Day 3 and 4 Chichen Itza and Isla Mujeres

Day 3

Yay, here we go - finally one of the new wonders of the world. Chichen Itza. The anticipation is huge. We are happy to accept the 12 hour excursion time for this. When we woke up in the morning the first shock. Heavy rain. Will he ruin our tour? Hopefully not. After a kilometer walk, we were already soaked and arrived at the pick-up point for the tour. The day had already started at 4.30 for us 😱

When the bus arrived we were told we were not on the list of passengers. After a good 10 minutes we were allowed to get in and go on the excursion 💓.

The excursion cost 30 euros. What do you expect (Chichen Itza costs another 35 dollars per person). Unfortunately I was quick 😒. Stop in Valladolid. According to plan. We took a quick walk with Laura and then we continued. To the cenote. The horror began at the cenote. It's a coffee trip. Of course everything was handmade by the exploited natives who don't know Spanish or English. But telling us in English that we could also pay via the terminal was possible... After leaving the stand(s), there should now be a cenote in the area. It was really beautiful in nature. But toilets, changing rooms and life jackets were so cheap that we just had to look at it. The included food was there... and at the end a Maya came along and wanted to sell us a great bottle of schnapps with our picture on it for an unbeatable 20 euros. During the trip they tried to sell us a Mayan calendar, but we remained stubborn and didn't buy anything. Finally we went to Chichen Itza for the actual main act. You can't get to this place cheaper. (From next year there will be a train connection from Cancun to Chichen Itza).

It was estimated that it would take just under 2 hours to get there - unfortunately in the end it wasn't enough for us. But we were able to take beautiful photos and still explore the remote areas and enjoy the peace and quiet there. There was only a crowd in the main square and the stalls were advertising their goods. Often a no Gracias wasn't enough. This no Gracias also applies to Cancun. Taxi every 5 to 10 meters? No Gracias? Trip? No graces. Kids arrive with stuff. No graces. People on the beach. No graces. People in front of the supermarket. No graces. Children cleaning the window of a taxi. No graces.

The funny thing is, it's not just against the tourists. Even all the employees/workers/taxi drivers are always offered everything ten times by the other providers.

Ok, I digress.

In the evening we arrived in the room around 8 p.m. We put our feet up and fell asleep 😬

Day 4

The plan was to sleep in. Be it jet lag or simply my biorhythm. At 4.30 I was wide awake 😂

Laura slept until 8am instead. We had a relaxed breakfast and left the accommodation around 9am.

With the aim of booking the trip to Tulum, we walked towards the ferry port. The providers for Tulum also sold us a catamaran tour. 33 dollars. For snorkeling, swimming, viewing Isla Mujeres, shopping, dining and boating. The ferry would cost $30 per person. Of course we struck. What we weren't told when we arrived at the marina: No habla ingles.

Oh how nice that was... None of them spoke English 😂 so we got into the promised catamaran. More of a nut shell. A discarded fishing boat from 1950 😂 all the high-end yachts next to us... Just us: luckily we haven't booked Tulum with this guy yet 😱

When we arrived snorkeling, we politely declined. Getting into such a cutter without a ladder is not that easy. After the stop we went to Playa Norte, one of the most beautiful beaches we had ever seen. There you could almost 100 meters into the water and look at fish without having to 🏊‍♀️. After a good 90 minutes we moved on to the next stop. Now it was time to explore the island. Golf carts were available. We spent a good 2 hours exploring.

Dinner followed on the other side of the island. The crossing with the cutter took place without any problems.

When we arrived back in Cancun, we took a taxi and drove to our accommodation. We had exchanged money beforehand. If we had known that there were such big problems with a 500 peso note (approx. 25 euros)... Then they could have given us small notes straight away. Because we had agreed on 200 pesos for the taxi ride. A change was not possible. Luckily we still had a few dollars with us.