Everything
was set for our rendezvous with my parents on 2nd February: our
accommodation was booked for the following 2 weeks and we had even hired a car.
Our itinerary went something like this: bumming on the beach in Puerto Morelos,
taking in the temples of Tulum and Coba, enjoying cafe culture in Merida and
finally an ecological retreat in Ek Balam; the last stop also being the perfect
base to explore one of the biggest Mayan cities Chichen Itza .
Our first
challenge was to collect the car from Cancun airport, navigate our way to
Puerto Morelos a “sleepy” fishing village only 20km away and book into our self
catering apartment. Actually, as it turned out our first challenge was simply
to get the car. My online booking had vanished into the ether and it took at
least two hours to get a replacement vehicle. On the road finally, Dan driving,
we faced the next challenge: the Mexican road system.
We’ve seen
some driving since we arrived in Central America, but always from the relative
safety of a bus, where keeping us alive and finding the destination is someone
else’s problem. Now it was ours. Dual carriageways, impatient speeding drivers
overtaking on the inside, massive road humps and incomprehensible signage (or
lack of) quickly heightened our stress levels. Mine only came down when we
finally handed the car back two weeks later... But amazingly we found Puerto
Morelos and our pad with only two smallish detours. Having dumped our bags we
were almost straight out the door again and off to the airport again to pick up
Mum and Dad.
Nearly
everyone who arrives in Cancun is on a package tour and it shows. Reps wait
outside the doors to the terminal, herding their passengers into waiting buses.
Information on incoming flights was minimal. We finally found an arrivals
screen in the bar next to the terminal doors, you guessed it, you’re not
actually allowed into Arrivals. The flight we were waiting for was delayed and
we settled down to wait. Several hours later my frazzled parents finally made
it through the portals, minus my Dad’s luggage. We were able to leave the
airport... only to come back the next day.
Taking a breather between trips to the airport...
After a
good nights sleep we were back again, this time to sign my Dad up as a driver,
to increase our level of car insurance (yep we were that scared) and to find
out where the heck that bag was. It hadn’t left home. So now we had to dare the
roads of Cancun itself to find Walmart and spare clothes. Road works and curses
later we settled for Sears, found a supermarket and made it back to Puerto
Morelos with a big sigh of relief. At last we could relax.
Puerto
Morelos was about as sleepy as it gets on the Mayan Riviera. It had its own
hotel zone, compact town square, bars, restaurants, book shop, artisan shops
etc bordered by the sea on one side and a saline lagoon which curbed
development on the other. A short slip road later and you hit the coastal
highway, and over the road from there the rest of Morelos. This was supposed to
be our beach base for a couple of days, but we settled for the pool instead.
Winds were up meaning all the beach was good for was exfoliation! After a day
resting and building up our courage we hit the road again this time in search
of a cenote.
This cenote was 50m deep!
Heading
inland the landscape we found ourselves in resembled a large calcareous sponge
with scrub trees on top. Dry, water runs underground, accessible only via large
subterranean sinks known as cenotes, or as some people like to call them
‘C’-notes! Sometimes roofs collapse and you can gaze down 30m to a pool below.
Trees know to sink their roots down. People too relied on them to live here.
Now tourists like us swim in them! But not without a road adventure first of
course! We hit road works again, this time complete resurfacing of single
carriageway. Which is to say we were in the middle of nowhere on an unmade
road, dodging machines and trying to find a sign, any kind of sign that the
cenote was near.
Luckily
while we were out getting lost, our luggage was found. It arrived soon enough
to invalidate any insurance claim by my outraged father. Guess what? He’d never
lost a bag before!
After
Morelos we headed back down the coast towards Tulum, taking in a spot of coffee
window shopping in Playa... In Tulum, we almost got lost again, trying to find
our hotel along yet another unmade road. This time tracks were carved out of
the scrub forest in a grid-like pattern anticipating Tulum’s expansion. And
there it was, our hotel a veritable oasis of high walls courtyard fountains and
sumptuous rooms... on a deserted dusty track which two years down the line will
probably be full of traffic. It really happens that quickly. Why? Because
tourists, like us, keep coming back for more.
The hordes at Tulum
Tulum’s big
attraction is actually 2km outside the town along the beach. Somehow they’ve
kept development to a minimum on the shore itself. It’s worth the view. The
ruins of what was once a small Mayan fishing/trading settlement (complete with
temples, of course) stand proudly on bluffs overlooking a pearly Caribbean sea.
The ruins were quickly explored. Everybody was actually here for the beach and
the amazing backdrop. Everybody being the operative word, it was crowded. That
wasn’t enough to put us off viewing the beach though and once we felt the sand
between our toes, Dan was first in.
Dan can`t resist a dip
After Tulum,
we headed inland to Coba. This is another ancient city taken over by time and
forests, but now partially restored for the benefit of roaming tourists. The
site is extensive and so we hired bikes to see the ruins. That was a load of
fun in itself! Besides its archaeological interest this is a good place to see
birds and crocodiles in the nearby lake. So it was no surprise that a pair of
British birdwatchers kept popping out of the undergrowth on our way around...
Having fun cycling at Coba
Our next
stop was the colonial city of Merida, the capital of the Yucatan state. Leaving
the highway we joined an arterial road into the city and were soon faced with
the intimidating but surprisingly logical Mexican system of alternating one-way
streets. Merida had the novelty of numbered “calles”, although it`s best not to
rely on street signage. Some of the numbers went into reverse or were skipped
altogether and signs were quite often missing or just painted over. Far better
to spot a landmark and then count the number of blocks straight ahead and left
or right to your destination. In this way we made it to the front door of our
hotel in the historical centre. And, with a further set of instructions from
the Gerencia (management) succeeded in placing the car in secure parking for
the duration of our visit. Phew.
Merida is
huge, have I mentioned the Mexican propensity for urban sprawl? More than a
million people, and yet the centre is easily covered on foot. It`s not touristy
despite quite a few tourists. There was one pedestrianised street and a
profusion of small shops selling everything from knick-knacks to power drills.
There were no fancy boutiques like Playa del Carmen, much to the disappointment
of some of us... Then there were the street vendors keen to sell you hamacas (hammocks), shirts, bracelets, belts,
sunglasses.... anything they could carry in fact. Except live animals! This
being the Yucatan and a Mayan heartland there were also plenty of artisanias.
We found our way to a cooperative enterprise called Maya Mundo where Dan
promptly fell in love with their hand woven rugs. Twenty four hours later the
compulsion was still as strong so Dan claimed possession of a fine red
specimen, in exchange for a healthy dowry of pesos. Just so you know, we`re not
carrying it around with us! It`s currently on holiday in France chez family
Lee.
Maypole dancing Mexican style...
Whilst in
Merida we visited the sites like the cathedral and municipal palace with its
grand murals of the arrival of the Spanish, Mayan rebellion and ensuing history
(see our photo gallery!). We also enjoyed the cafe culture for which the city
is renowned; alternating between caffeine and alcoholic beverages. I have it on
good authority (Dan`s palate) that Mexican beer is pretty good. The evenings
were spent experiencing more Mexican delights (although more for the
carnivores) for example the mole poblano a chocolate chilli sauce often served
with chicken, and lime soup. Our last night in the city included a cultural show with folk
dancing. Men and women dressed in white pivoting round with trays of drinks
balanced on there heads. Then later more peculiarly something that very closely resembled
a maypole dance!
Enjoying cafe culture in Merida
Our last
stay after Merida was in the rural village of Ek Balam, near some Mayan ruins
of the same name. We stayed in an ecolodge, the Genesis Retreat, an oasis of
peace and quiet after the traffic of the city... Until nightfall. Then the dog
chorus began, howling, barking fighting through until the early hours. As the
dogs finally wore themselves out, the cockerels started heralding the fact that
sunrise was at least 3 hours away. We shouldn`t have been surprised, Dan and I
have been there before, but the next day and for rest of our time in the
village we woke up feeling like zombies.
Nevertheless,
we found the energy to climb the temples of Ek Balam – the biggest we`d seen so
far in the Yucatan, and with (Dan says) fantastically preserved stucco friezes. Then we made an early Sunday morning trip to Chichen Itza,
one of the best known sites in the peninsula. Our reward was to make it there
in the cool of the day, before the crowds and just as pleasantly, before the
souvenir vendors had set up their stalls. Dan was in his element, it’s the same
as castles, give him a camera and ancient crumbling piles of stone and he´s off. With some imagination we could,
almost, imagine having the place to yourselves. This city was once huge.
Everything about it is on a grand scale: the buildings, the carvings, the
plaza. It was designed to impress and from my perspective to instil fear – if the
number of skull and other macabre motifs are anything to go by. I decided some
time ago that I wouldn’t have wanted to live in ancient Mayan Society and what
I saw here did nothing to change my mind!
The grandeur of Chichen Itza
Deciding to
enjoy some more sights from the present day our last day trip was to the nearby
town of Valladolid. This was a pleasant colonial town in the process of tidying
itself for tourists (e.g. repaving the town square), but still very much its
own place. We wandered around its busy streets admiring the architecture. Here
we stopped at a small cafe in the centre and I had the best hot chocolate I’ve
ever tasted. Forget cocoa, this was melted dark chocolate delight! Later, lunch
was at the town’s cenote. No swimming there now, but surely it is the reason
for the town being here. With a nose for shopping we also found a street where
several businesses were making and selling shoes. Three pairs of sandals later
(between three of us) and we were ready to go home. The next day it was back to
Cancun airport and an end to our Yucatan holiday.
Valladolid Plaza
To see more photos of the Yucatan, click here
