The next two days in Merida were pretty laid back. It´s nice to be on the ground for a while. Yesterday was the first time in a week we didn´t actually use an alarm clock, what a joy! We started the day by taking care of laundry. We then found the city market (it´d be a flea market if there was any space left for fleas), and tried to manage not to buy any trinkets, despite mild physical pressure (sometimes we had to resort to pretending that we can´t understand a word). We did buy a Panama hat though, and might actually use it someday. We then toured the downtown area some more and visited a modern art museum. On the positive side, it didn´t cost much. On the negative side, what you pay is what you get. Enough said.

Today we planned to fly out of here, but the overcast, rainy weather had different plans. So instead we took a bus to Uxmal, another magnificent set of Maya Ruins. The bus driver had the typical laid back attitude, so when he missed our exit he just backed out on the highway, and when he was thirsty he just stopped by a kiosk. But he arrived early nevertheless, so we can´t complain. Uxmal was a not as sizeable as Chichen Itza, but seemed more appealing—perhaps because of the lack of half-naked tourists and insistent peddlers. It´s a little hard to describe in words, so how about we let the pictures talk instead? (4x1000=4000 words!)


This is the view as you enter the Uxmal park. This picture does a poor job of portraying the sheer size of this pyramid.

This is the same pyramid as viewed from some distance. It is actually the fifth pyramid built on top of four previous.



A close view of the palace of the governors. Note the intricate carvings on the top.


This is the view from top of the only climbable pyramid in both ruins. It´s a scary torture on the way up, but it´s even worse on the way down.