Ever ridden a bike through the top of the jungle?

What have we been doing? Not a lot but stuff involved with buying the house in Mérida, stuff with getting ready to leave here, dentist, seeing friends, dentist, riding SkyCycles through the jungle, dentist. Did I say dentist? Yeah, I thought I would be done and we would leave this weekend. Heh! No. I go back on Wednesday and hopefully will be done then. We will go to Mérida and then head for Michoacán.

So, we went over to Hidden Worlds with our friend Sandy and tried out the new SkyCycles. It's really cool, I'm calling it the Geezer Ride because even I could do it and the goal is to go slow, and quiet and alone and see things. That's Sandy, who is clearly NOT a geezer, getting ready to take off and heading out into the jungle in the SkyCycle.

These very ingenious guys went out through the jungle and strung a cable up in the canopy. They modified some bikes so that you recline and pedal yourself along on the cable through the jungle at whatever speed you want. They leave about 15 minutes between people so that you are out there alone.

There are no trails underneath you, just jungle. You're up at times about 50' I guess, right under the top of the canopy.

You look down on water filled caves or cenotes, rampant growth, bromeliads, orchids, palms. You can stop and listen to the birds, look for foxes and other animals, take pictures. It's really cool.

It's pretty level cycling, the occasional rises are done slowly and weren't hard. The downhills are also slow but since you can't coast they are almost harder as your feet are moving faster on the pedals.

I leaned way out to the side and took this pic with my foot in it for perspective, this was about the highest point. Did I mention that you are wearing a harness and hooked to the cycle? That's all good, you won't fall to the ground but you would be on a pretty good zip line zooming to the next bracket with no brakes. The brakes are on the handle bars above.

About a kilometer out and almost half way, you drop down into a cenote. They have a guy waiting for you before the drop who hooks a line onto you and helps with the braking as you go down. This is a pic looking down into the mouth of the cenote.

At this point, most people take a snorkle tour of the cenote. We opted out of that, we are all divers and have been in a lot of cenotes. It would be great for the cooling factor, after 30 or 40 minutes up in the jungle, diving into a cool cenote would be nice.

Instead we walked around a bit in the cool cenote bottom, there's a ladder so you could go up on top if you wanted. This cenote has a hole in the top that lets in a shaft of light, a small plant grows on an island where the light hits. Nature is so wonderful.

Heading back, you go through two more cenotes while you are still low to the ground. It's neat, just riding on through the cenote, low and slow, trailing your feet in the water if you want.

Looking out from a cenote is always beautiful, I've only done it from the water when we surfaced in one from a dive and then went down again and on. I think the fact that there are no trails and no visible disturbance of the jungle floor make this ride what it is.

Of course, I'm always fascinated by the bromeliads and orchids and other air plants. I'm not great with the names though, it bugs me that I don't remember what they all are.

We climbed back up to the canopy after the cenotes and I got some pics of bromeliads in bloom and orchids. It's the end of the dry season now so not a lot is blooming. This would be a fantastic trip in the rainy season.

Another kilometer or so of dense jungle up in the canopy. I was a little closer to Mimi this time, I could see her in the distance and used the 12x zoom to get this pic.

Then back into the jungle buggy for the ride back to the office and the road. It's about 5 kilometers in from the road, maybe more.

Such fun huh? If you're down here, I recommend going to Hidden Worlds and trying one of their adventures. They also offer cenote snorkle trips, cenote dives, and zip line adventures. Tell them Jonna and Mimi sent you.