Loving your trip report and photos! Your photos are absolutely delightful and it’s clear from your report how much fun you’re having! Thanks for finding the time for posting this - who knows, you might inspire us to explore this region sometime.

I got a few yuck-yucks reading this😉

Muchas Gracias! I am a bit of a wiseacre.

Valladolid - First big night Wow!
We got into Valladolid, found our apartment and went out for a walk around the square, Parque Principal Francisco Canton Rosado. Our first impression is that there a lot more tourists here than any place we've seen, and a lot more European travelers based on the sounds of the conversations we are hearing. Grabbed a bite to eat then back to the room. Settling in, unpacking when we heard a marching band? And the singing of angels? Tonight is the start of the Festival of La Candelaria and we are on the same road as the Parque and Church with that same name. There is a procession walking through our street, everyone is singing and dressed to the nines, or the nueves! We jump into our zapatos and follow them down the street. It is a huge outdoor service with singing, preaching and lots of music. After about an hour of having our souls saved in Spanish, I think?, we headed to the main square and the Video Mapping on San Servacio on the square. A light show on the church. Do we do that in the states? I've seen lights on Mt Rushmore but not moving pictures. I'm including a few shots. It was magical


Look at those dresses. The ladies were styling, the men also, look at the smiles!

A big crowd, some seated, a lot standing

You can see the Padre in the middle of the shot next La Candelaria

Templo de San Servacio before the show, and some photos of it during the light show

How cool! They do it at Disneyland.....

The evening sound and light show at Uxmal also does that. CHAAAAC...

Yes! CHAAAC. The funny thing is that the show started at 9:00PM, lasted for about 15 minutes in Spanish, we got up to leave and it started the same show in English! We will have to go back though to hear it in English, we were done for the night. CHAAAC!

Interesting, ours was Spanish only.. and seemed like it went on for much more than 15 minutes!

Really enjoying this TR Tdiddy. You seem to have seen much, much more than we managed to in our time in the Yucatan!
Good to hear that your home in California escaped the wildfires. Makes me realise how lucky we are in the UK not to have to worry about these things - yet!

Yes, I believe we've had more time than you and with the car we are going on the roads less traveled...and less repaired. We are driving down these roads that you can tell the potholes by the color. White means deep, dark are generally filled in. My wife has been navigator and pothole spotter. She keeps yelling, " Breeeeak!"

Valladolid - Museo Choco Story and 2nd night of La Candelaria
We visited the Chocolate Museum and it was really interesting. The Mayans had it first, then the Spanish sent it back to Spain, but there was a map of how chocolate spread across the globe and to me that was fascinating. It went from Mexico to Spain of course, but then the next big move was from Spain to the Philippines, both Spanish colonies, then through Malaysia etc. There was also a chart of how much the world consumes of chocolate. The countries that produce it, eat a lot less than the countries that buy it. The US is at about 11.KG per person, in a year. Mexico is at 1.1 KG. The Swiss and Belgians are the top consumers.

Second night of Candelaria. They are dancing now. Orchestra, of high school kids, it looked like, but everyone in their splendor!


The Mayans mixed blood from sacrifices in with the chocolate. Reminds me of an IRS audit I had once.

Only the rich drank chocolate of course, this woman was riding in a carriage.

The nuns in the kitchen making and baking with chocolate.

The grand entrance. There was some kind of contest or hierarchy.

Lot's of dancers

The dresses, the make up, the hair.

I hope you can see there is a little 3 year old girl dancing away. Mostly just twirling. I can't help but think how this will be imprinted on her and how important this is for her culture.

The Abuelas! Dancing together. Have probably doing this since they were 3!

And here's the lady herself, La Candelaria. The brought her in, twice around the dance floor then back to the church.

Valladolid - Casa de los Venados
There are a few museums in Valladolid, but one of the most fascinating if you are into Mexican art is not a museum but a house! House of the Deer, is a 16,000 square ft. house owned by an American, John Venator. He opens his home at 10AM for tours and it was one of the most impressive things I've seen. It's a completely different beast but I put it right up there with Museo de Arquelogico in CDMX. He and his wife were collectors and there are 5,000 pieces of art through out the casa. I believe there are 6 bedroom suites around the courtyard, each with a sitting room, bedroom and two bathrooms. The tour takes you through his private kitchen and living room. Our neighbors in our hotel actually got to meet Mr. Venator, we weren't so lucky. He had some family staying so some of the bedroom suites were closed off. Google this place, I want to get right to the pictures.


Entry Way. The casa is 400 years old and was the Mayor's Palace

The bedrooms are aligned around this courtyard

The fabulous duo!

This is the living room of one of the bedroom suites.

Out door shower and bathroom off of the suite

This was the living room from the Frida suite.

So the suites have a bedroom like this, a living room and the outside bathroom

Out door garden

Entry from the open patio to the pool area. I mean you gotta have a pool, right?

Pool on both sides of the walkway

The didn't let us swim!

Mr. Venator's living room

Kitchen

Looking into the dining room from the kitchen

He had service for twelve around the dining room table

Valladolid - Ek- Balam
Today we drove 30 minutes to Ek-Balam, a Mayan site where you can still climb the Pyramids. I've seen many videos of Ek-Balam, and remember Chad and Mindy from my very first posts, the couple who are traveling the world? Well, they told me parking is free! Not so quick, it seems that in the last two years some enterprising locals from the ejido have erected a barrier across the road and you have to pay $100P to get past it. When you get to the actual site, they are rather mum about this and claim not to have anything to do with this. The site is more than worth it however. There are a number of interesting structures the most interesting is the Acropolis with El Trono, the gapping jaws of a Chenes style monster. It was magnificent, but you have to work for it, it's quite a steep climb!


Entry into the site. There were 5 sacbe's originally to get into the city

Ball court

Las Gemelas, the twin sisters

This tree had a branch going out about 30 feet and they had given it a brace. Can a brother get a hand?

Stairs leading to the top of the Acropolis

Look at that detail! The over all structure of the Pyramid was made with rough stone and stucco. It is not as detailed as other Mayan sites

El Trono, probably the burial site of Ukit Kan Le'k Tok', or Bob as he was know to his friends.

Side view of the opening.

Side detail. This whole "face" was built and then covered up with a wall so it wasn't discovered until the 1990's

Detail of a Stela at the bottom of the Acropolis

View from the top.

Back in town. I need some appetizers! Don Diablo on top of the Hotel el Meson de Marques. Guacamole with Rib-eye, very delicious

That preservation of the stucco is amazing!

That House of the Venados is almost Roman in its layout. Art collection looks fantastic.

• It was amazing mlgb. Have you visited Ek-Balam? The story is, it was built as a tomb for the King and then immediately a wall was built over it, protecting it. When they started doing the excavation in 1997, a worker found something underneath the wall and this was it. There is a modern day equivalent, you have quite possibly been to the Pantages theater in Hollywood. Home of the Oscars from 1950 - 1959. It is an amazing Art Deco palace but the lobby had been covered over with a fake ceiling, maybe in the 60's? When they were spiffing it up for the Lion King in the late 1990's, a worker found the original ceiling underneath the extremely boring facade. In 2001, the Los Angeles Conservancy, who I docent for, gave the Pantages the Preservation Award. I stipulate that the difference between say 30 years and maybe 1,000 years is not the same, but still?

Our guide, Miguel, said John Venator is still collecting and visiting places he hasn't seen in Mexico. Although he has a Frida suite, and many objects about Frida, Miguel said he never managed to get his hands on any of her work. Which of course now is all museum level art at museum prices.

Pretty sure not. After Palenque we went toward Villahermosa. From there I flew to Mexico City.

What a trip you guys are on! Bummer about the towe ASAIK, that's about all you can in this situation. Loving all the somewhat off the beaten path Mayan sights you have been able to hit. We were at Izamal for an Easter Passion Play so we missed some of the Mayan stuff.

I think I have an album by that pope you mentioned.

Thanks for posting, firing up the blood to consider a return visit maybe next year, maybe with more time at Yaxha,

The light show we saw at Chichén Itzá in 1984 was also well punctuated with CHAAAACS! There was actually a small Club Med there at the time.

Valladolid - Last Days
Lot's of posts from Valladolid because we stayed here 6 days. It is my favorite town in the Yucatan so far. Granted we have only been in the Central to Northwest quadrant. Visited the San Roque Museo, very small with things from Ek-Balam and information about the Caste War which was a 60 year war here that most of us have never heard of. There is a cenote here in town which we walked by. We went to another cenote today called Hacienda de San Lorenzo Oxman. It is on the tourist route, Chichen Itza from Carmen La Playa or Cancun, Cenote and then lunch in Valladolid. We actually didn't have too many people there today. It's much more developed than most of the cenotes and not that authentic, but hey, it's a cenote. Walked to the Mercado Municipal and it was the cleanest Mercado I have ever seen in Mexico. Ended at the Convento de San Bernardino, not the one on Route 66, it's a different San Bernardino. Tomorrow, off to Chichen Itza.


Museo San Roque, was an old monastery, hospital and now a museum. Small but interesting

This was found at Ek-Balam. It is a man, head, coming out of a serpent's mouth. It's a Mayan myth that man was born out of the snake, or maybe the snake was eating us and thought we tasted like chicken? Not sure.

Front of the large Mercado

Look at that meat and it was super clean.

Artwork in front of the Cenote Zaci

Cenote, it's cold but really fun with a rope swing

Pool at Oxman cenote. Very refreshing

I'm not sure if this was really a hacienda, probably was, but there are a lot of buildings around the main building

Had to end with this, at the La Candelaria Square. There was a dance class for about 30 young girls and it was a hoot watching them. Didn't take to many pictures but it was another of those Mexican moments. Outside, no fancy leotards, on a concrete slab but kicking it up.


Bye-Bye Valladolid

CHICHEN ITZA
We finished our Yucatan Experience with the jewel of the peninsula. It is truly spectacular. I will have to break this into two posts. I know there are many Fodorites who have visited Chichen Itza and can probably give a better tour than myself, but I will try to present it as if you haven't been here before. If you haven't been here before, Put It On Your List! We left Valladolid at around 8:30 AM, got there within one hour. Along the way you will encounter people trying to wave you down for some important informacion. Pass these people. I mean we weren't even 10 minutes out of Valladolid and people were waving us down to stop. A couple of things, if you are early enough, once you get there drive to the parking place right up front, $116P. We saw a lot of people but not as many as we thought although you could definitely tell when a big bus crowd came in. Around the ball court there are some amazing carvings and if there are crowds you can be standing behind tour groups and they block the view. No one's going to block the view of El Castillo, it's huge! We are staying in Piste tonite at Casa de las Lunas, a really wonderful little hotel. In hind sight, and given how nice this hotel is, I would have stayed here last night, hit Chichen Itza at 8AM and chilled back here before we head to Merida tomorrow. Let's see some photos shall we?


Here we are, let's go!

El Castillo, the first thing you will see when you enter. When we got to the ticket booth we were second in line.

Here's an eager beaver, not so spry after 4 hours at the site.

At the solstice, the light moves down the steps as the sun rises and it's supposed to look like a snake slithering down the pyramid ending in these two heads

Biggest Ball Court in the Mayan World

All along the wall are these details of players and losers! It's mixed on who made out worse, the winners or the losers.


Detail of a snake head

This is at the top of the Ball Court, a lot of detail up top

More snake heads!

This is a shot of the Platform of the Eagles and Jaguars. Fairly small platform with amazing carvings

Some of the carvings, a Jaguar

Tzompantli, row of skulls, the Mayans used to stack them on poles. How thoughtful, who wants a bunch skulls laying around the temple, willy nilly.The skulls were either from battle or from the ball game.