Mexico Yucatan Peninsula - part 1

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 to Calakmul in the Reserva de Biosphera Maya jungle, and finishing along the Caribbean coast on the east side.

It's 30°C outside, the roadside is green and lush and... the road is empty (!?!?). We drive miles and miles from Cancun heading west to Valladolid without crossing barely any vehicle. Strange!

Until we get to...a toll. Now we get it! It's a tourist trap: roughly $20 for 50 miles! We manage to get out (not an easy feat!) and have to change some dollars at half their value (we failed to get pesos at the airport, wary of the bad exchange rate there) to pay about half of it and then transfer on the "Valladolid Libre". We'll keep Google maps option on "avoid tolls" for the rest of the trip! 😂

So everything changes.

Small cars, trucks, bikes, motor bikes, mopeds, you name it, everything is on this road now!

And we have to contend with numerous "topes" also, the infamous Mexican speed bumps.

We recognize the Mexico we have traveled in the past: villages stretching along the road, a mixture of people, dogs, shacks, not so well kept stores, unfinished houses with rebars sticking upwards, trash spread a little bit everywhere, we're going to have to adjust.

Our Valladolid Hotel 41 feels a bit like a motel but with a big plus: this green lush and well kept yard with a pool. We're definitely in tropical weather!

The hotel is a bit far from downtown but we find this great roadside taco bar with a smiling lady that serves great tacos at 15 pesos each (80 cents) and delicious, if not a bit too sweet, Horchata drink (a recipe of rice water, sugar and cinnamon). We'll end up by coming here every night during our 3-day stay in Valladolid!

Dec 7

After a not so great breakfast (instant coffee!? Really? C'mon...) we start Muriel's program: a Mayan ruin in the morning, a cenote in the afternoon.

Our first visit is to Ek Balam. 

The Maya civilisation lasted for about 1500 years. It collapsed a few centuries before the arrival of the conquistadores, most likely because of a lasting drought and overpopulation. Some say there were more than 10 million inhabitants in the Yucatan peninsula at its peak. 

This was not a centralized Empire but more like many powerful city states akin to the Greek civilization. Mayan descendants are still around and proud of their history. But all the detailed knowledge of their forebears greatness has been erased by the Spaniard invaders.

We're left with ruins, conjectures and lots of crazy theories as to the Maya's whereabouts and knowledge.

Several majestic tropical trees, the ruins are surrounded by the jungle, there's green life everywhere. And many iguanas roam the stones.

Mayan pyramid temples were rediscovered because they formed unlikely hills peaking over the flat jungle by the way. As lush as their surroundings, they required intense clearing to reveal their secret marvels.

Cool! Actually not cool: it's really hot and humid and we are adjusting from the winter weather!

To make things worse 😉 there's a cenote close to Ek Balam and it's beautiful! So, basically, just 2 days ago we were in winter and now we're in a tropical jungle with giant blue water holes (cenotes). Wow!

The Yucatan Peninsula limestone ground is peppered with interconnected deep water holes covered by the lush jungle vegetation. The so-called Cenotes are a hallmark of Yucatan, together with the Maya pyramids and the Caribbean coast.

Dec 8

Today's program is: visit Valladolid.

We start by visiting one of the oldest Franciscan monastery.

So many colors. It's definitely a pretty town.

There's even a cenote right in town! Like a public pool. But overall we feel the downtown area is very busy and tourist filled, lots of traffic, dust, and exhaust fumes. We're happy to get back to the relative calmness of Hotel 41 away from downtown.

Dec 9

Today is Chichen Itza day.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site is much bigger than Ek Balam and there's a lot more people. How many times has this pyramid been used in movies? I think of Tintin...

We finish the day driving to Izamal and feel immediately charmed by this little town.

We treat ourselves to the local horse drawn carriage tour. Muriel needed her horse-shot!

Everything is painted yellow and the place is much calmer than Valladolid.

There are 4 Mayan ruin pyramid Temples in town. We climb to the highest and get a view of the surroundings; it's all lush green around.

Dec 10

We will sleep in Merida tonight, Yucatan's capital. But on our way we splurge in another cenote. This one is half a cave with bats and many birds.

We enjoy very much this place thinking that nobody comes here because of the bumpy dirt road access. But actually when we finally leave, several vehicles start arriving, we were so lucky to have this entire cenote just for us!

Mérida is a different story. It's a big city and we got a room downtown. In an old mansion.

The patio looks really nice but right behind me on this pictures it's a very busy street with old buses, taxis, etc.

Lots of people in Mérida. And they love taking pictures in front of the Christmas decorations.

Dec 11

Today we go see a very special nature preserve near Celestun on the Gulf of Mexico coast.

We zoom thru the lagoon to get to the pink flamingos area.

And then we enter the mangrove.

It's a different universe here!

We also get our first beach time. The hammock we purchased a couple of days earlier from a lady making them right along the road is very useful!

Dec 12

More cenotes today. We leave Mérida and drive south to Homún, capital of the "Reserva Estatal Geohidrológica Anillo de Cenotes"

They all look different. You can run a Cenote-thon here and see a dozen in a day if you want!

But you have to get there early otherwise you'll find crowds and milky water!

Most people go visit ruins in the morning and then go for a swim. We do the opposite 😉

We spend the afternoon at Uxmal, another UNESCO World Heritage Site, and find out that this place shows more elaborate stone work than any other place we've seen.

And yes, there are lizards (iguanas actually), big ones, many.

After these visits we leave the "Mexico Turístico" and continue driving deep into the south towards Hopelchen. Leaving the main coastal highway, we cut on road 261 inland which is quite an adventure as I keep swerving around deep and frequent potholes. The road cuts through the jungle which forms inpenetrable green walls each side.

Dec 13

After a night spent at a basic but clean motel in Hopelchen, Hotel Jaguar, we keep driving south. Sleeping was interrupted as last night was Holy Guadalupe; lots of fire works, a procession, a very important religious event. It culminated the passing week where we have seen tens of people, mostly young, riding bikes or running in turns, dressed with big pictures of Holy Guadalupe, followed by cars or motorbikes heavily decorated for support.

But now all these colorful processions have disappeared from the road.

There isn't much traffic down here so without any trouble we arrive at our destination: Campamento Yaax'che, in Calakmul the southernmost point of our trip. We're close to the border with Guatemala, deep in the jungle.

This is the closest we will get to experience a night in the "jungle". We get nasty mosquitos for the first time of course! And "Howling Monkeys" too; can't see them but sure can hear them!

The camp is owned by a local community and they have built a watch-tower (not for the faint of heart!) and a couple of short trails around the campground.