Our travel pages - the pictures and the tales that go with them.
The room was hotter than 10 kinds of hell ... and the a-c did not make that much better all nite ' by 8 this morning, the room was approaching 95 ' already hotter inside than out ' and its hot outside ...
Ultimately, we moved across the street to a different hotel (Casa del Balam) ' the room there is MUY FRIO ' i.e. COLD ... which works for both of us. I probably won't be able to get back any of the money from hotels.com ... so here's a hint ' don't use them.
We had breakfast at a nice little cafe on the town square ... we both had Huevos Ranchero and Coca Light ... it came with bread and we both ate it ... the diet will just have to wait another week.
After breakfast, we went to a couple of the churches here in Merida to see what they were like. The big one on the town square is supposed to be one of the (if not the) oldest church on the continent. The second one we stopped in although smaller was a little more plush with stained glass windows and better art in my opinion ... it was also EMPTY!
Mario's folks and Laura picked us up and we headed out to see the sites, the first place we went to was in a little town called Cuzama http://www.yucatantoday.com/destinations/eng-daytrip-cuzama.htm ... the best part of this trip to me was the transportation to get there ... we had been driving parallel to a railroad track about 2 feet wide for 10 or so miles before we got there ... and when we get there we negotiated for 2 'train' cars ... really buggys ... pulled by a horse ... that carried us into the jungle for the sites... of course ... everyone but ME knew what we were going to see ... but i got to be surprised. The buggies were nice ' although my butt is still a little sore from the bumping ... in any case it was defintely i different way to travel ... and the buggies cost us a whopping 130 pesos for each one ' i.e. about 12.50 american or 25 total for the 5 of us ... not a bad deal ... and they strapped the ice chest on
gratis as well ...
We were there to see the cenotes ' or caves ' and in this case ' with water in the bottom ... the first one had a set of super steep and narrow stairs ' about 30 of them ' that went down to a small underground pond ' that was perfectly clear ' blue and the water was nice for swimming ' but since we had forgotten the suits we decided to pass .... the second one we stopped at (which was actually the last one) i chose not to go into because it was a ladder that went about 50 or 60 feet almost straight down where mario and his folks reported a really nice lake that spread out in all directions and they said the views were really spectacular ... although i finally got on the ladder ' i could not make myself take the next step to move on down into the cave ... marios pictures were nice but im sure did not begin to show the beauty ... and i havent had a chance yet to look at the web page to see what pictures they might have. the third site we stopped at the guides told us was even more ardous than the first, so we decided not to even go into that one .... and just rode back out ... all in all, we covered about 14km or 10 miles or railorad track and had an enjoyable although extremely HOT day.
after getting back to where we started ' mary ' mario's mother ' bought hand made hammocks for the family home in Cerralvo. they were 350 pesos each ' about 32 dollars ' in multi colors ' and probably the bed was about 7 feet long and 7 feet wide for each one ... super nice ... and a lot of work ' we watched them weave a row on one ... i looked at them, but just couldnt figure out where i would put a second hammock ... c'est la vie.
we left there, and after getting lost NUMEROUS times ... and Martin (mario's father) hitting untold topes (road bumps) that he didn't see first ... we made it to a little town called Mani where we ate lunch. the restaurant was an outdoor cafe underneath a large palapa ' a large frame work without walls that is covered in palm branches to keep out the sun and the rain ... i kept thinking what a great party place it would make in a back yard some day ... ha ... we all ordered the speciality of the place ' a pork dish cooked in lime ... in my opionion ' a little too much lime ' but i did eat the radishes that were garnish on top and found them actually good after some lime juice .... it was good just the same ... as was the guacomole and the chips we started with and the frijoles negros sopa (black bean soup) that we had as appetizers ... i also had dessert ' a bowl of helado ' ice cream ' flavor of coco ' or coconut ... which was really great and it was garnished with a chocolate wafer cookie (galleta) ... a number of coca lights ... and i had a glass of jamaica water (a tea made from Hibiscus ... it tastes to me a lot like blackberry juice)too.
from there, we made it (again after getting lost a few times) to uxmal http://www.yucatantoday.com/destinations/eng-uxmal.htm one of the many mayan ruins in this end of the world ... after the ruins close each day they run people out and then have a light show in the center of the ruins where they tell their story. although in spanish ' mario interpreted for me so i was able to get the gist of what was going on ... it was really neat and someday we'll have to go back so i can spend some more time actually going through the places ... although the one i want to see the most i don't think is open to the public ... go figure .... it seemed to emanate a LARGE amount of power to me from there we drove back into town and stopped by the internet cafe so we could both check email and i could send this note ... we're going to try to drop our rental car here tomorrow rather than driving it back to cancun ' and just ride back there with his folks. that way we can take our time and see a bit more on the way back since we wont be confined to the schedule of the car ...
thats all for now i guess ... theres supposed to be a cyber cafe at the mayan riviera where we are staying as well ' so hopefully i can stay on task and get you an update along the way
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