Valladolid and Chichen Itza

Another smooth ride on The ADO bus from Tulum to Valladolid which took 2 hours and was very comfortable and smooth. It dropped us off in the centre of town and we decided to walk to our next accommodation which was Casa Chi. It was a massive room but the owner was not there when we arrived so some grumpy old woman went and got a boy to come out, flap about a bit, ask a lot a questions about our booking which we could not translate and then left us sitting around worried that our booking was 'forgotton about' which would be an issue as they only had one room.

A typical around the world backpackers room. Marvel at the luxury and the ornate furnishings.

 The owner later turned up, a rotund beer swilling cackling man, who was friendly enough but did not speak any English so our conversations were short. This did not deter him as he insisted that we ventured out to the shops to buy more beers to welcome us but we declined  him as we did not want to have to sit with him out of politeness. Even though we told him we don't speak Spanish this did not stop him from waffling on to our blank expressions. This guy was desperate for a drinking buddy, we got the feeling his wife did not understand him. Later in the evening he showed up while we were in the communal area with some beers and insisted we took some which we did out of politeness. Then he proceeded to waffle away in Spanish to us so we just smiled and nodded until a French couple showed up so we took the beers to our room and palmed him off onto them. It was a very subtle and smooth manoeuvre.

This fat bloke wanted chicken pizza but all he got was Chichen Itza. Hard luck pal.

  Next day we got an early start and caught the bus to Chichen Itza which took an hour so we arrived before the tour group crowds descended. They charged us to £10 entry fee which is not too bad considering it is now listed as one of the 7 wonders of the modern world. We walked around the sight for about 4 hours in the blistering heat which was energy sapping so we took it slow and easy. The sight isn't that big but the structures are huge so need a bit of time to appreciate. As the day wore on the crowds intensified, and selfies were being snapped at the rate of hundreds a minute. Some of the tour groups were huge. Overall though we were impressed as it was amazing to see these huge structures and even though we are not history buffs we appreciated the magnificent engineering that must of gone into the building of them and we particularly enjoyed the stories the guides told of all the bloodshed and sacrifices that went on to appease the gods. Luckily times have changed as all we have to do now is to walk into a church, kneel down and repent our sins and all is good again. Hooray for the evolution of man.

There is always time for shopping says Kathy.

 Worn out from the heat we went to catch the bus and could not be happier to see it pull up as we approached the bus stop (which was just a big tree). On board the air-con saved us from heatstroke and gave us a nice ride back to the hotel where on entry we were intercepted by jolly cackling beer swilling owner who invited us to share a beer with him.  Not being in the mood as we needed air-con and showers to cool off we made our excuses and slinked off into our room to leave him again deflated with no drinking buddies. We managed to avoid him most of the night but he cornered the French couple who luckily filled in on our behalf. (not sure if it was voluntary or not!)
   Next morning after avoiding our mate the Chuckle Brother we set off late to downtown for a cruise about the town which was very pleasing with a number of old colonial buildings, leafy town squares and cool colonnades to stroll. After lunch we headed to a local cenote called Zaci which had a £1.20 entry fee and a steep descent into a beautiful sinkhole which protruded into a cave half way and was filled with lovely blue water which was a nice sight after our hot morning town walkabout.

We just love sinkholes!

We stripped off and dived in as there is no easy descents into a sinkhole and had a nice swim about until our core temperatures were a wee bit lower then sat on the ridge in the sun to dry off. Once we dried off and took a couple of snaps we went back into town and asked the tourist info office on the main square where we could get a collectivo to another recommended cenote out of town. After waiting in the designated area given to us by  the tourist office it became apparent we had been given some duff info but luckily a local Mexican saw us mooching about looking grim. He spoke good English and told us where we should have been waiting. Funny enough as soon as we arrived there the taxi found us. We waited for another 2 passengers to fill the taxi up and then departed for the cenote. 5km later we hopped out only to be confronted by a shifty looking driver who decided to hike the price up. We declined his price hike and he got slightly perturbed at our brazen rebuff so followed us to the cenote ticket office to remonstrate with the staff there but they gave him no sympathy so he skulked off with his other passengers. The cenote itself, called X'kekken was awesome in location. It was an underground cavern pool with a small hole in the roof that allowed a small shaft of sunlight to beam down and light the centre of the pool. Also in the cave were bats and enormous tree roots from the ground above that hung down like jungle creepers that Tarzan would swing about on in the films. It was the coolest Indiana Jones type location we had been to.

We love underground cenotes as well!

 After a long cool swim about in the remarkably clear water which was full of black catfish we again had to find a taxi back and again it was another song and dance from the drivers association who decided they had to have a roadside meeting to decide if we were privileged enough to be given a ride into town. Eventually after a lot of tooing and froing and heavy negotiations they agreed to take us not back to our hotel which was nearer but to the centre of town instead. We agreed and just jumped out enroute when we passed close to our hotel. Why has everything got to be so difficult in life for such a simple request?  Back at the hotel we sneaked in past Mr chuckles into the room but later on he caught Kathy in the common area and would not release her from his non-stop chatter. I could hear Kathy struggling with her replies in Spanish from inside the room but I left her to sweat it out with him for a bit longer.  (I guess it was my sadistic streak coming through) Then I done the decent thing and went out to rescue her and help her with the dinner prep but Mr Chuckles would not let her escape so I ended up doing all the dinner myself. She eventually broke free when I declared dinner was ready to eat. He then drifted off after introducing the rest of his family to us in an awkward parade of nods,smiles and broken Spanish. We managed to avoid him for the rest of the night by holing up in our room but unfortunately the new guests who arrived did not have such a lucky escape and ended up being his new drinking buddies. Enough of this enticement we feel so tomorrow we up sticks and head for some more beach life at Puerto Morelos.

Woody Woodpecker gives us a beady eye.