23 de Noviembre 2010

Mari and I arrived in Valladolid after staying 4 nights in Merida where we had Wifi access but no computer at hand. Merida is the capital of the state of Yucatan (the northern point of the Yucatan Peninsula) and has a population of around 1.4 million inhabitants. It is a bustling city with narrow streets and even narrower sidewalks, making sidewalk navigation during the day frenetic and somewhat frustrating. We stayed at a wonderful hostel named Hostel Zocolo located just off the Grande Plaza smack dab in the heart of the city.

Hotel Zocalo - Merida

The hostel is housed within an incredible building, which at one time must have been someones immense personal flat - or mansion by modern terms. Located up a flight of stairs off the street on the second floor, the rooms have high vaulted ceilings with massive 10 foot tall folding doors between each and every room. The morning breakfasts were totally amazing feasts far more exquisite and impressive than any hostel breakfast I have ever encountered in my life. They consisted of fresh cantalope, papaya, pineapple, bananas, and watermelon, plus cereal milk and sugar, coffee, omelettes, crepes, bread, peanut butter and jelly, yogurt, honey, dulce de leche...... basically.... the works. It was great. We were paying about 110 pesos each per night ($9.50). The atmosphere was open and easy going, the staff friendly and talkative. All combined, it made for a wonderful stay in the city. With the overwhelming breakfast, free wifi, free purified water, and an enormous kitchen that we used for every lunch and dinner... we found it hard to leave. But as travelers we knew it was time to go.

After 4 nights we decided to push forward and left Merida bright and early the morning of the 22nd on the 6:20am bus headed towards Valladolid, with a quick early morning detour to hit Mexico´s most famous Mayan ruins, Chichen Itza. We arrived at Chichen somewhere around 9am and were quickly rewarded for the cranky early rising discipline. The ruins were quite empty and as we made our way out of the reception area into the park the local vendors who set up on the sides of all the major walkways throughout the ruins were still setting up their displays, filling their tables full of touristic handy crafts such as ruin replicas, hand carved wooden masks, chess boards with hand carved pieces, T-shirts, rugs and much much more. Walking down the path into the site the most striking thing as you enter is the dominating Temple of Kukulcan, or El Castillo as it is called in spanish. It sits in the center of the of the city and rises up higher than any of the other ruins. This temple is built to reflect the mayan calender.

El Castillo - Chichen Itza

"Each of El Castillo´s nine levels is divided in two by a staircase, making eighteen seperate terraces that commemorate the eighteen 20-day months of the Mayan year. The four stairways have 91 steps each; add the top platform and the total is 365, the number of days in the year. On each facade of the pyramid are 52 flat panels, which are reminders of the 52 years in the Calendar Round."

Another Chichen standout is the great ball court named the Gran Juego de Pelota that stands near El Castillo. It is by far the largest ball court we have seen in any of the ruins so far, actually quite giant in comparison. The details of the game are not exactly known for sure, but there are two giant stone circles 21 feet in the air on either side of the ball field that were used as goals for a rubber ball game where players were able to use any body part except their hands to manipulate the ball through the goal. They speculate a bat of some sort must of been used as it is unlikely the ball could have reached the height of the goals without one. Reminiscent of Schwarzeneggers 1987 film Running Man, the losers of the game were decapitated and sacrificed to the gods, which supposedly was a great honor. Although, I suppose the honor of winning felt much better.

Gran Juego de Pelota - Chichen Itza

Leaving Chichen we hopped on a second class bus to continue the 30 kilometros of so to Valladolid. We are now staying in a little hostel named "Hostel La Canelaria". Valladolid only has around 60,000 inhabitants and has a much more relaxed feel than Merida.

Street and Buildings - Valladolid

As we have worked our way east, we have finally run into our first rain of the trip. Must be the tropical carribean winds carrying the moisture inland. Both yesterday and today there have been little showers that remind us of Seattle, yet from what I hear from back home its snowing right now. Even with the little rain falling here, its still near 90 degrees with heavy humidity. With little to do in such a little town, we are just relaxing and killing a little time before we head to Playa del Carmen on the 26th for a bit of high class living.

In an effort to conserve a little money, we decided to try an experiment. We´re switching over from beer to a bottle of Cuban Rum. With the additional purchase of a liter of coke, we see some some rum and cokes in our near future. As a six pack of beer costs roughly 60 pesos and goes so fast (and so smooth), we decided to upgrade to a bottle of 133 peso cuban rum and a 12 peso liter of coke. At a total cost of 145 pesos ($12), the breadth of the bottle should spread over several days and help us save a little cash. We´ll see if the experiment works or not.

Hope all is well with you - Travis