The Land of the Iguana - Uxmal

The magicians temple a rare oval shaped temple.
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We arrived in Merida after sundown in the middle of a torrential thunderstorm. The thunder was deafening as the bus passed right under the heart of the storm. The streets were flooded and we had to walk through ankle deep water looking for a taxi. To top it all off we realised we had got off the bus at the wrong stop, further away from our hostel than planned. Luckily we found a taxi , unluckily he charged us a special tourist rate for our journey. The hostel was an old colonial building with a nice communal feel to it. We collapsed into bed..

To give you an idea of scale. Sadly it wasn't climable.
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The next day we awoke to sunny weather and headed off to another Mayan site called Uxmal, discovering a fine bakery on the way to the bus station.

....Iguanas the size of yorkshire terriers!

Uxmal is another big site  with stunning stone carvings and built from pinkish stone that looks amazing. We decided not to bother with a guide and after encountering mosquitos the size of pigeons we deeted (mozzie repelant) up and explored it ourselves. The heat and humidity was intense but luckily it clouded over and drizzled after an hour and made it more managable. We weren't allowed to climb the main temple but we did get our first experience of climbing the steep steep Mayan steps on the pyramid temple. The only wildlife around was a smattering of tourists and some huge (jurassic looking) iguanas the size of yorkshire terriers!

Claire composed this beautiful photo
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Again torrential rain awaited us back in Merida, but we weren't phased and waded back to our hostel. Later we went for our first proper restaurant meal recommended by Lonely Planet. We outfaced ourselves a wee bit with starter & main. An hour later we waddled out content after a lovely meal.

Next morning we went shopping for the essentials: String, lighter and most importantly a Merida Hammock! (the best hammocks ever!!). Glowing with success we then headed off to our next destination .. back to the coast and some Mayan ruins in Tulum.