Yucatan

We’re enjoying our time in the Yucatan. Yesterday we took a tour with a group called Alltournative Travel. We travelled with them a few years ago and really enjoyed the excursion. Their trips usually include a visit and lunch in a Mayan Village, some fun outdoor activities and some archeological or cultural tour. The tour group size is always small, and if they have multiple groups in an area, they do a good job of spreading them out so you never feel like you’re in a cattle herd. And they work in partnership with the Mayan Villages to ensure the villagers’ lives improve in some way and that they provide some sustainable income.

This year, we went canoeing, hiked through the jungle, rappelled down into a cenote (underground lake),


and took a zip line across a crocodile infested lagoon (later we learned that although the lagoons sometimes have crocs, the one we saw was a cute little fake!).




After eating a delicious lunch of chicken, tortillas, vegetable soup, and rice, we travelled to Coba. Coba was an ancient Mayan city built in 400 BC. At one point, more than 100,000 people lived there and they had a paved road that led 100 km to another important Mayan city in the north, Chichen Itza. The most impressive feature left is Nohoch Muul, the tallest pyramid in the Yucatan.


We walked through the ruins, climbed the pyramid and were tuckered out after our very full day. None of these pictures were taken by me because they didn’t allow cameras on the trip. Not only are cameras potentially problematic during the ziplining and rappelling, but one of the money making schemes for the villagers is taking photos. Alltournative tour group provides them with nice digital SLR cameras and the capability to make CDs of the photos. These Mayan-paparazzi follow the tour groups around all day snapping photos. At the end of the day, they provide the opportunity to buy a CD of the days pictures. So, our contribution for the day was a highly over-priced disk of photos….but with some fun shots of us on our little adventure!