We enjoyed Merida but we were very ready to leave the big city and get back to a smaller Mexican village. Valladolid is another one of those towns we love in Mexico where the community is centered around the zocalo or town square. This was another older town with many buildings that were are very old and are in the process of being restored to their colonial glory. It wasn’t as beautiful as Campeche and some areas of Merida, but I think it is on its way. It has recently been booming because of the influx of tourist buses from Cancun and Tulum carrying foreigners on their way to see the Mayan Ruins of Chichen Itza. The Mayan Train is only going to increase the tourist numbers and bring more money to Valladolid. The town needs to improve their sidewalks to make it on the same comfortable level as some other of the colonial town. Valladolid already has a lot of really interesting restaurants that attract tourists and we got to try several on our 5 nights in town.
Valladolid also has it’s share of attractions for a small town besides Chichen Itza. On the first day we took another “free” walking tour to get our bearings and find out what would be interesting to us. Valladolid is in the center of the Yucatan so it is also in the middle of cenote-land. Cenotes are holes to fresh water aquifers and many have been made into some wonderful swimming holes. The entire Yucatan peninsula has over 10,000 cenotes and Valladolid is close to several. We had one just a couple of blocks from our Airbnb but we didn’t end up going swimming because the weather has cooled down to the low 80’s :>). Valladolid also has an impressive convent that was built in the 1500’s on top of another cenote. It was mildly interesting to us…. but we have been to a lot of missions and convents. What we did really enjoy was visiting the Casa de los Venados. A couple from Portland, Oregon restored a huge colonial Mexican house and filled it with their huge Mexican art collection. The old guy still lives there but lets tourists visit his home for a $5 charity donation.
The big reason people come to Valladolid is because it is the closest town to Chichen Itza. In 2001, they were named as one of the 7 new Wonders of the World ( 1. Great Wall of China, 2. Rome Colosseum, 3. Petra in Jordan, 4. Christ the Redeemer in Rio, 5. Machu Picchu, 6. Taj Mahal, 7. Chichen Itza). This a huge deal and has led to a big increase in tourism. The huge bus parking lot was totally full with people traveling on day trips from cruise ships and the big resort beach towns. Chichen Itza is huge and has many wonderfully restored temples, pyramids and other ruins. It also has more vendors operating inside the gates which really took away from the experience. We were constantly barraged by vendors who were yelling about the good deals they had on their carved masks and figurines. I did take a lot of good pics though. My parents did visit here in 1967 but didn’t take any pics that day so I can’t compare this time. We have now been to a lot of Mexican ruins and I am ready to write an upcoming blogpost about our favorite sites. I am thinking of a top 10 list- so look forward to that post.
Most of our time in Valladolid was actually just hanging out in our Airbnb. We shared a pool, kitchen, and outside living room with one other room and the Canadian owners of the Airbnb. We haven’t been able to connect with other nomads lately so it was nice to have some friendly people to talk with. We really enjoyed our time here and would recommend this Airbnb for anyone coming to Valladolid. We didn’t have a TV or a fridge in our room but sometimes it is nice to share common spaces and make some new friends.
We are now headed for our 16th Mexican state (out of 32) which is Quintana Roo. We are going to take some time off of seeing cultural attractions and Mayan ruins and just spend some time on the beach. Isla Holbox– here we come!!!
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