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Published: December 2nd 2006
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After Chichen Itza we went to the largest city up to now on our travels, Merida. It was a nice enough place and for me just a larger version of Valladolid but a bit cheaper which is always nice! The first day didn’t start to well as the bus dropped us off at a bus station not on the map, so took us a while to find our bearings and then even longer to find some accommodation because it fell on a weekend. After about 2 hours of walking around in similar heat you are getting at home but with a heavy back pack! In the end we got lucky and found a lovely place. It was an old colonial house, which from the outside looked nothing special, but in the center was a luscious green courtyard with a fountain and our room looking over this with a nice veranda. The owner was very friendly and shown us around his house which was like a museum, loads of the old telephones, grandfather clocks and family portraits. Had a feeling his family used to do alright! He tested our Spanish to the limit or should I say Michelle’s, as I was just
lost! He gave us loads of tips and places to visit. One of these places was once again the Mayan ruins of Uxmal. We bumped into another English couple and arranged a trip with them. They have been traveling for 10 months of their year long trip and been to some of the places we are going to visit so was good to bump into them. Uxmal was different from the other sites as it was less touristy and set in the jungle which made it a bit eerie. The Mayans that built this were more peaceful and didn’t believe in human sacrifices. You could see this difference in the sculptures and masonry, as it was more ornate and skilled. This was all in honor of chac-mool the rain god for this dry region. I could see why, it was so hot and humid I was hoping for a bit of rain myself!
From Merida we traveled back on ourselves to Chiquila to visit the island of Holbox. We should have done this from Cancun as only 2.5 hours away but the coach departure times were not very good and we hoped by traveling to larger towns that the
times would get better. They didn´t and we were stuck with the 23.30 6 hour trip. What made it that bit more exciting was the reports over the last few months of bandits in the area, robbing the buses. We really wanted to go, so we risked it. Luckily everything was o.k. and we only bricked it when 3 armed men with machine guns got on board at 3 in the morning as I was half a sleep, but then realized they were solders looking for bandits. The color of my shorts and the nail marks dug in my arm from Michelle would tell a different storey!!
We finally arrived at Chiquila and got the ferry over to Holbox and managed to find a nice room very quickly. As it was 6 in the morning we decided to get a bit of shut eye. I was in the bathroom having a read! And I heard Michelle screaming like a banshee and I came running in the room to see what was up and there on the wall near the curtain rail was a 4 inch scorpion! Not something you want to see in your room, I don´t mind sharing
with the odd lizard and spider but something that can kill you is a bit much, I wouldn´t fancy waking up with that crawling up my leg in the night. I got my trusty lonely plant and reluctantly smacked it, which I though would do it, oh know it was hard and didn´t appreciate me whacking it with a book and went mental running all over the wall and squirting its venom. I was shaking like a leaf and spoiling myself for the second time in a few hours and sweat dripping, Michelle skitzing and me having the prospect of trying to hit it again this time with it ready for me. So I bit the bullet and whacked it as hard as I could and left the book there until I heard the crunch. This time it was dead and I could relax and get back to my book, whew! The next few days we didn´t sleep too well and got into the routine of checking the room for an hour before we could sleep!
The main reason for coming here was to see the Whale Sharks. Utterly amazing, we went on a boat trip which cost 650
pesos each(roughly 33 quid each) We were about 20 miles from the island when we spotted our first Shark, yes first, we saw in total around 12 or more, here was me half expecting not to see any at all. They are such amazing creatures, huge but graceful and can grow to about 12 meters and are the largest fish in the sea. Even though they are part of the Shark family they only eat small shrimp like creatures which are only a few millimeters in size and they sift the water eating millions of these a day, we were in no danger. We snorkeled with them, staying at least 2m away so as not to disturb them, the smaller Sharks, around 7m! Were pretty quick though and it was really hard keeping up with them. We also saw huge Manta Rays feeding at the surface, 2 Hawksbill turtles getting it on, a pod of dolphins and then the daddy of them all, a 10m Whale Shark, about as big as a bus, if not bigger!!! We had both been feeling a little seasick so the guide asked if we wanted to go back in the water and swim with
the sharks again (you don´t feel as queasy in the water as opposed to on it!) We said yes and I´m so glad we did, next thing you know this huge beast is heading right for us, mouth agape, less than 2ft from us, we were amazed on the size of his tail from the top to bottom was the same height as Michelle, he was so calm and slow it was amazing, we swam with him for at least 10 minutes, I think this has topped the list of one of the best things we have ever done! Money well spent really.
After Holbox we had to go back to Cancun as Michelle has been having problems with her teeth since we did the diving in Cozemel and been in lots of pain. Her Dentist at home must have done a poor job on her filling and left some trapped air in the tooth so when we were re-surfacing the air expanded and made the tooth very painful. The British embassy put us in touch with a brilliant dentist and she has had to have emergency root canal treatment, which is very painful and takes for ever. We
have been in Cancun about 5 days and she is now on the mend and we are due to head west on a 9 hour bus journey to Campeche in the next few days. It´s been a very expensive week but luckily we can claim from our insurance.
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