6. Mexico - a bit of the Yucatan Peninsula

covering 27 January - 30 January 2020

a very typical Merida view

pictorial street signs in Merida to aid
the illiterate.  pity this road isn't called
Avenida Dolly with the Brolly

The Yucatan Peninsula was our next destination and for the non-geographers among you it’s the pointy bit that sticks northwards into the Gulf of Mexico and from what we saw it’s mostly flat.  Cancun, the big beach holiday scene for Mexico is here so naturally we’re giving that a wide berth.  We’ve chosen yet another town to stay in which begins with M – it’s a coincidence, really.  It’s called Merida and has some glowing words in our guide book The L….. P……, which turns out to be another duff description.  To be honest, it’s like so many central and south American towns with little to distinguish them, grid pattern streets, pretty flat and many buildings only one storey.  However, on our last (and best) day in Merida we left the centre to see a grand avenue which was allegedly based on the Champs Elysees and it was very impressive.  Wide, lined with shady trees, some nice little shops and a couple of museums with a plant laden central reservation.  At one end many of the old big houses still stood and you could just imagine the money that was sloshing around here,  One of the grand houses was open to the public and was a bit like a National Trust property although the gift shop didn’t smell of pot pourri.  It was just small enough to imagine it as a private house and well worth a visit.

Paseo de Monejo

Casa Museo Montes Molina, Paseo de Monejo (not National Trust)

Casa Museo Montes Molina dining room
with Tiffany glass window

Chichen Itsa - El Castillo

Our reason for choosing Merida was that it was a base for visiting Chichen Itsa, a large Mayan set of ruins and quite possibly the most visited tourist spot in Mexico.  We caught a bus rather than taking a proper tour and made sure we were on a very early bus to ‘miss the crowds’.  Tours include stops at places we don’t want which are always selling something and the trip ends up taking about nine hours.  We walked to the Merida bus station in the dark for the two hour ride to C. Itsa and arrived half an hour after it opened when the queue to get in was only about a hundred yards long.  Just behind us in the queue was a Californian and his Chinese girlfriend who heard us talking and asked where we were from.  Now we could play our usual game in these situations.  We just let the other party (him, with a delivery like Robin Williams, she was very quiet) tell us about themselves, while we wait to see if they know anything at all about us by the time the monologue has finished.  It’s surprisingly good fun because of the tension, specifically will they ask us a question or not.  I’m afraid I ruined it because when Bruce (yep) said we’ve sold up and now travel around in an RV (motorhome) 39 feet long, two pop outs, king size bed, washing machine, giant fridge etc. (I’m not sure if he mentioned the decorative duck pond and the rooftop infinity pool or not, I was glazing by this point).  I said we’ve also sold our house and that we’re full time travelling.  What made me roar with laughter was when his girlfriend Cheyenne (yep), told me that I had really good skin !  Attentive readers will remember that the same thing happened to me in Adelaide but from a heavily tattooed man, not a young woman whose own skin was like porcelain.

Edificio de las Monjas

Anyway, I digress.  Chichen Itsa was indeed a spectacular set of ruins but compared to other archaeological sites we’ve been to in Mexico, it was wildly overpriced, overcrowded and overcommercialised.  Inside the site, every path was lined both sides by stalls selling tourist tat, sorry artisanal, traditional local handicrafts.  Considering that it’s a world heritage site and the huge income they must make from it, it wouldn’t be too much to expect someone to clear up the litter, much of it clearly old worn litter.  We decided against a guide at £40($50) and judging by some of what I overheard it’s just as well.   I heard one guide suggesting that the structures had not been built by humans “without help” !!!  He told his victims that in a chamber under the top of one pyramid,

I think this is a Mayan lead guitarist but
in my defence we didn't have a guide

archaeologists had found a bowl of liquid mercury and no-one could explain how the Mayans had managed it.  Actually, keeping it anywhere between  -37F and +674F does the trick.  Also the walls of this chamber had mica on it and do you know that’s “just what NASA use on their rockets”.  Shock ! Horror !  As I hadn’t paid good money to hear this twaddle I didn’t feel it within my remit to point out that he was an outstanding but unoriginal bullshitter. 

Had we known before we went what we know now, we wouldn’t have wented.  There are other and better Mayan sites to visit.

these hieroglyphics haven't been translated but I reckon it says
"if you can read this, you're standing too close"

I guess that all of you have had enough of me talking about piles of old rocks and Chichen Itsa was the last lot we visited.  Palenque was one spectacular site in the jungle we considered but it was awkward to get to and buses don’t run in the dark towards it because of armed robberies on the route.  We thought those two things were enough to delete it from the itinerary.

and we still had dinner here !

We’ve decided that over the years we’ve had enough of very long and/or overnight bus trips and so we broke the journey to our last stop in Mexico at a couple of intermediate towns.  This meant three five to six hour daylight runs on very comfortable coaches.  One town, Campeche was on the coast and a very interesting and pleasant place, the other, Villahermosa was so forgettable I just had to ask Heather what it was called before I could type it in.


- and a bit of whimsy to finish

Mango

Mangone