Wham, Bam, Ek' Balam

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Wham, Bam, Ek' Balam

Rob writes

We arrived back in Cancun and picked up our bags. The next stop was to collect the hire car. My booking confirmation advised that the car rental company had a stand opposite the baggage claim among all the other car hire companies, so it should be easy to find. It was, only our car hire company was the only one who's stand was closed and instead presented us with a mobile number to call in place of a representative. 'Call the phone number and our representative with advise you further'. I waited on hold for about fifteen minutes before giving up and we decided to leave the airport to see what the crack was outside.

Fortunately for us, in the distance, beyond the small army of taxi drivers and across the road, was a small industrial building with the car hire company's logo on it, so we headed there.

We were in the right place.

Soon enough, after signing all the documents, which I can only trust were in my best interests, we had adopted a small (brand new might I add) Volkswagen Polo for the rest of our travels.

It was kind of an upgrade I suppose. I'd booked to rent an old Nissan Micra. I'd rather an old Nissan Micra. I have the money in the bank to replace an old Nissan Micra without crying should it end up on its roof. Replacing a Volkswagen would make me cry an awful lot, which is why I don't own such a thing at home. Not only was this an upgrade of luxury, it was one of responsibility too. A responsibility I was still shitting myself about taking on having seen what appeared to be absolute chaos on the streets of Mexico city.

During the joint inspection while handing the car over I noticed the car had only done 3000 miles and it had already been pranged twice. Few. The shine has already been taken off it, and it wasn't by me.

The Marriott we were staying the night in was only a few miles up the road from the airport so that should be an easy drive, or so I thought.

Roadworks everywhere. It was dark, 11pm at this point. I'm on the wrong side of the car. The windows were steaming up, traffic everywhere, satnav going bezerk as junction after junction was closed. Absolute carnage. Bad words were being thrown about and everything. My world might as well have been coming to and end basically.

We did eventually make it and parked the stupid car up at the stupid Marriott where I forgot about it for the next eight hours.

Tina didn't like the hotel, said it reminded her of 'The Shining'.

I woke up the next morning to a lovely hotel room, sun bursting through the curtains, a skip in my step on the way to the loo even, that was until I remember I had to battle the Mexico traffic shortly.

I ate my breakfast as slow a possible to try and delay the inevitable. The 100 mile drive to Valladolid commencing anytime now.

Turns out, in the day time when the windows aren't uncontrollably steaming up, when there aren't roadworks everywhere, and you get used to the car a bit, driving in Mexico is actually easy enough. The drive to Valladolid was a breeze and went without a hitch. The toll was a bit dear on the motorway though, about £14.

Valladolid

We parked the car outside the hotel and went to check in. After receiving the key to the room we headed through a straight path which passed through what could pass as a botanical garden inside the hotel. As we passed through a flurry of moths of all sizes burst out from all the bushes. One of them was the size of a bird! Tina was traumatised by this for the rest of the stay and this path became a gauntlet for her when trying to get back to the hotel room.

We dumped our bags we headed into town. Our first stop was the cenote in the middle of the town. A cenote is a natural pit or sinkhole full of water, which sounds horrible but you can go for a swim in them and all that, and they're quite nice looking. We tried anyway, but it was closed due to COVID? Refurbishment? Not sure, bummer.

So, plan B. After going back to hotel and picking the brains of the chap on the desk we jumped in the car and headed to a cenote to the south of Valladolid. It was about 30 minutes away. Once we arrived we were presented with almost a dozen coaches spilling out tourists who were also there to visit. Maybe not then.

We drove back to Valladolid. By this point it was dinner time so we went out in search of food. I had Fajitas and Tina has some kind of breaded fried chicken thing.

After dinner something magical happened to Tina. While walking back to the hotel through the main square she discovered the Marquesita. A guy on a stand was making them. They're like a rolled up ice-cream cone filled with whatever sweetness you desire (and cheese if you like) and yes, of course it has Nutella in it. So, she's has one of those everyday day since I think.

The following day was our final full day in Valladolid, and we had plans. We were up early to visit Ek' Balam (Mayan ruins site) and following that another cenote right next to it.

Ek' Balam was situated about thirty minutes from Valladolid right in the middle of the jungle. My lord it was hot and humid. Despite the heat and humidy, I quite liked this one. As it was in the middle of the jungle it felt a little less 'disturbed' shall we say, which added to the experience. There wasn't around around the site trying to sell you stuff either, which was nice. I think we went around the place in about an hour or so.

Following the ruins, the cenote. The cenote was fun. Like a big natural, mess around swimming pool. Fortunately it was very quiet of us too. I don't think there was ever more than half a dozen people there including us. Fantastic!

It was mid afternoon by the time we had finished at the cenote and we were shattered from the ruins and then the swimming, so we headed back to Valladolid.

We had a late lunch, which turned into an interesting one... I ordered chicken, and I got chicken. Tina ordered mixed fish and got a single fried, enormous and complete fish on a plate. It was quite the surprise and quite tasty.

Then Tina had to have another Marquesita, obviously.

Full of fish and Nutella, it was time to chill for a few hours. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the hotel before heading out for our final dinner in Valladolid later that day.

This was our last full day in Valladolid. Tomorrow the plan was to drive to Chichen Itza (another Mayan town/pyramid site) before heading on to Merida.

The drive to Chichen Itza took about an hour. Chichen Izta is the ruins of a large Mayan town, with a large well presented pyramid as its focal point. We spent a few hours walking around the ruins. It was bloody hot that day (Mexico is hot, in case I haven't mentioned it), and the humidity was insane (surprise). It made for a tough few hours. Thank the lord the car has air conditioning.

On to Merida we go...

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Comments

[Michael miller]

"The shining"
Hi guys hope yous are well, loving the travel blog and pics look amazing but have to say "the shining" comment wins it for me brilliant haha x

[Louise]

🥵 🥵 The cenote looked cooling 💦