Blogs from Yucatán, Mexico, North America - page 4

I was keen to get to Valladolid and begin exploring the “real” Mexico rather than the heavily touristy version found along the Riviera Maya. So I was a little disappointed to find that Valladolid is more like a Spanish town than most Spanish towns. It's made up of these beautiful little streets with coloured houses. It's got a very sleepy feel to it. There seems to be quite a lot of ex-pats there who own little coffee shops giving the town a hipster feel. Something which was confirmed when I saw a “concept store”, what the fuck is a concept store?! Valladolid is ideally located to Chichen Itza, and is surrounded by lots of cenotes. I met a few people there and my first night happened to be one of their birthdays, so of course Tequila ... read more

After realising that Mexico was more expensive than the research I did before arriving had me believe I've decided to be quick and see the sites I came for and get to, hopefully, much cheaper Guatemala ASAP. My stop in Merida was just one day, so this is a short blog. The city itself I didn't see a great deal of, however it's a properly Mexican city. The feeling of really being in Mexico began here. There's a colonial church overlooking the main park which is a social hub for the locals. All day and all night the park is full of friends and families all socialising together and something that I thought was really nice. Something society at home seems to have lost is our togetherness and community feel. The main purpose of my stop ... read more

I didn’t get too much sleep last night...I now have Ian’s cough! We are both awake around 6am and had planned to get the 8am bus...but since we are now awake we decide to make an early start. To add to the long list of complaints about the crummy hotel we are staying in, there is no electricity or water this morning so we can’t even have a shower. Not they ever have any hot water anyway! We arrive at the bus station and purchase our tickets to Tizimin...we are on the 7.30am service. The bus itself is not too bad. It has comfy seats, reasonable legroom and efficient air con. It’s free seating, but we are at the front of the queue so we choose seats reasonably near the front. We depart at 7.45am. There ... read more

This morning I have had an email to say that my mum has been taken to hospital during the night so before we do anything I need to make a few calls. The hospital inform me that mum has been discharged. It appears she is back home and OK. We decide to take a short trip out to Ek Balam. It’s another archaeological site. We are tempted to say - oh no, not another one, but we are told it’s a good trip so off we go. First we stop for breakfast in the covered food hall near the town square. Two food stalls are fighting for our custom so we take one each. My man has a glossy menu with photographs on it. Perfect! I want this, I say, pointing to two fried eggs. I ... read more

Ian is feeling unwell today. He is tired and he has man flu. On the one hand he would rather stay in bed but on the other, he does not want me to go out alone. I wonder how he thinks I managed before I met him? If we go to the cenotes, he will be miserable all day. If I stay here, I will be equally miserable. It really makes more sense to do our own thing today! I have spoken to Dad and he thinks he will be discharged today. He is feeling better and almost sounds like he has had a nice little holiday. Apparently they deliver excellent service at the Queen Elizabeth in Brum! I set off for the bus. It’s still relatively cool so I foolishly decide to walk. I arrive ... read more