Getting there from Merida was easy, you can see it in the movie below when you virtually ride along with us. The GPS didn't have any issues with getting us out of Merida and onto the country roads we wanted to see. Why the GPS had so much problems with Ticul remains a mystery, it's not that big a town or complex. We stopped in Kantunil for a drink and watched the town go by. Taxis came and went to drop passengers off at the square. From there they went into a local motorcycle driven taxi, one of the many uses of the countless little motorcycles here. I wondered why the taxis didn't simply drop their passengers off at their homes. It wasn't until we left and looked into the side roads while riding through town that we worked out why. The roads are simple sandy tracks, too narrow and bumpy for a standard car! The taxi drivers looked at us and our bikes in disbelief, asked us a dozen questions that we tried to answer as good as we could. We must have stuffed up most of them as our answers usually resulted in surprised faces and rolling laughter :-)
Looking at where we could put the tents, I found a spot a little bit away from the pool but under a huge palapa. Big enough to fit two tents and our bikes! So we rode them out of the lobby, past the swimming pool and the toilet building… under the palapa. The palapa has light and electrics, so we could charge our batteries and computers as well. Great! Internet is available in the lobby and that evening we managed to get two new pages on the blog, the first since San Miguel de Allende.
The lady that owns the Inn likes cats. She feeds around 20 of them and frequently looks after injured animals too. Good people! One of her cats, red Gary, took a liking to us and decided not only to have breakfast and dinner with us, but spend the night in the vestibule of the tent too. Guess we didn't had have any problems with mice or rats :-) She also advised us to go to Chichén Itzá early before the, as she called the, cattle trucks arrive… (the tour coaches). 'Be there at 8.30 and you have the place to yourself until about 11. After that it becomes a madhouse…' She was right. When we left at 1pm there were no less than 26 coaches in the parking lot! The problem was that the sun didn't manage to get through the clouds until 10.30… so we had to do most of our photos again, as the pyramids were now in glorious sunlight…!
So, what was it like? Does it live up to the hype and is it the best of the best? Well… we were slightly disappointed when we entered. Having walked around for a good hour and a half, we all liked Palenque more than Chichén Itzá, but couldn't quite put our finger on why that was. Part of it was that Palenque is not roped off… so you can walk everywhere and see everything, but the biggest difference was that Palenque is so much prettier to look at. Chichén Itzá's entry fee, which is 3 times as high as Palenque, didn't help either. But then the clouds disappeared… and the sun came out… and everything changed! The grey and dull pyramid, palaces and ruins were suddenly warm yellow coloured beauties against a stark blue sky. The carvings, which had been hardly noticeable before, now showed brilliantly with clear sharp lines and lots of contrast. 
Once inside the compound they set up tables and started unpacking thousands of souvenirs… After 5 minutes I had enough. How many times can you say 'No gracias' before your voice box wears out? Here's a tip for future visitors: have a T-shirt made that says 'No gracias!' and wear earplugs when visiting touristy places. I can understand that they have to make a living too, but there are thousands of them and they all sell exactly the same stuff! Most of it is cheap Chinese rubbish, some of it downright ugly and perhaps a small part handmade art. We had a discussion about that… Jeanette thinks some of it might be original hand made art, I think it's all Chinese and some of them are smart enough to pretend they make them on the spot by working on a mask with old battered tools. Quite frankly I don't really care, I do not like being harassed by salesmen and women and there is no way that I can take all that stuff with me anyway.
We still had a long way to walk as Chichén Itzá is a big site. The ruins are beautiful to see, in sunlight that is, and well worth a visit. The other thing to look for are the big lizards. I learned today that the big ones can actually jump from branch to branch! We photographed a few of them and also spotted some kind of huge millipede, a weird looking thing with a body that resembles a spring of at least 12 cm (4 inches) long.
While I made photos of the ruins in beautiful sunlight, Mike and Jeanette were talking to one of the few people that actually make the Mayan masks. A strange man too as unlike the others he wasn't pushy or loud… he just quietly explained about the masks he had made. He was clearly proud of what he had made too and showed Mike his tools and how to use them. Apart from masks he made wooden Mayan calendars too. He explained that the thickness of these calendars varies, depending on how many mistakes he had made… honestly! If he made a mistake he had to grind the carvings away, and thereby grinding a layer of the timber away and start over. The things you learn in 'one dollar avenue'! March 21st is a special day to the Mayans, to me too but for a totally different reason. On March 21st the Mayan snake, Kukulkan comes down from the ski's above to help with peaceful trade between different social and ethic backgrounds. Exactly six months later he leaves again. 
Guess what happens… hordes of tourists re clapping in their hands at the wrong speed and can't hear the Gods replying… so they clap harder… faster… and make a spectacle of themselves. I honestly wonder what Mexican opinion of Gringos is sometimes…!
The madness was starting to get to me in the end. Thousands of bus tourists from all over the globe, trampling over everything and not caring about anyone or anything but themselves. They wear the most obscene coloured clothing and show body parts that no-one wants to see. I'm sorry, but if you weigh 500 pounds then don't wear short shorts… If your stomach has the size of a zeppelin then please wear a T-shirt that at least covers your enormous belly button… and when someone tries to make a photo, do not swarm around him like bees around a honeypot! Man I hate bus-tourist…! Walking to one of the last ruins, a couple of German women followed me. That in itself is already bad enough to contemplate serious action, but these were yelling to each other in German! Achtung Bitte! I bit my lip and said nothing, it wouldn't have been pretty if I hadn't.
While all this was getting to me, the salesmen were stepping up a gear in selling their wares. We were heading towards the exit so it was their last chance… They were wrong, but so were we! Even outside they tried to sell us everything. The biggest joke was an obese man with a substantial beer belly, dressed in tacky warrior clothing… He pretended to be an original Mayan Warrior and tried to get us to take a picture of him for pesos… You have to be kidding me…! He is a Mayan Warrior… yeah right! Behind him was bird man pretending to be a Mayan Chief I suppose… how low can you go? Anyway, having just learned that the Mayans weren't all that friendly and chop your head off and offer you to their Gods… why would you want to be on a photo with one?
We also had the visitor you see on the right. No idea what it was, but it looked and moved funny enough to take a photo. It's a kind of centipede, about 15cm long and 1.5 cm round. The yellow bands around him made it almost move like a spring. As you can see, there is some sort of 'damage' in the middle… maybe he/she crashed into something and the spring got stuck? Who knows.
