Backpacks and Burritos : The Yucatan

So it has been a while since we have updated the blog, and I´m (Julien this time) sure you are all dying to know what we have been up to since then. It has been a very exciting and busy time since our last post, what with our engagement and the ensuing celebrations. We are now winding back the clock to 14 March when we left the white sands of Tulum and headed inland to the baking and beautiful cities of the Yucatan and the cool pine forests of the Chiapas.

Valladolid town square sunset

Valladolid town square at night

Next stop on our travels was the small Yucatan town of Valladolid. Valladolid was the perfect choice! Just a small town, often avoided on the tourist trail, it couldn´t have been a better place to stay. We were overwhelmed by the colonial architecture when we got off the local bus and meandered the narrow, cobblestone streets to find a place to stay. We muttered some english, french, and would you belive it, Spanish words and came across the best hostel yet, La Candelaria. We checked into a dorm room for 3 nights (obviously pre-engagement). We were ready to explore Mexicos culinary delights and explore some villages surrounding the town. It is worth mentioning now that the Yucatan peninsula is famous for it´s natural sink-holes made from limestone - here called Cenotes. The are formed by the limestone eroding and filling with rainwater. They are some of the most beautiful swimming holes around!

Chocolate made by hand by local Mayan women - Valladolid

At this great hostel we met a kick ass couple from Arizona! We hit it off sipping a local brew whilst relaxing in the hammocks out back in the garden. This started our partnership for the next few days. Great times with Tobin and Kristin. Tobin, if you are reading this, we can´t stop quoting your comment after Kristins mishap on the rope swing in our best American accents 'you went big baby!¨

First adventure was a bike tour of the local cenotes and villages. OSH back home would have a field day if they saw us! No helmets, a semi-detached cycle way and plenty of pòt holes along the dusty Mexican highway, just for fun. The cenotes were outstanding, and the perfect way to cool off after some exercise in the 30 plus degree heat.

At midday, in the hope of finding a restaurant or just something to eat, we cycled into a remote village. Coming into the village we were met with a royal welcome. People came out of the shops shouting HOLA, children ran on the road to practice their two english words, and electricians suspended from live powerlines doing routine (i.e. once in a lifetime) maintenance welcomed us vocally. It was incredible! Anyway our stomachs were growling and we had a Jennifer Holmes wilting slightly in the heat. Food was top of the list. No restaurants, the next best thing was chips and a large glass bottle of coke each to keep us going. We met our Mexican family there! They couldnt believe it when we walked in and wanted something to eat and drink. I don´t think they were accustomed to foreigners there (the prices hadn´t therefore been hiked for the honky who popped in for a drink). Before we knew it there was a make shift table with chairs for us to sit at, and the wife of the shop owner was there giving us some boiled eggs and tortillas to welcome us. It was amazing. We spoke our three words of spanish and communicated as much as we could with our hands as well. They photographed us (now framed on their shop window I´m sure) and we had the most amazing time!

Disco Cenote complete with lights and Staligmites - Valladolid

Well deserved coke and chips

Our Mexican family from the village shop

Next stop, police escort underground with torchlight to another cenote under the town sqaure. Yes, the electricity was down, and the policemen offered to take us down anyway. Quite an experience. This is where you remember all of a sudden those horror stories of missing tourists and corrupt Mexican police. But after Tobin said ´but I looked in his eyes and I knew it was safe´ of course we were fine. We lived to tell the tale (we´re alive parents so dont stress!) and it was in fact quite an impressive cenote.

The next water hole we stopped at was one that sold Corona. Again off the tourist trail, this bar was a concrete shack with a pungent toilet off to one corner and local men singing at the top of their lungs! The music was unbelievably loud which made aural discretion very difficult... I´m sure his words didn´t match the song and he was singing something much more a la sextet than a la song to the girls in our company.

Serenade from Mexican pavarotti - Valladolid

Local bar, near Valladolid

A slow and wobbly bike ride delivered us home in one piece ready for some more food and tequila tasting. Yes, a trip to a tequila store in Mexico, means you leave there inebriated having tasted at least 9 different tequilas. For some this was a pleasant experience, but Jenny turned green, and university memories came flooding back (not the good ones!)

Valladolid´s 16th century convent

No clothes!

View from the hostel in Valladolid

Valladolid was a blast but it was time to move on to Merida via Chichen Itza. These are some amazing Mayan ruins, one of the recent wonders of the world (or something like that). It was well worth getting a tour guide, however it made us feel that our generation is severely dumbed down. We couldn´t build something like that if we tried! The sheer engineering, mathematics, astonomy and physics that went into the building of these structures is truly impressive. The tour was amazing, and we learned how the royal Mayans disfigured their childrens heads to show wealth, how they followed the sun with all their buildings and how they were all made around sacred numbers and special acoustics. The arena, for example, creates an echo when you clap`, however it echos only seven times for each clap. Seven is a sacred mayan number. Seriously amazing!!!

CHICHEN ITZA!

Tour group final photo, big smiles after we had just learned about the penis and ear god (same guy apparently)

Mayan cemetery

It seemed like a heat wave had come through and the temerature soared to 38 degrees when we arrived in Merida later that afternoon. Nonetheless, this place is a fairytale city, coming alive at night and in the weekend with the markets. And it was a pleasure to stay in a colonial building , overlooking the town plaza from our private balcony for a pittance. Where else in the world could we afford to do this!? We soaked up traditional food and had to get out of there pretty quick to cool off at the local beach (an hour north by local bus). Progreso was a great beach town, much nicer than we had heard. It´s places like these where you meet some locos (crazys) with no teeth from America who own restaurants and treat their Mexican Staff very poorly. Regardless, the fish and chips was a slice of home, and they were washed down with yet another beautifully made Pina Colada, only ruined by the rubbish tequilla shot on an empty stomach on the house. Closed off nose helps.

The engagement story and San Cristobal de las Casas is to come in the next installment. We need to head off home for some food and then off to the natural hot pools for some well earned relaxation (it is! We´ve been in school studying spanish for the past two weeks).