We began the race at around 2:30pm on January 4th from Reynosa, MX Team B was dropped of in the town center and we were to make our way to Palenque. Two members (one of them spoke fluent Spanish) from team Agapetos bolted to the nearest local to ask for directions to the bus station as other members of their team tended to their bags. After trekking with our huge bags (by the way, my bag is one of the largest but definitely not one of the heaviness) team ZEO found our way to the bus station by 3pm. After making some inquiries, we found the only ticket booth that sold bus tickets to our destination and not to our surprise, the two Agapetos members who took off running, were at the counter. They spent quite a while at the counter as we later found out that they attempted to and succeeded in getting a direct bus to the destination closest to our final destinaton.
By the time we made it to the counter, we found that Agapetos got the last tickets for the direct bus. We were a little disappointed but were ok because we did not have a plan or strategy for this leg of the race. No one in my immediate team spoke Spanish very well but a couple of us knew a little bit. So after some struggling, we were able to purchase bus tickets to Vera Cruz and from there to Villahermosa. We were told that we would later need to purchase one more bus ticket from Villahermosa to Palenque. At this point, the race started to become real. Other teams arrived and purchased tickets also. Team ZEO was the first racing team to get on the bus. We found out later that the “direct” bus was scheduled to leave two hours after ours and had a one hour “layover” at Vera Cruz so ZEO was hopeful again at winning this leg. Our first bus ride was seventeen hours long and we waited about three hours for our next bus that was six hours long. When we got to Villahermosa, all teams arrived within hours of each other and all teams purchased tickets for the same bus leaving to Palenque. We waited another five hours for the final three hour long bus ride. All teams arrived in Palenque at 7am.
At this point, it was down to which team could run the fastest up to the highest point of the Mayan ruins in the archeological park. ZEO’s plan was to have two members stay behind to watch the bags and four members (the minimum amount needed to win a leg of a race) to hop into a taxi to get to the ruins. Our plan appeared to be successful as ZEO were the closest B team to the ticket window, right behind an A team. The park opened at 8am so by the time the park opened, all teams were present. However, Agapetos asked an A team, who was in line ahead of ZEO, to purchase park tickets for them and they did. We lost the leg by one minute! So after 40+ hours of traveling, we arrived in Palenque and are now staying at a Bible school.
