Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
DAY 35
Chichen Itza-Valladolid-Chetumal
Buses run day and night. I was up at 5 a.m., and it was hard to find a taxi in Merida in
the predawn dark. I walked the ten blocks to the bus station and caught the ADO bus for
Chichen Itza that left at 6:30 a.m.
After two hours on the bus I later I arrived in Chichen Itza. It was good timing as I arrived
ahead of the vanguard of tourist buses and European tour groups. Shops and restaurants
weren't open, but the gate to the archeological site was. Tickets cost 95 pesos. "Where can
I leave my bag?" I asked. The ticket clerk had to track down security. I was the first to store
a bag. In fact, I emptied my shoulder bag into another plastic bag to reduce weight and bulk
as I visited Chichen Itza.
I had been here with my family in 1975. Cancun was under construction; tourism was a
hope. We had the site mostly to ourselves back then. I don't even recall souvenir vendors.
In 1975 we scaled El Castillo the famous four-sided, ninety-one-step pyramid. (91 x 4= 364,
and the platform made it 365.) We climbed every monument and went inside the observat-
ory. Today, hundreds of tour buses, thousands of tourists, visit daily. The parking lot is large
