The plush bus to Valladolid left bang on time from the ADO terminal in Cancun.  It was a pleasant way to travel, albeit the scenery was very dull once we left the city limits as the highway was flanked by dense trees pretty much along its entire length.

Two hours later we reached the town of Valladolid which was to be our base for visiting the ruins at Ek Balaam.  What a contrast to the blandness of Cancun.  This place had lots of old colonial town charm, with quiet streets, old churches and convents, and a large attractive plaza filled with trees and benches in the centre of town. 

Our accommodation was in a very small guest house, Casa Palagui Colonial, a short walk from the centre.  The room was more like a small apartment with an adequate kitchen and dining area, however its outstanding feature was that it was crammed with Mexican kitsch and everything was covered in flower themed decoration including a matching toilet seat, cistern and toilet roll cover!  We also had our own table and seats on the covered area facing the beautiful garden where an enormous breakfast was served each morning.

Our hosts, Alan and his mum and dad, recommended a restaurant which was so good we ate there for all 3 nights of our stay.  It was in a lovely large garden at the back of a small museum so we doubted we would have found it by ourselves.  The food was fantastic but the added bonus was discovering the excellent Margaritas with chilli and salt rimmed glasses for just 79 pesos (approx. £2.80).

The ruins at Ek Balaam were a half hour taxi ride away and made a pleasant afternoon trip.  The site is surrounded by trees and wilderness so is relatively calm and peaceful and you can climb up to the top of the main pyramid, something which is not possible at most other sites.  It looked an easy climb but it was incredibly steep coming down!

On our last night just before we set off for dinner, Yolande from Holland checked into the room next door.  We realised later that night that we should have asked if she wanted to join us rather than eat on her own.  We shouldn’t have worried at all as it turned out that she had already arranged to meet Frank from Canada using Tinder for her dinner date in town!  Her sightseeing the next day was a cycle tour with Frank and the next day would be a visit to Chichen Itza as he had a motorbike.  As Yolande cheerfully said, it’s company while I’m travelling and there’s no commitment.  The best bit?  She was 50 and loving her independent life as her well paid freelance job allowed her to take plenty of time off for travel.

Next morning it was back to the bus station to take a second class bus to Piste, the small town near to Chichen Itza.  Second class buses are air conditioned, clean & comfortable but don’t have an on board toilet or assigned bookable seats.  They also tend to stop in most villages along the way so are generally a slower way to travel. 2-3hrs on second class is about the maximum providing you don’t drink too much water – not a good idea to get to your destination desperate for a pee and not knowing where the nearest loo is.

We checked into Casa de la Luna and our first impressions weren’t great.  Piste is a small village whose primary purpose is to service the tourists who stay the night in order to hit the site early and avoid the arrival of the tour bus hordes.  We booked a balance between price and facilities knowing that whatever we booked, cheap or pricey, it wouldn’t be great.  It grew on us very quickly, the room was comfortable with a very large bed but it didn’t have a fridge.  ‘Oh dear, how was Neil going to keep his beer cold’?  No problem, there was an 24×7 OXXO (convenience store) right next door, perfect.

We came here to visit Chichen Itza, a large Mayan archaeological site, which was just a 25 minute walk away.  Later in the afternoon we took the walk to the visitor centre and entrance to find out where to get tickets so we could be near the front of the queue when the site opened at 8am next morning.  Job done, beer o’clock then next door to the hotel with a large pizza oven and not bad margaritas.  Pizza wouldn’t have been our first choice but as this was touristville we thought that something straight out of an oven was going to be safe to eat.  It was enormous but not bad after we asked for it to go back in the oven for a second time to get it crispy.

Early next morning we set off for Chichen Itza.  Mission accomplished – at 7.30am we were second in the queue behind a tour guide who was there to get tickets for his punters.  We bought some packaged cheese & ham sandwiches from the OXXO for breakfast and thought we would eat them in the park.  Tickets in hand we lined up for the temperature check and turnstiles only to be turned away after the bag check – Na, no food allowed!  So having been front of the queue we now had to quickly scoff the butties before they would let us in.  Casa de la Luna didn’t offer breakfast but provided free coffee and cake for those wanting to get to the park early so we took our cake with the same idea of eating it later the park.  Neil had the crafty idea of hiding the cake under his hat and strolled back through the turnstiles so we could get into the park asap!

It is a big site with so many things to see but the main focus is a huge pyramid.  There are lots of other ruins, a plaza where you could imagine small businesses trading and haggling for fruit, vegetable and meat plus a humungous ball court which is a feature of most Mayan sites.  Here a ball game between 2 teams was played, without the use of hands, just any other part of the anatomy, with the idea of scoring ‘goals’ through a stone hoop 5m’sh in the air.  Now the best bit, the losing captain and possibly his team were sacrificed, probably by decapitation.  Not quite Quidditch but the end result far more interesting!

As we discovered strolling through the site and looking at the various buildings and platforms, the Mayans were a blood thirsty lot and regularly carried out human sacrifices, probably to keep the minions in order.  There were several depictions of Jaguars and Eagles feasting on human hearts and lots of skulls adorning the platforms.  

We left about 11.30am just as the tour buses were arriving and it was starting to get busy and hot.  Sightseeing done we walked back to the accommodation via OXXO for a cold beer.  That evening we decided on pizza again this time showing the waiter that we wanted it ‘casi incinerado’.  It worked, almost cremated gave us a delicious and enormous pizza which we could only manage to eat about a third.  The waiter provided some foil, so we took the rest and split it between breakfast before boarding the bus to Merida, and lunch on the bus.  We love it when a plan comes together.