Day 7: Chichen Itza, Mayan Ruins
We woke up around 6 to the alarm! HOW annoying! But, we did want to see the ruins, and had already paid, so off we went getting dressed, and headed down to the lobby. We decided to have a cup of coffee, but for some reason, today, it tasted like it was all water, with coffee flavor. Neither one of us finished the coffee...Our bus picked us up to take us to our breakfast destination - Pat O'Briens. Man, I thought the breakfast at the Moon was greasy - this place took the cake! Nasty! Maybe I was just too tired of breakfast food that was deep fried in grease... I ate a lot of fruit, and pancakes. That's okay, I brought crackers and snacks from home for my day trips.
Off we went to Chichen Itza.... it was about a 3 hour drive on the bus - we took the toll roads until we reached a small town named Valladolid (sp?) and we got onto the old road from there. The bus took us through the town so we could see it, and then through some Mayan villages. And past a Mexican jail - which our tour guide jokingly called "The Yucatan's Premier All Inclusive Resort". Our tour bus was nice, air conditioned, clean, big, comfortable, and we had t.v. monitors and a bathroom.
When we got to Chichen Itza, we spent the first 2 hours following our guide around who decided to try to tell us everything and anything he knew about the Mayans and their history. Of course, havin read up before hand, the books tell you that almost 80% of what the guides tell you is speculation because nobody really knows what these buildings were used for, or much about the Mayans for that fact. So, my husband and I wandered off away from the group a bit, not paying much attention to the lecture. We kept them within distance though.
After our 2 hour guided tour, we got back in the bus and headed to a nearby restaurant for lunch. The food was buffet style yet again, I was SO tired of buffet - but actually this one was not bad. Much better than the moon food, not as greasy. Also, at this small hotel we stopped at, there was a Cenote (sinkhole) that you could swim in. I believe the guide said it was about 180 feet deep, and the water temp was 62 degrees. Too cold for me, but it was fun to watch other people swimming in it! So now, you had the choice to stay here at the hotel and swim in the cenote and hang out there, or you could get back on the bus and go to Chichen Itza for another 1 1/2 hours to climb the temple or roam on your own. Everyone chose to go back to the ruins, and that's when we climbed to the top of the temple!
Photos of El Castillo and our Climb up:
MAN is that thing steep! No problemo getting up - didn't even have to stop and take a breath, but WHOA when you look down! WOW, thank god for that rope in the middle! I went down very slowly on my butt. HAHA! I was laughing at the people doing that from the bottom, but when I got up top, I wasn't laughing anymore! The view was amazing! The weather that day was very nice, warm, but I wasn't sweating much at all, and there was a nice breeze, and some beautiful clouds and a blue sky. Great for photos. The ruins were very neat, and well worth the money and day trip.
Photos of the Grounds and Buildings at Chichen Itza:
When our 1-2 hours of free time was up, we boarded the bus to head home. We took the toll road the whole way home, and this shaved about an hour off our travel time. They showed a movie on the bus on the way home "Most Wanted", and this made for a much more pleasurable ride. Of course, they were serving soda's and cervesa's on the bus too!
Back at the Moon Palace, we made reservations for the Chinese restaurant, and then decided to head to the lobby bar for drinks. To our great dismay, the incoming conference people had just been let out for a break, and the lobby bar was SWAMPED and overly noisy! There was no place to stand, and you couldn't even get NEAR the bar! My husband was utterly PISSED off, and of course, had to go make a complaint to the hotel manager - who told us we could always get on a golf cart and go to the Moon Palace lobby bar. YEAH, that makes sense, when we are having dinner at the restaurant in the Sunrise section... But luckily enough after about 15 minutes, the conventioneers' break was up, and they slowly left the bar. Of course, all the tables were a royal mess, glasses, cigarette butts, dirty napkins and plates everywhere, so we had to wait (a long time!) for someone to start cleaning off the tables. Eventually, we got a seat back at the bar.
Off to our last (thank god!) dinner at the Palace...We walked around the corner to the restaurant, and lo and behold, a line! We started thinking, oh, well this place must be at least decent, if there is a line. Then I remembered the reason there are lines. Because the hotel wants the line, so they can look busy and popular to the time share guests visiting!! When we finally got to the front of the line, Ii couldn't figure out what the deal was, or why the line, cause there were TONS of empty tables! Service here was the slowest and worst. We only had one menu at the table, and had to ask to get another. It took forever for our food to come out, and it was nothing special. It didn't taste chinese. We picked at it, and left. I just kept thinking how at least this was the last dinner I'd ever have to eat here! Back to the room, to pack.
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Check-In - Lobby, Room, Pool Photos More Pool shots, and Grounds Photos Cancun Palace Beach Photos Snorkeling Photos (Underwater) Mostly advice about downtown Sunset/Sunrise Photos, another day at the Pool Trip to Chichen Itza and Photos Packing up, and Going Home
