Yucatan Mexico Field Trip

Yucatan Peninsula Field Trip.

If you have at least 5 nights in the Yucatan Peninsula….instead of getting a sun burn that you will deeply regret, may I suggest that you rent a car and take an overnight field trip to the Valladolid area.  Sid and I had great fun exploring  this non-beach area with our friends, Dawn and Bob (who live part time in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico).

   First let me say that all the roads we drove on were SO much better than expected. We drove down to Tulum and got on hwy 180.  This is a one lane in each direction road with a half lane shoulder.  The tall grasses from the jungle come to the edge of the shoulder, but the road was in great shape.  There were tons of road signs to reassure you, that you were headed in the correct direction.

 The only part of the drive that was difficult were the “topes” (speed bumps) you encounter as you approach each small townso beware. You can tell the topes that people didn't expect, by the huge divots taken out of the asphalt.

. Most topes are marked with warning signs. Most of the topes were painted at one time- but the paint has faded-

 There was also a police presence in the larger towns.  The police were just glancing in cars.  I never felt like they were going to “shake us down”.  I was actually glad to see the check points- I think they are serious about looking for theft and drug trucks.

   We arrived in the town of Valladolid in 2.5 hours. (HELPFUL HINT that we didn’t know-lol- Valladolid is in the Central time zone and all the beach towns are on East Coast time.) SOOOO, we arrived at our museum for a 10 a.m. tour- but it was only 9 a.m. (so we went  out to eat breakfast at a restaurant on the corner of the square)
My husband's adventuresome palate got him nacho eggs with peas.  It was revolting and bland at the same time-lol. The rest of us had eggs and chopped bacon, which was just okay, but the tortillas and chips and salsa were awesome. The whole experience (breakfast for 4) including cappuccinos  was only $4.00 per person...so we are not complaining.

  The reason we traveled to Valladolid was to visit Casa de los Venados, the museum. BUT it wasn’t really a museum, it was an 18,000 sq. ft. private house that opens most days at 10 am for a 1.5 hour tour-( located on Calle 40) . The admission is a suggested donation of at least $5 USD per person, donations benefit local charities.  This place is CRAZY amazing. The owner was even sitting in the courtyard greeting guests.  I could tell he enjoyed watching people  OOH and AHH over his (and his wife’s) lifetime collection of Mexican folk art.  Not one piece (of the 3,000 pieces in the collection), was behind glass. Even the bathrooms were filled with art.  The docent did an excellent job telling us about the art as he showed us around the home.  Here are a few of the 40 pictures I took. 

This was painted on a ceiling dome over the bar area.

The owners' dining room

     Valladolid had a nice town square with some cute shops and restaurants and a church worth  a peek. Don’t miss the tile walkway on the perimeter of the square, located on Calle 40- beautiful! (we parked in the lot for about .25 cents an hour located between Calle 38 and Calle 40- be aware of the one way streets downtown- we had to circle the square twice trying to get to the parking lot)

    The next stop on our field trip was EK Balam- (30 minutes due north of Vallaldolid).  Ek Balam is a Mayan ruin that was discovered just 16 years ago.  We hired a tour guide for about $30 per group (plus $9 each for admission) for 1.5 hours (all signage is in Spanish).  Our guide’s English wasn’t the best, but we managed to figure out his main points. His main point being that Ek Balam was much different than other major Mayan cities. The inhabitants here had the Mayan “smart skills” of astronomy and architecture, but the Ek Balam people never came in contact or intermarried  with the Toltecs- so there was never any human sacrifices here.

  The amazing part of the tour was climbing the main pyramid, which is taller than the pyramid at Chichen Itza. The workers excavating have put reed roofs over parts of this temple to protect the precious carvings and paintings.

  About 2/3 of the way up are really good carvings- be sure and stop to see them.

   If you suffer from vertigo, or are unsure of your footing- DO NOT GO UP. (there is no rescue team to save you).  The steps are narrow with uneven treads- the way up is strenuously difficult- and the way down is WORSE. 

My advice to you is do Ek Balam in the morning- it was exceedingly hot- and it was February. Tour buses have not found this place yet, so it was uncrowded.

Thankful to be back in an air conditioned car, we returned south for about 20 minutes to the town of Temezon.  This town is noted for its carved wood furniture and smoked meats.  We found the best of both worlds- a smoked meat restaurant located between two mostly handmade furniture stores!  The restaurant called, Restaurant Familiar, looked like it might be a social club for the town- there was a pool and game tables and lots of regular tables. The meat plate was good- the chips and tortillas were delicious and fresh.  Be sure to share your meal with another person- it was far too much food!

smoked meat plate

Restaurant Familiar

furniture store

   With full bellies we head back to the car for a 45 minute drive on the amazing 180D (toll highway) to The Maya Land Hotel and Bungalows located next to Chichen Itza.  We all thought it might be a hokey Maya themed hotel with Toltec costumed desk clerks- but we were wrong.  It was an elegant, beautifully landscaped hotel. 

 We were greeted with a cold glass of tropical iced tea.  For some lucky reason we were upgraded from a regular lodge room to an impressive bungalow.

 The cost with tax was about $160 USD, which is more than what you would expect to pay for a hotel in Mexico- but with its location, AND its private entrance to Chichen Itza- AND the ability to get into Chichen Itza an hour earlier than it opens for the public AND they would book your guide for you- no haggling AND the beautiful landscaping AND the late 1:00pm check out- it was worth every penny.  (rates for the bungalows started at $210. - check booking.com for specials- sign up for booking .com to get the best "last minute" "genius" deals!)

After a bit of down time we ate a light dinner and had cocktails on the patio. At 6:40 pm we took off to the multi-media- laser show at Chichen Itza. We took a cab because you had to enter through the main National Park gate for this show- a cab was about $4.50 each way- but you didn’t have to hassle with parking.  I booked reserved seat tickets online for this show at nochesdekuklakan.com.  Tickets were about $20USD each.   I have a variety of feelings about this show…the whole show was in Spanish- which is “my bad” for not knowing Spanish… I wasn’t that disappointed in the non-translation, because I knew that tomorrow I would have a guide explain it all to me.…it was a bit expensive (again by Mexican standards), but the multi media part was awesome…it was great being in the National Park after dark and seeing all the major buildings lit up… HOWEVER, I would not go again- but I was glad I did it one time.

cool perspective shot

multi media presentation -history of Chichen Itza broadcast on the Pyramid of Kuklakan

It was a really full day and sleep came easily.

We were up with sun at 6:00 a.m….off  to eat at 7:00a.m…then ready meet our guide at 8:00 a.m.  At the private entrance at the hotel, our ticket line wait time was 20 minutes.  Our guide had good English skills and was very pleasant- well worth the $60 USD  (plus a good tip divided 3 ways- we had another couple join our group)  I am so glad we got into the park early, by 10:30 it was getting crowded and hot.  Chichen Itza is a man-made wonder, well worth seeing. 

The Pyramid of Kuklakhan- by day

 Without a guide we would have missed so much history and background information, which helped us to understand the culture living here.  To us, the culture seemed brutal because of human sacrifices- but the guide helped us to understand that in most cases it was an honor to be sacrificed- you were above all others to be chosen to give to the gods.  We were in awe of the Mayan calendar, their number system, their hieroglyphs and how the whole city was designed around the Sun, star, Earth, and moon alignment.  They were brilliant architects and thinkers!

The Observatory

Temple of the Warriors

The ball court- people viewed the game from the top walls.

At 11:00 am after our tour was over we threaded our way past the hundreds of souvenir stalls- (beware most things are rip offs- but it is still fun to shop)

 We exited the park, relaxed for a bit in our rooms, packed up, ate lunch and checked out of the hotel.

 NEXT, we were on our way to some natural fresh water swimming holes called cenotes (sen-oat-tays).  There are thousands of cenotes in the Yucatan area- some at ground level, and some below ground.  Most Yucatan cenotes are rustic and found in the jungle, a few dozen have been turned into theme parks with zip lines and mood lighting (these are mostly located between Cancun and Tulum along the coast).

We chose 2  cenotes right across the street from each other. They were both underground cenotes that were semi- developed, having paved parking lots with attendants to watch your car, bathrooms and steps down into the cavern. The cenotes we visited were called Samula and Xkeken (also called Dzitnup on street signs) a bit outside of Valladolid.  The cost was about $8 USD for both, $4 each!.

 the entrance to the Xkeken cenote

Xkeken has both vines and stalactites hanging from the ceiling

Xkeken

entrance to Samula

Samula

These cenotes were amazing.  We took a dip for about 10 minutes in each- the water was cool- but not cold and very clear and clean. Little fish lived in both. These cenotes are deep so you need to be able to swim- they do rent life jackets.  I liked Xkeken the best.  It was larger and had vines and stalactites hanging from the ceiling. We were also lucky that this day at 2pm no tour groups were there and only about 7-9 people were swimming with us. When I go back to Mexico- I would like to find more of these semi developed inexpensive cenotes- they are so naturally beautiful.

Finally we headed home.  We had a great Mexican adventure.

*As a footnote:  We can tell the Mexican government is spending the big bucks to encourage the tourist industry. This is shown by the greatly improved roads like highway  180D- the toll highway from Cancun to Merida, which is a 4- lane divided highway with toll booths. We just pulled up and told the clerk where we were going and paid a fee equally about 50 cents.

 Even the small roads, like the ones out to the semi-developed cenotes are narrow but in great shape.  Along the roads, great signage will point the way to important landmarks.  The word is getting out that the Yucatan Peninsula is safe to explore, we saw lots of rental cars taking advantage of the freedom of NOT being on a tour bus.

As always thanks for reading my blog!

Jackie- the 1960 travel girl