Part 2: Sunrise in Cancun- and other joys of travel

Next round of pictures!

After we'd completely mellowed out on the Isla, we headed back to the mainland to rent a car and begin our adventures seeing ruins. When we arrived at Hertz, they told us they only had a PT cruiser left, and Matt said that just wouldn't do. Too big. Also, he hates them. He finally got avis to rent us a VW Pointer- a cute car you don't see in the states- and he hit the road to Valladolid. We took the main toll road out of cancun, it has one real exit, but there are still vendors along the road- so you could get lunch and a beer. We also had to go through a couple of military checkpoints. Nothing makes you cling to your dictionary like 18 year olds with semi automatics, but they waved us white folk through every time.

Valladolid is an old colonial town, even number streets are NS, odd are EW- so it was unbeleivable easy to navigate. Valladolid has a much better middle class then the Isla, none of the tar paper shacks we saw on the Isla, at least in town. We stayed right in the central plaza, which was busy with tour bus visits, vendors and people heading to and from the church. That afternoon we went to see the Cenote Zaci. The Cenote is a geological formation, a sink hole made in the limestone- often full of stalactites and stalagmites and always with an azure pool. Cenote Zaci is not the most dramatic, but easily the most accessible- it is right in Valladolid. People swim in the pools, and the formations were said to be sacred to the Mayans. After indulging in a nap- interrupted only slightly by the arrival of a thousand screeching lunatic Melodious Blackbirds- we enjoyed the BEST MAYAN FOOD ever to grace a fiesta colored table cloth, next door to our hotel. We had pollo pibil, quesadillas and guacamole and Mayan drinking chocolate. Ooo... the drinking chocolate is more like a complexly spice hot cocoa- with chipotle, and orange and cinnamon. Thank goodness for the Maya.

The next day we had the ambitious plan to see the ruin of Chichen Itza in the morning and Ek'Balam in the afternoon. Chichen Itza is an incredibly important site, there are maybe dozens of structures there, very well preserved and extensively studied. This includes Mexico's largest ball court, the Sacred Cenote, and alter of skulls, the thousand pillars, several bath houses.... it went on and on. Chichen Itza taught us a lot about ancient Mayans, so to respect the site, a lot of the REALLY fabulous stuff is closed to the public. Don't get me wrong, it still took us hours to see everything (and buy our souvenirs), but there is something awesome about being able to climb to the top of the pyramid, and look out at the mostly unmarked jungle.

At Ek'Balam, we could do this. This site has only been excavated since the 1990s, and they aren't don't yet. In some photos there are rocks filling door ways, tarps and palapas cover stucco glyphs that are still being studied. Ek'Balam is Mexico's tallest pyramid. Although it isn't clear on 4 side yet, when you summit this pyramid you can see vast Yucatan jungle laid out in front of you. There are fewer structures at Ek'Balam, a ball court and a second tower, but it is so much fun to be able to walk around all these things. Something you should know before you start scaling pyramids though, is that Mayans were small people. Little feet and stature mean sometimes tiny stairs and low roofs.

Our final ruin was the ruin at Coba, this site is very spread out- over several kilometers- and boasts Mexico's second highest pyramid, as well as an ideal spot for watching birds. Many of the trees are still growing around and in the ruins, which provide nice shelter for jungle birds. Driving out to this site, we got a full taste of Mexico's roads. There are decently marked majorish seeming highways that connect through the middle of villages (or the villages grew up to meet them). To help drivers appropriately adjust their speed on arrival to such a place, the highway is littered with topes, or any manner of speed bump. Some are just little lumps, others are large pedestrian crosswalks your car has to traverse, some are abruptly steep apparent paving errors. This makes your time of travel over a distance hard to predict, but we made it to Coba with loads of time to enjoy and still get Betty to the airport in time.

For our last night in Mexico, Matt and I check in to a Resort Spa in the Zona Hotelera of Cancun, Le Meridian. They had all the silly accoutrement like cascading pools, lawn chairs on the beach, an over the top restaurants (where they didn't serve Mexican food). Getting to see the Mexico that everyone else saw- this is like Vegas with less gambling and more tequila- would leave you to believe that Mexico is an opulently rich country with a penchant for bad guacamole. It was a very nice place to stay- relaxing, everything is in English so no stress, and I can see this as a poor-man's Saint Tropez. We got up early to catch our plane, and ducked outside to see a violently beautiful sunrise. If only every aspect of our vacation had been so rosy.

I'd go back to Mexico in a heartbeat- there was a lot to see, and it was easy to get around and everyone was very accommodating. However, we'll probably go elsewhere for our next trip...