After checking out the huge Hacienda and meeting its inhabitants over breakfast, including donkeys in the backyard, turkey vultures nesting on the chimney (the Hacienda was a sugar factory in its former life in the 1800’s) and the tame Amazonian parrots, we head into Merida to check out the city. It’s a bustling and chaotic town built around a central plaza, filled with locals going about their business oblivious to the few tourists here. Massive downpours soon have us fleeing into the huge local market where even covered walkways soon become streams as the streets outside flow like rivers. It’ all a bit of fun as the 4 gringos scurry around town in colourful rain ponchos leaving any pretence of blending in well behind. The downpours stop long enough for us to make our way to the museum of modern art which is housed in a colossal colonial house and features some excellent work of artists from the Yucatan peninsula. Next door we pop our heads in to the equally grand cathedral before retreating to a couple of bars, first for coffee and then onto some stronger margaritas. More margaritas and cervezas to accompany our burritos and fajitas round out the day at a little restaurant I recalled visiting when I was here 6 years ago.
On Friday we hire a car and drive out into the countryside through potholed roads and tiny villages in search of cenotes. There are over 2000 cenotes in the Yucatan peninsula, caves of various shapes and sizes, some covered and some open to the elements, that have filled with rain water. To get to the particular cenotes we have chosen involves stopping in a small village and jumping aboard a tiny, horse drawn rail cart that delivers us to 3 caves about 20 minutes apart, where we climb down and swim in pristine waters. More torrential rainfall in the afternoon stops us from climbing all over the ancient Toltec ruins of Uxmal but we make up for it with our very thorough visit to the restaurant at the gates!
On Saturday we load up the car and head to the Mayan / Toltec ruins of Chichen Itza (one of the seven wonders of the ancient world). An early start means we beat most of the tourist busses from Cancun but not quite the downpours (which have been a feature of the trip since Ron and Rosemary arrived .... hmmmm) which catch us as we are leaving. A magnificent lunch in the nearby town of Valladoid, where the food is very different in terms of ingredients and flavours from anything else we’ve had in Mexico, and then a fleeting visit to the more remote ruins of Ek Balaam. I make the mistake of not agreeing to pay the 10 year old “gangster” in the car park a small fee for “keeping an eye on the car” and pay for it when we return to find the car with a flat tyre and him smirking close by. This leaves us cutting it fine to get to the airport in Cancun for our flight to Cuba if I’m to adhere to the overly cautious warning not to travel faster than 80km /hr on the spare. Thankfully all goes well as I’m forced to go closer to double that speed in somewhat wet conditions :) It’s around midnight when we finally touchdown in Cuba and, after passing the obligatory massive Che Guevara image adorning the side of a 6 storey block of apartments, we settle in to the impressively adorned but age-weary Hotel Sevilla in the middle of Havana.
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