Near Valladolid (day 2)

Tuesday December 23…9.:30pm

We slept well here at the Suytun de Mendoza cenote. But Phillipe’s 9 children get up around 6am, and with 9 children, there is bound to be a little noise. So we were up early as well.

The highway outside this place is very busy. It is the main free road between Merida and Cancun, and many people will take this road because the toll road going the same route is very expensive. Fortunately, there is a bicycle path beside the road and it runs the whole 6 km’s into the small city of Valladolid. So Ruth and I road our bikes into town today. S&G took a taxi there, which cost 10 pesos ($0.95 CAN, $0.76 US). It cost them 20 pesos to get back later in the day.

Men working on the downtwon streets in Valladolid

A barber shop in Valladolid

Mayan women selling their traditional clothing and goods in the downtown plaza

Ruth and I stopped at the cenote in the city. There are approximately 1,000 cenotes on the Yucatan Peninsula. These small cave and water systems are how the water flows on the Yucatan because it is all limestone and there are no rivers here. Many of the cenotes have underground caves that interconnect, and so they are popular with snorkellers and divers.

We then found an internet café and updated things for an hour. We bumped into S&G and had lunch near the square. There were quite a few locals eating at the spot we decided on, so we thought it must be good, but we were wrong! We had hamburguesas, but they weren’t even made with hamburger…it was some kind of breaded chicken or something. Not very good.

We bought a 100 pesos ($9.50 CAN, $7.60 US) long distance phone card. This doesn’t last very long because the wired telephone system in Mexico is very expensive for long distance. We almost bought our own Mexican cell phone, because if we used long distance a lot, it would end up being cheaper. Anyhow, with the phone card, it works out to about $0.40 CAN per minute to call Canada.

We rode our bikes back to the cenote where we are parked. We had done 18 km’s on the bikes. We were hot and so it was very refreshing to go for a swim in the cool waters of the cenote. Then, we took Whiskey for a walk into the nearby village of Ticuch. The children smile and laugh at us, but we can’t figure out if they’re laughing at my skinny white legs, or because Whiskey is a different looking dog and she’s on a collar and leash, which is not seen very often. The vast majority of dogs are running loose. And the majority of men wear long pants despite the heat, so they’re probably laughing at me!

Swimming in our cenote

In our cenote

Lianna and her brother, Jose Armando

We had a lot of exercise today, so we’re heading to bed early. Besides, we know we’ll be woken up by 6am.

Total nights sleeping in a motorhome…426

December Fuel $323.00 CAN

December Grocery $222.70 CAN

December Overnight costs $103.95 CAN