The White City
Trip Start
Sep 23, 2010
1
319
366
Trip End
Jul 13, 2012
Where I stayed
Hotel Los Arcos
Merida, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
We arrived into Merida just after 12.30pm and went hunting to find somewhere to stay. We looked at one hostel right on the Zocalo, but for the cost of the room it was too dark and didn't have any windows. I then walked up to the next hostel a few blocks up the road while Cat looked after the bags in the square. This one was a bit cheaper but the room wasn't much better so I went to look at a couple of hotel rooms. One place didn't answer, another didn't have wi-fi, but we settled on one near the square that had. Sounds like we're getting fussy doesn't it! After settling in, we had a meal in the restaurant upstairs which was a nice lasagne and chips and then had a wander round the square. Several lovely colonial buidings later, we walked down to the second class bus station to get the bus times and cost to the local ruin sites around. Armed with more info, we set about the task of planning the next few days and which ruins to see, or not. Once it got dark, we had another wander round to see the square lit up and watched a few street performers drawing a big crowd whilst enjoying a chocolate donut. We then headed back to the room to shower and then settle in for the night in front of the cable TV and off to bed around midnight.
Thurs 15th Mar.
Up at 8.30am and had our own bowl of cereal and I even managed to get a cup of hot water for my tea from the local shop down the road for free. Around 10am we headed down to the bus station to catch a bus to Uxmal ruins an hour or so away. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uxmal We arrived just after midday and got the big shock of the cost to get in, on top of the normal MXN$57 there was a MXN$120 tax on top of that making it MXN$177. Ok, so that made it £9, but it makes 3 times the cost when it was only £3 before. After that shock, we wandered round the ruins which started off with a huge pyramid at the front entrance. This was an ancient Mayan city and was probably the best site we've seen so far. The detail, still in a lot of the carvings and the near perfect state of the first pyramid is stunning. Also we could'nt get over how quiet it seemed compared to other sites. We spent a couple of hours wandering round all the ruins and eating lunch sat on top of the Governor's Palace steps taking in the views. After a sweaty few hours, we walked back out to the main road to catch the next bus back to town. Once back in town we went back to our room for a rest and make a decision on whether to go to Chichen Itza or not tomorrow. We decided that whilst we're hear it would be rude not to and went down to the bus station to get tickets for the 6am bus. I know it's early but we decided to get in and out before the crowds of tour buses and vendors get there as we've heard that they are quite ruthless! Around 7pm we hunted for some dinner and ended up with a burger from a food stand near the main square (we're living dangerously, I know). After more discussions about the next few days, we decided to book our on-ward bus to Playa del Carmen for Saturday and noticed whilst deciding whether or not to stop in Valladolid to do the ruins, that it was actually cheaper to split the journey there on the same bus. Confusing I know, but booking from here to Vallidolid and then getting straight back on the same bus to Playa, we saved ourselves MXN$68 pasos. Many thanks Martin Lewis of money saving expert http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/ it works out here too! Buses booked, we headed back and settled in for the night.
Fri 16th Mar.
Alarm goes off at 5am and by quarter past we managed to drag ourselves out of bed and walk down to the bus station to catch the bus to Chichen Itza, another, but more popular Mayan city. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chichen_Itza 2 and a half hours later we arrived at the site and were in by 9am feeling like professional tomb raiders. As it was still fairly early, there weren't too many vendors set up yet and it took another hour until they were ready when the tours started to arrive. It did give us the edge but only for a little while as it was starting to get hot and Cat was flagging already. The heat was really getting to her, but she felt a bit better after she had thrown up her breakfast! Not wanting to stay too much longer in the heat, we quickly finished off the sites we wanted to see, including the impressive pyramid el castillo, grand cenote and the huge ball court, Juego de Pelota. It is apparently written in the Mayan calander that on 22 December 2012, Kukulkan, the serpent god, will rise from this ball court and the world will end. Who wants the movie rights to that! All ruined out, we caught the 11.30am bus back to Merida and got a sandwich in a cafe on the square. After that, we headed back to the room for a well earned rest. After a nice rest in our room, we had a wander round town to find some dinner. We ended up back at the restaurant above the hotel and enjoyed our first enchiladas. I had a spicy Texmex (more spicy chicken than anything else) and Cat had a Suisse, cheese and chicken. After dinner we went back to the room to shower and pack ready for the morning, then got some sleep.
Sat 17th Mar.
Got up at 8am and went in search of the market to get some breakfast. We soon gave up on that and treated ourselves to a lovely breakfast of cereal, toast and hotcakes (pancakes) with maple syrup in the restaurant, yum! Our bellies full, we finished packing and then checked out of the room and caught a taxi to the bus station.
