Mexico Vacation - Day 2

Despite being super tired, we had to drag ourselves up bright and early to go visit Chichen Itza as it was the only day with a good weather forecast. As we wanted to have a flexible schedule, we had arranged for a private car with a tour guide.

The first stop was a tourist trap craft shop which sold horrendously expensive crafts. We got away with minimal damage and headed to Chichen Itza which was super hot by the time we got there.Chichen Itza is a famous ruin of one of the largest Mayan cities.

However, we've seen many ruins and this one didn't quite impressed me that much. It probably is because we're no longer allowed to climb them and hot weather and cranky children didn't quite help the cause either!!

However we still spent more than 2 hours trudging through the vast layout of the ruins checking out the various areas while half listening to our guide talk about the features, history etc.

After the ruins, we headed to another tourist trap for some lunch, which was much welcome by everybody. Food was plentiful and there were some local dancers performing dances with bottles and pots on their head. OK...

After lunch, as i requested for a stop to swim at a Chenote(underground sinkhole), our tour guide took us to a less frequented destination. I was a little skeptical when i got there but when we walked down the stairs to the sink hole, we were presented with a beautiful, serene sink hole, filled with clear water, with no one around. And i knew the private tour was worth it.

Everybody was a little excited to try the water but yet a little freaked out by it as it's quite deep and super cold! Even the kids who are superb swimmers refused to venture in without any life jackets or floating tubes.

We swam in our "private" chenote for about 1 hour before calling it quits. It was so beautiful and serene in there that we were all sad to leave it. The stalactites that hung from the ceiling made the place so unique. Nothing that we've ever seen before.

Cody checking out Puma mask

Some pottery on sale at Chichen Itza

One of the first ruins we came to

Some interesting wind chimes

Listening to our guide

Tyler likes his little shell that was given by the tourist trap shop

Huge iguanas all over the ruins

Tyler by a ruin

Look at their faces

Alan and I

With the grandparents

Probably one of its most famous facades

Local traditional dancers at lunch

Our beautiful Chenote

Alan checking out the water

Everybody's in

View from the top

This is how you access the chenote

Cody carrying a kitten after Kong-kong showed him the right way to do it

Tyler giving it a try too