Activity Summary
Thursday 4th May - Day 245
Travel to Valladolid
Cafe Carolin Cacao Cafe & Gelato
Drinks at Los Frappes
Light & historical show at the Convento de San Bernardino de Siena
Friday 5th May - Day 246
Chichén Itzá (Luke)
Cenote Zaci
Summary
Valladolid
A really nice small city that felt relaxed, was clean and quite pretty. We didn’t see a whole lot of the city as we didn’t venture out too much while here but we enjoyed our time here.
Chichen Itza
The visit was definitely worth it to see the temple, the main one was very impressive, but the cost of it all was savage. Arguably big T was better and Edzna was cooler with its connecting walkways and walls that could be traversed.
For nearly £30 it was a lot of money.
Transport
Valladolid
Merida hotel -> [cab] -> ADO bus terminal -> [ADO bus] -> Valladolid bus terminal -> [walk] -> Homestay
Chichen Itza
It was very easy to get to via the collectivo. In Google maps ‘Transporte Colectivo (Chichen Itza Y Piste)’ is the collectivo terminal and a return bus ticket is $80. While space is slightly competitive, once on the ride is pretty easy there and back.
Accommodation
Valladolid - Casa Mamá Bety
Number of nights - 2
Price per night per person - £13
It was nice to have the equivalent of an apartment with a kitchen, two king size beds and private bathroom. It meant we had plenty of space to spread out and relax.
Location was great however being walking distance to town and the bus terminal.
The shower had probably the worst water pressure we’ve had so far but we made it work. The AC remote didn’t work all that well and meant the room got fairly warm for fear of us turning the aircon off in its entirety.
Diary
We got our hotel to call a cab for us rather than walk, hail and hope which worked out great, costing us only $35 rather than the $100 it did on the way here without any heat inducing stress.
We were a little fortunate with the bus, getting the last two available seats next to each other using our last minute purchase approach. Sadly this meant we would be next to the toilet and over the course of the bus ride there were some ratchet smells that came out following various passenger use.
Before getting on board we had decided that the in station Subway would be a simple and effective lunch option. What we didn’t count on was this would be the slowest service we would ever encounter in a fast food joint. We were there for 20 minutes as the one guy in front spent an age deciding and building his food, to then have another lady try and cut in the queue ahead citing the need for a bus. Nicola went full angry customer mode, took none of her bullshit and eventually forced her to abandon her cutting ambitions, leaving the store when she didn’t get her way. Eventually we were served and out of the door but only after Nicola kept on at the guy to stop being an imbecile who even tried to start up a conversation with his colleague who was doing absolutely nothing to help. Absolute shambles of a service and to top it off it was probably the worst subway Luke has ever eaten.
At least we weren’t in the poo seats for too long as the journey was relatively short to Valladolid.
Once at the bus terminal we walked the 10 minutes to our homestay to conclude we wouldn’t be able to check in early. There was a nearby cafe called Carolin Cacao Cafe & Gelato but sadly there was only outdoor seating space so we had little choice but to try and relax in the high 30 degree heat for a few hours. Luke did go for a recon of other cafes nearby but none had the desired indoor aircon that would relieve our heat based tension. So Nicola settled on soaking her scarf as respite, Luke dousing himself in water and various cold drinks and ice creams to pass the time. Eventually they brought out a fan for us so clearly we looked like we were struggling.
At 3pm we checked in to our room and had an admin afternoon doing laundry, a local supermarket food shop and chill with some Netflix on the room TV. Nicola cooked our basic pasta and veggie dinner that we would eat for lunch and dinner the next two days while Luke grabbed the laundry and a surprise cake run.
We met up with Steve and Lee for some drinks and cards at Los Frappes where we were treated to a live band. It would have been more entertaining had we not chosen the place because we wanted to chat but the music made this pretty impossible. At this point we all concluded we were old farts but the card game meant our time here wasn’t a complete waste of time.
At 9ish we went down into the Convento de San Bernardino de Siena which had a nightly light & historical show projected onto the walls of the building. We were there for the Spanish version first and stayed for the UK narration afterwards for completion's sake. It was mildly entertaining.
As Nicola had already been to Chichén Itzá and the cost was pretty steep, she opted out of this experience and left Luke to go see the UNESCO world heritage site. She spent the morning messaging friends and having a short walk around the shops but it was short lived due to the heat and everything was quite expensive.
Luke story time:
Fortunately Steve and Lee were clued up on how to get to Chichén Itzá so I just rocked up at the Collectivo stop (near the ADO bus terminal) and they had even bought me the required return ticket.
The bus was a bit of a free for all. Steve and Lee had got there just about early enough to solidify our position on the first bus to the ruins but there wasn’t an orderly queue that just stresses me out. We didn’t wait long before we were let on and managed to grab one of the comfortable rows. The bus was full of English for the first time that I can remember since travelling.
Once at the Chichén Itzá entrance we parred off the masses of guides trying to collect a group of tourists to take around the site and went to buy the tickets. This wasn’t all that straightforward, having to buy the National park fee of $90 in one transaction and then in another booth buy the tourist fee for $524. At £28 this was an expensive temple outing.
The site was quite large so it gave us a fair few things to look around in about 2 hours. The main temple in the middle of the site was in pretty great condition and impressive to look at.
Other impressive areas are the many free standing columns, the massive ball court arena and various smaller temple sites.
There was another Cenote, Sagrado de Chichén Itzá, we went to have a quick look at but it didn’t impress quite as much as the others we had seen.
The walk around was pretty toasty at 35 degrees and was only getting hotter by the time we left. As we did so a massive number of people appeared to be arriving by the bus load from Cancun and it was a great time to be moving on. It wasn’t overly busy while we were there so clearly arriving early and out of season worked well in our favour.
Once at the collectivo stop there were quite a few people already waiting patiently in the heat. We didn’t have to wait too long for the collectivo but it was a fight to get on, Steve and Lee securing the more comfortable seats up front whereas I ended up in the last available seat on the back row sandwiched between 3 dudes. Not a comfortable journey back and I was sweating my tits off.
Once back in town I rejoined with Nicola where we spent the afternoon chilling in the room doing very little but lunching and watching TV, mainly to avoid the intense heat.
As Nicola hadn’t really achieved much with her day she was in two minds about whether she could be bothered to get up and out of the door. The threat of an evening walking tour or going to the nearby cenote led her to decide the latter. So we packed our swimmers and went over to cenote Zaci for an hour or so.
The massively oversized life jackets made us look pretty ridiculous, especially as we swam in the water while getting choked out by our buoyancy aids. Nicola took to dragging Luke around by his feet as he laid back enjoying life - no complaints from him.
Back at the homestay we cooked our basic bitch dinner, Luke went for another cake run and carried on chilling in the evening with TV and little else.
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