one of the villas by the cenote
the cenote
Well we went to Chichen Itza on the fourth day in Mexico. We decided on a tour since Randy and Michele weren't going there (they have been a few years ago) and we didn't want to have to drive that far. So we met our driver, Mario aka Casanova and Mario Andretti (and let me tell you he was the epitome of that!) He spoke english, but limited. He was quite entertaining, I only wish that i had taken a pic. Anyway John and I were the first of 12 people to be picked up, which has it's advantages and disadvantages. The up side was we got our pick of where to sit, but the down side was that we had to drive all over and wait for all the others to be picked up. Some people we sat and waited for 20 minutes or so which was not pleasant. So by the time we actually got on the road we had been in the van for about 2 hours already!!! Anyway, at first Mario introduced himself as Ricardo Martinez and then he said that in English he is Ricky Martin !!! It was pretty funny. Over half of the people in the van spoke spanish, but luckily there was a guy from England near us that we talked to quite a bit. His name was Bruce and he and John had a lot of good conversations. Unfortunately, Mario, aka Ricky Martin kept his music up a tad too loud for easy conversations... a few times i just wanted to yell "turn down the music!!" He got us there in pretty good time, because he drove like Mario Andretti. Unfortunately one of the other van drivers in our caravan of vans (who must have been his boss or superior) told him to slow down and from then on he drove too slow :( it was sad. Well anyway we made it to Chichen Itza and started our tour, but about 20- 30 minutes into it John was about stir crazy because our guide would just ramble on and on about things that weren't interesting and stay at a place with out moving for like 15, 20 minutes. Finally John couldn't take it anymore and we broke away from the group, which i am glad because it was quite boring. Plus we only had a limited amount of time there and we wanted to see it all... so we ran off to see the sights ourselves and it was a lot more fun! The pyramid was awesome, but they don't allow you to climb that one anymore. Apparently an old lady had a heart attack on it a few years ago and fell and died. After Chichen Itza they took us to a lunch buffet and then to a cenote for swimming. We didn't end up swimming because there wasn't much time and we didn't bring any towels so we walked around the grounds by the cenote. There was a nice little resort type place, with villas to stay in, and a restaurant to eat at, an expensive little souvenir shop, and pretty foliage all around. After that, we made another stop in a town called Valladolid. It's an old town with Spanish colonial architecture. I could have lived with out that stop, and so could our driver since he kind of got in trouble with the police there for parking in the wrong place or parking too long... i don't really know since it was all in spanish. And when we asked him about it he said something about the police being corrupt there (which i have heard a lot about that in Mexico) Anyway John said he saw Mario pay the police off... i didn't see that but i know he was in a hurry to get out of there quick. So finally we were headed back home, but of course we were the last to be dropped off ... so all told we were gone for 14 1/2 hours that day. We were worn out, but had good time.
0 fabulous comments:
Post a Comment