Happy new year! I am officially in 2018 now. I was going to write this last night but I was falling asleep sitting upright. The last few days have been pretty full on so I have called it quits for the day and been hiding out in my room since about 7.30pm. We have an uneven number of girls on the tour which means that someone is always going to be getting their own room. For new years eve and tonight that was me. Can't complain. It is actually really nice to have a few days to acclimatise without having to share the bathroom with someone else. On the subject of bathrooms... they are like Greece where they don't really want you putting toilet paper down the loo, so there is a bucket beside. It also means that there is little space in the u-bend if you get my meaning. What a way to get to know one another witha shared bathroom haha.
We left Playa del Carmen at 7am and headed off to Merida. The temperature topped out at 31 degrees and the air was thick enough to walk through and feel it. We stopped on the way fown to Merida at Chichen Itza, the huge Mayan temple. It was amazing. The size of the structure was mind blowing. We were told that the Mayans used to move away from their city every 50 years as they believed that life ended and was destroyed by the gods evey 50 years. When they realised that they world hadn't ended, they would return and build more, bigger temples to thank the gods for giving them extra life (another 50 years). I saw a few temples including the nunnery, and the observatory. I also got to see the ball field where they played a game that involved two teams for 7 whose job it was to get the ball (3kgs) into a hoop high up on the wall. Whichever team got the first goal won the game. They had to wear padding and helmets as you can imagine what it would be like to be hit with a 3 kg ball at full swing. The winning team's captain was beheaded at the end of the game too. It was supposed to be a great honour to be sacrificed to the gods, and they only ever did it in bad times. In really bad times they would make a lot of sacrifices, especially warriors and athletes as they had strong hearts and the heart was most important as it carries the blood around the body - what a great thing to sacrifice to the gods.
It was so hot that I sort of switched off at that point and was happy just wandering from shade point to shade point, looking at all the amazing art and buildings and massive iguana that lazed about.
When we had arrived at Chichen Itza it was fairly quiet but when we left it was heaving.
We left at midday, back into the air conditioning and headed off to Merida once more. Once there we checked in and I got my own room, there was bit of down time. The single room will rotate every city we visit, so I am making the most of it while I have it.
A bunch of us went for a walk and I did a mission to find an ATM. Mexicans mostly use Pesos not dollars so I needed to change $ and get out more pesos. By that stage I was a walking pile of sweat so headed back to the hotel for a swim in the pool. It was freezing and I lasted all of a 10 minutes it did the trick. I was much cooler.
As a group we did a walk around the centre of Merida. It is the only city to be constantly occupied by someone. It used to have a temple but the Spaniards tore them down and built churches that doubled as forts with gun slits along the exterior to stave of the Mayans who were less than happy about the invading hoardes tearing down their temples and killing them off. There is also a massive crest in the middle of the church exterior, a stamp by the Spanish to say this is ours.
New years eve involved dinner out with some of the group first. We all bought alcohol and met up on top of the hotel on the roof where we drank and laughed and chatted until 10.45, at which point we headed out to a courtyard with a live band. We had to pay for entrance but it was fun enough. They handed out bags of hats, flashing glasses, hooters etc just before midnight for people to wear. Hence my paper hat. The band played Mexican music and they have a custom that you are supposed to eat 12 grapes at midnight. I ate two. I would like to point out that I had had 4 tequila shots and a beer so was not all that keen on eating grapes. I was fine, by the way. A bit tipsy but not drunk. We had a bit of a dance but some of us were keen for bed. After two nights of about 4 hours sleep I was done in. We headed back to the hotel and I was out for the count.
Today we had a late start but unanimous vote. We left at 11am to go to see the cenotes (say-no-tays). They are basically huge holes that are filled with water. The first one was on the open. You could jump off the ledge at the top (10m) or further down or go all the way to the bottom. I wasn't all that keen to swim in it. It was a steep ladder/set of sets down. While the others swam, me and another girl, and our guide, bought a HUGE bottle of beer to share. It went straight to my head but it was just what was needed. By the way, Victoria beer is the local beer and it is YUM! Light like Corona or Sol.
At the second cenote it was raining. I plucked up the courage, stripped off to my togs and headed over to the cenote. This one was in a cave so you went down some steps and then got into the water. It was rocky under the water and those who know me well, know how much that terrifies me but I put my big girl pants on and got in. It was amazing. The water was petrol blue and clear. There were staglamites and stalamites (don't know which is which) growing on the ceiling and the floor of the cave. The ones hanging of the ceiling looked like wilting flowers and ant hills. After about 15 minutes my nerves got the better of me and I had to get out.
Dried, dressed and back in the van we all headed off. Back to Merida and to the end day three. Have to get up early again tomorrow, so off to bed now.
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