Eclectic Parent

Last day in beautiful Merida. We swam in the pool and grabbed breakfast before checking out of the hotel. It took two taxi trips to the bus station to get all five of us and all the luggage. Luckily we had gotten an early start. Most tour guides and websites say just to show up at the bus station and go from there; we hadn’t thought about the fact that is was the Saturday before Christmas. With the two bus trips daddy had been in line about 45 minutes before we arrived. The very long, slow line inched forward as we watched the clock on the wall. We thought the bus left at 12:30 and we had about ten people in front of us when it was time. We got to talking to the kids about flexibility and patience when traveling expecting a five hour wait.

When we finally got to the counter the clerk checked the time and told us we could make the 12:40. It was already about 12:45 and we thought the bus had left fifteen minutes earlier. That left me asking in horrible Spanish if it was really the express. Turns out that buses sometimes running really really late occasionally works in your favor. We caught our bus to Chichen Itza. Hopped out in Piste and caught a taxi to our hotel, which was halfway between the city of Piste and the ruins at Chichen Itza.

We had to take two rooms because no where in the area would let us have more than four people in a room. We hadn’t even settled in before the kids were leaping in the pool. Hotel had definite pluses and minuses - small, grungy rooms, had to pay for two of them, really expenisve food and kids of trapped without a car, but the restaurant was open air right against the pool, lush tropical grounds and an area hung with hammocks. We went straight to the pool, the hammocks and lunch all at once.

Later we caught the shuttle to the light and sound show at Chichen Itza. We had thought there would be a show - having show in the title and all - but it was much more a loudspeaker history of the Mayans in general and Chichen Itza in specific as the various buildings were lit up. About 45 minutes of a loud booming voice in a language you don’t speak is a little much but honestly the kids sat through it better than I did. Sitting on plastic chairs and seeing the tops of buildings lit up, the kids kept saying they couldn’t see the pyramid. We just kept on reassuring them that we’d come back in the morning, in the daylight and see the very large, very big pyramid.