The entire second week of our trip was full of awesome sights. First, we went to see Chichen Itza, the most famous Mayan ruin in the area. The best part was walking onto the site, because as soon you come through the trees, BAM it's right there in front of you and it's HUGE!
We were able to get there fairly early in the morning before it got too hot, and too overrun with tour groups, so we had a good chance to walk around and see all the ruins on the grounds.
After that, we headed further west to the capital city of the Yucatan, a town called Merida. It turned out to be one of the coolest places we have ever been! It's a colonial city and has all the neat architecture, as well as being very cultural. Every night in the city center plaza there were cultural events happening with music and food and people. We found it to be very touristy, but with Mexican tourists. We also found that the people here identified more with being Mayan than Mexican. A couple different people said to us that we Americans should feel safe here (which we definitely did) because now we were with the Mayan people. We sure felt welcome and ended up loving the city.
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| Central Plaza with clock tower |
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| Passing by someones (pink!) colonial house |
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| Check out those cool conversation chairs! They had them all around the plaza for people to sit in and face each other while you talk. |
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| Food stalls and street vendors filled the closed-off streets every Sunday |
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| Our awesome hotel |
We could hardly stop taking pictures in this city! What a cool place.
Over the next few days we went and saw more Mayan ruins. Some that were worth the stop and pretty impressive...
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| Uxmal (pronounced Oosh-mal), known for it's rounded corners instead of the typical square pyramid style |
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| Oooh curvy! |
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| Quietly contemplating the panoramic carvings |
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| Woooohooo! Panoramic carvings!! Yeah! |
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| Climbed up the Grand Pyramid to get a higher view of those rounded corners of Uxmal |
And then there were some that were more "rubble in the dirt/roadside attraction" ruins, but still fun to look at...
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| This was the roadside building with one lonely guy sitting at a folding table to sell tickets |
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| Here's a cool partially standing castle thingy |
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| And a piece of a once-grand courtyard |
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| Okay now we're just getting bored... |
We also went and saw more cenotes (underground caves with water). The first one we went to was just a regular cave called Lol-Tun. It was pretty incredible. It gets its name from two huge pillars inside the cave that, when you bang your fist on them, they make a sound like "lol" and "tun". I tried to get it on video when Brannan tried, but all you can hear are the drippy sounds of the cave. Oh well, we came away with some sweet pictures.
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| Going down into the cave |
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| Looking back at the stairs to the opening |
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| This was an ancient Mayan carving of a head that was discovered in the cave |
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| So huge! |
At the end of the cave, it opened up to the sky and big viney trees were growing out
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| View back down into the cave where the trees were growing out |
After that, we went on a tour of 3 cenotes that we could swim in. We had read about a cool tour that was on an old agave plantation, where they had used horse-pulled carts on rails to harvest the agave plants. Now, they use the horse carts to pull you around to different cenotes as a tour. Awesome, right?!!
Our guidebook was somewhat vague about directions on how to get there, so we went to consult the google. Oh boy. The first few things I could find said things like "You'll come to a man waving a red flag. Ignore him. Go down the street to the man waving a different flag, I think it was yellow, and park there." Also things like "go to the town called Cuzama" (which is the name of the cenotes) "and you'll see a sign that says Cuzama Cenotes. Don't turn there. Take the turn at the next town". So off we went with very specific but vague directions. Sure enough, we saw men waving red flags and went past them to the next stop, where we saw horses and carts just waiting there by the side of the road. Turns out, the red-flag-waving-man was getting you to go to the commercialized ripoff version, and the place down the road was the original. It was worth the hunt and the effort!
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| Setting off with our drivers/tour guides |
There was one main rail that was the only way in and out, so when we came along and another cart was coming at us, someone had to get off the track and let us pass!
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| Not sure how they chose who had to get off the track, but this guy lost this round |
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| Ready to go check out some cenotes |
The first cenote was a teeny hole in the ground with a rusty ladder going down. Since our tetanus shots were current, down we went!
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| So cool and refreshing! And it washes off all the rust. |
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| View back up the ladder |
The second cenote was less exciting, with just a little bit of water inside. So we didn't even get in, we just looked around. The third was the best. It had a steep staircase going down to a landing where you could jump in. So we did.
After a refreshing swim, we climbed back into our cart and headed off into the sunset...
Back to Merida and then back Cancun to fly home to Idaho. Adios Mexico!! We'll be back for sure.
