Tuesday December 27, 2011
Maya Luna Hotel near Mahahual, Mexico
Yesterday was a fairly leisurely day – as Jeff mentioned in
the last post, the morning started out in the sunny courtyard of what must have
once been the party center of the Club Med of Chichen Itza. These days it seems this resort is more
family focused – although last night’s show seemed more like something you’d
want to see if you were taking some sort of hallucinogenic drug…
After taking our time eating and packing up, we finally left
Chichen Itza around 11am and headed for a slight detour before arriving at our
final destination. We decided it was
going to be worth the time and extra driving to go see the ruins at Ek’
Balam. And it was definitely worth it. As Jeff noted earlier, we couldn’t climb on
the ruins in Chichen Itza, but we could here.
I felt a little bad about climbing on these ancient ruins so I convinced
myself that most of them were actually reconstructed. The biggest structure – which claims to be
taller than El Castillo (the huge pyramid at Chichen Itza) – was actually under
reconstruction, so it didn’t take much to convince me that it was ok to
climb. And we did. It was the heat of the day and it felt
incredibly humid too, so by the time we got to the top, I was feeling a bit
light-headed. The view was really
spectacular – we could see how flat the surrounding land is (you can see for
miles in every direction) and a few ruins poking out of the wild jungle. This site is much smaller and much less
excavated than Chichen Itza, but really, really cool. If you ever visit the Yucatan, this is one
place not to be missed. There are
several mounds that have not been excavated, so they are covered in jungle, but
you can see that they must have been man-made.
Makes me wonder how the archeologists figure out which stone goes where
and what the mound actually was before it was taken over by flora. Since I was feeling light-headed, Jeff held
my hand as we descended the pyramid and I chose to remain in the shade for the
rest of the outing. Jeff galavanted
around the place, climbing up and over multiple structures. This is definitely the place for any Indiana
Jones wannabe’s out there.
 |
| Jeff balancing over the steep stairs overlooking the rest of Ek' Balam. |
 |
| I was so happy to make it all the way up to the top. Now to get down... |
 |
| Is that Indiana Jones I see? |
On a side note – I tried a guanabana popsicle and really
enjoyed the flavor. Not to mention the
cold of the frozen treat.
Jeff tried to convince me that we should visit the cenote
that was adjacent to the ruins, mainly because it was really hot and this
particular cenote was off the beaten path and probably would be the most empty
of any that we might be able to see. I
was unconvincable, however, because it was past our lunch time and we both tend
to get the hungry bitchies if we don’t eat in a timely manner.
We ended up having a nice (and long) lunch in the town of
Valladolid. Our Lonely Planet guide told
us of a market/food court just off the main city plaza that lots of locals go
to, so we tried that. Our Spanish is fairly
poor – so trying to read a fully Spanish menu and talk to people who spoke no
English made ordering a bit difficult – I tried to order several things without
meat (I’m not vegetarian, just sometimes don’t want to try dishes with meat
from unknown sources), but was repeatedly told I couldn’t get that meal without
pork (or chicken). I finally just
ordered Huevos Rancheros (fried eggs on tortillas with a tomato sauce and beans
on the side) which was quite tasty. Jeff
was only going to get a small meal, but kept ordering plate after plate: fried
plantains, papas fritas (French fries), and pork tacos. We ended up stuffed. It was great! Meanwhile, we got to see a bit of the local
populace (along with tour groups and some individual tourists). It was a great stop.
 |
| Mmmm, tasty lunch. |
Finally, we headed to our last
beach resort – in Mahahual, about 4 hours south of Cancun. We drove on several different very straight roads with little traffic
to finally find this wonderful little resort on the sea: Maya Luna. The proprietors are originally from Holland
but have been running Maya Luna for 9 years.
There are a total of 4 bungalows at this resort, each with their own
roof terrace and all about 20 meters to the water. We arrived late, but Carolien and Jan were
nice enough to fix us dinner (an interesting take on fajitas with a curry
flavor – very good). We decided we
really wanted to get in the water before bed, but we only walked a few feet in
(just above my knees) and decided that there were too many unknowns in the
dark, so we’d wait until tomorrow to check it out. We’ll be here for 4 nights and plan on
snorkeling and swimming and kayaking and pretty much relaxing and enjoying
ourselves for the last part of our babymoon.
No comments:
Post a Comment