Biking West 2015 ‐ Chichen Itza

2015-11-12

tl;dr: I visited Chichen Itza.

For some reason this hotel bucks the trend and employs too few to serve its guests. Even though it wasn't busy, my first morning at the restaurant it took ninety minutes before I was asked if I wanted to order. (I was working on my laptop, but still.) I swear the coffee here is instant, and the pancakes come out of a box.

I stayed two nights so I could get a little caught up on some work. It was tough with the hotel's sketchy internet. Eventually, the common area router stopped working. I asked at the front desk if they could reboot it or something. The guy looked at me and just said, "This is the jungle," and shrugged.

Today I finally visited Chichen Itza. These bigger Mexican tourist attractions require two tickets. You pay one price, but are handed two tickets. Then there are two people at the gate with scanners. One will scan each ticket. Mexico.

It only takes about an hour to walk around and look at everything, and then it takes another thirty minutes to find your way back to your entrance, for there are multiple entrances, and only the one you entered from is useful to you (unless you feel like walking several kilometers).

Archeological zones aren't much for maps or directions. I suspect this is to encourage you to hire a guide. Chichen Itza is completely full of vendors. For the most part they all sell the same things. I suspect they are limited to "authentic" souvenirs, because I never once saw sunglasses for sale, and I could have used some new ones, because I set mine down along the road and biked off without them.

A lot of clapping takes place in Chichen Itza.

After Chichen Itza I checked out of the hotel and started down the road. My route is somewhat constrained as I need to find a FedEx or DHL in order to mail something to Norfolk. I could either go 100 kilometers completely out of my way, or I could angle toward Campeche 300 kilometers down the road. I could more easily find a normal Correos de Mexico, but those aren't for sending mail you actually want delivered.

So I followed a busy, narrow highway for a bit before turning off onto a quiet jungle road. As night approached I ignored the sprinkling rain, even though I could see dark clouds in the distance. So when the rain really started I ended up getting completely soaked as I set up my tent. I had found a woodcutter trail and followed it into the jungle a few dozen yards. I can hear the occasional car on the road, but I can't see the road.