Valladolid- Chichen Itzá

May 3-4, 2016

*Note, here's another post where I lost the majority of my photos. (Shoot!) Here you see photos from Google and a couple taken by a friend I met, along with two of mine I managed to retain.

I only traveled inland for a couple days in Mexico, my destination Valledolid. It's a cute little colonial town, and has a really great little taco place near the center. I had my first super authentic horchata there (a rice based iced milky drink with cinnamon) my first night, and every night following.

My big reason for visiting was to go to Chichen Itzá, some of the most highly acclaimed Mayan ruins in Mexico. I had heard mixed reviews from other travelers, some saying they were great, some vehemently saying they were over priced, not authentic, and not worth it at all. I went anyway, and I'm so glad I did.

I hopped a minivan from town and got arrived before all the daily tour buses from Playa del Carmen and Tulum did. On the way there I met Natalie and Rachel, two gals from Canada. We stuck together the whole day. There were definitely people there when we got there, but not so many that we couldn't get a well timed shot in front of the big pyramid with almost no one else in it.

We grabbed the photo ops while we had them.

It was spectacular, rising against the cloudless blue sky.

The other structures in the area were great as well, and well laid out through the trees so it felt like paths to go explore rather than a big empty cleared spaces with some pyramids in each corner.

Another ruin structure, showing the carving that adorned most of them

Ancient tic-tac-toe?

Another of the main structures at Chichen Itzá, an observatory

All the ruins were pretty cool looking

There were vendors set up all along the walkways selling things, and I watched a mask carver for quite a while. He had been carving for about 30 years, and it was fun to watch him turn a chunk of wood into a clearly recognizable start of a mask using just a chisel and a wooden mallet.

In one corner there was a cenote, a collapsed limestone cavern that's turned into a pool by collecting rainwater.

It got super hot, and there were lizards running around all over the place. Some were super big!

And this isn't even a very big one.  The large males were probably over 2 feet long

And leaving at the end of the day there was a cloudburst. I hadn't felt rain in over two months, and I was definitely dancing around in it in the parking lot, despite the strange looks from EVERYBODY, tourist and local alike.

I caught a mid-afternoon bus back to Valledolid, and stopped at the cenote in town, Zaci, before heading back to my hostel.

Like the one at the ruin, it's a collapsed limestone cave that has filled with rainwater. They've built a staircase in this one that goes around the back, and it's possible to get into the water for a swim from one of the edges. I did just that.

There's a bunch of catfish living in it, and it was a little different to be swimming around through fish that didn't really care I was there. There were tiny ones that would nibble your feet too if you stood still in the shallows for too long.

The black flecks in the water near the bottom? Yeah, those are catfish.

The water was a delightful cool temperature, in contrast to the 90-something weather in the rest of the outdoors, and fresh water to boot. So nice to not have salt in your mouth and eyes. Once I got out, it was right back to hot and sticky, but for that hour it was cool and refreshing.

All together it was a successful day