Ruins, Cenotes and Flamingos

Four days is the perfect amount of time for us on a road trip. For this amount of time, the kids can hold it together and we can pack in a mountain of activity. However, to make things just a little more complicated, I had to drink too much on the lobster/booze cruise the night before our departure and caught some kind of flu. So, as we cruised down the Cuota (toll road) toward Merida, I could feel a fever coming on. The first night in Merida we caught the Easter celebrations in the main square. They close the roads to traffic on Sundays, so it was peaceful and pleasant. The next morning, despite that I wrestled with a fever all night, we explored a Mayan ruin south of town called Uxmal. This ruin was particularly scenic because its structures are built on hills, making for some amazing vistas. After about of hour of ruin exploring, I was ruined and Ilana drove us home. But, that afternoon, we made it to the art museum in the main square to catch a modert art exhibit that the kids really enjoyed.

The next day, we drove deep into the heart of rural Yucatan to find Don Victor's hacienda where we went on a horse drawn railroad car from underground cavern (cenote) to cavern on a swimming extravaganza. (This is one of my favorite things about the Yucatan!) It's like spelunking, while swimming. And, best of all, the water is clean, cold, and full of fish.

From there, we journeyed across the Peninsula to the North coast. The next morning we took a 4 hour flamingo tour that was amazing. We had a close encounter with two giant crocodiles and saw a myriad of birds including flamingos, blue and tri-colored herons, ibises, ospreys, hawks, roseated spoonbills, white pelicans, egrets, cormarants. In addition, we floated on top of some super salty water and took mud baths.

That afternoon, we high-tailed it back to Cancun, where our condo awaits, the weather is always warm, friends are around, the food is expensive, the beaches are large, and the bikinis are tiny.