This year, 1st May was a Monday, which made this the last long weekend until much later in the year. Therefore, I didn’t want to waste the opportunity to travel a bit more without having to use my precious few vacation days. While so far I’ve mostly been traveling outside of Mexico, this time I was looking forward to explore my current host country a bit more.
Having recently watched a few documentaries debunking “Acient Aliens”, I became fascinated by the pyramids of Chichén Itzá on the Yucatan peninsula. Having a destination in mind, the question now became from where to travel to the pyramids (they are in the middle of the jungle after all). Considering that this was going to be yet another weekend trip, I needed something easy and quick to reach with an airport nearby. That basically narrowed it down to either Cancun or Merida. Since I’m not really into gigantic concrete hotel complexes (or beaches in general), I decided to make Merida my base of operations.
So, on Friday afternoon after work, I made my way to the airport. Easier said then done – everyone familiar with Friday afternoon traffic in Mexico City will ensure you that this about the worst time you can chose to drive across the city. Never the less, about 1½ hours later, I finally arrived at Terminal 2. To compare, on a normal day, the ride takes less then 40 minutes… Never the less, after a bit of confusion – for some reason, at MEX, gates for domestic flights are only announced when it’s time to board – I was finally on the way to Yucatan.
Arriving in Yucatan was not very comfortable, since we landed during a heavy, tropical thunderstorm. Leaving the plane, one thing became immediately obvious: This trip was going to be hot. Even seeing Apple weather forecasting 40°C (104°F) with 80% humidity I wasn’t too worried, after all I had survived summer temperatures in Hong Kong a few years back. But this was even worse. By the time I got into a cab (which took about 30 min, no Uber available at Merida airport), my t-shirt was soaked in sweat from just standing around and waiting. About 25 min later, the taxi arrived at my hotel close to Merida’s Centro Historico.
For Saturday, I didn’t have many plans – relax, find a Café somewhere, explore the city a bit. It cost me a lot of mental effort to leave the cool, air conditioned hotel room, since I was able to feel the incredible heat radiating from the room’s windows. Did I mention I don’t do well in high temperatures? And yes, leaving the hotel, the humid heat hit me like a brick. Never the less, I pulled myself together and went into the direction of the city center, which was thankfully only 15 minutes walk away.
Arriving in the city center, the sweat was dripping from my chin. Thank god, I almost immediately found a Starbucks which I wouldn’t leave for the next 2 hours. The Starbucks was located in a beautiful, european-style building, had relaxing sofas, good wifi, a view and most importantly air conditioning. At this point, I was more or less thinking that I’ll just wait out the day there until it’s time to get back to the Hotel.
But I was lucky, about 2 hours later, another thunderstorm hailed the arrival of what the locals called a “cold weather front” (seldom have I been so happy to hear those words!). After weathering the storm drinking iced chai latte, I left into a completely changed environment – the “cold front” turned out to be lovely 30°C (85°F) with blue skies and sunshine! And even better, this weather was forecasted to last until my departure on Monday!
So finally, I was able to explore the city. And what a city it is! I haven’t seen that many cities in Mexico yet, but so far Merida is without question my favorite. Beautiful colonial buildings, cool churches, a relaxed park in the city center, some busy shopping streets – all I’m usually looking for in a city in Latin America.
I didn’t take too many photos since there wasn’t really one place that stood out, it was more the ensemble and vibe of the city that I really liked. It also was a lot less intimidating than Mexico City, and it felt very safe just walking around the many small shopping streets.
After stocking up on snacks and some good Yucatan Cervezas, I went back to the hotel. After a rocky start, it turned out to be a successful day of exploring after all.
The next day (Sunday), I was planning on visiting the pyramids of Chichén Itzá. Getting to the pyramids from Merida is really easy, comfortable and relatively cheap. Don’t book a tour costing you hundreds of USD, there’s a bus (from the best Mexican bus company ADO) departing from the bus terminal in Merida’s Centro Historico and that will bring you directly to the gates of the archeological complex in Chichén Itzá. You can chose between different departure times (I left at 9:30am), but as far as I could see, there’s only one return, at 4:30pm (but the ADO website was a bit buggy, so do your own research). You can book tickets online for about 500$MXN (about 25$US) both ways, and the booking includes a seat reservations. The busses are pretty new, comfortable and even have a toilet on board. The drive takes about 2 – 2½ hours, depending on traffic. One piece of advice: Take some noise canceling headphones, since watching a loud action movie in Spanish is mandatory on the bus 🙂
As mentioned earlier, the Bus stops directly in front of the entry to the archeological zone. Remember where you stopped, since the Bus will depart from the same spot (if you’re unsure, it says “ADO” in big letters on the pavement, and there’s also someone from the company that you can ask for help).
Entry to the archeological zone is about 640$MXN (32$US) for foreigners. If you’re Mexican (a national, or like me, temporary resident), you get free entrance on Sundays. To grab your free ticket, queue at the tent in front of the entry building where it says “Mexicanos” and show them your ID.
Note that there’s a lot of websites selling you “skip the line” tickets online for a hefty premium. Though they are made to look official, none of them are. And even if you are lucky and do get a ticket from them, it’s not worth it. I was there on a Sunday, at prime time, but even then waiting times at the ticket booths were less than 10 minutes. Don’t buy online, don’t support scams. You’ll be fine just buying tickets when you arrive.
The main pyramid (called Temple of Kukulcán) is small when compared to the pyramids of Teotihuacán near Mexico City, but while those are more or less just enormous piles of stone, the Mayan pyramids here are masterfully crafted, with beautiful reliefs, figurines of snakes etc. I was really impressed. Just be aware that you will share the space with thousands of tourists and sellers trying to get you to buy kitschy souvenirs (but if you’re in the market for a huge Alien from “Alien vs. Predator” made out of obsidian, this is your chance!). The large amount of tourists is very likely the result of the whole “free entrance for Mexicans” thing on Sunday, so you might want to chose another day.
One interesting thing about the main pyramid is that it is build on top of other, older pyramids. And with “on top”, I don’t mean on the rubble of the old pyramids, but actually over the old pyramids. Scientists were able to climb into the old pyramid below and find an throne in an old chamber. That’s really some Indian Jones stuff if you ask me! I really recommend on reading up on the area before you go (or grab one of the many official guides), it will make your stay so much better!
Next to the pyramid is a gigantic ball game court. The Mayans (similar to other pre-columbian Latin American cultures) used to play a ball game as part of their religious ceremonies. The players were only allowed to touch the ball using their elbows, hips, knees etc, but not feet or hands. The teams are trying to get the ball trough a small vertical ring high up the wall to score points. So it’s in a sense similar to soccer, just with less feet. Ah yes, and another minor difference is that the losing team used to be sacrificed to the gods. I’m pretty sure that made for some intense games!
Besides the ruins, there’s two “Cenotes”, water holes, in the archeological park. It’s thought that they played an important role in the religious life of the inhabitants of Chichén Itzá, and up to this day they find gold and the skeletal remains of children, most likely sacrificed to the gods in these. It’s also thought that the main pyramid is built on top of a third Cenote (which you obviously can’t see, since there’s a mayan pyramid in the way). Besides the religious importance, the area around the pyramids is pretty dry, so having access to a reliable water source must have been instrumental in the development of the city … even though I sincerely hope the sacrificed in one and drank from another Cenote!
As usual, I was very happy seeing one of those yellow stickers pictured above. If you’re not German – they are kind of a running gag for traveling Germans (yes, we do have humor, kind of). Once you notice, you will see those little yellow stickers wherever there’s a wonder of the world, a beautiful sight, something extraordinary. And it’s telling you that yes, it’s nice here, but you should really consider visiting the (admittedly pretty obscure) southern German province of Baden-Württemberg. If you want to be part of the German traveling family, you can order those stickers free of charge from the government of the state of Baden-Württemberg.
I was able to see all the sights of the park in about 2 hours, which left me with another 2 hours to kill before the bus arrived. So I looked for a somewhat quiet space in the shade and just enjoyed the view, the good weather and watching people from all over the world strolling through the woods. And to my surprise, once it became a bit quieter, I was even able to see some pretty large lizards skittering around.
Finally, I went back to the ADO bus stop, and after some confusion (note that Autobús Oriente is not the same as ADO , short for Autobus de Oriente, when in doubt ask the ticket vendor at the bus station), I was on my way back to Merida. On the way, I was able to see the gigantic construction site of the “Tren Maya”, the new train that is supposed to circle Yucatan. While it is pretty controversial in Mexico (destruction of nature, indigenous people are unhappy, cost is snowballing etc.), I’m really looking forward to it being operational and being able to get to all the sights on Yucatan quickly and comfortable.
When I came back to Merida, it was already dark, and I was very tired from a day of exploring. I grabbed some fast food from the bus stop, and about 30 min later I was back in the hotel. The next day, I flew back to “cold” (28°C, 80°F) Mexico City.
I feel that I really need to explore Yucatan a bit more, although for sure not again in the summer. While I always just pictured it as tourist trap, overcrowded beaches and chain resorts, it turned out to be much more then I expected with regards to culture, history and food.
The Guerito 