3: Valladolid - Mexico

Days 4-7: Chichen Itza, Dzitnup Cenote, Festivals, Ek Balam
Beth - Written 20/10/12
 

So we are now in Valladolid, a lovely little town in the middle of the Yucatán (got the bus, its rele not as scary or hard to do as you'd think). The hostel is more rustic and has a beautiful garden which we are staying in,  and the first night we wandered the plaza, went to the church and had the traditional Maya dish of Pibil, which is meat wrapped in banana leaves and roasted in a pit for several days and is soooo yummy!
 

 

 

The main reason we came to the town is so we can visit Chichén Itzá, one largest and best preserved of the Mayan cities. It is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. A huge pyramid in the jungle surrounded by other equally impressive buildings that are so old and the history is so kwl! We had a tour guide (Carlos) show us around and he told us about the human sacrifices they used to do and where they did them, along with the tombs the royals buried in them and all sorts! Liam loved the history of it. The architecture is astounding, if you stand in front of the main pyramid and clap the sound travels up all the stairs and a bird call comes out of the top due to the acoustics inside! and just on the equinoxes a shadow is cast down the stairs that creates the shape of a snake... for something built about 1500 years ago it is just amazing (I have a feeling I am going to feel like that a lot on this trip).

We also saw our first Cenote (fresh water sink holes in the limestone) that are beautiful too, wide, deep blue water filled wells surrounded by dangling tree roots. It was very hot while walking around (about 35c while I think it was raining in England :P) and we ended up having a nap under a tree next to the astronomy tower! Carlos also told us about the Mayan calendar and how the world is not going to end on the 21st December so that was nice lol. We spent all day there and saw Mayan men carving wooden masks that Liam bought (I may also have bought one or two things lol).
 

 

The next day we hired bikes (!!!) and cycled the 10km to a cenote called Dzitnup. This one is different to yesterdays as it is underground with just a small hole for light and a narrow passage under the ground to it but when we got there is was just an astonding sight. A cave filled with deep water and catfish, Stalactites hanging from the celing, bats, strange rock formations under the water, so hard to explain what it was like in there, it was like a fairytale cave even though that sounds cheesey. You can swim in nearly all of the cenotes and we started to dab our feet in when all these little fish started to come over and have a nibble... our own free pedicure (tho Liam wasn't so keen!). We then took a little dip and although it was a bit cold and the catfish swimming around were a bit scary and there were times when you couldn't see the bottom, swimming between the stalactites in this cave was amazing and unforgetable. We also decided to carry on and bike to the village of Dzitnup, which was a tiny Maya village where most of the houses had tiki huts in the garden and kids were playing football in the street. It was good to see a typical village instead of just the towns. Stopped in an old abbey on the way back and after dinner we stumbled upon a festival happening outside the church! Everybody was dressed in the traditional wear of the Yucatán and dancing in the streets and playing loud music, was so lucky to find it and was a really good night. We also had our first experience of sleeping in a dorm which is an experience but alright!

 

Saturday we decided to go to a quieter smaller set of ruins called Ek Balam and in a way they were even more amazing than Chichen Itza. You could actually climb these and go inside the temples and ruins and it gave the place a whole new magic.
The main pyramid here is actually bigger than at Chichen, and we climbed to the very top (super steep, hard to imagine how they would have climbed it in all the fancy head-dresses and probs carrying a sacrifice)! The view from the top was really just like an Indiana Jones film. We could see nothing but jungle to the horizon in all directions except another pyramid peeking out of the trees looking all undiscovered and ancient. We stayed up there for a while just taking in what we were seeing and where we were. Getting down was more difficult because it rele was very steep, but half way down is a platform where a great king was buried in a tomb, and the outside of it is beautifully carved and is in amazing condition considering its age. It is meant to be the gaping mouth into the underworld and had scary teeth, skulls and everything! We also saw our first ever humming bird that flew right up to us and you could hear its wings buzzing... a little thing was amazing to see. There are also Iguanas all over the place and totally not bothered we're there! We visited the cenote here which is an open air one and we were the only ones there. It was so picturesque with the tree roots dangling down into the water and the sun setting, plus more catfish and who knows what at the bottom as there have been excavations at lots of the cenotes in the ruins and human skeltons and other bits have been found at the bottom! We dipped our toes to cool off and then went back to Valladolid. I really like the town (much more than Cancun) as it is not so touristy and everyone is so friendly and says hola to you when you walk down the street :) This night is probs one of the best we've had so far, we sat out in garden of the hostel near the hammocks where everybody staying sits and eats and drinks and hangs out (its all very hippy-ish in these places and sooooo chilled out) and started talking to some french people. Near the end of the night we were invited out to a bar in the town and decided to go with them, plus an italian, a spanish couple and the old mexican guy that was taking us there. We ended up in a mexican Kareoke bar!! It was a place we never could have gone on our own and was full of locals all singing in spanish and it was so funny.
It made us feel bad though as everybody else could speak english plus at least french and spanish and were all talking in multi languages at once and we felt so shit not to know any other lanuguages. We are slowly picking up some basic Spanish though and can definately order pitchers of Margaritas now :D
 
So that has been our first week! It seems so much longer than that and we have seen so much. It is kinda hard to take it all in but the mexican culture and way of life is amazing, and very suited to us lol. We are having the best time and mexico keeps surprising us with what it has to offer (too much for our timesclale :( ) Tomorrow we are off to Tulum back on the coast to try a bit of snorkeling and see the ruins on the cliff top :D I know this was quite long, the next one will be a lot shorter as we are doing a lot less :)
 
Love Liam and Beth x x x