Merida

Mayan Ruins and Cenotes

Time to explore the Yucanta Peninsular

Welcome to the coolest place in Mexico

We have arrived in Merida in the Yucatan Peninsular of Mexico. We are staying at Nomadas Hostel which is quite possibly the best hostel we have stayed at on this trip. As well as being a great place to stay the Hostel offers free yoga in the morning, free salsa dancing in the evening, cooking classes most nights of the week, and great tours to the highlights of the Yucatan Peninsular. We mean to make the most of all of these things for our time here.

Day 1: 07/12/2018

Today we are heading out on a tour of Kabbah and Uxmal for the day.

We started our morning with free breakfast followed by our free yoga session. Louise and I, despite best intentions, have not stretched or exercised on this trip nearly as much as we meant to setting out. As a result we are very stiff so it was good to have a yoga session this morning. By the end of it we were finally able to touch our toes again. Then we were off on our tour for the day. Knowing that it would be a couple of hours driving to the sites Louise and I came prepared with music to listen to along the way, having learnt our lesson on this in the Galapagos.

Our first stop was the “small” Puuc Mayan city of Kabbah. When we were told on the bus it was small, I was expecting a small settlement similar to the small Incan settlements we saw in Peru. The reality was that Kabbah used to be inhabited by 8 thousand people which makes it the same size as Machu Picchu. The Mayan culture appeared 2500BC and for all intents and purposes still exists today which makes it one of the longest lasting cultures in history. Because of this Archeologists break the culture up into three periods. Pre-Classic which is 2500BC to 300AD. Classic, the height of the Mayan Civilization, which is 300AD to 900AD. Post-Classic which is 900AD onwards. Cities like Kabbah were built in the Classic period but the abandoned in the Post-Classic period, there purposed forgotten, so by the time the Spanish arrived the Mayans in the area could no longer remember what the sites had been used for. Therefore much of what is “known” about any of these sites, including places like Chichen Itza, is speculation of Scientists.

At Kabbah, due to its distance from any Cenotes which the rest of the Mayans relied upon for water, we learnt about their use of architecture to collect rain and the importance of the God of Rain, Chaac. You see the face of Chaac used in many Classic Mayan arctitecture and decoration. We also learnt about the Ceiba tree, of the Universal Mayan Tree, which represents the three worlds and their connection to one another. Much like the Incan Culture the Mayans used a lot of symbology when builing cities.

After Kabbah we headed to the capital of Puuc Maya, Uxmal. I can now see why Kabbah is called a small city. The capital of the region, Uxmal, was inhabited by up to 25 thousand in its height. There are many buildings in Uxmal including temples, ball courts, a governmental palace and smaller residential buildings. Again we saw many of the same symbology we had seen in Kabbah. No one knows what caused the collapse of the Mayan Elite in 900AD, it seems that there were many factors all over the empire that seemed to coincide with one another, but in the Puuc Maya region it is believed that a period of drought caused the people to flee to other regions. The Puuc Maya relied on rainfall for water, where as other areas of the empire had Cenotes, or underground lakes, that they used.

After spending a few hours each at Kabbah and Uxmal we had a late lunch at a local restaurant before headimg back to Merida. Tonight Louise and I are taking part in the evening cooking class. It is a cheap way to get some dinner and we get to learn how to cook authentic Mexican food. Tonight we are cooking Lime Soup and Salbutes, which are a lightly fried toritilla stacked with chicken and salad.

Day 2: 08/12/2018

This morning we are heading to the Homun Cenotes. The Cenotes are believed to have formed when the meteor hit the area. The term derives from a word used by the low-land Yucatec Maya—ts’onot—to refer to any location with accessible groundwater. While the best-known cenotes are large open water pools measuring tens of meters in diameter, such as those at Chichén Itzá in Mexico, the greatest number of cenotes are smaller sheltered sites and do not necessarily have any surface exposed water. There are over 6000 different cenotes in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico alone.

At the Homun Cenotes you can swim in three of them. They are amazingly clear, and contain fresh water. The method for accessing the Cenotes is quite unique, we took a horse pulled railway platform there and back. In one of the Cenotes there were fish that are used in nail salons to eat the dead skin off your feet, so if you sat very still on the steps it was like getting a free pedicure. One of the Cenotes we swam in was 50m deep in places.

After a perfect few hours swimming in the Cenotes we grabbed lunch at a local restaurant before heading back to Merida. Louise and I were once again enrolled in the cooking class for the evening. Tonight we learnt how to make fish tacos with salad and an Achiote salsa. The Achiote spice mix is a great revelation to us so I am intenting to buy quite a lot of it before I leave!

After dinner we headed into the town. Today was the La Noche Blanca or White Night celebration, so it meant that the roads of the town were closed down to traffic and there were lots of street performances everywhere. It went to 2am, not that we stayed up that late, but we had a great time wandering around.

Day 3: 09/12/2018

It is our last morning in Merida. Today we head to Cancun via Chichen Itza. Merida has been amazing, we would definitely like to come back one day and stay longer. We have only just scratched the surface of the Yucatan Peninsular let along the town itself.

Chichen Itza is massive, but a little bit like Disney Land. There are people everywhere and market sellers both inside and outside the complex. If you are ever in the area, obviously you must visit Chichen Itza as it is one of the 7 wonders of the world, but make time to go to one of the lesser known Mayan sites. It will feel more authentic and you will be able to get photos of the site without other people in it.

Chichen Itza can be broken into 3 sections. Late-Classic, the section that was built around 900AD, this section is very similar to Uxmal and Kabbah. Lots of references to the God of Rain, Chaac. The next section is the Transitional section, built around 100AD. This section you start to see the emergence of a new God Kulkulcan, the feathered snake God, a universal God that had been adopted by the Mayans from the cultures of Central Mexico. You also, for the first time, start to see the seperation of the Elite from the Working Class with walls constructed around temples. The last section of Chichen Itza is the most famous, built in the Post-Classic period aroun 1100AD. This was the time when the rest of the Mayan region was starting to decline but Chichen Itza was at its height. They think there was a lot of migration to this area at the time. This section is the home of the biggest ball court, the Jaguar Temple where the heart sacrifices were made, and the massive Temple. The temple is famous for the Snake formed by shadows that appears on its side at the Equinox twice a year.

Chichen Itza was just amazing, but also incredibly hot, so I had a bit of a headache by the time we finished our 3 hour tour. Take lots of water with you if you visit and wear a hat!

After a delicious buffet lunch it was time to catch our bus to Cancun. We were on the first class coach but there was less leg room than on a plane, I was very glad we did not go for a second class coach as the bus ride was 3 hours to Cancun. The bus played Bridget Jones Baby on the big screens in Spanish, so at least we got to practise our Spanish comprehension a bit more. We finally arrived in Cancun and got all checked in to our lovely Suite in our beachside resort. It is a bit of a change from the Hostel in Merida.