Sweet Days in Valladolid

Sugar, sugar, sugar....sweets are one of the best parts of traveling: dulce de coco, marquesitas, gelato, churros....everyday and night.  And despite the rain we've been having a great time in Valladolid.  Yesterday it was still pouring, so Maya and I went out walking, photographing, and eating our way through the morning.  Even though it was still raining around 1:00 we all decided to rent bikes anyway and take the trip as planned out to Hacienda Lorenzo Oxman.  

We got bikes at Bike Zaci near the hotel Sol Colonial for around $1 an hour.  I do love that ride through the city, into the outskirts, and down dirt country roads out to the cenote.  We paid the $5 each to get in, which included a $2.50 credit in the restaurant.  We swam and swung out hearts out in that Cenote until we were ready to come up to have nachos by the pool.  Even though we were drenched for the better part of the day it was excellent fun.

After some shopping and a rest we went to dinner at Canato 1920, sort of a Latin fusion situation.  The food was good and the atomosphere funky and artistic.

For our last day, the sun finally came out and brought a 20 degree increase in temperatures.  I think I'd rather have the rain that the draining heat.  Regardless, we carried on with today's plan of getting an early start to the taxi stand for rides to Ek Balam and X Canche.  The ride costs about $2.50 each person and takes about 30 minutes.  After buying tickets we got the usual low key tour guide sell, but we declined since we really just wanted to go to the main pyramid for a climb.  

We actually got through the site in about an hour.  From the ruins it's a short walk to lay for the "complete package" which included a bicycle taxi 1.5 km to and from the cenote, 2 turns on the zip line across the top of the cenote. a repel down, unlimited time swimming, and 3 turns on the low zip line just above the water. 

Maya did this 40 foot jump last year, but this time she did it with much less hesitation.  

  It was all as beautiful and as fun as I remembered from last year and cost about $20 per person.  We headed back to the parking lot around noon to get a taxi back to Valladolid.  We spent the afternoon shopping and eating, and more eating since wee knew we would be heading back home tomorrow.  

Really going to miss this place and so glad Jennifer wanted to go.  We have so many good memories of our time, I'm so grateful!

Hello Valladolid

Before leaving Holbox, we made time for one  more bike ride down too the end of the beach, we did get lucky and spotted  a few flamingoes.  

Good bye for now Holbox, we will miss you.

Back at the hotel we waited for two golf cart taxis that never came, so the staff had to pile all four of us and our backpacks into their cart and run us down to the ferry.  We paid the $7.50 per person fare and made the 12:30 just in time.  The ride is a short 30 minutes, sitting on the top open air deck with Latin dance music playing, it felt like a party.  You can find busses at the end of the pier and we had heard there was a bus bound for Tizimin at 1:00, 1:15, 1:30.....or is it 1:45?  No one knows for sure, but you can count on the taxi drivers to tell you that there isn't a bus until 4:00 and that for $50 they will take you directly to Valladolid.  It's pretty tempting but taking the bus is one of the things I absolutely love about traveling in Latin America...the sights, sounds, smells, constantly changing scenery inside and outside....it's one of the only times and places in my world where I am exactly in the moment.  I throughly enjoy the misery of the bus.

Sure enough room around 1:20 a 2nd class Oriente arrived and we piled in and paid the $5.00 each for the two hour ride.  Per usual the bus was a cold as a meat locker and as an added bonus my window leaked cold rain water down my side the whole time....and since I had neglected to bring a long sleeve shirt, the only thing I had to cover up with was a damp sarong.  But I didn't much mind, really, because I love that sarong.  I bought it on my first trip to Thailand back in the early 1990's (1993?) and it's been my trusty companion through 18 countries over 25 years.  I'm pretty attached to that square of dark blue cotton fabric, it's like an old friend that's been through a lot with me, always been there when I needed it in any capacity, and has never left my side no matter what I put it through.  What other travel accessory can do so much? It's has protected me from the elements, carried supplies, provided an outfit, covered ugliness and dirt...it takes all this abuse yet dries in a few hours (takes minutes in the hot sun), fold up smaller than a novel, and is ready for more.  

The rain has only stopped intermittently since we arrived in Mexico.  It is the rainy season, and I should have expected it, but it's still surprising.  In Tizimin, you have to walk around the corner to another bus station to find a bus for Valladolid.  There's no way to really know in advance how long we'd have to wait, so we felt lucky that there was a bus departing in just a few minutes.  We paid the $1.50 per person for the easy one hour ride.   We are staying at a special little boutique hotel, Casa Marlene.  My grungy backpacks feel out of place here.

The walk from the bus stop is only a few blocks, but they are chaotic and loud Latin American blocks.....this place is like a little oasis from all that.  We have two adorable rooms in this restored colonial home.  Breakfast is very nice and the folks that work here are exceptional.   We settled in, got cleaned up, and went out for a really nice meal at El Meson del Marques finished off by a rainy walk around the Zocalo eating a marquesita.  That's a dessert specialty in the Yucatan, and it's like a giant waffle cone rolled up around sweet or savory fillings.  I prefer the banana and Nutella, but the traditional way is made with cheese.  

For our first day in Valladolid we planned to rent bikes and ride out to Hacienda Oxman to swim in the Cenote and eat nachos by the pool.....but it was too dang rainy so we went to the Mexican folk art museum, Casa de los Venados for their one and only daily tour at 10:00.  We went there last year, but I still managed to find interesting peices I had not seen before.  We had lunch in the food stalls area for a few bucks, and spent the afternoon dogging rain drops while souvenir shopping, on the hunt for Lucha Libre ("Mexican wrestling") masks we had promised for friends at home.  I can hardly wait to see  what seven teenaged boys plan to do with these things.  

My special birthday gift for Sophia was a trip to Zazil Tunich.  The family that owns this Cenote has created a very nice Maya experience where the visitor learns about the nine levels of the Maya underworld, receives a blessing and permission from a Shaman to enter the cenote, a lovely swim in the cavern, followed by an authentic Maya meal.  You might think a shaman blessing at a tourist attraction would be cheesy but it really wasn't.  He prayed out loud in Maya which is a language you don't hear very often and we were blessed with smoke and water from a flowered altar.

Maya and I really like Valladolid so much.  She wondered what kind of job she could do here during a gap year...secret cenote and small charming Maya village  tour guide for a hostel.  Sounds fun doesn't it?

Returning to Mexico

For the price of one night in a NYC hotel we can have a BIG time in Mexico! That's how all this got started, my sister, Jen, invited me and Maya to celebrate her daughters 13th birthday in New York City and offered to splurge for the hotel and airfare. Sounded great! She sent me link to three fabulous hotels in the city that cost a pretty penny.  I was like, for the price of one night in NYC we could have a hotel, food, transport, and activities for all four of us in Mexico! Really to my surprise she agreed we should go to Mexico and revisit some of the places Maya and I went last summer.  She didn't have to ask me twice, we loved loved loved Mexico!

So here we are, having a redo on two of the places we went to last year.  First, Isla Holbox....that amazing paradise that is really like a dream.  It remains difficult to get to so that does help stem the flow of tourists, and there aren't any high rises....yet.  Jen said she wanted to travel the way me and Maya like to, using local transport and eating street food...but that we didn't need to stay in cheaper hotels.  So we are being treated to some incredible nights!  On Holbox we  are staying in a truly remarkable beachfront property, Palapas del  Sol.  

There was a bit of construction near the room they had for us, so they upgraded us to a two floor suite.  Lots of rain clouds but a beach front room is fabulous no matter what the weather.

The weather didn't cooperate so we weren't able to do the whale shark trip.  Instead we had a day with beach bikes that we rode to the market, the animal shelter, and the beach.  We visited the animal shelter last year and made a donation of leashes and collars.  This year we brought supplies and spent a while playing with puppies and kittens.  Lunch at the market, typical tacos and a fresh pineapple mango juice to wash them down.  We biked on  the beach all the way down to where the hotels end and the national park begins.  That's what will save this island from being overrun, the majority of it is protected land.  If it can be allowed to stay that way then this place could remain charming for years. Already since last year it has changed...more hotels, deeper potholes, but really still a great place and I'm glad we returned.

Riding bikes on the beach, walking on the pier, stopping for a coconut.....oh if we could all look as cool as this girl!

A ton of rain didn't keep us from enjoying the night in town, eating and walking around. The streets get seriously flooded and the water stands for days.  Nowhere for the water to go! As always, the main activity is just eating....ice cream, churros, tacos, tacos, tacos.

I don't have a picture to prove it...but I took a long solo bike ride all the way to the northern tip of the beach and was treated to a flock of pink flamingoes  fishing and mating in the shallow clear blue water.  Really such a sight with that coral pink and sky blue.  In the after noon Jen splurged on Mayan massages in our room! I had mine on the deck to the sound of soft waves, birds chirping, a gentle ocean breeze blowing....she had pan flute music playing on a speaker and used 3 different essential oils throughout her perfectly pressured massage.  It was seriously heaven on earth for $35.

Tomorrow afternoon it's off to Valladolid.  In the morning I plan to wake up early and ride my bike along the beach one last time, who knows if I will ever be able to return here.  Let me know if I can take you here someday!