After two languid days in Valladolid, it is time to move on again. We rise early and eat our breakfast of huevos rancheros under the shade of the trees in the little garden out the back of the shop. Then we hit the speed bump filled road to Chichen Itza, hoping to arrive early enough to beat the crowds of tour groups that descend on the site in the late morning.
There are a handful of tourists wandering around the site when we arrive, but it is quiet enough for us to take photos of the ruins without anyone getting in the way. On the recommendation of Susanna from Coqui Coqui, we hire a guide to show us around. Most of what he tells us, we later discover, is nonsense, but it is entertaining nonetheless.
(As a case in point he tells us that the reason that no one is allowed to climb the ruins is because 5 oversized American tourists rolled down to their deaths a few years ago, even though my subsequent internet research proves that this was not exactly what happened. Still, even though he couldn’t get something from 2006 right, I’m sure his comments on things that happened thousands of years ago are just fine…)
After a pleasant few hours wandering the site, we jump back in the car, grab a quick lunch of salbutes in the nearby town of Pisté and hit the road across the Yucatan to the colonial town of Mérida.