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Posted by Steve on 04/13/03 You really need to spend a few days in the area. As Trudy said, don't miss
the cenotes. Valladoild is an excellent place to stop and take a break. Plenty
of places to eat and the town has a lot of history. Take time out to walk
around for a while. You might want to stop in Coba on your way up or
going back to see the ruins. There, you will see the tallest pyramid in the
Yucatan. I believe it is 134' tall. Just to the north of Coba is the monkey
reserve. It's called Punta Laugna. If you like jungle, it is a must see.
Howler and Spider monkeys. To see all the sites in the area, I would spend at
least two weeks. It just can't be done in a day or two. Posted by Trudy on 08/24/00 From Cozumel to Valladolid-day 2: For full trip report, please go to trip reports. Today Alicia and I are headed to the Yucatan.I got up at 6:30, and by the time I got downstairs, Chuco had prepared Maya eggs, guacamole, corn tortillas and juice. (I'm not a coffee drinker.)Now I'm not a guacamole fan, but Chuco's is to die for. It's the best guacamole I've ever had. I normally don't eat it, but I tasted it to be polite. Then I went back for more. I never found decent guacamole anyplace else. Go Chuco!!! We walked to the corner about 20 to 8 and looked for a cab. Alicia started saying, "I know I shoulda called." We walked a block or so and a cab came by. When we got to the ferry there was a line for the 8:00. No problemo. Trip across to Playa del Carmen was uneventful. I watched Xcaret commercials and tourist bloopers while Alicia dozed. At Playa del Carmen we walked to the bus station to buy a ticket to Vallodolid (Buy oh doe leed). That's when I found out that Alicia is not fluent in Spanish. I had just assumed that ONE of us could speak Spanish, but it was not to be. Can't say I didn't have a twinge of worry creeping into the back of my brain. lol As it turns out, we purchased second class tickets (52 pesos each), when we had intended to buy first class. I thought that was more adventurous, so I was pleased. We had some time before the bus left, so we wandered around a bit and bought some pastries and a bottle of water. We got back to the bus station and I told Alicia that I wanted to go to the bathroom before we left. So we went into the station and she went first. It was a peso or so to use the bathroom and the attendant handed her some toilet paper before she entered. That was new to me. While she was in the bathroom, I heard them announce a bus (in Spanish) and I was sure he said Valladolid. When Alicia came out, I told her and we got in line. (I didn't get my pit stop...oh well.) We sat in the furthest back seat...it was the only vacant seat. They had cushions for 5 and there were six of us seated there. Some people were standing. The bus was crammed full and hot. There was air blowing, but it wasn't cool. So we opened windows and the breeze made it much better. The girls next to me were Maya tourists, and next to them was a couple from Italy. We traveled south and stopped to let people on and off at XCaret, Xel Ha, and Tulum. At Tulum we drove off the highway and around the block to have us heading back north. By now we had about 20 people standing in the aisles. Alicia and I had moved to a better seat and we were sitting apart so we could each have a window. The couple next to me were from Holland and had spent the last 4 weeks traveling around Guatemala and Mexico. They told me that Guatemala doesn't have any buses as nice as the one we were on. (And to think that this was a SECOND class Mexican bus.) We drove down two lane highway through miles and miles of jungle periodically passing thatched roof huts. The walls were vertical poles set close together. Windows and doors seldom had coverings of any sort. There were always dogs in the yards and often chickens or turkeys. It seems like we drove forever and then we stopped to let people off to visit Coba. We passed a couple of dogs lying in the middle of the highway and they just moved their feet so that they didn't get run over by the bus. They then lazily watched us drive by. From the Coba stop we drove to a small town that I think was called Chexmal. We dropped some people off and then took a turn around the square so we could go back out the same road. As we circled the square, I saw a man riding a tricycle (you know one of those rigs that have the big square area in front for hauling things?) Anyway he was carrying a good sized goat that was bleating away...he was not a happy camper. More and more jungle. After three and a half hours on the bus, we found ourselves in Valladolid. Chuco had told Alicia that we should stay at Hotel Zaci (pronounced Suzy). She remembered the location from previous stays and we walked the two or three blocks to the hotel. The staff spoke no English, so Alicia did the questioning for us. The room was 205 pesos/night. The girl gave us a room key and we walked into a room that hadn't been cleaned yet. We went back and explained the problem. We were given the key to room 115. This room was clean, but we had no towels. We had two double beds, dresser, night stand, TV, large closet, tiled bathroom with toilet, sink, and shower, and a ceiling fan (no a/c). It was a nice room for just over $20/night...split between us. On top of that, we were right by the pool. I was roasting by then, so I took a dip in the pool. I shared the pool with the only other English speaking family that I ran into in four days. They were from England. Other guests were from Mexico, Italy, Sweden, and Holland (I know, I asked!) Alicia sent me to ask for towels (No hay toallas.) The desk clerk sent a maintenance man with me to get us a couple of towels. They were pretty thin. They had no washcloths...toallas chicas. I was pleased with myself that I had been able to make myself understood. (Remember, my Spanish is extremely limited.) We then walked downtown to get our lunch. I was eager to try my first meal away from the touristy area. Alicia ordered a club sandwich (it's made with fried egg, ham, tomato, and avocado...I was surprised, Alicia wasn't). I ordered ONE enchilada suize. I asked if it had cebolla (onion) and he told me no, pollo. I thought chicken would be okay. I was very explicit that I only wanted one. Then I ordered some rice. When my order came, I had three corn tortillas with ham and American cheese rolled inside. On top was a very thin layer of mild green chile and two slices of American cheese. No chicken in evidence. It was the most American tasting meal I ate in Mexico. I was disappointed, but it was edible. When my rice came, they had it presented nicely. They had packed white rice into a cereal bowl and inverted it onto a plate. Around the rice was fried banana slices separated by peas. There was a roma tomato slice on top with peas in the middle and tomato slices on the side of the hill. It was pretty, but the rice sure looked bland. I was expecting brownish, red rice with seasonings cooked in. Surprise the rice was good. It wasn't plain. Maybe they cooked it with chicken broth or something, but it was tasty. Much better than the enchiladas. Oh well. Our bill was 81 pesos. Not bad...for two people. We walked around town for a while. Then we asked directions to Cenote Zaci. It was tres escinas, turn dereche, dos escinas, left una escina and there it is. (escina means corner) We passed almond trees, orange trees, tangerine trees, and of course a multitude of hibiscus and bougainvillea. I love the plants. We looked around at Cenote Zaci Restaurant, but we weren't hungry enough to eat. We watched the bats fly in and out of the cenote. It's a beautiful place. Back at Hotel Zaci, I sat poolside and wrote in my journal. Alicia hung out reading. A group of cute Italian guys came out to sit at a table and order tortes (sandwiches). They were playing cards and the cards were smaller than American cards. They had strange pictures on them and I didn't notice any numbers. After they were done eating and no longer playing cards I asked if I could see the cards. They were intriguing. I never have seen anything like them. I sure hated to give them back. We went to the plaza for the Sunday night fiesta. There was no dancing, but otherwise, it was much like Cozumel's Sunday night fiesta. I was amazed to watch teens walking with parents, daughters with their arms around their mothers' necks, holding hands, etc. There was so much more body contact within families than you would see stateside. It was obvious that the families are very close. You could also watch the teens scope each other out...and giggling girls are kinda universal. We listened to the music, people watched, and we headed back. I bought some peanuts (in the shell)and some pumpkin seeds (pepitas) for a couple of pesos. I didn't like the pepitas, but the peanuts were pretty good. Each one had three small dark-husked peanuts in them. Then I realized that they were Spanish peanuts. I had never seen them in their natural state...just in cans or bags with oil on them. Back at the room we crashed at 9:30 or so. It had been a long day. We lightly discussed what we might do in the morning, but this was a "wing-it" vacation. We decided to wait and see what we felt like when we woke up. Tomorrow-David, Ek Balam, and Rio Lagartos. Great day! David, Ek Balam, y Rio Lagartos We were up and on our way around 8. This wasn't a "check your
watch" trip. lol We decided to leave our belongings at the hotel, pay
for another night and do a "day trip". Day 4-Ep Tun, Dtzinup, and the looooong walk Got up early and paid for another night at Hotel Zaci. Then we walked the 2-3 blocks to the food court for breakfast. I had chicken tacos and Alicia had huevos mexicana. This was the first flour tortillas I'd had since I arrived. It was very good and my tacos and diet Coke were less than $5.00. Good deal.We walked to the bus station (6 blocks) and bought a ticket for tomorrow's departure. On our way, we passed David going in the other direction and he honked and waved. This time we got first class tickets and they were 84 pesos. Only about 30 pesos more. Then we walked back to town and looked for David. We couldn't find him, so we hired a different taxi to take us to Ep Tun. It was 20 pesos. Ep Tun is the small village where Chuco was born and raised. We were going to visit family. The cab driver took us right to their door. Ep Tun is a collection of Maya huts. Chuco's family lives in a hut of vertical poles with a palm thatched roof. They have three such huts hooked together with the front one having a concrete floor and the other two having dirt floors. In the front room was a color tv and a large jam box/stereo. Hammocks were strung in at least two of the rooms. Next door was a concrete tienda (store) that was owned by the family. One wall had wooden shelves with laundry soap, sugar, and that sort of thing. They had a refrigerator that contained cold drinks and we were each given a bottle of water. There was a tile shower in the back, but I saw no evidence of a bathroom. There was a pipe in the backyard with a faucet at the end and a garden hose leading into the house. Alicia was thrilled for them that they now had running water. When we arrived, the two girls (6 and 8) were washing clothes in a laundry tub next to the house. We struggled to communicate as mom only spoke Maya with a bit of Spanish. But the oldest boy helped us out. His Spanish was good. We got the grand tour and I took pictures of the pen full of turkeys and the pigs wallowing in the mud hole in the back. The piglets were so darned cute! She checked the chile plants to see if there were any chiles to send to Chuco, but none were ready yet. Eat plant was in a pot rather than in the ground. We wondered if it was to help control insects or weeds. The soil certainly looked good enough. Than Alicia asked if the kids could take us to the cenote. Mom had the kids put their sandals on before they left. The two oldest boys (10-12) and the two girls went with us. The two youngest boys stayed behind. We walked hand in hand into the jungle. We traveled down a path that allowed only single file. The jungle was dense and leaving the path would not have been easy. We disturbed a couple of sleeping bats that flew away. At first I thought that they were large black butterflies, but on second thought I settled on bats. I didn't get a good look at them, more of an impression than a look. We gave up holding hands as the trail became more rugged. Our hands were needed to move branches and help us over roots and rocks. The kids were much faster than we were and we struggled to keep up. Soon we came to the cenote. The path lead down and we had to be careful not to slip. We managed, but it was exercise. At the bottom, we faced a huge upward curving rock wall. On the left was an opening that looked like a well and indeed had water at the bottom...a long ways down. We watched bats...or was it birds...flying around the curve ceiling. The wall formed a wide C with us standing at the bottom edge and the jungle covering the opening of the C. I took a couple of pictures and we moved on to a "better view". Well the climb back up left me winded and embarrassed that the kids didn't seem fazed. Durn kids!! lol The "better view" was mostly tree tops and so we admired and went back. Leaving the jungle, we walked around a huge concrete church that looks like it was built in the 1500's or 1600's. I'm not a great historian, but It was an awesome structure. The gate was locked, so all we could do was walk around it and look. When we got back there was a huge pop (soda) truck in front of the tienda delivering pop. It looked so incongruous on that muddy road. We said our farewells and walked back toward the highway. At the highway (which was an excellent two lane highway)we headed toward Dtzinup (Zin oop'). We thought me might catch a cab at the jail. I bought a couple of hand crafted wallets from a vendor next to the jail, but no taxis. We continued down the side of the road in the blazing mid-day sun for about a mile. Do you realize how big tankers and tour buses are when they are less than a foot away from you...doing 60 mph? They get REAL BIG! I would step off the road into the scrub, hoping that nothing was living there that might take exception to me. I also didn't know if any of the plants should not be touched. That's when I looked down and noticed I had extremely muddy shoes...and legs from my venture into the jungle. Alicia had managed to keep her legs clean, but she had DIRTY SHOES...remember that, there's a test later. We walked about a mile and came to a cantina...with a taxi parked out front. We went in and ordered two Sols. I made a beeline for the bathroom to wash the mud off my legs. Alicia said, "If they have running water." They had a shower, toilet (no seat, but that's typical), sink, running water, AND soap...but no paper products whatsoever. So I washed and dripped my way back to the table. We were given our two beers, two glasses of ice, a basic of tortilla chips and five plates of botanas (snacks). We had sliced hot dogs in salsa (tasty), refried beans (good), mango pieces with lime juice and cayenne (tasty), pork chunks that were kind of orangish (ok), and shredded pork with chopped radish and cilantro (great). All that for two bucks. Can you believe it? We asked where we might find a cab and the waiter said, "Why there's one right at that table." But the taxi driver preferred to drink than to drive. So we finished our beers and much of the botanas and left...on foot. We walked another half mile to a mile down the road and we could see the sign for Dtzinup up ahead. That's when the cab honked and gave us a ride for 10 pesos. We were very thankful. It wasn't far to the sign, but it was a mile to a mile and a half back off the road to get to Dtzinup. By the way, Alicia got a bit of a sunburn (which quickly turned to tan) on that looooooooooooong hot walk. At Dtzinup we paid a peso each to use the bathroom, got our little swatch of toilet paper and also changed into our swimsuits in there. Then we went to the opening of Cenote X'keken. The stairs were carved out of rock and were wet and slippery. There was a large diameter nylon rope we could use as a hand rail. We climbed down into the cenote (sin oh' tay)carefully. We eached bumped our head once on the way. At the bottom of the stairs it opened into this huge cavern. Tree roots and stalagtites hung from the ceiling. There was a hole in the ceiling and the sun shone down onto the center of a freshwater pond. We deposited our belongings on a rock and walked over to the entrance to the pond. We both kept our glasses on so we could see what was going on...but I thought that if I lose my glasses in this pond, I'll bet the bottom is a loooooooong way down. We swam out to the sun spot and over the ropes to touch the stalagtites. The ropes are there to help people who don't swim well. The water was cool and refreshing and the cenote was spectacular. We ended up paying 40 pesos to get back to Valladolid. We thought that unjust. Only 20 pesos to come out, but 50 pesos to return and we WALKED part of the way! It was definitely a sellers' market. Back at the hotel we cleaned up as best we could and walked to Cenote Zaci Restaurant. We had been waiting three days to eat in this gorgeous place and we couldn't wait. We came in a side entrance and hestitated about sitting. But no one seemed to be seating people, so we seated ourselves in a recently vacated spot. It had a great view. Then we waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. I had seen waiters at all of the neighboring tables look at us, but none made eye contact. So Alicia went up to a man and asked (in Spanish) if there was a problem. We got a waiter and menus right away. We perused the menus and I chose my meal at least three different times. It was so hard to choose. Then we waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, we had to admit that we weren't going to be waited on. I took pictures of the cenote and we left. We spent a long time trying to figure out what we did to offend. Was it the wrong entrance? Was it that we seated ourselves? (No another family did and got their menus right away.) Was it because there was no man with us? I finally figured it out. IT WAS ALICIA'S DIRTY SHOES! lol That's it. I had spent 15-20 minutes cleaning my shoes and she had decided to buy new sandals instead. But her sandals felt like they would leave a blister after 12 blocks of walking so she wore her DIRTY SHOES! It's her fault. I know it is. Really though, I felt like an ugly American and I have no idea what we did that was so offensive. *sigh* Sure was a purty restrant tho'. We walked back into town...food court?...no not again. So we went to the Luz Hotel. They had a nice restaurant. We seated ourselves and right way a waiter said, "Hola." We knew we were in business. Alicia got a pork brochette which was really huge. I got a hamburger and a fruit plate. Well the hamburger came with homemade fries, so I ended up taking some of that fruit back with us. Portions were really large and the food was good. It was only 99 pesos for both meals...and the waiter was very nice. My hamburger came with cheese, mayo, tomato and onion on it. We walked back to the room and crashed. We were asleep by 10:00. back to top "Say you saw it on TravelNotes.cc!"
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