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Published: March 1st 2008
Saturday 9th February 2008 to 12th February 2008
So we joined our group of 11 people to travel for three weeks around the Yucatan Peninsula in mexico, Guatemala & Belize.
After getting to know each other at another trip to Coco Bongo´s we left the hotel in Cancun early with sore heads to the ADO bus terminal.
ADO is the Mexican equivalent to National express or Greyhound coaches. We were a bit dubious at first but they were immaculate and modern & very well organised. Ideal for catching up on well deserved sleep or recover from hangovers the coach was extremly comfortable.
We took the ADO to Chichen Itza about 3 hours outside Cancun. Chichen Itza has just been voted in as 7th out of the 7 new wonders of the world. Its a ruin of a Mayan city, as its only a few hours outside the big holiday resorts the place was packed full of day trippers.
I have been here before also & really enjoyed it. When we got there the heavens opened & immediately the mexican stall owners were selling blue rain poncho´s like hotcakes! At a glance out through the site concourse it looked
like a smurf convention.
Like before we had a guide to show us around the city and the 7th wondor "el Castillo" (the castle) was as impressive as I first saw it. However unlike before we were unable to climb it as we were told a couple of years ago some woman fell down the stairs & died. Silly moo!
Anyway to be brief the ël Castillo had four equal sides and was a piramid. on each side there was 91 steps. 91x4 is 364 and plus 1 (the top platfrom) made 365 as in days of the year. Theres more but I dont want to bore anyone & to be honest cant be bothered its a very long story!
We were due to leave at 4 but the ADO broke down in the Car Park. Chimi our tour leader then said "Welcome to Mexic folks"
As promised the coach turned up an hour later & after 4 hours in a cold air conditioned bus (wishing we had packed jumpers) we arrived in Merida the Capital city of the Yucutan.
The next day we awoke early again & took a tour to the local Cenotes. There are hundreds dotted
around the peninsula and are fresh water underground lakes almost like a cave. They were used by the ancient Mayans as their sacred sites for sacrifice & water.
To get there from the entrance (which was a tiny fruit plantation village) we got onboard a horse drawn cart on a railway which wasn´t exactly safe Becci was terrified.
But it was well worth the bumpy ride as the cenotes were amazing. we were there on our own almost. Apart from jose our guide, the cart driver & the G.A.P group. We learnt about the history but the best part was that we got to swim in the cenotes which was extremly refreshing as it was very warm outside. We went to 3 cenotes in total all connected with the horse railway thing & very different.
We got back to Merida by late afternoon & decided to explore the city with Bob our new Canadian Friend. Bob was looking for a new camera so we offered to help me on the camera part Becci to translate in basic Spanish. We toured the extremly pretty zocolo (centre square) and then the heavens opened again. We got drenched but it was good to
see the place & Bob finally got his camera.
We would of both liked to spend another day in the city to explore especially as the museums were often reffrered to in Chichen Itza, but we were leaving early for Palenque. Both of us would like to come back to Merida at some point.
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