Northeast USA and Yucatan

Dec 14 Howling monkeys screams woke us up in the middle of the night. They were protecting their territory. We felt they were just right around our tent. Quite spooky! And tough to get up early then! It's still dark outside when we start driving deeper into the jungle, hoping to see some wildlife on the way, and so that we escape the stuffy heat when we hike around the Calakmul Mayan ruins. Soon enough the light comes in. It's a 1&1/2 hour drive to the ruins site.  It is a long way to see stones in the middle of the jungle but I'm hoping to also find big trees and with extra luck some wildlife. On the way we see some wild turkeys and other same sized birds. It looks like they congregate by the road, maybe they feel a little protected from the big wild cats around?! Calakmul, one of the most remote Mayan ruins accessible by car. We're approximately 30km from Guatemala, as the crow flies. The jungle could easily take over these ruin...

Dec 6, 2021 It has been just a few days in Connecticut and here we are back in an airport! We're flying to Cancun, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico ! Just north of Guatemala. Flying is smooth and connection in Miami is quick.👍 Sadly picking up our rental car is a pain in the neck with Alamo. They try to stifle us: to rent us a smaller vehicle for the same price! I barely start to understand what's happening that Muriel quickly jumps to their throat; at the end we get a free upgrade 😂 But it's never fun to deal with this kind of stuff. What a welcoming... Anyways, we do the detailed inspection of our shiny and bigger than expected vehicle, enter our destination on Google maps (Hotel 41 in Valladolid) and off we go! Muriel has planned a 2-week road trip around the peninsula. Our itinerary progresses counterclockwise on the map heading westtward from Cancun to Merida with stops in between at Valladolid and Izamal and various Mayan sites and Cenotes, then tracing south t...