Chichén Itzá

Some people have asked us about or expressed a concern about our safety in Mexico, especially with the recent news of the violence in the border regions. For us, the opposite is true. While we have not even been here two weeks, we have covered a lot of ground, and we could not feel more secure. In Merida, a fairly large city, we wandered all over and never felt even a hint of insecurity or impoliteness. We did not even hear a single police siren during our stay. The police were present in the parks, at intersections to keep the traffic flowing, and at government sites providing security. For the most part, we sought out restaurants and cafes away from the hotels, trying to avoid any that might cater to tourists. We were never disappointed and managed to communicate one way or another. Our last night in Merida, we went to a park, close by, that has free concerts every Thursday night at 9 pm. We really enjoyed the atmosphere. The gathering was huge, the performances excellent, only that the speeches to honor some event were lost on us.

We booked a tour to Chichén Itzá, which is a Mayan ruin, about 1/3 of the way on the return to Cancun. We found an option where we could start our day with a group traveling from Merida and then switch to a group that had traveled from Cancun, therefore arriving in Cancun without additional transportation. After checking out of the hotel in plenty of time for our 9 am tour, we waited, and waited. At 9:30, I asked the hotel desk to dial the tour company for me. The tour company asked us to wait a few more minutes. Finally, at 9:45, a couple of guys in a van picked us up and explained they would take us to our 19-seat tour van, which was at a gas station. Finally joining our tour group, we were on our way. Later in the day, our tour guide explained that it is not polite in Mexico to be on time and that they know many Americans have trouble adjusting to Mexican time. We were happy that we had a tour guide at Chichén Itzá to explain what we were seeing.

After leaving Chichén Itzá, we went to a cenote (sinkhole). There are no above-ground rivers or lakes in the Yucatan, but there are underground rivers and many cenotes. This particular cenote was spectacular.

After lunch, we were left to wait for our new tour group, which was much larger and traveling in a bus. While waiting, we met an interesting couple from Hong Kong. They were at the very end of a three-month vacation. They had been to Argentina, took a two-week cruise to Antarctica, visited Chile, the Galapagos, Guatemala, Mexico, and others. After about an hour wait, we were on our way to Cancun. They had told us the wait for the bus would be 20 minutes, but we knew that was not true as soon as the words were spoken. We are adjusting to Mexican time. They normally return people to their hotels, but since we didn't have one, they agreed to leave us at the ADO bus terminal, where we knew it would be easy to get a taxi to our ferry in Puerto Juarez. Our trip became very interesting once we got to Cancun, as we got a bus tour of the complete hotel district. We had been interested in seeing it, but not necessarily willing to go out of our way to do so. From our point of view, you would not know you were in Mexico in that part of Cancun. We were the last to be dropped off. A quick taxi ride, a run to catch the ferry, and a few minutes later, we were back at Isla Mujeres. We were back on Ariel at 9:30, exhausted from a week of substantial immersion into the Spanish language and Mexican culture. It was wonderful.