The further south we fly, the hotter it gets.  For Saturday we planned a relatively long flying day to get to Merida to catch up with Eitan´s friend, that was leaving the next morning. We had to make a fuel stop at Ciudad del Carmen, where we were greeted by half a dozen armed soldiers that cordially inspected the entire airplane for drugs (sniffing dog and all). Do we look like drug-smugglers? we certainly look like tourists...  We weren´t in a lingering mood in this airport so we rushed through the requisite hour of paperwork (really, it never ends, and it always involves running back and forth between the same offices to get multiple stamps). We then took off again and flew along a beautiful shoreline and densely green land.  We arrived to Merida (satellite image) just in the nick of time, since flying after sunset requires more complicated rules (and indirect routing). Once in Merida we met up with our patient friend for a fancy Italian dinner and a few long-awaited cold beers. 

Today we saw the amazing Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza, about 100km east of Merida.  Leaving the hotel (a hotel with real towels and beds and all) at 8am we were hot and sweaty in the space of fifteen minutes—this is going to take a little getting used to!  About an hour´s car ride later we were stepping onto the clearing of the great pyramid ("El Castillo"), a truly impressive sight. It looks even bigger than this:



Eitan was disappointed to learn that tourists can no longer climb the 91 stairs to the top (and Lucinda was a little relieved), owing to a vertigo-challenged tourist that fell to his death last year (who would have guessed that an American tourist would be the one to ruin the ruins for everyone?).  But even without the feat of climbing virtually vertical stairs there was plenty to keep us busy—ogling, sweating and snapping photos, like this one:



It was not shocking to discover that we´re not the only white meat there. A plethora of tourists (and most blondly, German tourists) were soon filling the place and getting magnificent sunburns. What was shocking was that this 1200 year-old sacred site has wireless internet. Go figure.