Adios Mexico!

Today is our last day in Mexico and brings to an end our time in the first of the thirteen countries we are visiting. I am going to miss Mexico because I have really enjoyed my time here but I am also looking forward to visiting a new country. I thought I might do a little review of each country I visit as I travel through them with a few of my favourite things and not so favourite things mentioned. Here goes my Mexico review...
Favourite Memories;
+ Visiting all the amazing Mayan ruins. I have wanted to do that since I was in primary school so it has been a dream come true.
+ Seeing, and staying in the city of Valladolid. It was exactly what I thought Mexico would be like with the music, people, buildings and food. The attached photo is from my favourite meal in Mexico, eaten in Valladolid. They are called quesadillas.
+ Sending a package home from Merida. This might sound pretty dull but when the people in the Post Office speak no English and we speak very poor Spanish it made for quite an interesting and fun experience. Our box ended up having 30 stamps literally PVA-glued on to it and we have no idea if it will ever make it back!
Not So Favourite Memories;
- Getting ill. Obviously.
- Travelling to a local Mexican Premier League football game and finding out there are no tickets left. Gutted! I still have plans to watch some live football in other countries though that I hope are more successful.
This afternoon we leave for Peru and have a connecting flight. That means we land at another airport before we get to Peru and change planes to get on one going to where we want to go. This obviously increases the chances of our luggage getting lost so fingers crossed that on my next entry I am still in possession of all my belongings!

Being Ill!

Well it's happened, I was hoping my first sick day would come later in the trip but no I spent a Friday night in Mexico being very poorly indeed.
We have traced the source back to a Magnum Ice Cream, of all things, that I had earlier in the day (I'll certainly be steering clear of those for a while)!
Unfortunately sick days are just part of travelling but, luckily, today just consists of our 4 hour bus journey back to Cancun so nothing too tricky. I have just to make sure I drink lots of water and keep plodding on.

Our Latest Hostel

You said before I left you wanted to know some of the more gross news from my travels so here's some for you:
Our hostel in Merida is in a beautiful old building with high ceilings, tall shutters in the room leading to a balcony etc but then...there's the bathroom!
As with most hostels it's a communal bathroom which means all the guests share the same one. Here there are a few toilet cubicles (Which have a curtain instead of a door. Imagine that at school!) and a few shower cubicles in one room. The thing is the toilets smell pretty bad but what's worse is that the showers smell like toilets that smell REALLY bad! Have made a decision to skip showers for a couple of days. Bring back that funny looking shower head in Valladolid any day!

Merida & The Mexican Way Of Life

Arrived in Merida yesterday, the last place we will visit before heading back to Cancun for the weekend and then flying down to Peru on Monday. Merida seems like a wonderful city full of old buildings and we are going to go out and about today.
One of the things I have really noticed about Mexico is the way of life here; In both Valladolid and Merida the central squares of each city have been full of people every night. There are young and old couple, families with little children and groups of friends of all ages that sit around on benches talking to each other for hours. They aren't making lots of noise or getting in each others faces they are just chatting, sharing jokes and everyone seems so happy and relaxed. I'm a little bit jealous because I can't think of many places in England where that would happen every night the weather is nice. The picture on this entry is the central square of Merida which I took this morning. It easily has over 300 places to sit and last night there couldn't have been more than 30 empty seats at any one time!

Can You See What I See?

Today we visited Ek Balam. Can you spot the large Mayan construction that has yet to be excavated in amongst the jungle?

Shower

Not quite sure this shower head in our Valladolid hostel would get rave reviews in England (Especially with that electric light precariously above it!). It looks a little bit fluffy and a little bit hard at the same time but it does the job of providing a refreshing shower so no complaints from me!

Chichen Itza

Hola all, I am really geeking out on all the Mayan stuff in Mexico. Today we visited Chichen Itza, the most famous of all the Mayan sites. It was incredible and apart from the famous 'El Castillo' (The Castle) pyramid in the photo the huge site had loads of different ruins including 'The Temple of 1000 Columns', the stone hoops on walls that are early origins of basketball and an important cenota (Large water filled hole in the ground) that people were sacrificed and thrown into.
We have also moved from Cancun for a few days and are currently staying in Valladolid. This place is much more like the Mexico I expected to see with music playing, busy streets and old, plastered colourful buildings. I can't wait to do some more exploring in the next few days and tuck in to traditional burritos, tacos and fajitas etc.
Did You Know?: The steps on 'El Castillo' plus the platform on the top adds up to exactly 365. The same amount of days in a year! This isn't a coincidence as the Mayans had worked out, by mapping the sun, that there were 365 days in a year and this was an important part of their religion. Clever eh?

Tulum

What a day! Today I got to do something I have always wanted to do since I learnt about the Mayans at school...visit REAL Mayan ruins at Tulum.
Tulum means 'Wall' because the site is protected by, you guessed it, a big wall. We queued up for ages in the 30+ degree sunshine before we finally got in and it was absolutely amazing! The site is on the side of a cliff and you can see the ruins standing there in front of the turquoise sea behind. It's rarer than most sites because it is by the sea and lots of the remaining Mayan ruins are deeper into the jungle but it was an important place for trading up and down the coastline. It was also interesting to not only see pelicans flying around and diving into the water for fish but also the dozens of wild iguanas wandering around the site, some were huge!
Unfortunately I can't attach any pictures as we took our camera not my phone and we haven't got a computer we can use to upload the photos. You will have to find pictures of the site on the internet, see if you can find any of the building with huge stone faces carved into its corners.
Did You Know?
In one of Tulum's Temples there is one small window above the doorway that only gets direct sunshine through it one day a year. That day is 21st December which is also the last day of the Mayan year by our calendar and it was built to do this on purpose!

Crocs About

In wildlife news, when I head out I'm going to be on my guard a bit more. Have spotted lots of signs warning people to be aware of crocodiles in the lagoon over the road from our hotel! Got to make sure that when popping out for some food I don't actually become food!