Yucatan

Shrimp Tacos.  They really hit the spot (with a beer) after a very long day tour in the heat/sun.

After a quick stop in Becal where I did end up buying a lovely hat, we finally made it to Uxmal around noon.  It was HOT!!!  The walk into the grounds was fairly shady but it was still in the 90’s and probably 80% humidity.  Once you get into the grounds of the temples, there is very little shade.

About fifteen miles outside of Valladolid sits the quiet town of Uayma.  It is a tiny little town that used to be part of El Camino Real between Valladolid and Merida.  It is famous for its’ convent church.

The entrance to the Ek Balam grounds is particularly photogenic and very popular for tourists doing their best Instagram poses.

Some lovely color on side streets of Merida.

On the North shore of the Yucatan Peninsula, Rio Lagartos is a small fishing town and home to a spectacular nature reserve:

Home of more than 400 bird species, Rio Lagartos is a protected area on the Yucatan coast, mainly famous for the Pink flamingo, also called American Flamingo. Many tourists flock here all year round to admire this spectacular natural ecosystem, including the most Instagrammed pink salt flat lakes, Las Coloradas.

But Rio Lagartos is more than that. Few people know that this huge territory of 60.348 acres was decreed “reserve” in 1999, although since 1976, it was considered a wildlife refuge.

It includes 8 ecosystems from coastal dunes to deciduous lowland jungles. The first Ramsar site was decreed in Mexico due to the great importance of its wetlands.

The estuary formed by brackish water channels (fresh and salty) surrounded by mangroves is home to a great diversity of flora and fauna. Besides the 400 birds, they have also registered 100 species of fish, about 105 species of reptiles, and 57 mammals.

— Travel Nightmare You May Want to Skip —  After a lengthy but pretty easy flight we landed in Cancun and that’s where the headaches began.  After waiting FOREVER in a crowded line in the airport, we got scammed into paying way more than we should have on drivers insurance for our rental car (Hertz).  Then we waited for an hour in a very hot, very muggy parking lot with five billion other people, all waiting to get our cars and nobody having any idea what the hell was going on.  It was especially frustrating because it was already 9 pm and we still had a 2 hour drive to Valladolid.  We had been told that we could get pesos at the airport through a bank that is connected to our own bank in the US, without charge, but the ATM’s at the airport (at least the ones that we passed) were all out of order.  We were also told by the guy at the Hertz counter that the toll roads would take US dollars (they don’t).  Once we finally got our car we drove around Cancun for almost an hour trying to find someplace with an ATM where we could get pesos, because our cell phone maps were giving us completely useless directions.  The ATM’s didn’t have pesos.  Once we finally got to the toll road, they refused to let us on because we didn’t have pesos.  We had to wait for a car behind us to make change for our US dollars which was really frustrating since we still hadn’t eaten dinner, were exhausted and had a long drive ahead of us.  The toll road (180) was also under major construction so that the entire, 90 mile drive was through a maze of concrete barriers with the speed limit repeatedly dropping down to about 40 mph almost every other mile.  It was one of the most exhausting drives I have ever done in my life and we were both on our last nerves until we finally arrived in Valladolid at almost midnight. It was like Mexico was telling us “Bienvenidos, and GFYS, Colonizers!” lol — End of Travel Nightmare —

Once we finally arrived in Valladolid our spirits immediately lifted.  The man working the front desk at our hotel was super nice and told us we could easily get something to eat at the main central plaza.  I wanted some grub and a drink on a rooftop bar.  Mexico has stunning plazas, usually highlighted by gorgeous cathedrals so for this whole trip I was kind of obsessed with the idea of us chilling in such a luxurious and (for us) exotic environ.  Exhausted and starving, we finally got to one with a view overlooking the plaza and the San Servacio Church.  Sadly, I just learned that the church was built with the stones from a large Mayan temple that used to stand in the center of the plaza but was destroyed by Spanish conquerors :(  Unfortunately we also learned (multiple times on this trip) that rooftop bars kind of suck.  Sure, the views are spectacular, but the food and drinks are very pricey and not particularly good.  We had some tacos that were just OK and a beer and then went back to our hotel to crash.  We had a very long guided tour the next day that was going to pick us up early so we wouldn’t even have a chance to eat breakfast.  All we had was Trader Joe’s scones that we had brought from home, that had been mashed up from being in our luggage.  We were so burnt out from the travel and challenges that we both went to sleep hoping the next day would be better.