Cancun to Palenque, the Whole Enchilada

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Eventually, the whole site had to be abandoned because, well, everyone was either being sacrificed or dying, and that was the end of Chichen Itza. The Spaniards and inter-tribal warfare took care of the rest, although the Maya are still the largest indigenous group in Mexico. Incidentally, if you’re thinking of seeing the world, you might want to do it soon. The Mayan calendar, which accurately divided the year into 365 days, with leap years, also mentioned that the era of man would end on Sunday, December 12th, 2012. Yep, they were that specific. Apparently only a few people will survive whatever catastrophe is coming, and we will move on to the next age of spiritual destiny. In the meantime, you’ve only got a few years to see the world, or get your freak on (whatever suits you better).

It’s a bumpy bus, and like all Mexican buses, there’s a bad American movie dubbed into Spanish with the volume cranked. Not that I’m complaining. The ADO buses here are air-conditioned, comfortable, clean, smoke-free, and cruising at speed through the lush Yucatan Peninsular. The more we drive, the more we discover the real Mexico. Such as Merida, the capital of Yucatan, home to about a million people, with a rich colonial and Mayan heritage. Merida has all the colours and flavours of the Mexican platter I ordered at Pancho’s Restaurant. Which reminds me, the food here is rapidly putting Mexico on my Best Food in the World list, Montezuma’s Revenge be damned! Tacos, enchiladas, fajitas, hundreds of varieties of chili, and you can’t go wrong. Meanwhile, I finally learnt the difference between a burrito and an enchilada. Enchiladas are made with corn wraps, burritos with flour wraps. Now you know too.

After meeting Denis, a local tour agent who relocated from Toronto 26 years ago, I took up his offer to check our the famous cenotes that lie about an hour’s drive from the city. Along the way, we passed small Mayan villages, dense, low jungle, and one unfortunate but sizeable rattle snake that crossed the road at exactly the wrong time. Rattlesplat.

“This is how the Maya live today,” explains our guide Andreas. The villages are dusty, the heat baking the earth. Children are everywhere, playing as they do. Nobody seems taller than 5ft. We transfer vehicles to a small horse-drawn wooden cart, and head into the bush along a narrow gauge rail that was laid down almost a century ago. Just as I’ve lost all feeling in my butt, we arrive at the first cenote, the “stone rainbow”. Picture stunning crystal blue water, a natural cave pool formed millions of years ago in limestone, with warm, fresh water. You can clearly see the catfish swimming below, and it looks like someone poured in a ton of that bath colour therapy stuff you get at the hippie stores. The three cenotes I saw looked exactly like the kind of place you’d see in travel brochures, only it actually looks like the photo. Wooden platforms made perfect dive boards, and we scaled the walls of the cave as stalactites slowly dripped their way from the ceiling. At the second cenote, the Red Ends of the Tree, giant roots from a tree above descended 12m into the cave to drink from the spring, which was over 22m deep. Perfect for thrill-seeking, ball-busting rock jumping. Mind your cajones! Fifteen minutes further down the track was the Nine Mouse Holes - where beams of sunlight lit up the water in a deep, dark cavern. Gonzo Tip: Visiting this region - including the snake nest of Cancun - without taking a day to explore these gorgeous cave pools would be like buying a ticket to see the Rolling Stones without Mick Jagger.

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