Yucatan

Monday, March 23, 2015
We woke up at the less than desirable hotel that I had inadvertently chosen.

Convent of St. Anthony of Padua

We drove down the four lane highway then a two lane to get here in the dark. I did not want to make Ken find another hotel in the dark, in a strange town so we ended up staying here - neither of us wanting to. This place had seen better days, we did not even have hot water, Ken complained. The owner gave us a bit of a refund.

The temperature at Izamal, Yucatan was already hot by the time we were out and about. We were out of the Hotel quite early as we did not want to hang around there longer than we had to.

Ken, not feeling the greatest today, decided we would drive around and take pictures to escape the incessant heat. We saw a long line of horses with hats on pulling carriages. Wonderful sight those proud steeds and the beautiful often white carriages.

Izamal has two pyramids or sites of ruins right inside the town. We visited them by vehicle. They have stone fences around them and plaques written about them.

Then we realized that we needed to get out and explore this yellow or golden painted colonial town by foot. Sometimes, with safety in mind, keeping out of the sun as much as possible, you just have to ignore the heat and do what you want to do. We wanted to investigate the Convent of St. Anthony of Padua. This Franciscan convent was founded in 1549. Construction actually started in 1562 under the guidance of Brother Diego de Landa. The ruins of the ancient Pre-hispanic city of PapHol-Chac provided some of the building material. Some of the building was rebuilt in the 18th century. There are murals in the building from the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century. This convent has a huge atrium, second only to the Vatican in Rome. Pope John Paul came to visit this Convent in August of 1993. There is a museum in the Convent that is mostly dedicated to his visit in which the wonderful wardrobe worn by the nuns and priests attending the service. There is also a statue outside the building of John Paul. It was well worth the walk in the heat to see this huge, old building.

We ate lunch at Kinich El Sabor de Izamal. It is an open air type restaurant with a palapa roof. Even though we were in a rather fancy place for this town it was still very hot. I could barely eat my meal I was so hot. Ken had to walk and get the van parked many blocks away then return to pick me up. Pretty bad hey!

We'd had enough of the heat and drove to Vallaodalid. It was hot there, too, it even rained for awhile. We went around looking for a hotel that suited us and found one. At night we walked into centro and had some ice cream cones, etc. It looks like an interesting city to explore tomorrow.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015
It is always exciting to wake up in a new city, fresh to explore.

 

First we have to change rooms as the one is too noisy. There is a little Juliet balcony with wooden doors covering it and this room is just over a main road. We moved downstairs at the back and by the pool which will be quieter.
 
The downtown centro has the main square with San Servacio Catherdral facing onto it. As we walk there we see a fellow walking his five dogs - an older dog and five young dogs, cocker spaniel types. They are very well trained. He gets them to sit up on a cement fence. They were so adorable sitting there. We continue on to Casa de Venados. This is the home of an expat couple from Chicago. They bought a big, old, real wreck of a home near the main square. It would have been the home of an important official at one time. The expats took about seven years or so to masterfully and mostly authentically renovate the huge home. This home is like a huge gallery for Mexican art. Some of the art has been commissioned, some not. The bedrooms all have the same look - huge bathroom with fridge and microwave (odd, I know) and art from a certain area. One room is a Frida Kahlo room for example. The woodwork throughout the home was masterfully done as were the marble floors. I was snapping pictures like crazy. These pictures should tell it all rather than me droning on about all the details.

Yerba Buena Del Sisal was the restaurant we chose for lunch. It was located across the street from Monastery of San Bernardino de Siena. We never did go into the monastery but saw the outside of this huge building. The restaurant was a little place (wished it had air conditioning) with great food and great service. Maybe you think that all the restaurants have these two features, many do but we research to find good place. We use TripAdviser and this particular place, was highly rated. In Canada or US it would never get such a top rating because of the look of the place. I was able to have a veggie burger with actual French fries, a rare treat in Mexico. We have almost taken on the eating schedule of the locals and are eating lunch more like at two. What was left of the afternoon was spent in the air conditioned comfort of our hotel room at Hotel Colonial de Aurora.

Once it had cooled down after dark we walked around town, circling the centro park or Francisco Canton Rosario Square looking for the ideal place to eat supper. We found it but near a park located by the hotel - Casa Itali. A restaurant which will be the measure of all Italian restaurants from now until we are in Italy. We both ended up with veggie bowls of pasta with sauce that was absolutely too delicious, creamy and rich.

Tomorrow, off to Chichen Itza and to the Cancun area.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015
We are leaving Valladolid for Chichen Itza today.

 

We left earlyish in the morning, eating breakfast in our room for a quick get away. It was already pretty warm, bordering on hot, realizing we are not going to out maneuver the heat. We took the pay highway to try and save as much "cool time" as possible. Driving into the immediate area of Chichen Itza we could see it was definitely an upscale site with hotels and restaurants. We had been told to not even both going here because it was just a Mexican Disneyland so we were not really sure what we were getting into. Someone else said it was definitely worth it. It was just before nine an hour later than we were advised to get there. Right away you could see the top of the biggest pyramid called El Castillo, so far so good. We noticed vendors setting up from near the big building that acts as an entrance way, then on into the site.

As we actually entered the site we could see one side of the huge El Castillo. OK it was worth it!
This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the seven wonders of the New World. It is a site from late 600 AD through to about 1200 AD. There is a mix of architectural styles thought to have happened because of cultural diffusion.

What are some of things we saw at Chichen Itza besides lots of venders setting up selling pyramid related ware - Mayan calendars, etc.? We saw the huge ball court which is the biggest and best preserved in all of MesoAmerica. We saw a couple of Chac Mool statues (alter) and jaguar thrones or seats. We saw excavations near El Castillo which show that this is not the first pyramid on this site. That El Castillo was built on top of another older pyramid. We saw series of columns referred to as Oeste (west) or Norte (north) Columnatas which at one time would have supported an extensive roof system. Some of the columns had bas-relief carvings of soldiers, etc. There is a section of wall with bas-relief that still has some of the pigment colouring the area mostly red. This is covered with thatched roofing. There was also an area thought to be a Mercado. Once smaller pyramid appears to be covered in carved skull bas-releif. There was Las Monjas or "the Nunnery" which is now believed to be a governmental palace. It looks like there is an observatory on the top. We even got to visit the Cenote Sagrado. It is not enclosed in limestone but is deep in the ground. You walk a fair length on a raised, white road to get to it (called a sacbeob). The entire site is far too complicated to discuss at length but let me again say it was very much worth it to go here even though the venders do cover a both sides of the sacbeob to the cenote and are in every bit of shade. It is a true wonder for those lucky enough to get to see it and walk the ground walk so many years ago. Do go early, it opens by 8:00, take sun screen and have water. It was very hot by the time we left.

We drove back to Valladolid and the little lunch spot we ate at yesterday.  Then on the a campground which is close to the ferries of Isla Mujeres. 

Thursday, March 26, 2015
Isla Mujeres has been a place I have wanted to go to for awhile.

 

I have met others who have been there and met a lady in Ajijic who lived there since the seventies. We woke up in our van at our camp spot. When we wanted to get to the ferry we took a bus to the terminal. Everyone was quietly sitting there just before going to work. We were dropped off at the Ultra Mar Ferry (same brand of ferry that takes you to Cozumel). The ferry terminal is much more advanced than anything we have for the little islands in BC. This ferry is similar to the high speed, passenger ferry that use to run between Nanaimo and Vancouver. It has flat screen TVs and cozy seats.

We get to Isla Mujeres and it is kind of Disney. It is one of those places where venders come up with you menus trying to entice you into their establishment. North Beach is where we head to because we had heard so many good things about it. By the way the ocean is a beautiful turquoise colour and is fairly calm. North Beach had a long, wonderful, calm beach. This day it had had many people out enjoying the sun. Surrounding North Beach are big, beautiful, tall condos. Likely expensive. We walked through the crowds on the beach, aiming for shade. By the time we got to the shade we wanted to sit on a towel and relax. Ken went to a towel vendor and the guy was reluctant to lend him a towel. He thought he night get in trouble. Ken ended up getting us a towel and we sat and enjoyed the view for awhile.

We walked more in the heat, passed a sweet little Yorkshire Terrier. Love those dogs! We even went for an early lunch mostly for the beverage. Not wanting to walk around anymore we decided to take a city bus to the other side of the Island. It was not much different from other parts of Mexico. We were surprised that this was not a little piece of paradise. We walked part way back by the ocean on the south side. Not that wonderful! There was a mix of great houses mixed with poor, disheveled homes. The sea water is obviously hard on the metal and other building materials. In the town proper we saw some public art, painting and sculpture.

We did not stay late as it was just too hot to enjoy! Our ferry ride home was uneventful as was our collectivo (van used instead of a bus).

Friday, March 27, 2015
We were up early enough as we wanted to spend time today picking out a nice place to stay for a week in Cancun.

We thought this would be a good spot because there are lots of restaurants and could find things to do when Ken is not working. He has lots of deadlines looming and needs some concentrated time to work on his projects. He has shortlisted a few hotels or motels and a few Air B&B places to look at. His favourite place to head to was the Ramada Inn, up a ways from the beach.

We go to the Ramada and it does not work out. They offer a certain breakfast on the menu at the entrance to the restaurant then when you sit down that package for breakfast is no longer available. That was off putting so we left, it also just did not have a good vibe. I know not a good way to judge a place but this day "vibe" was our way to judge. We walked to many hotels in the area, no one was a high rating in our criteria. We ate at a mediocre place. That did it. Back at the car we both agreed, let's leave Cancun for somewhere else, maybe the campground at Chetumal.

We wanted to drive to Puerto Morelos and look around. We had stayed there and absolutely loved it and the Hotel El Moro. The Hotel had doubled in price and grown much larger. It still looked quaint and wonderful as before, just expanded. The town had expanded and changed, too. That is progress as they say - good or bad I do not know. Next, on the Playa Del Carmen. 


It was really hot in Playa but not as hot as Cancun, must have been the breeze. We found a highly rated little Falafel place on TripAdviser for lunch. After the absolutely delicious, fresh meal  we realized there was not enough time to drive to Chetumal and make it before dark. Plus we had to fit in a trip to the Tepoznieves ice cream shop, a chain we have been dreaming of going to for years. Ken located a charming B&B place in a gated community, by accident he wanted add. It had lots of reviews and that were good. The Italian couple from Florence owned it and had a Yorkshire Terrier and a cat that was bigger than the dog. Cute pair - both! The room was huge, clean and nicely decorated. We had a/c and a fan which were very needed on such a hot, humid day.

While we were relaxing at the B&B it started to rain buckets. It was even raining while we were walking into town passed the Cozumel ferry terminal which is being renovated. We found a restaurant that sold ribs as a treat for Ken. It also played classic rock. Then we realized that an old time rock and roll band was going to play. We sang in English. They could do music from Chicago and be dead ringers for that band. They also did Turtles, James Taylor, yes they were the age of the music they played. Most enjoyable to hear them.

Saturday, March 28, 2015
We were staying at Bougainvillea B&B.


 


The bed part was wonderful. Then it was time to put in our request for breakfast. We had homemade patties of potato, a fried egg, delicious beans and Ken had a wieners in with his beans. It was magnificent to have a home made meal as opposed to a restaurant meal. The couple who owned the home were from Florence, Italy. They or he works in the cruise ship industry. The ferry to Cozumel is a few minutes walk from their home and cruise ships dock at Cozumel. Their home was wonderful with cedar wood trim. The steps were wood and so were the doors. Ken did not really realize he had booked us into a B& B when he did so. It felt a bit weird going into some else's home but they made us feel welcome. While we ate breakfast they told us about good places to go to in Italy. They told us of a place south of Florence that we could stay at while in that area. Being at a place out of Florence it would be cheaper and less busy. They were a fun couple and half argued and half comedically chatted about going to certain cities or towns. I asked them if they could write down what where telling us because I was losing the information as fast as they were giving it to us. Ken was trying to use use Google Maps and mark the place they were telling us about. The internet, however, was too slow for that. The wife recorded to information so we would have a written record. We left their home with such a good felling about going to Italy. We were so happy and up until near disaster stuck.

We picked up an new fuel filter and water be-gone at an Auto Zone, remembering our odd occurrence a few days ago on the highway. We were continuing in our "up" mood, being pumped about Italy when suddenly the van started stalling again. In fact, the engine just died right on a major highway in Playa. There were no shoulders and no visible exits off the highway. We just sat there for a few minutes, stunned. A Municipal Police officer stopped and inquired about our situation, gently pushing our van to a Liverpool Mall. He called a mechanic for us. Such a nice guy, so helpful and caring. He even returned with a buddy to see if we were ok.

Anyway, to make a long story short, the mechanic diagnosed the problem as something to do with the distributor. That meant at least a week lay over in Playa for us ordering one in - ugh! Ken felt the mechanic was not confident in his diagnosis and looked again at the fuse panel. He saw a patch wire to bring power to the van's computer had become loose and there was not power to the distributor. He pulled out the fuse and the fuse was burnt out. Ken put in a new fuse (which he brought with us) and cleaned up the wire. The van started like nothing had been wrong. What a relief! No week in Playa but we had to stay until tomorrow.

Ken found a great place at a good price but it was a fair walk from the beach. The owner was a German lady from Munich. She had an apartment there and Ken got the e-mail address.

We had a wonderful late afternoon evening on the beach and walking down the main thoroughfare of Playa (Calle 5). Playa's main walking area has expanded since we were there four years ago. People do not call out to you or annoy you as you walk. It is very pleasant and mostly they let you check out menus in peace. There has been a big mall built on this Calle which reminds us of San Diego.

We will return to Playa as we really enjoyed our visit. Some areas are expensive and some much cheaper like the 15 peco pizza slices we had for supper.

Italy recommended by Italians in the tourism industry.