Valladolid

(Rich´s photos from Merida and from Valladolid so far are up! Map updated to include tomorrow´s day trip.)

We are currently in Valladolid, a smaller town on the Yucatan Peninsula (though still Yucatan´s 3rd most populous). Merida was a cool place but we were hoping for something a little more laid back and less touristy and we found it. We´re also in an outstanding hostel here with a great kitchen that we´ve taken full advantage of.

Valladolid, besides the main intersection, is quiet and charming (to use adjectives pulled straight from our travel-writing thesaurus). It´s very clean, the buildings are painted in pastels, the Zocalo is tree shaded and beautifully lit at night, there are several great town squares, and there´s a boulevard that´s cobblestoned and walkable. We´ve enjoyed taking walks and sipping good coffee and just hanging out in a quiet place with not too much to do. It´s a nice change of pace from the big cities and also from the beach and jungle. Come to think of it, we´ve covered quite a few different terrains so far on our trip: cities, weaving villages, mountains, ruins, beaches, jungles, towns.

Today we ventured into another terrain: caves. We visited what´s called a Cenote (say-no-tay). Cenotes are naturally formed undergroud pools of water. They are open here, and in many places on the Yucatan and in Central America, for swimming and very tame cave exploration.

We visited a Cenote today called Dzitnup. We rented bikes from a local shop and rode 30 minutes outside of town along a bumpy trail to the cavern, paid a fee, and crawled our way in. Our unmentionables hurt a lot from the bumpy bike ride, so no better way to relax our muscles than by jumping into the cool water.

We´ve experienced so much heat here in Mexico, it was amazing to get into the cave and experience the cool temperature. The water itself was refreshing too, crystal clear and incredibly clean. Even though it´s Saturday, it wasn´t very crowded and we were able to swim a lot. We chased some of the black fish around too who were very used to human visitors and who you could almost grab with your hands.

Inside the cave, there were stalagtites and stalagmites (can´t remember which is which), and bats flying around on the ceiling of the cave. There was a single hole at the top from the outside and the sun showed through and there was this crazy light spot in the water. All in all very beautiful and we had a ton of fun biking to and from the cave. We also were able to explore a few nooks and crannies of the cave, though at some point in our trip we hope to do some more serious spelunking.

Tomorrow we are taking a day trip to a nature reserve called Rio Lagartos, which is famous for it´s Flamingos. We hope to take a boat tour, but it depends on how far down on the price we can bargain with the guides, they tend to be quite expensive. Bargaining is one of Rich´s new favorite hobbies. If we can´t get a boat at a decent price we´ll eat some seafood and enjoy the views.

At 38 days in, we are really enjoying ourselves and are beginning to get into the lifestyle and think of travel as ¨what we do.¨ Hope everyone is having fun at the office!

Later kids!