I love that even though the Yucatan has very few roads, and I’ve been down there more than a dozen times, there are still some roads I haven’t been on. Such as the road between Valladolid and Izamal, which passes through the village of Uayma. Where there’s this:

I also had time to poke around bits of Valladolid I hadn’t had time to see before–like the portrait gallery on the second floor of city hall.

And with a little extra time in my trip, I was able to hang out at this great resort just north of Celestun, where I saw these old palapa frames piled up, waiting for a fresh layer of palm fronds:

My dad and I cruised Tulum, running in to see the ruins in the 45 minutes before the site closed. Perfect timing–you don’t need much more time there, and most people had left. And the light was beautiful.

This was when we coined the idea of Precision Tours, a company with the motto “We get you there exactly…when we get you there.” Because this was probably the first time on a research trip that I’d ever gotten anywhere exactly when I meant to, and had just enough time to do what I needed to do. I’ve been mulling over the idea of running a guided tour of the Yucatan, but the timing part of it strikes me as the single most challenging element. I think if I led a tour, it would have the most lax itinerary ever–one sight a day, max. Who’s in?

We could go places like this:

You have to ride on a little horse-drawn cart on rails to get there, then climb down a wooden ladder into a pitch-black hole. Worth it.

And we could stop in Campeche and get our fortunes told by a parakeet:

The parakeet picked out a slip of paper with my fortune pertaining to my work. It advised me to accept a new opportunity. Ahem, bird. How long am I supposed to wait for this? I’ll give it another month.

If nothing happens, I might have to resort to the herbal-medicine man across the street. I asked him for an anti-itch treatment, for my mosquito bites, and he overcharged me, and he felt me up–as he demonstrated how I should rub the stuff “all over [my] body.” But that and the bird are still way more fun than lidocaine and a career coach.

Seriously, who’s up for a Precision Tours (TM) adventure in the Yucatan? I’m thinking next winter, or spring 2012.

*Flickr set from this trip
*Mexico #1: Where the Party at?
* Mexico #2: Partying on…and on
*Mexico #3: Party Favors
* Mexico #4: Howdy, Cowboy
* Mexico #5: Snack Break!