Cerca de Merida

Photos at Flickr

Uxmal

Decided at the last minute on the 13^th to stay in Merida and use it as a base for daytrips around this part of the peninsula. I had planned on leaving for Vallalodid in the day after I arrived. Instead I took a bus out to Uxmal, one of the nearby Mayan ruins. The area was heavily forested, but not a jungle like Palenque. The ruins were spread over quite a large area and the crowds were nicely spread out as well. Many of the ancient buildings are now being used by swallows to roost and there were hundreds of them dipping and darting in and out of the doorways to the inner rooms. The ruins are also home to a great many large lizards. Not sure if they are iguanas or not. I guess they must be, but they just don't look quite right for that. Some of the larger ones were well over 2 feet long including tail and had spectacular throat fringes.

Cenotes

The following day, August 14^th, I had an adventurous trip to some cenotes with a few people from the hostel. To get the cenotes we took an hour long bus, a bicycle taxi, and then a horse-drawn rail car. Just getting there was a bit of an adventure. And just being near the horses reminded me of just how allergic I am to them. The cenotes were absolutely worth the trip though. They were not at all what I was expecting. The picture in my mind was of a big hole in the ground filled with water. They ended up being caverns. One in particular was entered by climbing down a wet, slick wooden ladder straight down about 20 feet onto a wooden platform inside a flooded cavern. Like all cenotes, they were collapsed caverns that had been dissolved into the limestone bedrock. Many of cenotes in the area are connected underground through an extensive system of underground rivers flowing through cracks in the bedrock. Supposedly much of the system was created by the impact of the meteoroid the hit the Yucatan and wiped out the dinosaurs. Good job Yucatan, way to kill all the dinosaurs. The swimming was wonderful. In some we were able to climb up the rock walls and in others there were able to grab and even climb tree roots that were hanging down from the roof. The water was crystal clear and enough sunlight penetrated in beams through holes in the roof to illuminate the water.

Chichen Itza

Woke up in time for the 6:30 bus to Chichen Itza. I hadn't expected to so I didn't even bother setting my alarm. I woke up at 5:30 anyway though, very bizarre. Anyway, so that meant that I had very little time to pack, check out, and then rush to the station. Just before I got out to the front desk two other groups of travelers showed up to check in. This is a pretty involved process at the hostel and take a while. Checking out is a bit involved too so I didn't feel ok with just butting in. So I just left without checking out. I'm sure they figured it out before long.

Chichen Itza was impressive. The main temple, El Castillo, dominated the rest of the site, which was very extensive. The place got extremely busy with tour groups around noon though. So it is fortunate that I had caught the early bus and managed to wander around the site before it got too busy or hot.