Merida, Mexico

After a very stressful 20 hours of traveling, we made it to Mexico. The signs all over Belize advertise a luxury bus that runs to Cancun or Merida every night. Of course the night we decide to take it, it's not running. Apparently, it's every night of the week some days of the week. That meant multiple bus stops and changes through the night. I have heard of people easily going from Cancun to Belize and back, but it hasn't been so easy for us.

Merida is only a four hour bus ride from Cancun. It has far exceeded our expectations. The food in the Yucatan has been great, we have enjoyed the colonial buildings, and Paseo de Montejo was very lovely. In the 1880's, the elite in Merida decided to make it the Paris of Mexico. Along Paseo de Montejo, they built beautiful mansions and parks. The avenue was really romantic at night.

Adam said this was the best taco al pastor meat he has ever had. That's quite a title since he lived in Veracruz for two years as a LDS missionary.

The ladies that made the tortillas at our favorite restaurant, The Chaya Maya.

We previously had called Tikal "Maya Disneyland," but Chichen Itza is more deserving of the title. There were thousands of people and vendors everywhere. It was the most crowded and loud site so far, and for good reason; the pyramid and the ball court are in excellent shape and are huge. It is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the New World.

After Chichen Itza, we stopped at one of the many cenotes (Ik Kil). Due to the large quantities of cenotes, Chichen Itza was thought to be the home of the water god. When the cenote was used by the Maya, they would have to climb down the tree roots to access it. Our tour was running late, so we could only spend an hour at the cenote. It was so relaxing and beautiful that we wished we could stay longer. The water is over 150 feet deep. We couldn't get a good picture of the Ik Kil so we used the following pictures from a travel site.

Uxmal is considered "baroque Maya" because it is so detailed. The site was quiet and peaceful with only a few other guests. The buildings and temples were the most ornate we have seen so far. Some of the buildings had a very Mediterranean feel. One of the thrones even contained Egyptian cartouches. A professor of Egyptology came to see the throne and verified that it in fact was Egyptian, but has yet to reveal what the characters mean. For those of us who have read the Book of Mormon, reformed Egyptian in Meso-america is no surprise :)

Flores, Guatemala

On our way to Tikal, we saw the beautiful lake Peten Itza.  In Mayan Peten Itza means "Island surrounded by enchanted waters". Flores is the island in the middle of Lake Peten Itza and a beautiful colonial town. It was the last Mayan city to be conquered by the Spanish. The current city is built on top of the old Mayan town. Across the lake, is a lookout point, which is built on an old Maya temple that has yet to be excavated. 

The picture of Flores is from the lookout point (Mirador).

Our first day there, we explored the island and found the Burger King. That was the first time Adam and I have had American food in over three months since there are no foreign chains in Belize. After eating, we took a boat tour of the lake on a boat like the one below. Flores has tons of water taxis constantly arriving and leaving the island.

The lookout point had great views of the area, but we were also pleasantly surprised to learn that Mayan artifacts wash up on the shore. We eagerly began looking for small pieces of pots. Jose, a guy who lives by the lookout point, helped us dig some bigger pieces out of the ground. Jose loved that we were so excited about the pieces so he also showed us his collection of bigger pieces of statues and pots he had found on his land. Below is a picture of Adam and Carolyn playing "Indiana Jones" as we called it.

The next day we rented canoes for the whole day to explore more of the lake. We stopped first at a rope swing. The Guatemalans had told us several times to visit "the place where you can be Tarzan." We spent some time on the rope swing and weren't always as graceful as Tarzan and Jane. We did get the hang of it by the end.

After the rope swing, we stopped by the Mirador to search for more pottery and then canoed to a beach. After spending about an hour on the beach, we saw some dark clouds coming. We didn't want to be stuck so far from Flores in a storm so we decided to canoe back. After about twenty minutes of canoeing, the storm hit us. The heavy rains were hitting our faces and the wind was pushing the canoe back. I have never paddled so hard in my life. There was a time I seriously thought we might need to abandon the canoe and swim to the closest shore. Luckily, we were able to canoe back to the shore. We have heard it might have been a hurricane. That would explain the quick on set of intense wind and rain.  If that's the case, then we canoed straight through a hurricane, pretty awesome.

After our intense canoeing trip, we spent the rest of the evening swimming. The water of lake Peten Itza is surprisingly warm. The whole island is covered in sunken docks for swimming like the one below. We finished the day with a picture perfect sunset.