Our first discovery during our Winter break was the dollar beers and dollar fish tacos on Isla Mujeres. But from there, we explored more ancient venues. We traveled to Coba with Tammy where we ascended a Mayan pyramid that is steeper and taller than Chichen Itza. Going up was easy, but coming down was a bit nerve-racking. The kids did well, though, and despite my belief that we take no risks with our kids, I heard an American commenting as we were leaving the vicinity of the pyramid, "Can you believe parents let their kids climb that thing!"
Then, we departed on our Mayan ruins odyssey. Our first stop was Chichen Itza. We stayed in a small, peaceful village about a kilometer from the park. We journeyed into the center of the . . . Grutas Balanchen where we saw bats, stalagmites, stalagtites, and ancient pottery. We caught the sound and light show our first night without the translator headphones. Then, the next day, we entered the park as it was opening at 8 a.m. and had virtually the whole park to ourselves. It was fabulous. But, we failed to employ a guide and that was a mistake, in retrospect. So despite having our guidebook, we really had no idea what we were looking at.
That afternoon, we explored our first cenote of our Yucatan journey. It was crowded, pricey and not very clear, but still a thrill to jump into cold water inside a cave. On our second night, we went back to the sound and light show to hear the words in English. It was better this time, but still not all that impressive.
From Chichen Itza, we traveled toward Merida, stopping in Izamal for another pyramid climb before the big city. But, when we got to Merida, our reservations were not honored. Yes, he remembered taking them and he remembered promising to hold the room until we arrived between 2 and 5. But, at 2:30 he must have had a better offer, because he gave the room away. We ended up at a more expensive, smaller, noisier place down the street. Urrrgggghhh. That afternoon we played at the Merida zoo. There they have an amazing accumulation of animals in a horribly small space. The hippos, giraffes, lions, tigers and bears have hardly any room to move about. That night we tried our best to enjoy the famous plazas of Merida, but the traffic, pollution, and crowds didn't make it easy.
So, we hightailed it out of Merida, for a last night in Ek Balam, another Mayan ruin. We lunched in Valladolid and had a wonderful swim in the cenote there. Then, after finding a pretentious retreat in the middle of nowhere, we explored the ruins. Very cool sunset amongst the Mayan structures. Afterwards, we went back to our retreat for a fabulous (though pricey) dinner and an interesting night. Ilana had a spider about the size of a softball a few inches from her head. I had to chase the spider out of our hut. Needless to say, Ilana hardly slept. Then, the next morning, after my cold shower, I heard Ilana shouting for help from her shower. She'd been stung by something and her wound developed into a giant festering pus filled lesion (mosquito or wasp bite). All this and the owner charged us an arm and a leg for our stay there. But, we explored the ruins again in the morning, this time climbing to the top of the Ek Balam pyramid, and then we went to the adjoinging cenote. It was pricey but quite clean and very empty. Ilana even did a zip line across the cenote and enjoyed it fiercely.
In the end, we were eager to get back to our beds, our buzzing refrigerator, and the beaches of Cancun.
Our first discovery during our Winter break was the dollar beers and dollar fish tacos on Isla Mujeres. But from there, we explored more ancient venues. We traveled to Coba with Tammy where we ascended a Mayan pyramid that is steeper and taller than Chichen Itza. Going up was easy, but coming down was a bit nerve-racking. The kids did well, though, and despite my belief that we take no risks with our kids, I heard an American commenting as we were leaving the vicinity of the pyramid, "Can you believe parents let their kids climb that thing!"
That afternoon, we explored our first cenote of our Yucatan journey. It was crowded, pricey and not very clear, but still a thrill to jump into cold water inside a cave. On our second night, we went back to the sound and light show to hear the words in English. It was better this time, but still not all that impressive.
