5.15am found us waiting at the front of our hotel for the coach that would take us to Chichen Itza. As with other trips we did the usual tour of other hotels in the area to collect fellow Thomson excursionists.

Once everyone was on the coach Martin, our tour guide introduced himself, the driver and our host. Because we were spending so much time travelling they had laid on a team member whose role it was to ensure we were fed and watered. The first service was breakfast (well breakfast pastries with coffee and juice). Martin was quite the card and helped bring the pastries round and informed us that his grandmother had cooked them especially for us?! Before we had even arrived at Chichen Itza we were being offered more drinks - this time beer was on the menu as well and it wasn't even 9am! We also made a slight detour to pick up fresh cooked tortilla's from a mayan bakery. Martin demonstrated the 'traditional' way to eat them, he told us we were to add a pinch of salt in the middle and then scrunch them up and put them in our mouth whole! They were certainly fresh and not the kind of tortilla that you buy in Sainsburys.

Before we arrived Martin passed a Mayan date chart of his birthday around the coach and explained that we could order one and it would be ready for us once we had finished our tour. Diana ordered one as a wedding anniversary present for Sedge (the least she could do when she had gone on holiday without him over her anniversary).

We arrived at Chichen Itza soon after 9am and were only the second coach in the carpark. We were given two tickets - for some reason the local government and the national government required us to have different entry tickets - bureaucracy at its best.

As we had arrived at Chichen Itza before too many other visitors arrived Martin encouraged to take our photographs first. He then began his highly entertaining explanation of Mayan culture. He had a way of interacting with the group, using them as illustrations for much of the ideas he was seeking to communicate. We learnt about the Mayan ball game and he showed us the amazing echo in the ball court - explaining how it was different that other courts some of us had seen. When it came to describing sacrifices he arranged for a replica knife to 'appear' for the role play.

In a similar way to Coba much of Chichen Itza has not been discovered, but what is different is that much more of the sight has been reconstructed. We were shown the difference between Mayan and Toltec archeology. In particular the Observatory is Mayan without any Toltec influence.

Although it had been cloudy when we arrived the sun had burnt through the clouds and began to get quite hot. Declining to purchase any of the many tourists gifts available around the site we headed back to the coach via the bookshop. When everyone was back on the coach we began to realise that choosing to sit halfway back had been an extremely good move. Martin had a particularly interesting way of ensuring that the time we spent on the coach was anything other than dull. The last person to get on the coach was required to help him 'perform' some keep fit exercises?!

Next stop was our third Cenote of the week. This one was much more tourist orientated. It had some steep steps down into a big cavern with a high roof that had a hole in it. It had been raining and water was pouring in to the cenote which gave it a special feel. Without wetsuits it felt much colder than the cave cenote we had been in on monday but Chris was in first - as ever. Diana took quite some time to get accustomed to the cold water but eventually swam accross to the line and back. As we came out and dried off our skin had the lovely tight feeling of being in fresh cold water - perhaps that is why they say that swimming in cenotes takes 10 years off you. If that really is that case both of us would be coming home and going straight back to school.

Our lunch was a buffet served in a larged hall in the same complex as the cenote. We were entertained by some Mayan dancers whilst we ate. Before we headed back to the bus we paid a breif visit to the tequila museum. Ever since the day we arrived Chris had wanted to try chocolate tequila. As we walked towards the museum we were joined by a young girl who began to tell us about how tequila was made. Without trying to be rude we encouraged her to cut to the chase and let us do some tasting - Diana really liked the almond tequila but decided it was just like Amaretto, Chris liked the chocolate and one of the other flavours but really not enough to buy any.

Back on the bus, and making sure we werent the last Martin provided us with some more entertainment. This time singing was involved - although not his strongest skill - he promised us that he had an even better treat later on.

The last stop of the day was Valladolid a collonial town. We really didn't stay very long - just enough time to walk around the park and notice the very different style of the buildings than those we had seen elsewhere during our holiday.

As we began our long journey back to the hotel Martin entertained us with his final party piece. He convinced one of the group to perform a blues style song and he played the harmonica, and was actually quite good. Our host then handed out the last round of drinks, feedback forms were passed down the bus and we all fell asleep.

Back at the hotel we did most of our packing and then headed across the road to the little market to buy the last few souvenirs. A cocktail before dinner and then out onto the patio for our last evening meal - we had got to be recognised by one of the waiters and he made sure there was a table available for us, and remembered our preferred dinner drinks.

We went for one drink at the other bar but the entertainment was a bit disappointing compared to other nights so we headed for bed - knowing that we were going to hit the beach early to make the most of the sun before we had to check out.