In the hostel in Campeche we met an English girl and German girl travelling together who were heading in the same direction as us so the lot of us headed to the bus station and went to Merida. Since we were 4 we managed to do a bit of bargaining and got a 4bed air conditioned room in a guest house with tv for little more than the price of a bed in a hostel....great result! We ended up staying there 3nights.
Merida is about 1h inland and is a stop for the Cruise ships that dock in Progreso. All the locals think you are a rich tourist with loads to spend and get quite upset when you don´t buy any of their wares. Its a busy town with some nice buildings but mainly its used as a starting point to see the surrounding areas. The main thing i wanted to see were the cenotes (underground sinkholes full of freshwater)- ever since i saw the film ´Journey into Amazing Caves´ i have been fascinated by them. There were plenty of tours available to take you to them but we got chatting to some locals who told us how to get there ourselves. We took a collectivo (hi-ace van type bus) to the town of Cuzama where the cenotes are located. From the main street we had to get a bike taxi (two seats for passengers in a cart with a bike at the back to push you). The guys cycling had to take us 4km up the road and it turned out to be a really hot day so boy did they work! 4km in we arrived at a stop where we changed to horse and cart that took us the 7km in to the first of 3 cenotes. When we arrived all i could see was a hole in the ground not more than 1.5metres in diameter. There was a wooden step ladder leading into the black abyss...thats all i could see when i looked in. It took alot to get me down the ladder (i´m not that good with heights) but it was worth it. Inside was a cave full of the brightest turquoise blue i have ever seen. There was a one other small hole in the roof that allowed the sun to beam in and light up the cenote....it was fantastic. We swam in the water surrounded by stalagmites, stalagtites and some bats who roost in the roof of the cave- wonderful! We had about 30mins in that cenote and then back onto the cart to see two others- they were good but not quite as impressive as the first one.
That evening we wanted to go to Uxmal ruins, Mayan ruins, where they put on a light and sound show when its dark. Again there was the option of a tour but was quite expensive so since there were 4 of us we managed to bargain with a taxi driver to take us there, wait for us and bring us back to Merida- Uxmal is about 1.5h outside the city- we got it for a good price. On the way to the show, there was the most torrential rain, thunder and lightening i have ever seen. The show would get cancelled if it was raining so we feared our haggling may not be rewarded. But luckily it stopped by the time we got there. The show was great, the majority of these ruins are set in a square and over the 45mins different ruins are lit up in different colours while we listened to an English narration on our audio set. The Mayans relied heavily on the rains to bring them plentiful corn harvests, often chanting to the rain gods and it was a drought that brought an end to their civilisation many hundreds of years ago. But many of the buildings are so well preserved. They also introduced the idea of decmilisation by discovering the number zero and created the 365day calendar.
From Merida it was onto Chichen Itza (without the German as her trip was finishing and she was flying home), probably the most famous set of ruins in Mexico and has been voted the 8th wonder of the ancient world apparently. We tried to go to the light and sound show here but the torrential rain put a swift end to that. Instead we got to see it in daylight, very impressive again.
Then yesterday afternoon we packed up and headed for the beach. We are now at the Carribean, Playa del Carmen, about 2h south of Cancun. Unfortunately we are not getting Carribean weather, it has been raining all day and the forecast doesn´t look much better for the next few days- the rain gods must have heard the chanting at the light and sound show!!!
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