Mar 28: The Chichen Itza ruins zoo

We anticipated crowds here (it is only a one hour drive from Cancun so many many bus trips come here) so are up early. Breakfast here is basic, slowish and $42. In the past both hotels here had access to the ruins directly but since Covid that is shut off so we drive about 5 minutes, easy parking at 8:30am and virtually no lineup to get in. It seems mostly European tourists are here with a smattering of Americans. Who ever knows who are Canadians but there ar probably some here as they come to Cancun in droves now.

  Driving in, the touts are already out to sell you goods and be your guide. Don’t stop til you park. When you enter the grounds it is rathe like arriving at the Great Wall in China. Lines and lines of merchants selling trinkets and trash. Nobody is push when you politely either say no or just start to ignore them. There are a few beggars and elderly ladies who have painstakingly embroidered white handkerchiefs to sell in the ruins. Every road around the ruins is crowded with stalls and I do give in and buy a couple of things.

  It is not too crowded before 11am but by 10 it is 36 and sweltering. I have a neck wrap and head wrap that I soak with water, don a big hat and still sweat like crazy. The ruins still impress and we slowly cover the whole area, amazed at how little deteriorating has occurred since we first came 46 years ago. Much renovation continues. Half way through I get a coco frio (cold coconuts, hacked o the head, put in a straw and suck up the gorgeous cold liquid! Yum.)

  Three hours is enough before we retire back to the hotel and the pool for the afternoon.

  At 4pm we struggle back into clothes. I bought a white linen dress in Merida to wear for cool dinners but really it is not needed here. We walk past our guards (yes, they all have guns here) and the guards, to the nice Mayland hotel next door, where we got very lost in the tropical gardens yesterday! Sadly they are no longer using all the old palapa cabins where both we and Ted’s parents stayed when they visited this area several years after us. But we love the nice airy hotel with historic photographs of past glories and guests, and the typical high ceilings and  lovely public area and pool. Here we enjoy a leisurely dinner by the pool with the peacocks strutting and birds trying to steal food from any plate left unattended! And great service from the friendly staff here. 

  I return to sit at the pool during dusk, swing in the hammock on our patio, watch the bats and fall into bed tired at 9pm!

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