After another party night at the Ocean Coral to celebrate the last night of the holiday (for some) we managed a quiet morning on the beach to allow me to dry out before heading for the carhire desk at Cancun Airport to pick up our car and start the next leg of the journey.
Not having much luck with car hire on this trip - because I had specified manual gearbox we ended up with one of the oldest cars on the lot - not much demand for manual cars from their usual clientele. Have never seen a Nissan Tsuru before and hope not to see one again. Very simple old style Nissan but it drives reasonably well, the aircon works and we have already driven 500km. Rattled a bit a top speed on the toll road out of Cancun but I put that down to road surface!
The Cuota - toll road - is amazing - so expensive that no-one uses it. In 160km we saw 8 other cars - which all raced past us, and two trucks which we left behind us. Got to the toll and found it was $20 for the privilege. It was also completely soulless as there was tall vegetation on both sides and you couldnt even see the other carriageway. Still an effective way to cover the distance.
Our first night was in a lovely old hotel in Valladolid (recommended to us for the courtyard restaurant) where we had dinner and breakfast. Wonderful square in front of the Hotel and being Saturday night, everyone was out in their finery for a stroll around the square or a chat in the s-shaped chairs which they call "confidenciales". Our first experience of Mexico!
The plan for Sunday was a visit to Chichen Itza - the largest and reputedly greatest Mayan site - and then on to Merida for the evening festivities. Unfortunately it was raining as we left Valladolid and stayed that way until we reached Chichen Itza where the access roads were closed off by police because of the crowds expected for the Spring Equinox celebrations. Given my limited tolerance for crowds and queueing and the fact that I have already lost two umbrellas on this trip, we decided to continue to Merida and reschedule our visit.
Had to stop at the service station to check on a warning light which appeared on the dashboard and not really reassured by the hire company´s assurance that it was nothing important. Checked all the vital components and decided that we would continue since they were only prepared to replace it if we drove back to Cancun which would have been a 600km round trip.
Made it to Merida before lunch and found ourselves in the middle of their regular sunday celebrations in the main square.
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The red light on my motors has been glaring at me for the past 18 months. I'm assured (by my garage) that, if this meant anything serious, several others would light up in unison.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the assurance! Have only got another 600 miles to drive, althouigh some of it is a bit remote. At least the mobile phone works here.
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