The road then went through Campeche and Merida. From Merida we went to see the nature reserve at Celestun where we boarded a boat. The water is very shallow and there are plenty of Flamingos doing their thing there. I decided it was time to show them some skin and gave them the privilege of being a part of one of my world renowned feet shots.
After harassing the Flamingos for a while we kept going deeper into the Mangrove canals and we were expecting the indigenous population to come out of the green pointing their spears at us. Quite disappointingly none of this happened and we had to settle for a couple of birds.
Merida also provided us with a peek into local customs. Luckily this didn't involve any forms in triplicates or cavity searches - we just got to see some traditional dances. These included the ribbon dance and the ever popular "dancing with a bottle of beer on your head" dance.
A friendly bus driver then took us to Valladolid. Well, I don't really know if he was friendly or not. We paid the bus company, they presumably paid him, and he drove us there.
We found Valladolid to be a smallish town - they didn't even have a Burger King branch there.
Despite the lack of large American conglomerates we chose Valladolid as our base for exploration of the immediate area.
Our first destination was Chichen Itza - a famous Mayan site which was also chosen to be one of the new seven wonders of the world.
We wandered around the various temples, gigantic snake heads, columns, and skull-lined walls. Apparently the Indiana Jones set builders had based at least some of their work on real life.
That same evening we were strolling through the streets of Valladolid and happened upon a group of dancers performing traditional Aztec dances. They were dressed in colorful clothes and were brandishing impressive shields and feathered headgear.
The following day we decided to explore what is locally known as a cenote - "Cenotes are surface connections to subterranean water bodies" (wikipedia). As is almost always the case, the scientific definition falls short in terms of actually describing these dramatic underground lakes.
We left Valladolid with a heavy heart - we had only one day left before Guy had to go home. We got to spend this day in Cancun and were actually quite pleased we got to see this non-wonder of the world.
Our arrival at Cancun also meant that both of my travel buddies would now be gone - It's been a great run guys! Thanks for sharing these experiences with me, carrying my bag when my back was out, letting me sleep on the better bed when my butt was out, and generally putting up with me.
And so now, quite literally, rakanikan...
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