Wednesday

On Wednesday, we headed in different directions. Brian and Kristen woke up early and left for a day at Xcaret, an eco-part about two hours south of Cancun. The rest of us slept in a bit later and headed off for a day at Chichen Itza. We drove the golf cart into town, took the ferry across to Puerto Juarez, and met our van driver on the other side. It turned out that there was a guide in addition to the driver, so there were six of us in a 12-person van.

The drive out to Chichen Itza took us through the official downtown of Cancun, where people are abundant and road lanes are missing. We survived the harrowing traverse through town and eventually made it to the toll road that goes to Chichen Itza. Once on the toll road, the traffic virtually disappeared and it was smooth sailing for the 2-hour drive to the ruins. The drivers offered to stop at a small town along the way, but we wanted to make it out to Chichen Itza with plenty of time. The driver had lived in LA for about 10 years, so we spent time talking to him about why he returned to Mexico. I don't remember actually talking about the ruins much at all before we got there.

Arriving at Chichen Itza reminded me of Disneyland, with no shortage of tour buses and tourists. We were dropped off at the entrance and handed off to an "official" Chichen Itza guide who led the tour. For 90 minutes, he led us around the site telling stories that were a little disjointed and didn't always make a lot of sense. The ruins were very impressive and a sight to see, but we learned more about it from the signs that our guide. The most impressive part, aside from the huge pyramid temple, was the ball court. It was a little larger than a football field and was the location of many of the famous Mayan ball games. Depending on who you believe, either the winner or loser of each match was sacrificed. After the 90 minute "tour", we had 30 minutes of free time to wander around. We checked out one of the cenotes (large sinkholes) and browsed all the vendors. Christina and I found a wonderful wooden mask that we liked, but we didn't bring enough cash and no amount of bartering could get it down to what we had. Overall impressions of Chichen Itza were good, but I would have liked to spend more time there and had a better guide.

We loaded back into the van and headed to our next stop, a cenote that had been developed into a swimming hole. We had a quick lunch buffet and then changed into our swimsuits. The cenote is essentially a large hole in the ground that is filled with water from underground rivers. The water is a little chilly, but not too bad. The best part was that they had a staircase up to a ledge that you could jump off, about 20 feet in the air. Both Jim and I jumped, but we couldn't convince my mom or Christina to do the same (they were the photographers). Everyone ended up swimming though.

By the time we finished swimming, it was already time to head back to Cancun. The drive back was uneventful, though our "guides" spent the whole time talking in very rapid Spanish to each other. We made it back to the ferry terminal just in time to make the boat back to Isla Mujeres.
Once back, we wandered around downtown looking for somewhere to eat dinner. Our criteria was to be able to stick our feet in the sand as we ate. After much searching, we finally found a beach shack that looked closed but was in fact still open. We were the only people there, so the waitress gave us much attention. We had wonderful chips and guac and enjoyed the 2-for-1 drink specials. We made it back to the house just in time to wind down and go to bed. Brian and Kristen made it back around 11:30 and reported the Xcaret was fun but very crowded and hectic.