An early morning dip in the Cenote and then on the road to the ruins at Uxmal. A very smart entrance and proper shops and a hotel. Even a tour operator, Maya Adventures, who are using multi-coloured Land Rovers.
The entrance fee came as a shock. 480 Pesos per person. At other ruins we have paid around a maximum of 80 Pesos.
Once beyond the entrance gates there was no retail and the paths were well laid out and the signage was in English as well as Spanish. The ruins are impressive, but have been heavily restored.
Sadly the restoration is not of a very good standard in places. There is, however, more detail still intact here in terms of decorative carving and figures, compared to other sites.
The children were more entertained by the large number of iguanas of varying sizes. Last count 30.
We all agreed the site was disappointing, as far as the cost and poor quality restoration was concerned.
Our next destination was Costco in Merida. We had a look at fridges, but there was nothing remotely suitable. Stocking up with provisions again, we then proceeded to Walmart’s car park. Tim, Sarah and the children were overnighting there. Our choice was to book a hotel in the historic centre of Merida.
We had some fun and games with the Sat-Nav taking us to completely the wrong place, but eventually located the hotel. The city has a crazy system of numbered streets.
The front entrance to the car park was extremely low, but fortunately there was a rear entrance for larger vehicles. Dennis thought we could just squeeze into the under cover area. It was looking good, but there was a slight step up which meant the boxes on top of Poki caught on the roller door. We were well and truly stuck! What to do? Dennis hoped by letting down the tyres it would give us enough leeway to go back. I found a broom and managed to push the roller door up with this. Between us this provided enough space for us to reverse out, with only minor scrapes on the tops of the boxes. Phew! A hairy few minutes.
We retreated to our beautifully air conditioned room. With good wifi we managed to sort out a number of outstanding admin. issues and did some research into flying to Miami to get a new fridge or replacement compressor and to pick up some bicycle parts for Tim and Sarah.
As it was getting late we thought we had better go out and get some dinner. The place was buzzing. We were close to one of the main squares, Parque Santa Lucia. This was full of restaurants and entertainment. A dancing troupe, a guitarist and a juggler surrounded us as we tucked into our dinner. A late night for us, at around 11pm, but a lovely king size bed and a warm shower. Bliss!
Visits: 33