Valladolid

Our biggest surprise of Mexico has to be Valladolid. We could barely pronounce it's name when we arrived, and we still can't now. The food, cenotes, and beautiful streets won our hearts almost immediately and it just kept getting better. 

The main Cathedral of Valladolid

Getting There

From Holbox there is unfortunately only one bus per day - to make matters worse it leaves from Chiquila at 5:40am - yes AM. You need to get the first ferry (5am) from Holbox to make this bus. If you do miss it then you can always get a bus back towards Cancun, and either from Cancun or from one of the other towns on the road to Cancun (which I wouldn't want to stop at) get another bus back in the direction of Merdia.

Where to eat

Valladolid was a real surprise for us - we didn't expect much but we were really amazed how good all the food was. It was also really cheap after all the islands and tourist destinations we'd been to!

• Yuerba Buena - Kate found this place on trip advisor and we thought we'd give it a shot. We were not disappointed. I had one of the best Mango Lassies I've ever had, and the food (I got the Oaxaca claypot eggs with Plantains, Kate got Omelette with fruit) was really, really good. Brunch for two came to about 200 pesos.
• Tiger Taqueria - This was our first foray into Street food, Kate was especially worried about food poisoning but we went to the busiest stall and took a thorough look at their hygiene practices before partaking. I got a chicken roll, Kate went for two chicken tacos - for an amazing 40 pesos all up. Not only that but they were both delicious! Definitely one of my highlights - if only for the price...
• The Coffee Bike Station - Kate found this place on her quest for coffee and we both really like it. It's tiny, so don't expect food (though we did get some very nice cake),
• Trattoria San Giovanni - A really, really, really great italian, it doesn't look like much, or cost must, but it's a must do if you're craving pasta or pizza.

Where we stayed

We stayed at "The Aurora Colonial Hotel". We really liked it. It was clean, well priced (at about 750 pesos for a double), had a pool, and two Spa's on the roof. We got a better deal when we just showed up though, booking definitely inflates the price.

The hotels pool looked great at night!

Things to do

We only had one full day in Valladolid so didn't have too much time - we made sure to visit a few cenotes we'd heard were good.

• Cenote - Samula,and X'Kenken - get a Collectivo from the center (we just asked around) for 30 pesos each, we couldn't work out how to get back so got a taxi for 80 pesos.
• Cenote Zaci - This was our favourite Cenote, the best bit is it's right in the city and only 30 pesos. Go in the morning to avoid bus loads of people coming to watch you swim.

Journal

Arrival

After the ferry ride from Holbox we jumped off and started looking for a bus. I asked for Valladolid and a man replied with "tres!" and pointed me in the direction of a bus that said "Cancun". "That's not right" I thought, "that's in the wrong direction, I want to go to Merida". Merida was on the front of the first bus and so we chucked our bags on and joined the queue. We were quite nervous about getting a seat as the queue was long, but at least we hadn't missed the bus. We got to the front and said "Valladolid" to the bus driver. "No!" and pointed at the bus behind. At this point we panicked a little. I went to go and get the bags off the bus (which were now under a whole load of other bags), and Kate went to check the other bus and see what was going on. It turned out there was a third bus hiding behind the Cancun bus. Suddenly "tres" made sense... the third bus. We managed to board (but by this time we were all hot and bothered) and took our seats. This was not a good day so far!

As we had left Holbox early we also got in to Vallidolid a day early, we hadn't had time to try and book ahead so our best plan was to head to our hotel and see if they could accommodate us. We walked about a kilometer from the bus station to the stop where our maps application (MapsMe - it's great because you can download maps) directed us to. We looked at the map, looked at the building, and at the map again. This wasn't right at all. We asked around and were directed in multiple different directions and soon a 1 kilometer walk had become a 2 kilometer walk and our bags had become very heavy. We dropped our bags down at a cafe and I went for a quick scout around. I found it almost immediately, it was just hiding around one of the corners! As we'd sat down, Kate got a coffee and I got a mango smoothie and then we wandered over to the hotel to try our luck.

Resting our backs and feet after a confusing walk finding our hotel

We walked in to the hotel and asked the woman at the front desk in broken Spanish if we could book in a day early (it was also only just getting to 9am by this point so we thought we might not get a room for a couple of hours). To our surprise not only the room available, it was ready AND it was cheaper as we didn't need to pay a booking fee! Finally something went our way! We dumped our bags in the room, had showers, and set up the obligatory washing line before heading to look for some breakfast. We'd been up since 5am and hadn't eaten a thing!

Day 1 (not really but for arguments sake)

Kate had found a place on TripAdvisor that was about a 20 minute walk away and sounds really nice. It was called Yuerba Buena. We took a very nice route through the main square and down some very pretty streets. We were already very impressed with Valladolid, we hadn't expected this at all. The square that the cafe is on is also the home to one of the main churches and the cafe looks out on to it. There's also a courtyard out back but we chose to sit inside with the fans.

After brunch we came back to the hotel and did all our washing and bits and blogged for a bit, and also worked out what we wanted to do the next day. It was important to make use of such a nice room! After a couple of hours we started to feel a bit peckish, to keep the cost down we decided to head to the supermarket and get something for dinner. We could have it at the hotel and make use of the rooftop spa! The best supermarket is Chedraui, and it was about 2 kilometers away. We grabbed some rolls (for 5 pesos!?), an avocado and some tuna, some yogurts for dessert as well as a big barrel of water and started to make our way back to the hotel.

On the way back we made sure to cross whenever possible as there seemed to be dogs everywhere and they can never be trusted in these situations. It's like doing a paper-round, some dogs just have a problem with you! We'd almost made it back when we saw a dog minding it's own business (and also doing some downward dog yoga stretches), and I made my way past as normal. Suddenly there was a very loud and angry bark right next to me and it appeared that the dog had suddenly taken an exception to me. Kate later described my reaction as a "weird jump thing", but all I can say is that both feet left the ground I made use of the big barrel of water as a shield. The dog ran away immediately, but it was a rather scary encounter!

When we got back we went up to the roof and made our sandwiches before testing out the Spa. We jumped in and immediately wondered if it was going to warm up any time soon. It didn't warm up after 10 minutes and by that point we were a little chilly so decided to head back to our room for the night.

Day 2

We woke up early on Day 2 to make the most of our time in Valladolid - we already knew that we really liked it! Kate had found a place nearby for her morning coffee fix and so after we'd packed our bag we went out to find it. It was a tiny place called "The Coffee Bike Station". We were the only ones there so the owner took the time to chat to us and tell us all about his coffee shop. The coffee was really nice and had we weren't sure what to do for breakfast we grabbed a cookie and an egg tart type thing. It's always dangerous going for such sweet things in places like this, but we were pleasantly surprised.

Great coffee at the coffee bike station

From the coffee place we went in search of the Collectivos heading towards the Cenotes we wanted to go to. Those being Cenote Samula (my namesake) and Cenote X'kenken (hopefully noones namesake!). I had a fair idea of where to find them and after getting confused and walking around in a few circles and asking a few people we managed to find one. We jumped in with a couple of women who were very interested in talking to us. They quickly became amused and eventually were outright laughing at my attempts at Spanish!

The Cenotes are only about 10 minutes out of town so we were there quickly and so my Spanish training was soon over. We said "Adios" to the women and the Collectivo driver, and made our way to the ticket booth. It was 120 pesos to go to both Cenotes, X'kenken is the more famous one but we couldn't not go to Samula with a name like that! We went to Samula first and at the entrance found a stairway going straight down in to the ground. These Cenotes were no open, but actually in underground caverns! Awesome!

When we reached the bottom of the stairs the small passage way opened in to a huge cave with a big blue lake at the bottom of it. There's a small hole in the ceiling where the sunlight peaks through, giving some natural light, and a few other lights installed giving the cave a very pretty appearance. There's the sound of birds chirping echoing around the cave and we could see what looked like sparrows flying round too - it was pretty spooky. What also made it spooky was that yet again we had a place to ourselves (bar the lifeguard). A group had just left so it was over to Kate and I to take pictures and enjoy the space. It was great, the water was refreshing (a little chilly), and every now and then the fish come and have a nibble, but it was a lot of fun! After about 15 minutes another group arrived so we decided to go and check out the other Cenote.

Cenote X'kenken is just across the road for Cenote Samula, but because of the roots hanging down and the huge stalactites it seems to be a lot more popular. It was definitely busier! It was again a very cool space so we spent half an hour splashing around and taking photos before deciding we were hungry for food, and some more sunlight!

We were hoping for another Collectivo back towards the city but there weren't any around so we grabbed a taxi. We also tried to haggle, but when you don't know any Spanish that tends to be pretty difficult! We got a taxi for 80 pesos which still wasn't bad and he dropped us off just near the main square. As we walked back towards our hotel we were trying to work out what to have for lunch when suddenly a very busy street vendor caught our eye. You hear a lot of horror stories and also a lot of great stories about these vendors so we decided to take a closer look. The fact that is was busy was obviously a good sign. Lots of throughput of food hopefully meant everything was fresh, and we took a look at the meat and it definitely looked well cooked. They were also selling the chicken in rolls instead of tacos which appealed to me. "I just can't taco any more!". I got a roll which was a bargin at $20 pesos and immediately dug in. It was truly amazing, a seriously good chicken roll. Kate went for tacos and was equally surprised. We started the clock - It's usually about 4 or so hours before food poisoning sets in...

When we got back to the hotel we decided to use the pool for a bit before finishing some of our washing. As is often the case when backpacking we put the washing line up in our room (this time hung between the television and the curtain rail) for the clothes to dry. We then did a bit of blogging and decided what we wanted to do next. We'd already seen two cenotes however Cenote Zaci was about 3 blocks away and only 30 pesos. We didn't expect it to be very much as the guide books said Samula and X'kenken were the most impressive but we didn't have much else to do. So we put back our wet swimming things on and walked over.

The washing line - a key ingredient to the backpacker habitat

As I said previously, we didn't really expect much from Cenote Zaci. It had a similar stairway going down underground, however it then opened up in to a large semi-covered watering hole. It had tree blossom surrounding it and steps working their way round; It was undeniably pretty. There were about 15 or so people there so it wasn't too busy, we made our way down the last of the steps and put our stuff down and went in.

I'd been in the Cenote for about 10 seconds when I heard Kate exclaim "Oh Wow! Hey! What are you doing here?!" Or words to that effect. Kate had just seen her best friend from primary school... In a strange Cenote, in a strange town in Mexico. What are the chances?! Kate's friend Allegra was visiting Mexico with her family who were also at the Cenote. They all knew Kate and so we spent an hour or so talking to them, with Kate and Allegra reminiscing about old times, and catching up. They hadn't seen each other for a while.

After about an hour and a half at the Cenote and after Kate fully catching up with Allegra we decided to head back to the hotel as we were planning on heading out for dinner. As we left the skies opened, we were already pretty wet so we decided just to go for it. We got absolutely drenched. The rain was so heavy that the roads were all flooded within minutes so we ended up trudging through a few inches of rain water at each junction. Even though we'd just been through a shower we definitely needed another one when we got back!

For dinner Kate had found a very highly rated Italian place around the corner called Casa Italia. Not only was it highly rated but it was also pretty cheap at about 80 pesos for a main. We put our rain jackets on as it was still raining (though no quite as heavily) and walked the two minutes walk to the restaurant. It was shut. Slightly put-out we came back to the hotel to check the Wifi for any other good restarurants nearby, we now had our hearts set on Italian food though. We found a place about 10 minutes walk away called Trattoria San Giovanni - so we headed back out in that direction.

It's getting in to rainy season now!

The restaurant looked more like a takeaway pizza place when we got there. There were only a few tables though and most of them were taken, The food on the other tables looked really good so we sat down. I ordered the puttanesca while Kate got the carbonara. I also ordered a "Fresca el dia" not completely knowing what it was. It turned out to be the Hibiscus iced tea that we'd had in Cozumel, and it was really nice. The pasta was excellent, especially the puttanesca which I'd highly recommend. We didn't get any pizza but that also looked worth while. We were very pleased with the outcome. The meal came to just over 200 pesos.

Incredible Pasta at Trattoria San Giovanni

After our very adventurous day with the Cenotes and not to mention the Taqueria for lunch (still no sign of food poisoning!) we decided to give a Marquesita a try for dessert. Not really knowing what they were we went over to a stall in the main square to take a look. We again went for the vendor with a queue and found them to be making a pancake type mixture and then folding them in to a flattened roll with your topping of choice. I went for caramel and Kate went for Nutella and then were about 20 pesos each. After they are rolled the Marquesitas become hard and it ends up being a little like a very thin ice cream cone type flavour. Whatever it was, it was extremely tasty, we'll be having one again for sure! And with that it was back to the hotel and to bed.

Getting a marquesita for dessert!

Another great advantage of La Aurora Colonial Hotel was it's late checkout of 1pm. So we took full advantage of this and had a very slow morning. We decided to walk back to Yurba Buena for brunch. I got some molletes (which are like a Mexican cheese on toast), and Kate got some Jogurt and fruit. Just what we needed to keep us going til dinner (as we've been accustomed to having 2 meals now, both as a way to some money and time!). I got another mango lassi, which was yet again outstanding. After that we headed back to the hotel to pack up, and see if our clothes had dried yet. For some reason it had taken a very long time for our clothes to dry in our room - I don't think there was enough ventilation. We checked out bang on 1pm and headed to the bus station to catch our bus to Merida!