Izamal Mayan Ruins

Today on our agenda is to visit some of the ruins in town.  At the tourist information yesterday they told us the 2 that are must visits, so we are off.

We are up for breakfast around 7 as we knew that the ruins opened at 8, and we wanted to be there early to beat the heat.  We see that the breakfast room is open at our hotel, 2 tables are set for 2, so I guess there was one other room booked.  Breakfast is not included, but for a total $10. 00 Canadian we had juice, pancakes and eggs and coffee.  I’m sure we could have done better down the street somewhere, but this was handy.  All together we saw 5 ladies in the kitchen/bar area, guess they were expecting a rush!

View from our breakfast table

It is nice just walking along the streets, everything is so yellow.  Our first ruin we decide to climb is not very far away from our hotel.  Everyone on the street says Ola to us, so friendly everywhere here in the Yucatan area.  It is not too high of a climb, but the steps are so uneven it is really not fun coming down.  From the top in the distance we can see 2 other ruins in a distance, one is long and flat and doesn’t look too interesting, another one is more like a pyramid and high, guess where we are headed next.

Today it is a green bug

Ruins open, no guides, not admittance fee, just a sign to read

Is it a nice view from up there? Should I go up?

View from top, on long flat ruin to find, and one very high ruin to find

We get to the second ruins and nearly miss the entrance totally.  We walked the entire outside blocks before we reached the entrance because we turned one block to early.  We knew that this was the long flat ruin that we saw earlier we debated whether to climb this one, or look for the pyramid one.  When we looked at the map again we couldn’t figure out where the pyramid was so gave up on that and climbed the long flat one.  We get to the top of this and much to our surprise the pyramid is on top of this long one!  They looked like totally separate ruins from the top of the other ruin.  We walked over to the pyramid section and at this point it was enough climbing for me.  Part way up there are some real steps, but then it just turns into a mix up of stones that you need to climb/scramble up.  I volunteered to stay under a tree in the shade and take some pictures.  Andre made it to the top, said it was a beautiful view, I will enjoy the pictures.

Another example of why you always have to watch where you are walking here.  We have the exact same problem right outside our house in Merida on the sidewalk

steps to the top of first level which is 600 by 600 feet

second level which is about 150 by 150 feet

No good steps up second part, Wendy passed on this climb

View from top of ruins

Back down the ruin and we run into the first 2 tourists we have seen all day.  The ruins open at 8AM, but that just means they unlock the gates.  No entrance fee, no guides selling you stuff, no tourist crap for sale, just climb if you want. 

Next we head back into the main square and are looking at some signs to see what to do next.  We are approached by a tourist police, these are incredible here as well as in Merida and Campeche.  In the Mayan Riviera area the police have such a bad reputation that I stay away, here they come up to you to see if you need any help.  We have pretty much done everything we had hoped to in this town except visit the museum so that is where we are off to next.  This is the same museum that turned off their lights for us last night to watch the light show.  It is a tiny museum, so we are through very quickly.

The ruins in the background

Guess where we got our fridge magnet for Izamal, she did beautiful work

Ok, it is a 2 bug day

Interesting second seat on this bike

Decide to go to the bus terminal to see when the buses are heading back to Merida and purchase our ticket.  We have 1 hour before the next bus, which will be good timing for us because by 12:30 it is way too hot to be outside anyway.

Back to the room, quick showers and pack up our last stuff and back to the bus station.  Andre is on the lookout for ice cream, he passed on the local guy selling coconut ice cream earlier, and now he is wishing he bought some as we don’t pass any on the way to the bus station.

Uneventful bus ride home.  Back in Merida we decide to try to find a Taco place that is only open during the day and the bus station is really close to it, but we don’t have the address and even walking one block out of the way is just too much in this heat.  Decide to just head home, make some sandwiches and enjoy the pool for the afternoon.  On the walk home from the bus station we passed a music hall that was selling tickets for a clarinet and tuba concert tonight, so we picked up tickets for that for 8PM tonight.  Seems like there is something on every night in this city and very affordable.

Head out for the concert, we are down to only having a $1,000 bill, which is only worth about $70 Cdn, but it is hard to get changed at the little places we are eating.  We try 2 different scotia back ATMS but neither of them work for us.  Andre did have enough coins for us to each buy a popsicle.

Back we go to the music hall, when the orchestra comes in it looks like it is mostly high school kids, except for the main violinist, the clarinet, and the tuba.  Brings back lots of my high school memories, except these kids are all dressed in tuxes and long gowns, we never got that fancy.  It was a very enjoyable night, we may have been the only ones there that weren’t parents, but it was fun.  Plus I got the $1000 bill changed at the ticket counter so I could buy some water!

Walked back through the main square, it is nice to see all the restaurants not there, it is a really pretty square with lots and lots of people out enjoying the cool weather and people watching.  Back home and glad it is only Saturday night and I have another day off tomorrow.

On the way home we saw this nice building which has a restaurant and a hotel.  This is inside of the restaurant section.

We also saw a wedding at the church in Santa Lucia square which is right around the corner from us.  This is the first time we have seen so many people go into the church after the bride has gone in.  There were people outside taking pictures of themselves while the bride was going down the aisle, then they followed her in.