Dec.30 - Bonne fête Claire et Céline! xoxoxo
Woke up at 6am to prepare a big breakfast for everyone - scrambled eggs with all the fixings, bacon and all, and a delicious cantalope. Manon and Richard packed a lunch for everyone, and the gang was ready to go by 7:15am. We left for our big day in Chichen Itza at 7:30m. A one hour drive - so we arrived well before the swarm of tour busses from Cancun and the so called Riviera Maya - perfect!
I remember going to Chichen Itza for the first time in 1986. Climbing on all the structures was allowed back then, and my Cancun friends and I even went in the passage under the pyramid. A dark passage with narrow stairs, leading up to a sacred room with the painting of a jaguar on the wall. The access to that passage was closed in 1990 I believe. I also remember climbing the pyramid a few times over the years – no longer possible. It is a very steep and dangerous flight of stairs, and it’s probably much better this way. Except for the multiplication of the crafts merchants on the site, it has not changed of course : ) Chichen Itza used to be such a great multicultural metropolis for such a very long time, very interesting to try to imagine what is was like to live there. We saw all the main structures and the cenote, and the kids were great all along.
By 11am we got back to the cars and went to eat our picnic lunch in the central square the nearby town of Piste. We had planned to go to the cenote Ik Il for a swim, and by then we were tired and reconsidering… but it was so hot that we decided to give it a shot. Glad we did, it was amazing! We all jumped in the pristine clear blue water of the cenote, and the kids had a blast jumping in from the high platforms – what a great afternoon we had!
Drove back to the ranch, the kids played in the pool, decorated for new year’s eve, while the adults drank cold beer. A very good day in Yucatan!
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