"Mey hi co"

Our (fairly)small plane!
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24.01.06

We flew to Cancún in Mexico. Had a pretty exciting propeller driven plane, it was small and only held about 80 passengers. Made for an interesting take off and landing! We picked up the car and drove to Tulum.

Tulum to Merida

25.02.06

I hope there are no fishies!
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We visited the Tulum ruins in the morning. It was very different to Tikal, which was remote and set in a few hundred km of jungle. There was a Subway and bar selling cold beers at the entrance! Once through the American style entrance the sertting of the ruins themselves was spectacular. It is set above one of the longest, whitest sandy beaches in the Caribbean with a wonderful turquoise sea. We explored the ruins and went for a swim off the beach below. It was really nice as the waves broke on a reef a couple of hundred metres out to sea, so the water was calm and clear, and thankfully quite warm!

Our caribbean cove
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We drove to Merida in the afternoon via the smaller maya site of Coba. Here we climbed the giant “Noch Mul”, the tallest pyramid in the Yucatan and very similar to those at Tikal. We arrived in Merida late afternoon where we discovered our hotel to be more luxurious than we expected. Our room had a big gallery window with one way glass overlooking the pool and courtyard. We had a quick dip then went out for tea. Had a nice meal overlooking one of the leafy squares from the balcony of a restored colonial mansion.

On top of the tallest pyramid in the Yucatan
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26.02.06

Went to the ancient city of Chichen Itza. Chichen Itza was a major site for teaching, philosophy, science and the arts. It is one of the most famous and extensively restored of all the maya sites. The pyramid of Kukulan dominates the site at a height of 24m. The most impressive element is that it was designed around the maya calendar. It was so exact that with the arrival of the equinoxes seven triangles of light are projected onto the steps of the north side. When these combine with the head of the serpent at the base it gives the illusion of a serpent slithering down the steps.

Chichen Itza
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We bought a few souvenirs and had fun bargaining again. It was always a “good price” and “almost free”. One of the locals said we had given him good luck for the rest of the day as we were his first customers. We think we were probably his 10^th first customer of the day!

We spent the rest of the day in Merida.