Day 1 experience.. lines, lines and more lines..

Lots of huge corn..

Dipped a fried tortila ina creme and covered it in cheese.. might tasty!

This may look like a closet, but it is the brewery. \240They make it work!

The city is covered in murals. \240A great example from the way home.

With my tag team partner - who set this whole thing up by the way..

Tonight’s card!

At Arena Mexico

They have women who come out and do cheesy dances for each wrestler who comes out. \240I thought it was hilarious.

They had women wrestlers too. \240Actually they put on one of the best matches!

A favorite..

These guys favor this high flying style.

A little person in a pink skelton costume.. sure..

The scary Lucifernos!

A total He-Man ripoff.. also hilarious.

We saw the trainers walking and running them throughout the park. \240Probably explains why they are sleeping.

A concrete dog park.

Huge fountain mostly controlled by the ducks..

If you look closely at the playground equipment here you will see it’s actually workout equipment. \240Everything is rigged to use your own body as the weight. \240Great place to workout!

Then we went and saw a still preserved real deal

The Mezcal came right out of the jugs to the right - just like beer from a tap.

Some people choose to take air balloon rides over the site.

Linds at the first and smallest pyramid, the Temple of thr Feathers.

The aptly named Pyramid of the Sun. It’s the biggest one on the site.

View from the bottom - yes we did climb the whole thing.

A lot has been restored, but these are original steps.

Avenue of the Dead - the Pyramid of the Moon sits at the end.

Puma mural.

View from the Pyramid of the Moon.

A look at excavated and restored front and untouched back of a platform.

Goodbye tiny bathroom.. I had to sit sidways and stand to the side.. won’t miss that!

Back to Frida’s house! \240Unfortunately they charged for pictures so Linds has them all.

Pretty crowded at Casa Azul!

Hanging out in the park at Coyorocan

Got a couple of churros at a churroria, which is an awesome idea for a store. \240But surprisingly, they were not that impressive..

Note the missing propellers, windows, engine covers, etc...

The Maya played baseball in their free time. \240It specifically says so right here!

Funny how anthropologists would see Mayans as related to Egyptians

Mayans have Gods for everything. \240Here are just a few.

Turns out, all ball courts are different, complete with different rules and styles of play.

We got our Mayan horoscopes. \240Bob is a turtle and Linds is a shark..

Books containing Mayan glyphs.

Pretty cool mural behind me!

No artists.. not much to see.. so a little disappointed.. but some of the artwork was cool.

We went to the main square to catch a light show and ran into a protest.

Apparently a bus full of students disappeared and nobody knows what happened to it. \240Everyone is blaming each other but no one is taking action. \240Meanwhile the kids are still missing..

Light show seemed a bit unimpprtant after that.

Told the story of Merida on the side of the Cathedra.

They don’t let you do much here.. I particularly like the no peeing symbol.

These iguanas were everywhere!

The magician’s house. \240Pretty grand looking but not that high - 39m.

Uxmal is one of the most ornamented Mayan ruins. \240Most of the ornaments are tributes to Cha’ac, the Mayan rain God.

Magician’s house from the back.

More Cha’ac

The ball court - one ring is missing and the other one here is fake. \240We saw the real one at the anthropology museum.

View from grand pyramid.

More ornamentation

Not much to look at here - gets better.

Mayans built their own underground resevoir system to hold rain water - complete with water filtering fungus!

Still lots if restoration work to do.

Kabah means strong hands and comes from these statues found on site.

Images depicting battle.

This was the real highlight - 260 images of Cha’ac adorned this building. \240The rain God came through and it rained while we were here!

Mayan glyphs.

It is essentially alcohol made from maize. \240Linds felt it was smoother than tequila and I liked it flavored with cacao.

Then to Bela Chela to try Patito beers.

Not only was the beer good, but the food was great! \240Baked cauliflower app with beet root ceviche and a sweet potato pizza.

Best restaurant experience in Merida!

The team on the left won 3-2. \240Looked really hard!

Winner were awarded a trophy. \240Traditionally someone would be sacraficed - the debate is whether it is the winner or loser.

Then they played something like the free throw game

Turns out it was mostly just this guy.

Pretty cool stuff though.

Some other folks work.

I really wanted to try a marquesita!

It begins with a thin waffle cone like shell..

He adds your choice of topping - in this case nutella - then a parmesan tasting cheese and rolls it.

He tops it with more cheese. \240Here’s the before..

And the after! \240Make a waffle and top it with nutella and parmesan.. its actually not too bad - great mix of salty and sweet.

Some pretty cool ones.

Really skilled work.

Then for ice cream! \240We also popped into Cometa for some silly stickers.

These guys are known for pork and beans ice cream but we couldn’t make ourselves try it.

Good bye Merida and good bye Luz! \240Won’t miss either of you and won’t be back!

Made it into the park! \240First section was the 2600 columns. \240Theycaren’t kidding - nothing but columns..

The round columns are not Mayan - they are Toltec - the folks who came after..

In the middle of our walk it started raining, so we hid under the tarp of one of the many guys hawking tourist wares.

Here’s the same view 20 minutes later.. when it rains it literaly pours.

Finally stopped and we continued - more columns!

El Castillo with the sky in the background. \240I can see how people living back then saw this as mystical - feels like the sky is going to open right up.

Lots of cool glyphs to find.

This cenote was considered very sacred and people came from all over to pay tribute. \240Lots of gold and silver as well as human remains found at the bottom.

These skulls mark all of the lives claimed in battle and sacraficed in ceremony.

There’s that sky again..

And moments later it poured hard - no saes table to hide under so this time we found the tiniest of ledges next to a shack..

Messing around before the show..

On the way back to our room, caught this great view of the observatory at Chichen Itza..

Best place for a menu at a pizza restaurant? \240On the paddle of course!