Mexico - Yucatan Peninsula

The border crossing into Mexico from Belize - Chetumal - was not a trouble. Or it could be that we are getting used to this by now and have adopted a process to make it easier. We basically just do as we are told, one step at a time, and then after the event we can reflect on how this time we had just done different things from all the other times.

There was a new thing to learn. There is a fee to pay to use your own car on the Mexican roads, and this fee had to be paid by a card in the name of the vehicle owner. An important detail to keep in mind.

Our first stop was in Chetumal, which is around the corner from the border crossing. As our theme for traveling in Mexico is "eating tacos - preferably in places that were featured in the Netflix series", we set out to eat right away. First we had a couple in a tiny place (these were called birria and originate in the north of Mexico with goat meat) cooked to order with meat and tasty sauces. Then we popped into a marisqueria for a second helping of tacos with prawns and octopus. That's all what you can handle, if you want to walk without a tummy ache. The beachfront of Chetumal is beautiful, and we drove around there before leaving the city the next day.

Second we went to El Cenote Azul. A cenote is a sinkhole full of fresh water, and Cenote Azul is so deep that the exact measure has not been established. This was on our way to Bacalar, a very nice area with lagoons and a lot of tourist activities. We spent a night by one of the lagoons almost as if we were in the real tropical forest. And we swam and went kayaking for a while. The water was warm, and fresh.

After Bacalar we went on to Tulum, famous for its beautiful Mayan ruins. We had just about given up on finding a hotel so we could stay and look for the site of the ruins, when we saw another area and when we went in there it happened to be the entrance to the ruins! That became a lovely place to see. But before all this, we had our first encounter with the Mexican police. Suffice to say it went well, we are still in business.

We wanted to see one more Mayan site, Chichén Itzá. This is on the way, sort of, from Tulum to Mérida so we drove north to see Playa del Carmen just to see what the fuss about that is about. It is a nice place, very touristic. And hot... Chichén Itzá is very special, El Castillo (the main construction) is indeed mind blowing. Now, the other two sites we've seen have been managed with reverence and visitors have been managed well. Chichén Itzá was extremely commercial and it was almost taking the pleasure away.

After the Mayan site we carried on to Mérida. We decided to stay two nights to have a break. It is a big city with a lot of development going on and the population is growing. We hired a taxi driver to show us around. The tour was supposed to take two hours, and we spent six. The area of the city is vast, and just the transport between the attractions quickly added up. The lunch ended up being at 4pm, and we had a typical Yucatan tasting platter. All delicious.

Driving in Mexico is not regarded as safe and the advice is always to use toll roads and drive during daylight hours. The toll roads are great, Harold said that he felt like he was flying and that even the car was enjoying the drive. The two of them surely enjoyed it better than being vetted by the police... Yucatan is regarded reasonably safe except for Cancun, and Mérida is the safest city in Mexico.