Jan 7- Last day in Merida

We had an awesome week, and on our last day, we decided to hit the market that was mostly closed on Jan 1 and get a French lunch at cafe creme. 

I found the best tacos on the planet (and only 50 cents each)!

We sampled some fiah. It tasted awesome but the kids were afraid to try too much for fear of stomach pains in flight.

This was the Yucatan plant called Chaya.   It is used in drinks and food.  The kids enjoyed the the drinks with lemonade during the trip.

Not many peppers here!

Brandy tried some fruit balls that we all agreed were nasty. She ended up giving them away.

As we left, they were bringing some huge ice blocks into the market. We need these for fishing!

After the market we hit cafe creme.  It was a great French lunch.  Although we found out during lunch that our flight was delayed and we would have to spend the night in dallas. 

Brandy went back for a pre-flight nap while the rest of us tried to clear out our pesos on food.

We finally made it to dallas and 12 degree weather.. The kids enjoyed a little snow before an early wake up and trip home.

It was a fabulous week that felt like a month.  We wore ourselves out but enjoyed starting 2017 in Mexico!

Jan 6- more Cenotes

After touring Chichen Itza, it was time to cool off again.  Our first stop was DeYokozonot.  It was a very deep one.. 150' to the bottom.

Our last cenote was Chihuan.  It was my favorite.  It was in a long cave.  We swam with some locals that were there enjoying the cenote and playing some music.

After the swim, the kids headed out to check out the farm.

We finished another epic day at Hacienda Taya.  Everyone without question said it had the best food.   It did not disappoint.

 

Jan 6 - Chicken eat ya

Our ride showed promptly at 6:30 to get us to Chichen Itza as early as possible.  We slept on the way and were ready for another adventure!

The pyramid is named after the snake with feathers.  It was used for sacrifice to the gods.  At the summer solstice the sun forms a shadow in the shape of a snake that ends in a snake head carving at the base of the stairs. 

Then we saw the arena for the games. They had 13 per year. There were 7 players on each team. They  would throw a ball with their hips with the help of a belt and arms.  Only the elite could watch the game.

Behind the stadium each team would keep track of their wins by carving a skull I to their area.

There was a temple near the sacred cenote.  They would sacrifice people in the cenote.

Temple of the Jauguars was for the  Warriors.  The would sacrifice the warrior and put their hearts on the bowl for the jaguar to eat.

This was the government house   The door represents the mouth and teeth to the door to the underworld 

This was an Observatory to view the sun and stars.  There were people in charge of North, south, east, or west.  They would map the stars.  This helped the Mayans determine that the earth went around the sun.

We had a great tour and managed to avoid the crowds (they get 15-20 thousand a day).   

Jan 5 - Dzibilchaltun

We arranged for a driver to arrive at 6:30 to take us to Chichen Itza.  Apparently they slept in.  After almost an hour of waiting we decided to reschedule Chichen for Friday.

We were awake early and decided to go out for breakfast and hit Dzibilchaltun instead.  It is a short ride from Merida, so it was an Uber day for us.

We started with Breakfast at Habenero grill it was yummy!

After some churros, we ubered to Dzibilchaltun.  It is the oldest ruin in the Yucatan and has a cenote.

There was a small museum there where our guide explained a lot of Mayan ways of life.

There was a Mayan house we walked through.  There were a couple hammocks inside that they would sleep in.

In the background you can see the temple of the seven dogs.  During certain times of year the sun or moon will line up directly with the windows.  This was used by the Myans to know when to start farming or that it was he end of the season.

The structure at one time had a large building on top.  When the Spanish invaded they used the pieces of the structure to build their own church.  Climbing to the top is always fun!

This was the church built by the spaniards.

Next we hit the cenote.  This one was over 150 feet deep that went back to a fork in the river.  One side went to the ocean and the other to fresh water.  Divers have pulled more than 30,000 artifacts from the cenote.

At the deep end there was a place to jump in.  John and Charles spent the entirety of the water time jumping into the cenote:

After cooling off, it was back to exploring the ruins.

Next we headed to the Grand Museum.  It was full of information and was a beautiful museum.

Gillian wanted to make a huge batch of guacamole!  Ha!

We ended our day with dinner at Chaya Maya.  A favorite among locals and tourists, they served authentic Yucatan food.

After dinner we realized the annual celebration for the city was that night.  Gillian, Brandy, and I managed to shower and muster up enough energy for another hour on the town.  We knew we wouldn't make it to the midnight festivities, but thought we would check out some of he earlier events.  We were too tired to even take pictures!