So where was I? Right, so Kia and I met a German named Andi in the hostel and we hatched a plan to check out some mayan ruins along the Ruta Puuc via car rental since the bus route was bit of a pain in the ass. We ended up with a blue VW beatle because it was way cheaper than renting something new. They still manufactured the old style beatle in Mexico until 2003, which was the year of our car, but it looked like it could have been from the 70s; the stereo had been torn out and the gear box was pretty interesting to try and shift. It had always been Andi's dream to drive an old beatle. He was an engineer so he considered it a bit of a right of passage as a German. We set out in the morning {the same morning the Mexican guy woke me up by crawling into the bed above me} and were on our way.
Many many many ruins later, we finished off the drive at a huge cave, called Grutas de Loltun; it had a cathedral ceiling 40m high and it was used by the Mayans to hide from the Spanish. Definitely a highight for a rock jock like myself, though Kia and Andi weren't quite so awed. We got a bit lost on the way back and ended up in a village called Oxkutzcab as the sun was setting and decided to stop for food as we were all starving. We found a little place by the market and I had the most amazing soft tacos of my entire life. The restaurant didn't even have a name above the door, and I don't know if I could even find it again. Alas. We made it back to Merida in one piece and Kia and I split a private room for the night to actually get a proper sleep. She locked her laptop in one of the metal locker in the main room and we went to sleep, set to depart to Campeche the next day. In the morning we found that someone who had been staying in the hostel had picked the lock of some lockers and her laptop and a bunch of cash was gone. Another man had everything including his passport taken, so I suppose it could have been worse. My passport was in the locker with Kia's so we really lucked out there. She had to spend the entire day in the police station and I waited for her at the hostel. After she was done they offered us a free room but we decided to get the hell out of Merida and got on a late afternoon bus to Campeche.
