving and honking their horns the whole time, or starting conversations. When we stopped for a lunch break in the shade outside a petrol station, a couple came up to us and gifted us a fresh pineapple. So sweet! It was big and heavy though, so we decided to cut it open right away, ate half of it and packed the rest away for later. On another occasion, we were approached by someone who seemed to work for a bike shop and offers cycle tourists a place to sleep. Unfortunately, his place wasn’t on our route, but he put us in touch with someone else, and we actually ended up spending the night at his place! We were treated to loads of homemade mango ice cream and got to enjoy a lively evening with the entire family. 

One day, we had absolutely no idea where to spend the night. The area was full of farmland there were no hotels nearby. I’d found a restaurant that looked as though it might have enough space for us to camp, but when we arrived, it was closed because of a public holiday. After a moment of hesitation, I asked the family in the courtyard anyway if they might have room for us or knew where we could ask, and that was the best decision we could have made! After a quick chat, they invited us to stay with them; after all, they had plenty of space and more importantly, it was supposed to rain later that night. Before we knew it, we were put into cosy rocking chairs and told to rest. Three generations lived in the two houses, and we had lovely conversations with everyone. We were given such a warm welcome! We pitched our tent under the roof, and wow, it did rain! So much even that we had to move the tent to another spot during the night because the terrace was filling up like a bathtub. The next morning, the courtyard and the restaurants outdoor area were completely flooded. The grandmother shared coffee and fried bananas with us. It continued to rain for a while and we were even offered to stay for the rest of the day. A bit later though, the weather improved and we decided to set off. After all, it was just wet, not actually cold! We said goodbye to the family, who assured us we were always welcome back and gave us a bunch of small bananas to take with us.

Finally at the Coast

After three more days, filled with some more rain, a few flamingos and many iguanas, we arrived at Ciudad del Carmen. It is located on the Isla del Carmen and on the bridge into the city we saw lots of dolphins in the beautiful water. The day before we had met some cycle tourists for the first time in weeks. The Argentinians, that started their journey in Argentina and were heading for the US and the first game of the upcoming world cup. What a concept! The effects of the heavy rain a few days ago were visible everywhere; many meadows and properties were under water.

The day from Ciudad del Carmen towards the North was truly beautiful. Most of the time, we cycled very close to the ocean and the water was incredibly blue! Iguanas were everywhere and every now and then we spotted a pelican. We saw an abandoned Palapa at the beach and stopped for lunch. It was windy, but the view were to die for! In the afternoon, we stopped for a short break in the shade of a coconut palm tree. Sebi successfully tried to find a coconut and we had fresh coconut water to drink. Just in time for sunset, we reached the campsite and stayed for two nights. Unfortunately, our break day fell on a weekend, so the next day we had to put up with lots of other guests and, at times, unbearably loud music. We went for a walk on the beach and were each given a fresh coconut by a neighbour. Mine tasted as if the coconut water was sparkly, so good!

Back in the Jungle

We said goodbye to the coast once again and headed South towards Escárcega. We camped at a campsite run by a Swiss/Austrian couple. The place wasn’t far from the road, but was right in the middle of the jungle. There’s even a family of howler monkeys that basically lived in her garden! We had heard their calls a few times before, but this was the first time we had actually seen the monkeys. They don’t look nearly as loud as they sound!

The next few days, we cycled mostly in a straight line eastwards. Unexpectedly, we really liked this stretch, despite the headwind we had most of the time. The road was wide, in good condition and with little traffic. To the right and to the left there was jungle and everything was so green! Every now and then we could hear the howler monkeys howl and Sebi even spotted some spider monkeys hanging in a tree at the side of the road. Watching them was incredibly funny, just exactly how you would imagine monkeys to be!
Apart from a slight headwind, we were really lucky with the weather for a long time. Unfortunately, that also meant it was very hot during the day. We were incredibly grateful for the many bus stops – some in better conditions than others – which could be found fairly reliably close to almost every small village along the main road. These quickly became our oases of shade whenever we needed a break. Besides all the beautiful things, we inevitably encountered some downsides, too. Not only has there been a fair amount of rubbish along the road throughout Mexico – a lot of it is simply burnt. Not just by people in their own front yards, we also saw entire rubbish dumps just off the road, simply burning away. The smell was unbearable at times.

Balamkú

There were a number of ruins and archeological sites along the road that we could visit. One of these was Balamkú, which used to be a relatively small Mayan town back in the day. We visited the site in the morning and had the whole place to ourselves. Balamkú is best known for its extremely well-preserved wall stucco frieze. It is located inside the site’s largest building, which has been renovated to protect the artefacts beneath it. A staff member opened the side door for us and we were allowed to marvel at the artwork. The stone “painting” was huge, and the original red colour was still quite clearly visible. What an effort they put into decorating everything back then! And every image had a meaning – truly fascinating.

Bacalar 

After a few days, we reached the first major intersection. The road to the east led to Belize, but we had decided to take a little detour to Bacalar and turned north. We spent the night at a small campsite by a lagoon, and wow, the water was beautiful! Blue and clear, full with little fish and incredibly warm. My watch read 27 degrees Celsius and that’s exactly how it felt. The next day, we cycled the rest of the way to Bacalar and stayed in a hostel for a few days. We hadn’t realised just how popular the place is with backpackers, and it was packed with mainly young tourists. But the little town is located next to a beautiful lagoon, where the water looks just like the Caribbean. 

Once we arrived in Bacalar, I took my bike to the workshop as the bottom bracket needed re-greasing. We dropped our bags off at the hostel and went out for a meal. There was a really good vegan burger place, that even had a view of the lagoon! Because of the heat, we had struggled to eat enough over the last few days and were now so hungry that we each ordered two burgers. The staff member at the counter was visibly confused when we placed our order. 

We couldn’t miss the chance to get on the water and rented two kayaks for a day. For a few hours, we paddled across Bacalar Lagoon, through the Canal de los Pirates and through the mangroves. Bacalar was looted by pirates in the 17th century, who presumably came through this very canal. As a result, the Bacalar fortress was built, which can still be visited today. The water in the canal was only knee-deep in places, so you could simply step out of the kayak! We were back on land just in time for the rain and spent the rest of the afternoon sheltering from the rain and thunderstorm in the hostel. 

Mérida

I had a little side trip ahead of me and took the bus to Mérida for two days, while Sebi stayed in Bacalar. Some traveling friends of ours had recently flown back to Mexico from Switzerland and had dropped off a few things for us in Mérida – things we would otherwise have had to order and import at a high cost. And like this I even got the chance to see Mérida! Unfortunately, I had a bit of bad luck with the bus journey, as the bus broke down halfway through and we had to wait ages in the heat for alternative transport, meaning I ended up traveling for eight hours instead of five… I arrived at the hostel completely exhausted, but at least it was incredibly cosy, I would have loved to stay for so much longer! I spent the next morning exploring the town a bit more before getting back on a bus to Bacalar. To my relief, the return trip was pleasantly uneventful. 

Farewell from Mexico

Before continuing, we had one last important thing to do: Send our drone ahead. Unfortunately, two countries on our upcoming itinerary have a strict ban on drones: Belize and Nicaragua. Shipping it twice would have been way too expensive, so with a heavy heart we decided to ship it from Mexico directly to Costa Rica. No aerial shots from Guatemala and El Salvador, but hopefully even more afterwards! There were a few uncertainties regarding the shipping address, as addresses in Costa Rica simply don’t work the way we were used to. In the end, everything seemed to have worked out and the drone was packed and dropped off. 

Now there was nothing that could stop us from continuing towards Belize the next day. We were excited! Though we had spent nearly four months in Mexico and were quite sad to leave to be honest. We have seen so much, and at the same time there was so much that we didn’t have the opportunity to see. We settled in so well, knew supermarket and kiosk inventories by heart and knew where to find places in the shade. Mexico definitely is a country we will both return to one day!

_{Published on June 14, 2026
Experienced from 10.03.2026 – 30.03.2026}