Merida and Yacutan

Hola Amigos,

So when I left you all last it was new years eve and everyone was getting prepared to party... I ended up having 2 shots of tequila and a beer and then vomming up my dinner, resulting in everyone going to the beach party and me sleeping on the couch of Sarah and Az´s place. Such is life. Thankfully I woke up feeling fine and ready to take on more of Mexico.

New years day was awesome. Sarah, Grady and I ended up going to the 'Crococun' which literally means Crocodile nest (later finding out that Cancun means snake nest.... I think if people knew that there wouldnt be so many tourists). It was fabulous, a hands on zoo that lets you get up close to the animals with a fantastic guide Bruno who totally loved us three girls. We were kissed by macaws, held baby crocodiles and a massive boa, fed deer and monkeys and touched a lizard that looked prehistoric. The most amazing thing was the crocodile enclosure though. We literally walked throught the enclosure where the full grown crocodiles are kept walking only cms away from them. One German woman was walking backward and was about to step on the head of a 2m long croc before I freaked everyone out by screaming "watch out" at the top of my lungs. We got some amazing photos which I will need to facebook at some stage soon.

The next day Aarons dad, Steve, hired a van and Steve, Arrons sisters and niece Courtney, Kayla and Janelle, Sarah, Grady and I all went out to a town called Coba. There were Mayan ruins there and we hired shitty bikes and rode around the ruins for about an hour which was beautiful and a lot of fun. Then we went to a Cenote (see note ay), an underground waterhole. Basically the Yacutan peninsula is all limestone and there are many caves around with Cenotes. We climbed down stairs into this cave with a crystal clear pool at the bottom. It was amazing. It would have been about 20m deep in some parts but you could still see the bottom even though the only light in the cave were a couple of spotlights. The cave was huge, the size of a basketball stadium. That night we went to Playa Del Carmen for a couple of hours on our way home and then out for drinks at some local bar in Puerto Morelos.

The next day Grady and I headed to Merida, 3 hours west of Cancun. Merida is beautiful. It was colonised by the Spanish in the mid 1500s. There are beautiful palaces here and the whole town is clean, unlike downtown Cancun. Edwin, our hostel owner is this beautiful gay mexican man. The hostel was the house his grandmother grew up in and is so beautiful. He has been so helpful and friendly as have most people in Merida. There is a lot of town pride here and the local government organise shows and music for free in the town square pretty much every night.

Edwin told us about a little known tour we could do to see more Cenotes. It involved travelling by a local bus to a small village called Cuzama. From the town centre in Cuzama you hop into a little taxi thing that is powered by bike which takes you to the beginning of the cenote trip. There are 3 cenotes and the only way to get to them is by 'truck'... ie a 4 seater cart on tracks pulled by a horse. The driver takes you around to the three beautiful cenotes and you can swim around for about half an hour at each... All up the entire trip cost less than $10 each. We were lucky enough to share our cart with Miguel, a guy from Mexico city who lives in Spain now and his mum who he took to Merida on holiday. His english was perfect and Grady and I both had a massive crush on him. He was able to translate for us and told us about how the cenote trips had been running for 15 years but the horse and carts had been around much longer and they were originally used to go into the bush and collect and transport a type of cacti used to make rope and other stuff. Miguel said he found it hard to understand our cart driver because in the small towns in the area they speak a mixture of spanish and the traditional mayan language.

Today we went to the anthropology museum and bummed around merida for a bit. We have to get up early tomorrow to go to Chinchen Itza, the biggest of the Mayan ruins before heading to Campeche tomorrow for a couple of nights.

That is all from me for now. Hope everyone is well.

love xxoo