Puppies and ruins

The road out front of the Yax-Ha Trailer Park here in Calderitas has a nice bike friendly section that goes north of here. One bit branches off to go to the Oxtankah Mayan ruins. So we went for a nice bike ride with with Michel and Louise yesterday to go check them out. It was 6.2 kms (3.8 miles) each way.

Ruth and I had been there nine years ago, so it was interesting to see what has changed.

It's an oil change... how tough can it be?

Another perfect day here in Chetumal. What a beautiful campground this is, despite the lack of RV services.

One of the problems with traveling in this part of Mexico is that many of the campgrounds don't have the type of hookups that many RV'ers would be used to in Canada or the United States. For boondockers like us, it's simply not an issue. We don't even think about needing to be hooked up.

Mexico RV Caravan Travel Day - Paamul to Chetumal

This is the second blog post for today... in case you missed it, you can visit the first one here...

Our visit to Xcaret

We had arrived back at Paamul RV Park at about 10:00pm Thursday night, and we had an 8:00am Friday morning start for our scheduled travel day to Chetumal. So there simply wasn't time to sort through the days photos and write a long blog post.

Visit to Xcaret theme park near Playa del Carmen, Mexico

On Thursday, we arranged a couple of vans to take us to the Xcaret theme park just south of Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Going to an amusement park is not something we would normally do in Mexico, but since it was one of the included tours with the RV caravan we are leading, we figured we might as well go and enjoy the experience. And ultimately, we did enjoy it.

Xcaret is a little different than your typical Disney style experience. There are no "rides" as such. Well, except for a small boat tour on a short narrow river. And everything is themed Mayan, or Mexican.

We decided we needed some exercise

Just a bit of a relax day yesterday, although we did mange to get out and about a little bit.

Most of the Mexico RV caravan group has learned that Ruth used to be a hair stylist, so it's been convenient for them, and some pocket money for us. She had two haircuts scheduled for this morning.

The most expensive RV Park in Mexico

Other than a bike ride to get to an ATM, we stayed here at the "gated" expat community of Paamul yesterday.

We knew what we were getting in to, because we've stayed at two similar RV parks before... one in Cabo San Lucas way back in 2008, and a couple of times at the Diamonte Trailer Park south of Acapulco because it is conveniently close to Acapulco airport.

While some people love the area, it's not our style

We were on the road at 9:00am yesterday morning, but it turned out that we would have felt a lot less rushed if we would have started at 8:00am. We only had 204 kms (126 miles) to drive, but we wanted to stop at another cenote for a swim, and we had to do a fuel stop, a grocery stop, and make our way through the now very busy community of Playa del Carmen.

Oh, and to top it all off, we lost an hour due to time change!

The ruins at Chichen Itza, and cenote swim

A bunch of taxis arrived just before 8:00am yesterday to take the group of us to the Chichen Itza archaeological site located less than two kilometers away.

Ruth and I were here in December of 2008, but at the time I stayed in the motorhome with our dog and Ruth went in to see the ruins with our friends Glen and Steve. We had seen a lot of ruins by this point, and Chichen Itza is one of the more developed sites, and with lots and lots of Cancun tourists.

Mexico RV Caravan Travel Day... Merida to Chichen Itza

Ready to depart from the Rainbow Maya RV Park in Merida right on schedule at 9:00am. Never a problem getting this group organized on time. Onto the Merida periferico (ring road), and headed east towards Cancun.

We don't actually go to Cancun. There are no RV Parks up that way that are suitable for a caravan.  Along the way though, is the tourist infested ruins of Chichen Itza.

At the Rainbow Maya RV Park

Ruth and I decided we needed a relax day yesterday. Some of the group took off to Celestun to see the flamingos. Others went to Progresso to mingle with the cruise ship passengers. Well, I'm sure that's not why they went there, but when there's a cruise ship in port I expect that's what you would be doing.

One of the guys said he stopped in a restaurant/bar to have a beer, and they wanted 50 pesos. Yikes. Normal price for a beer in bar in Mexico is between 20 and 30 pesos. So far, the Yucatan area is a bit pricier than the rest of Mexico. We'll reserve judgement for another couple of weeks, but I think when we design our own RV caravan tour route for the winter of 2019-2020, it's not going to include the Yucatan Peninsula at all.

Everybody loves a parade! The beginning of Carnaval in Merida...

Our tour guide and bus arrived to pick everybody up from the Rainbow Trailer Park in Merida. The bus was partly open air... so it definitely makes it better for trying to take pictures, although it's always tough to get decent pictures from a moving bus.

Merida is a big city... population of about 1 million people now. And it's a hot city... the average daytime high is around 31C (88F) in the winter, and 35C (95F) during the summer. We like warm, but  on an every day basis that's too hot for us!

We made it to the hot and busy city of Merida.

On the road right on schedule for our 9:00am departure for the drive from the Uxmal archaeological site to the northern limits of the city of Merida. Only an 89 km (55 mile) drive, and we planned on stopping half way at the Yaxcopoil Hacienda.

The hacienda dates back to the 17th century, and it is privately owned. Seems to be a bit of a work in progress as there is some discrepancy between what the website advertises and what is actually there.

Mayan ruins and chocolate!

Everybody was ready to go for our 8:00am tour of the Uxmal ruins.

Ruth and I were here in December of 2008. At that time, it cost 48 pesos which with the exchange rate then, it was ($4.50 CAN $3.65 US).

Now, you have to buy two tickets. As I understood it, one is for the state, and one is federal. The total entrance fees are now 234 pesos ($15.90 CAD, $12.75 USD).

Made it to Yucatan!

Our group crossed the border from the state of Campeche to the state of Yucatan yesterday. This caravan tour was billed as the "Yucatan RV Caravan Tour" because we spend a fair bit of time on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, however that peninsula is actually made up of three Mexican states... Campeche, Yucatan, and Quintana Roo.

We had a 9:00am departure from the Kin-Ha Balneario in Campeche. Only a planned 160 km (100 mile) driving day, so with one fuel stop we would easily make it there by noon.

Wandering around the streets of Campeche

Yesterday was a day off. The group spirits have definitely improved along with the weather, and the hectic pace of the first two weeks is forgotten. There are still a couple of people who are not feeling 100%, but I suppose when you have 24 people together there is bound to be always 1 or 2 who are a little under the weather.

Most people used the off day to return to the Campeche city center and do some more exploring.