After Isla Muejeres, we headed east towards Valladolid. Valladolid is a colonial town set up around a main plaza which is extremely beautiful. We stayed at the Calenderia Hostel, which is in Calenderia Plaza, being so close to Christmas time, little girls where practicing their Christmas ballet every night in the plaza. The hostel itself was very cool with an extensive garden and a ton of cool people. We rented bikes and headed out to visit our first CENOTE. A cenote is a large underground natural cistern thought to have been created by an asteroid blast, (maybe the one that began the decline of Dinasours?). The Yucatan is littered with hundreds of these cenotes, and the Mayan used them to store water. This cenote named Semula, has a tree growing at the top of it, although the tree is dead the roots hang down from the caverns ceiling through a hole about 80 feet above the water. We were the only people there at nine in the morning and got to take a swim in the amazingly clear water without a soul around.
That night was the last night of Channukah, an Israeli couple was at the hostel and they spent about 3 hours making latkas. We lit the final candles and spent the rest of the night lightly drinking, sharing stories, and playing guitar.
The next morning we left in a collectivo (a shared van) and headed to Chichen Itza the most visited Mayan site in the Mayan world. It has the biggest ball court of all the Mayan ruins and one of the most impressive pyramids in Central America. I tried to sneak into a restricted area during a rain fall and was quickly hailed down by some locals who told me if I had gone one step further the ground would have shaken, spirits would have entered my body, and I would have surely been rushed to the hospital or died on the spot. Don't mess with Mayan spirits apparently. Chichen Itza was very impressive but after two hours not only were we beat tired but the crowds started showing up by the hundreds. We had our bags in storage at the ruin gates and soon were on our way farther east to Merida a bustling city as we would soon discover.
