We woke up early yesterday and headed to the meeting point. Some guys picked us up in a van, we were the first people in the van, but that didn't last long. Stop after stop, people piled in. Then we stopped at a shopping mall where we all got out and followed this tour guide guy. This guide was in a hurry because he wasn't waiting for anyone. We pretty much had to rush to keep up with him as he trekked through the mall and up some stairs. I had completely forgotten that we were supposed to have breakfast, but at least the tour guide didn't. What was supposed to be a continental breakfast turned out to be "Pick anything from the menu except the two really expensive dishes." Trish and I ordered what we thought would be good and waited patiently for our dishes.
When the waiter came by my dish was covered in heavy cream and Trish's had a pile of ham. Awesome! I wasn't even sure that this was what we ordered. Trish thought it was similar to what we had, so instead of bugging the waiter, we traded. I can't say it was the best breakfast ever. I was kinda authentic, there was eggs and salsa, and crispy tortillas, so it was more mexican that most of the food we had so far, but it wasn't anything special. Nothing to write home about, but totally worth blogging. Or something like that.
After breakfast the guide ran off once again. Trish was using the facilities at the time, so we got downstairs a little late. They already had people lined up and going into different buses and vans. We had to ask someone which bus was ours, and they pointed us to a van... ugh. The van was cramped and fit 14 people, including the driver and guide. The ride sucked, I hate seats where my knees have to be much higher than my butt. My legs hurt after the ride.
First stop on our itinerary was a cenote, which is an underground cave filled with water. It was pretty cool, with stalactites and some greenish water. The cave was huge, the water was kinda murky and had fish in it. Trish and I were thinking about swimming in there. The pictures they show on the web look way nicer than the actual deal. Maybe it was just this one cenote that was crappy though. In any case, the water didn't look very fun to swim in, so we didn't.
Next stop, tourist trap. Shops with all sorts of crap you would never use. Why would you go to mexico to buy a blanket depicting some japanese woman? I mean really? I was totally thinking that while I was dying in the 110 degree weather that I should buy a blanket, and while I'm in mexico why not buy a japanese blanket. Makes perfect sense to me. Anyways, the silver was by weight and it was way too much by weight. This is how I think they calculated their silver prices... First the price of silver by gram, about 50 cents. They had to pour it into a mold, so double the price. Then they had to have someone darken and polish the pieces as necessary, double the price again. If you're following along, we're at $2 a gram. Then we're gonna offer the tourists a 20% coupon when they get off the bus, so add 50% now. $3 a gram. The tour guides will tell the tourists that they must haggle, add in a 50 cent/gram buffer, $3.5 per gram now. And finally, tourists are stupid and they like to buy this stuff anyways, double the price. $7 a gram. Sounds about right? Needless to say we didn't buy anything.
Off to lunch at a buffet place. What is it with touristy spots and buffets. It seems like most places have a buffet around here. And they totally cater to your generic US resident. This was some of the blandest mexican food I've ever had, in our out of mexico. No spice, no flavour. The only thing that was really tasty was the meat of the day which was ground beef with some veggies and peppers. Their version of pulled pork was a distant second. The food wasn't bad, but it was almost as mexican as a white boy eating wonderbread and cheezewiz. The only mexican thing about the food was the guy who cooked it. For a bit of fun during lunch they had three people come up and do a dance for us... they danced with bottles on their heads and stomped their feet a lot. It was interesting, but not super awesome.
Chichen Itza, it's one of those Mayan temples. It's been promoted to one of the 7 wonders of the world now. The architecture it pretty cool, and there's a few interactive things you can do. The place is built for echos, I guess sound was important to mayans. If you clap near the base of the temple, the echo coming out of the little room at the top sounds like a bird on one side and more of a growl on the other. Then in the football field if you clap in the middle you hear about 7 echos. If you do go visit Chichen Itza I strongly suggest you get a guided tour because without explanations it would be pretty boring. There's nothing to point out strange carvings like in a museum, there aren't even signs to tell you where to go. Without the guide it would have just been a large temple like you see in the books.
The most annoying thing about Chichen Itza is the souvenir stands. They all want to sell you the same crap. Some of it is even hand crafted, which is cool, but they try to scam you which I hate. They tell you it's one dollar. "One dollar, very cheap, almost free, one dollar" If you ask them about the price, it's one mayan dollar which they say is worth whatever, or they say oh it's one dollar off. And there's so many of them all selling the same thing that it gets anoying. But that's life. One funny guy did say "You need to buy your wife a present." and when I said no thanks he replied "Don't forget about your neighbors wife".
During the long ride home I reflected upon my day, and figured that all in all, the tour was worth it. It would have cost us $40 to rent a car for the day, another $40 in tolls (WTF?! two $20 tolls crazy) and $10 each for entrance fees, that's $100. Then we would have had to buy lunch, pay for gas and I'm not sure if the cenote was free, though it looked pretty free. Actually I'm not even sure we would have found the cenote. It would have cost us about $130, and I woulda had to drive. Though the drive would have been a little more comfortable. Oh and I'm not sure if there's a parking fee. Instead we paid $160 and got a tour guide out of the deal. So yeah, go with the tour is my advice.
Back at the hotel we took a swim. The entire day had been crazy crazy hot and humid, the pool felt nice. Then we went to eat at Captain's Cove. We had seafood which was awesome, but the coolest part of the night was the alligator. We were out on the waterside patio eating our food, and miding our own business when a waiter comes by with someone's leftovers. The leftovers were from a deep fried whole fish, it was pretty big but it was just a big head and bones. The waiters says something like "I'm going to feed him" with a big smile on his face. He goes to the rail and leans over. Then he tosses the fish to a six foot alligator who happily catches it in it's big jaw. Pretty cool, restaurant with pet alligator. I need one of those.
Today we're taking a night fishing tour boat thing. Not sure what we're gonna do until then though...
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