Viva Mexico 2019 - Ek Balam

From Mérida, our journey continued to Valladolid. We stayed at a very old Hacienda in the middle of the jungle. We just shared the space with the animals roaming around. Since I was knocked out for a day, the boys played some pool and enjoyed themselves while I fuelled up on Coke and dry bread. Luckily the next day I was up and running again and we did a day trip to Ek Balam. This is one of the many Mayan sites, and again climbable ruins :)

Our jungle retreat.

Church in Valladolid.

Ek Balam.

Great details.

Amazing constructs.

Let's talk about history.

Close to Ek Balam is a great cenote. You can either walk or let someone paddle you there on a trike or, like we did, rent some bikes. The cenote is about 2 km from the ruins and you can rent the bikes right at the entrance. If it is not crowded you can try to haggle with them, we paid in total 350 pesos less bc we chose to bike and all 3 boys took the adventure package with zip lining, rappelling, and special jumping options.

Mr. K on the way down.

Help is close!

Jumping off the Tarzan rope.

All 3 boys jumping in at the same time.

And biking back.

We highly recommend doing a tour through the ruins of Ek Balam and swimming in the cenote afterward. Valladolid is very close to Chichen Itza as well, so you could do that too. But we decided to only do Ek Balam in the hope of fewer tourist and this worked out well for us. We had a strange moment on the parking lot, where a bunch of teens surrounded us and asked that we pay them to watch the car. We decided to tell them they would get something afterward if nothing happens to the car. Frank paid them 10 pesos before we left - I don't think something would happen there, either way, it is a small lot and always people around.

Before leaving Valladolid for Chetumal we stopped at the cemetery.  Cemeteries are very interesting here, bc each grave seems to have a little house and they are as colorful as the real houses in the town.

Walking through the cemetery.