VALLEDOLID - The Lonely Planet guidebook mentioned that Piste (the town just outside of Chichen Itza) didn´t have much to offer.  It spent no more than three sentences on the 'underestimated town of Valladolid'.  It recommended another Hostel and said it was a nice colonial town, that´s about it.  We figured we´d try Valladolid for a few days and just catch a bus or taxi to Chichen Itza.

It should have been no suprise that at the bus station we ran into Catherine and her daughter again... they too were going to Valladolid so we spent some time chatting and exchanging emails etc.  Anna and Catherine traded the books they´d just read as well.  Catherine put it nicely when she said she made out better in the swap because Anna´s book had more pages... but that she lost because Anna´s book was also much heavier!  That cracked me up.  Oh, and it was at this bus station that I remembered most folks down here don´t believe in toilet seats.

So a couple dollars and a couple hours later we hit Valladolid.  We were going to the same Hostel as Catherine and Melanie so we walked together.  We checked prices at a couple of Hotels we passed and I was shocked to find them for 180 pesos (roughly 18 dollars)!!  Valladolid is a very cool town with very pretty streets of colorful buildings, so this surpised me.  We ultimately passed on the Hostel for a hotel room nearby at the same price, so we said goodbye to Catherine and her daughter.  Then we stopped at a fantastic little park for some iced coffee for Anna and an iced hot chocolate?? for me.  Here´s our hotel...



We stumbled upon the center of town and it was really really nice.  We were amazed at how much we liked this little out of the way town and joked about how little mention the guidebook gave it.  It was the best place we´d been to in Mexico!  We checked out the visitor´s center and found that they have some 'cenotes' (see-no-tays) nearby.  Cenotes are cool little sinkholes filled with water that are often completely underground.  There was one right in town!  It was partially exposed and also strangely had an associated zoo (if you could call it that).  This one was outside of town and had tree roots climbing down from up above.  Here´s what it looks like...



This is one of the animals that lived in the zoo.  I don´t know what the heck it is but it has a long flexible nose... and it´s very curious and very angry all at the same time so you´d best keep your hands and feet clear.



The second Cenote was completely underground and you can SWIM there.  Heck yeah, that´s what I´m talking about.  To get there you could take a taxi or better, hop in one of the many 'Collectivos' which are just shared vans, many of them older vw Kombis.  (another thing the states could learn from mexico).  We hopped in one and met Tracy and Ray, some very nice folks from San Diego.  They´d done a lot of travelling and Ray had been all around Guatemala so we had lots to talk about.  Back to the cenote... it was amazing.  Check out these shots... pardon any blurryness - we had to change the shutter speed to hold it open longer to collect more light, but that of course means you can´t move the camera.  Oh, and when we get back to Playamerica we´re going to go scuba diving in one of these things too.  I can´t wait.

 

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