A short two hours by bus from Merida on Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula is the city of Valladolid. Named after the then capital of Spain, Valladolid was built atop the Maya town of Zaci, using the stones from the dismantled Maya buildings. This caused the Maya in the area to revolt but the uprising was put down by spanish soldiers arriving from Merida.

Valladolid has a small town feel even though it’s population is more than 45 thousand. The central park is a hive of activity and similar to Merida it’s a free wifi zone. The city is otherwise fairly plain, with only a handful of touristy restaurants and hostels. The main plaza, however, does have a beautiful fountain at its heart…

There is one attraction in the city, the Cenote Zaci. A cenote is a sink hole that has filled with water and is commonly found in this region of Mexico with a reported two thousand of them. Many of the cenotes are deep wide tunnels filled from rainwater or underground rivers, but can also be where an underground river flows out onto a beach. They were used by the Maya as a water source although the sacred one at the Chichén Itzá ruins was used for sacrifices. Cenote Zaci is a half cavern filled with water and said to be 100 metres deep. It’s used as a swimming pool by locals and tourists.

But it’s the nearby ruins of Chichén Itzá that brings most travellers and tourists to the town, although few actually stay in Valladolid. Tour buses leave from either Cancun or Merida regularly, dropping tourists directly at the ruins. Chichén Itzá is one of the most visited archaeological sites in Mexico visited by 1.2 million people a year, which is more people per day on average than Macchu Pichu in Peru. I was prepared for this and had called the site ‘Mexico’s Disneyland’ before arriving. To make things more interesting it poured with rain soon after my arrival at the site. Thankfully they sold rain ponchos at the gate and the rain made my day cooler and more enjoyable.

Chichén Itzá is one of the larger sites, similar in size to Uxmal, Palenque and Tikal, with much of it still covered in jungle. While the constant stream of tourists was annoying, the sheer number of locals selling trinkets seemed to out number the tourists. The entire site is surrounded by trinket stalls with many scattered throughout as well. I did see several of the stall owners carving their own products, so at least some the items are not mass-produced.

The main temple…

Chichén Itzá houses the largest ball court of all the ruins I’ve been to. I even found a second court, but that one was smaller and in worse condition than the larger one.

There is a great deal of wall carvings at the site, many surviving the ravages of time. Such as this king…

And this eagle…

There is a large section of the ruins where long lines of columns stand. The one thousand columns are in three sections each with a different style. One section once held the roof of the warrior’s quarters.

At the end of a long path with trinket stalls on either side is the sacred Cenote…

The highpoint of the ruins was the observatory, the only round building I’ve seen at any of the ruins.

Next, I head to the Caribbean Coast to the town of Tulum and another set of ruins, this one on the beach.

The World Wanderer