Feb 27, 2013

 Ann didn't get much time for rest, we had her up at 5:30 a.m. for a tour of Chichen Itza, Samula Cenote, a stop at Uayma to visit to it’s Franciscan church and a stop at Valladolid. It was a full day, we did not arrive back at our condo until 6:30 in the evening.

This is the web site for Ecab Explorer tours:   http://www.ecabexplorer.com/html_en/tours_chichen_itza.php

We arrived at Chichen Itza at about 10:30 to begin our tour. Eric of  Ecab Explorer tours has the tour start early for two reasons; a) we are ahead of the rush of people coming at noon and b) the day is cooler.

Our guide was very knowledgeable and spoke English very well.

The sky was overcast and the air was quite humid. I had perspiration dripping off my elbows!! Thank goodness we had lots of water to drink and the sun wasn't out to make it hotter.

 To learn more of the history of Chichen Itza check out this site and others:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chichen_Itza

There are still places on the structures showing the original colours painted over 1000 years ago - these colours came from the petals and leaves of plants.

Excavation is still being done by archaeologists

A typical Mayan home, there are still several of these being used throughout the Yucatan

Two Mayan women preformed a dance for us during our

lunch at the Best Western Hotel in Chichen Itza

Artwork in the hotel entrance

This is the Samula Cenote

The climb down was easy - the climb back up is a little more strenuous

some of our travelling companions took the opportunity for a cool dip

Foliage outside the cenote

The Catholic Church in Uayma

The Catholic Church in Valladolid

Church Alter

a mannequin in a sealed glass case representing Christ in the tomb before His resurrection.

 

Anyone want to go for a ride?

Pictures showing the Spanish design of the buildings in Valladolid



Another view of the cathedral in Vallodalid

Following our time in Valladolid we returned  to Puerto Morelos. There was no appetite for dinner tonight so we came to our condo and ate some of our leftovers from last night, had some cervezas and went to bed.

Night All!!

Feb 26, 2012

This is the last day for Clinton, Leigh and the kids -

they fly out tonight at 8:40 p.m.on Air Canada.

While the rest slept Clinton joined Allan and I for his

last morning walk on the beach for this year.

When our walk was completed we returned to the Cabanas and

picked up the rest of the family and went for breakfast

Ava and Jed's favourite breakfast place is La Pirata

(because of the french toast!)

They played in the park for a while,

then went to the Mayan Handicraft Market to pick up their polished sea beans and play with  Blackie the cat. This is a very interesting cat, she is about 2 years old now, but as a kitten she spent all of her nap time in a hammock. To this day she loves to sit in one - if you come along to buy a hammock from her owner and you sit in the hammock to try it out she will jump up on your lap and lay down to go to sleep.

Ann M arrived today - Allan and I took the ADO bus up to the airport, when she arrived we brought the bus back to Puerto Morelos. This is the first we have used the ADO for transportation from the airport.

Ann flew out of Sudbury this morning so had to be up and ready to be picked up by the taxi at 4:30 a.m., she flew to Toronto where she had a short lay over then caught her connecting flight to Cancun, arriving just be for 1:00 this afternoon.

Although she was tired she did join us for dinner at Les Palmers

The chef must have had lots of food to get used up because we got mega

sized orders - lots of leftovers for tomorrow.

 

Ava found a pet Croc

Oh my! What long faces! They are now awaiting the arrival of their taxi to take them to the airport. They gotta go back to Canada  tonight!!

The taxi arrived at 6:30 to take them to the airport - it was pouring rain!! As luck happened I had rain gear for them to wear from the Cabanas to the taxi but they probably got quite wet getting from the taxi to inside the airport. Their flight was 2 hours and 13 minutes delayed due to mechanical issues.