A few days exploring the Yucatán Península

After leaving Chiapas, we did another long bus journey to Valladolid in the centre of the Yucatán Peninsula. We only spent a few days here, mostly because we (well, mostly me!) couldn’t wait to go to the coast, and into the Caribbean Sea. 

Swimming in cenotes 

The main draw for us to this part of Mexico was the cenotes - a natural sinkhole or cave filled with cool groundwater, where the roof has collapsed or partially collapsed. There are around 6000 cenotes in the Yucatan, and we visited a few whilst we were here.

The Mayans believed that the cenotes were a gateway to the underworld, and used them to make offerings and sacrifices to the gods. At the bottom of cenotes, divers have found jewellery, pots, sculptures and human skeletons. Human sacrifice (mostly children), was thought to appease the gods and bring about more favourable conditions for everyone (food, crops, rain etc). The Mayans would use psychedelic mushrooms to reduce the suffering of the sacrificed person. We both found it a bit eerie to swim in cenotes knowing that they had likely been used as sites of human sacrifice, and could we still have skeletons at the bottom!

The first cenote we visited was a cave, with a small hole in the roof providing some light. We had to climb down some steps to get in, and inside was full of stalactites and bats! We arrived early in the morning, and were lucky to have this cenote all to ourselves! We went for a swim and the water was cool and clear. 

The second cenote we visited was similar, but with a larger hole in the roof and more people. You can see how clear and blue the water is! 

The third cenote was a bit disappointing! It was bigger, and more open as the roof has completely collapsed leaving a circular opening. But, when we arrived it was full of tourists - lots of tour buses come to this cenote on the way to/from other attractions. Compared to the other cenotes we had visited where there was a calm, tranquil vibe, this one was hectic ans noisy. Sadly the amount of visitors has also started to damage the cenote, and there was a layer of scum on the top of the water which meant we didn’t fancy swimming! 

We actually stayed overnight in a hotel on the site of the cenote here, in a lovely villa - which was a lovely bit of luxury compared to some of the hostels we stayed in! The villa was set in the jungle and we enjoyed hearing the sounds of the jungle in the evening and as we fell to sleep. 

One of the main draws of staying at this hotel is that you can access the cenote at night, when it’s closed to the public. We enjoyed visiting after dark when it was quieter and more still. Though Ash got upset and annoyed with a fellow hotel guest who littered in the cenote and refused to pick it up. Overall we both felt mixed emotions about the cenotes - they were interesting to visit, and fun to swim in, but at the same time, the cenotes and the ecosystems within them are being destroyed by tourists and tourism. 

Chichen Itzá

Another reason for staying in this part of the Yucatan was to visit Chichen Itzá - the ruins of a Mayan city, and one of the seven wonders of the world. We were in two minds as to whether to visit Chichen Itzá, we had heard that it is very busy and touristy, and we had already seen lots of beautiful Mayan ruins on our trip. On balance, we decided not to miss it, and got up early to go in the morning before it got too busy. 

We arrived to the site at 9am and we’re greeted by a huge queue at the ticket booth! It took about an hour to buy our tickets (you had to queue and pay at two different booths), and check our bags into the cloakroom. But it was still relatively quiet when we went into the site! 

Chichen Itzá is one of the most excavated sites in Mexico, and there were lots of ruins to explore. In the centre is the temple of Kukulcan, which is 24m high and built in the 8th century AD. What is interesting about this pyramid is that it was built to represent the Mayan calendar - there are 365 steps to the top (the number of days in the Mayan year), separated by 18 terraces (the number of months), and on each side there are 52 flat panels (there are 52 years in the Mayan calendar round). You used to be able to climb to the top of the pyramid, but this was stopped a few years ago when a lady fell from the steps and died. 

There were a lot of temples, a ball court, and lots of stone carvings to see.


One thing at Chichen Itzá which we hadn’t seen elsewhere was the Grupo de las Mil Columnas - the group of a thousand columns. Each column was carved, depicting warriors and animal deities.  


Chichen Itza also has 2 cenotes interspersed amongst the temples - though you couldn’t (and wouldn’t want to!) swim in these. 


Overall, we felt a bit underwhelmed by Chichen Itzá, in part due to how busy it was and the number of touts, and possibly because we had already visited lots of beautiful Mayan sites in Mexico. We aren’t sure how it got to be one of the seven wonders of the world (I don’t know who gets to decide the list?!), and we felt we had visited more interesting sites both here in Mexico and in other parts of the world. 
Next stop on our trip: some time at the beach on the Carribbean coastline - Isla Holbox and Puerto Morelos