Yucatán - Mayan ruins and Cenotes

From Palenque, we took another overnight bus to Mérida, the capital of the state of Yucatán on the Yucatán Peninsula. And thus, into the most touristy region of Mexico.

There is a lot to see here. Besides the peaceful city, there is the well-restored Mayan ruin of Uxmal in the middle of the jungle and countless cenotes (waterholes, either open or closed as caves). In most of them, you can swim, which is quite an experience. There are the never-ending beaches of Progreso with turquoise blue water and of course, Chichén Itzá, the most famous of all Mayan ruins. Since it is located only about 2.5 hours from Cancun (the worst tourist destination I have ever seen, in my opinion), people are brought here by countless tour buses even in the low season. To avoid this, I stayed in the nearby Valladolid, took the first taxi collectivo at 7:00 a.m., and Holly and I were actually the first ones in the ruins. No people, no annoying souvenir sellers, which there are hundreds of. Pretty perfect. And then we got the stamp in the passport, which is officially distributed here. Pretty cool 😊 Nevertheless, the ruins in Uxmal and Palenque were more exciting.

And contrary to my fear, Mayan ruins NEVER get boring. I'm looking forward to Tulum and Tikal. And maybe a few others in between...