Yucatan: Cancun, Chichen Itsa, Tulum, Belize City
Three flights from Sofia to Cancun.
March 24th
T: Ryan Air from Sofia to Madrid 16:55
March 25th
T: Air France from Madrid to Paris 06:40 and arrive Cancun 17:15.
March 24th
T: Ryan Air from Sofia to Madrid 16:55
March 25th
T: Air France from Madrid to Paris 06:40 and arrive Cancun 17:15.
March 25th
I had time to meet some friends in Madrid. As the morning flight to Paris with Air France was at 6:40 I thought I could just wait at the airport. There was a coffee shop open through the night where I dozed over a beer, and the checkin counter opened at 4am. But next thing someone was asking me if I'm flying to Paris! I had fallen asleep in front of the checkin counter. Fortunately I caught my plane and after another stopover in Paris arrived in Cancun at 5PM.
I did not get much sleep on the plane to Cancun either. The washroom was right behind my seat and whenever someone flushed the toilet the noise was like in a Western shootout. Fortunately the AF movie collection was great and guess what I found:
The Beatles kept me company for 100 minutes, and it was a new film from 2016, a documentary, not the original Eight days a week. Here's the trailer:
Mexico is worthy of a trip on its own, I chose Cancun to land because of the many tourists and the cheap ticket. I was not planning to stay in Cancun at all, my intention was to just see Chichen Itza and go south. So I bought an ADO bus ticket to Cancun city and one from Tulum to Belize to travel on the next day right at the airport. It took a bus nearly 4 hours to make the 60 km to Valladolid, a town near Chichen Itza as it turned out it stops whenever some passenger feels like it. They told me the next bus makes it in half the time.
Anyway Valladolid was still alive when I arived and through a restaurant's open window I heard the "Cielito Lindo" song I loved on the Camino de Santiago in Spain in 2015. Passed by the cathedral, well lit against the black night sky, I gained my hostel before midnight. I had a small room all to myself but it was a large partitioned space and the partitions did not quite reach the ceiling. Still I slept well to make up for the previous night and timezone change.
T: Bus Airport Cancun $8
T: Bus Cancun Valladolid 90 MXP
H: Hostal Gayser 200 MXP
H: Hostal Gayser 200 MXP
March 26th - Chichen Itza.
T: Oriente Bus to Chichen Itza 30 MXP
S: Chichen Itza ticket 250 MXP, locker 40 MXP
T: Oriente Bus Chichen Itza to Valladolid 30 MXP
T: ADO bus Valladolid Tulum 3 PM - 5 PM 117 MXP
March 28 Tulum - Belize - El Remate
S: Chichen Itza ticket 250 MXP, locker 40 MXP
T: Oriente Bus Chichen Itza to Valladolid 30 MXP
T: ADO bus Valladolid Tulum 3 PM - 5 PM 117 MXP
March 28 Tulum - Belize - El Remate
T: ADO bus to Belize City 0:45 - 7:00 675 MXP
F: Chetumal $25 Mexican border tax
F: Chetumal $25 Mexican border tax
T: Fuente del Norte 10:00 - 14:00 bus to Flores, Guatemala $25
F: $ 17 Belize border tax
F: $ 17 Belize border tax
H: Bruno's hostel, El Remate
100 MXP = 4.5 EUR
I did not get much sleep on the plane to Cancun either. The washroom was right behind my seat and whenever someone flushed the toilet the noise was like in a Western shootout. Fortunately the AF movie collection was great and guess what I found:
The Beatles kept me company for 100 minutes, and it was a new film from 2016, a documentary, not the original Eight days a week. Here's the trailer:
Mexico is worthy of a trip on its own, I chose Cancun to land because of the many tourists and the cheap ticket. I was not planning to stay in Cancun at all, my intention was to just see Chichen Itza and go south. So I bought an ADO bus ticket to Cancun city and one from Tulum to Belize to travel on the next day right at the airport. It took a bus nearly 4 hours to make the 60 km to Valladolid, a town near Chichen Itza as it turned out it stops whenever some passenger feels like it. They told me the next bus makes it in half the time.
Anyway Valladolid was still alive when I arived and through a restaurant's open window I heard the "Cielito Lindo" song I loved on the Camino de Santiago in Spain in 2015. Passed by the cathedral, well lit against the black night sky, I gained my hostel before midnight. I had a small room all to myself but it was a large partitioned space and the partitions did not quite reach the ceiling. Still I slept well to make up for the previous night and timezone change.
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| Valladolid Cathedral |
Next morning I woke up early to the songs of some tropical birds, made myself some coffee, hesitated if to leave my backpack at the hostel but finally decided against it to save time, even though I meant to come back to Valladolid to catch a bus to Tulum. Talking about backpacks, mine was 7 kilos only at Sofia airport. On the way to the bus station I passed by the Cenote Zaci. The Cenotes are like undergound lakes with a fallen roof, used by the Mayas for different purposes like water sources and ceremonial sacrifices.
There is a nice restaurant and an artisanal market next to the cenote, both were still closed as it was not even 8 am. How did I know the cenote was there? I had marked it in my Here Wego collection.
I passed by the Plaza de Armas which is the central square in almost every city in Latin America.
Enjoyed this bench as it gives a good chance to talk face to face and I imagine also convenient for kissing, although it does not facilitate body contact as part of the fun.
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| Cenote Zaci |
I passed by the Plaza de Armas which is the central square in almost every city in Latin America.
Enjoyed this bench as it gives a good chance to talk face to face and I imagine also convenient for kissing, although it does not facilitate body contact as part of the fun.
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| Garden Bench in Valladolid, Mexico |
Chichen Itza The bus from Valladolid to Chichen Itza is less than an hour so I was there before 9 am when it was still cool and deserted, this was the idea of staying in Valladolid instead of Cancun. Entrance to Chichen Itza and a locker cost about 300 MXP or $16 only. In the early morning I rather liked the place. The square between Kukulkan (El Castillo) and the Temple of a thousand warriors was almost deserted. Kukulkan is very impressive, but you are no longer allowed to climb. I also rather liked the elaborate stone carvings of the Las Monjas complex of buildings and the hundreds of columns of the Temple of a thousand warriors, reminding me of Cordoba Cathedral.
Kukulkan - El Castillo
Las Monjas
Cenote Sagrado
The Cenote Sagrado was used by the Mayas for ritual sacrifices. An American consul, Edward Thomson dragged the bottom extracting a lot of artifacts and crushing many more. His machine is next to the entrance as a monument to this barbaric excavation method. You are sure to find many photos and guides on Chichen Itza on the net, I also have an online album. As it was getting close to noon, the heat mounted, merchants arrived with their colorful earthenware and carvings, and also the tourist crowds from Cancun and elsewhere. There is no shadow, the place is a bit barren and dusty. So I headed back to Valladolid about 1 PM and took the bus to Tulum at 3 PM.
Tulum. The bus took 3 hours but we were in Tulum at 5 PM as Tulum and Valladolid are in different time zones so be careful when you leave the coast. On the way, I talked to a local, who was an indigenous Maya and even his Spanish was worse than mine, and a couple of students from Peru, who gave me good tips about Lima. Tulum is about 3-4 kilometers inland although quite near the sea. As I was keen on seeing the Caribbean sea and my ADO bus to Belice was after midnight, I walked it to the sea, but the beach was not impressive and it was already getting dark. So I took a taxi back to the city, ate some hearty octopus dinner with a couple of beers at the Pulpo Diabla restaurant, then headed back to the ADO bus station to wait and enjoy their free wifi.
The ADO bus to Belice City was quite comfortable and even had USB sockets for charging. But the Mexican frontier officials just plundered us. They made all passengers dismount and stand in a queue, only letting us into a room in pairs and asked for a $25 tourist fee. This is normally paid for by the airline but only a couple of passengers had their detailed airplane tickets where the fee was clearly visible. My eticket from ebookers had no details so I had to pay. Everyone was upset for having to pay the same thing twice, but nothing to do. Only one guy declared he is broke, finally they let him through with no pay, it was clearly a case of corruption, no receipts were given.
Belize Belize was much greener than Mexico. It is the only English speaking country in Central America, founded by some pirates. Taxi drivers are their worthy descendants. Mine quoted me a price in Belice dollars, when we reached the bus station for Guatemala he swore he had quoted US dollars. There is nothing much to see in Belice city, which is not the capital, but it has some nice views and colonial houses, the only real contact with the Caribbean Sea I had.
Anyway there were only 2 hours till the Fuente del Norte bus to Flores, Guatemala, enough to walk around for me and for the other passengers to cling to their luggage. At the border with Guatemala there was yet another border tax to pay, this time it was $17 and a receipt was given.
El Remate El Remate is a village alongside the road on the lake Peten in Guatemala. As it is nearer Tikal, which was my next destination I had booked a room there, so I got out at the crossroads, sniffed at the guys travelling with suitcases and walked along the lake for about half an hour to reach Don Bruno's place. It was March the 28th and hence the fifth day of my journey.
