3rd December – Merida, Mexico

We spent about 30 minutes this morning looking for a new camera and the best we could find in one shop was 1.3 Megapixels. Other shops had some good models but not the brand we were chasing. Lucky, Sandia, the aussie, saved the day and let us use her camera.

We had a number of choices today as to what we could do in Merida. After our cenote experience yesterday, we opted to see more of these, in Cuzama Haciendo. We caught a private van and stopped on the way at the local markets with plenty of local Mexican transportation. We stocked up on some fresh fruit and also some fresh tortilla’s which we saw being made before our eyes. The locals in the market were very friendly and keen to have their photo taken. To get to the cenotes, we were told we would catch a horse and cart. We turned up and the horse was there but the “cart” was simply an old carriage that sat on railways with the horse pulling it along. As the rail track itself was one way, if you came across anyone coming the other way one cart would have to stop and lift the cart off the tracks, wait for the other cart to pass, put theirs back on and continue on their journey.
It was a fairly rustic trip with the horse pulling our cart but it was lots of fun. We traveled about three kilometers to our first cenote, which we had all to ourself. The cenote was broad and open with clear blue water. Dan was first in diving from a three metre platform splashing Claudio (who was carefully testing the water). We spent about forty minutes in the cenote then boarded our “train” to the next one.
This cenote was a little harder to see from the surface. The entrance was around 3 x 1.5 metres and there were some steep ladders down where I hit my head on the rocks trying to get in. Again it was clear and blue and the water was lovely to swim in. The cenote had tree roots hanging over the edge that dangled in the water. Back on the “train” to the next cenote. We sat right on the back of this one that meant we had to dangle our feet and lift then above the tracks for a few km’s hanging on tightly around the corners so we didn’t topple off the cart.
We arrived at the last and definitely the best cenote. The entrance could barely be seen from surface. Dan was first to climb down the near vertical ladder (made of wood) which was about 10 metres, it was also very dark. The climb was worth it. This cenote was so clear you could see the bottom which was very deep. The water was the bluest we had seen with a small rock stack on in the middle to stand on. Light was streaming into the cave creating light rippling through and shadows. It was absolutely beautiful. Again we had the cave to ourselves and I was first in on this one. We spent about another 40 minutes swimming around this cave and exploring. The cave was full of stalactites and rock formations. That night we came back to Merida and explored a bit of the town. The sun was setting and colours were amazing. First up we went to Casa de Montejo which had ornate window features.
Next we went to middle Americas oldest cathedral from 1598 – Catedrel De San Ildefonso. The outside was lovely, although the inside was fairly plain. The Cathedral surrounded the Grand Plaza.
We walked past the armed guards at Palacio De Gobierno to see the wall sized murals depicting famous people and scenes associated with Mayan History.
Later that night we went for dinner (including Pina Coladas) with local entertainment in the courtyard surrounded by portico’s. Later that night there was a Mayan festival on with dancing around the plaza. We got to see some of the dances again that we saw in Playa including the traditional one with glasses and bottles on the head.

2nd December – Cancun - Merida, Mexico

One of the new seven Wonders of the World is Chichen Itza, a UNESCO world heritage site, and one of the best examples of Mayan-Toltec ceremonial centre with its amazing time temples. This is on our list to see and today is all about our road trip to Merida via Chichen Itza.

Breakfast involved meeting all the members of the group, nine in total including our tour leader. Three aussies, two Danes, two Italians and a Londoner – a great mix. At breakfast we had to try the “anti cholesterol” juice. A mix of pineapple, celery, some other fillers and CACTUS – no spines. All I can say is that I won’t be trying this again.

The tour is via public buses and the ADO buses in Mexico are really good. Movies, good comfy seats, toilet and speed controlled via GPS. Very impressive. After 3 hours we made it to Chichen Itza we dumped our bags and headed to a cenote (pronounced see-not-ee). They are large limestone sink holes and often used for human sacrifice. We squashed into the taxi and traveled 5km up the road to Ik Kil cenote. The sink hole had dark blue water and tree roots dangling 20m from the lime stone overhang into the water. Water from a hose also created local water falls as added touch.
With bathers on, we hit the fresh water (only 50m deep) and went swimming. It was a great way to refresh after the bus ride. Floating on your back staring up the limestone walls complete with stalactites, dangling tree roots and blue sky with water spraying was pretty special.

I had to do a bombie in the cenote too!

Another squashy taxi ride and Felipe, our guide, was waiting eagerly for us. The Mayan, with convergence of Toltec influences, were very smart. The time temples, such as the great El Castillo, act as calendars and also designed to create serpent god shadows falling and rising from the ground on the equinoxes. An illusion to convince the masses.
The Juego del Pelota, or ball playing stadium was another set of buildings, with great acoustics. We learnt about the interpretation of the game and how the winning captain was taken by decapitation as a willing sacrifice to the gods. It’s hard to believe this was buried under jungle and not found until the early 1900’s by New York lawyer.
At this stage my camera decided it wasn’t time to work which brought back the horror of Luxor, Egypt, in the Great hypostyle hall when my batteries run out!

We observed some pre-Classical period ruins and were amazed at how smart the construction and engraved messages were! A quick group shot at the observatory (el caracol) and we hit the road to Merida, a 2 hour journey. On arrival at Hotel Trinidad, an English fellow come from across the road. The first thing I asked for was free beer (jokingly) and said “Once Melanee is here you can have a free cervesa!”. Sweet!

Our room is a belter with high ceilings, on the second floor with views of the courtyard. A old traditional Mexican house restored and converted to a hotel.

Sunday night is party night and Calle 60 was closed off to traffic and live bands were playing music with lots of dancing in the street. We sat outside in a nice restaurant with traditional Mexican food, tacos (not old El Paso style) with a soft tortillas. Tan had Sangria and I had a local beer. The beer was poured into a 1/3 full glass of lemon juice with salt on the rim. It took a while to finish!!
It was unfortunate that the trees above had birds that weren’t keen on gringos, so I got a hit twice. When Tan got poohed on, the waiter brought out anti-poop protection devices aka sombreros! They were effective too!

Tan finished her night dancing in the street with Pedro.

1st December – Playa Del Carmen - Cancun, Mexico

After a relaxing morning, we packed, had some breakfast and were off. We are now going to see the real Mexico, after our jaunt in the all inclusive hotel. With packs on our back we bussed to Cancun. From the map (without street numbers) we couldn’t decipher how far it was to the hotel from the bus station. In my best Spanglish I asked to go to Hotel Kin Mayab. The taxi driver wasn’t too keen to take me there and offered directions in Spanish. We got the gist of the conversation and off we trooped. Now this is traveling!! We walked past the discrete entrance to the hotel until we saw a number on a building. 101, and we needed 75. After a quick “Donda esta” or ‘where is’, we turned around walked back 200m and found our abode. The rooms were nice but the shower had louvre windows and a small arch window strategically placed at chest height for the outside world to see in!
Today was a day of getting stuff together and washing, (the dreaded laundry) was on the list. We found one, Spanish book in hand and organized it all! Hooray! Tan tried these awful lime and chili chips and almost burnt off her tongue on the side of the road. True Mexican style, but it was a late lunch and small lunch.

That night we met the group and had Gory Tacos (well that was the name of the restaurant). Happy hour seemed to run all night so Tan got two Sangrias to my two Coronas. Una mas (one more) actually meant two more so I had my work cut out for me to clean them up late into the meal. The group members we met and Melanee (a Canadian who is uber-fluent in Spanish) our tour leader. She reminds me of Melinda my sister in law (Hi Mel!!!).

30th November – Playa Del Carmen, Mexico

It’s hard to believe that our week here ends tomorrow and we are off, however, we are both really looking forward to it and itching to see more. We lazed by the pool this morning and eventually grabbed our two Lonely Planet Guides for Mexico and Central America and our itinerary for 22 days and did some reading about where we are going and what we are doing, which only added to our excitement.

We got roped into a game of shuffleboard. Neither of us had played it before but it consisted of three rounds and pushing some disks down a board to get the highest score basically and the winner was Tan!! Yay!!
We backed this up with a spot of dancing by the pool which was lots of fun. Here's a photo of a photo taken with an iguana from a few days previous. We lounged by the pool some more sipping (more than a few, Dan) pina coladas and cervesas (beers).
That night we attended the “We Are The Champions” awards ceremony. Here, Tan collected her certificate and a hat for being the shuffleboard champion.
Wayne and Julia joined us for some more drinks. The show tonight wasn’t like previous nights. It was an interactive spectacular involving women from the crowd, five in fact. If Tan wasn’t already basking in the limelight of the awards ceremony she went one further and got dragged up on stage. Tan was the entertainment!!!

The evening commenced with five women sitting on the stage from Canada, Mexico, Germany, Australia and the UK. The first game that we had to participate in was involved a boa feather with “You Can Leave Your Hat on Playing” and each person had to come out on stage and pretend they were a stripper/pole dancer for the crowd. Tan could not believe what she had gotten herself in for. But she got up there and gave it a red hot go involving the MC lying on the ground with Tan straddling him at one point!!
The next game was each of the woman were given one minute to collect as many items of clothing from the audience in one minute. Tan managed to get both me and Wayne to give up their pants, t-shirts, shoes – to the point they were sitting in the crowd in nothing but their underwear. When the items of clothing were tallied up (bonus points for the pants) Dan came up near stage in his jocks, stuck a pose for the audience and collected his pants. Wayne, not feeling quite so brave, slide off his seat and tried to hide under the table for a moment before collecting his not moving far from the table! The final game involved dressing in a Mexican outfit and playing a film star Maria. Basically Maria was sweeping her floor in her house, when her husband came in the house. “Maria” told him to get out and then her lover comes in and she has to pretend to be passionate with him and the husband sees it and shoots them both. Make sense? Each person had the same scene but had to act the part of Maria differently, in that one was slow motion, was fast, one pretended to be Japanese and Tan got to pretend she was drunk. It’s probably one of those “you had to be there” moments but it was very funny.
At the end of the show all of the girls were given their “booty” of a hat, bottle opener, bum bag and a bottle of champagne. We promptly opened the champagne and shared it with Julia and Wayne. It was fairly awful but we didn’t care. We called it a night around 1.30am and on the way back saw the coati’s. Dan had been chasing from when we first saw them and he was without his camera. So he went searching through the bush to find them and photograph them making him a very happy man!

29th November – Playa Del Carmen, Mexico

It’s tough business this “having a holiday from your holiday”. What shall we do today, laze by the pool or sun ourselves on the beach? We chose the beach and we were glad we did. As we walked down, in the distance, we could see the water looked almost turquoise. It was stunning against the white sand. We lazed on the beach for a while, had lunch and a few drinks and lazed some more. The water was warm and inviting so we snuck some swimming in there too. We were doing it tough lazing on our lounger watching people swimming, kayaking, windsurfing and parasailing. Dan got it in his head that we could not ask for better conditions than today with the sun shining and the water so blue. So, we decided add parasailing to the list of things to experience.

We suited up in our lifejackets and took a quick jet ski ride out to the boat where we watched a couple of girls go before us. We were itching to get up in the air. Before long, we had our harnesses attached and we were sitting on the back of the boat when all of a sudden the boat sped up, the rope was let out and we were away flying higher and higher into the sky. We couldn’t believe how quiet it was up there. We estimated we were about 100 meters in the air. The views of the coastline were fantastic and the beaches looked even bluer if that was possible. The boat took us out towards the deep blue water just beyond the clearly visible submerged barrier reef. We just floated along the sky with our parachute billowing out behind us enjoying the views. The ride was over far too soon and our rope was pulled in and we landed on the boat. A quick jet ski ride back to the shore and we were done and dusted. It was an experience we will never forget.

Later that evening we went to the “Mexicana” restaurant in one of the other Rui Hotels over the road. We had some good traditional Mexican food (a taste of what is to come when we hit the road on Saturday). We had the best seat in the house overlooking the ocean with the sound of the waves crashing in and the breeze blowing in. We’re loving the beautiful Central America weather!