Today was the first of the bus tours arranged by my hotel. Yesterday's tour to Mayapan and Mani was thru an online booking site Viator but the hotel ran the remaining more popular tours so I booked the rest with them.I always worry waiting for hotel pickup when they dont come on schedule but eventually he came 20 mins late. This time it was a van with a few other passengers not a private car like yesterday.We drove to the Hyatt hotel in the posh part of town then...

After the morning visit to Mayapan next stop was to a nearby town of Mani. By now the midday heat was getting intense for the high of 36 degrees.Mani is home to the 400 year old Monastery of San Miquel. It was built with bricks from Mayan sites.When the Spanish brought Christianity Europeans and Mayan were still seperated in Church, and further segregations by class and sex. This undermines the notion of equality and has left lasting effects in society today.To t...

Today was the first of my day trips I had scheduled. Overnight I had developed a sore throat and cold surprisingly in 30 degree weather. Our new offices were blowing cold air on me from the overhead vents for a few days while they figured out the right settings after enough people complained. The plane was also blowing cold air during the four hour flight.For breakfast the hotel had buffet omelette and potato dishes to help energize me. My pickup time for my tour...

Having checked into my hotel I now wanted to arrange all the day trips they provided. Their sister hotel by Chichen Itza runs trips to Ek Balam another ruin further to the north east. Originally I planned to check out during the Chichen Itza tour, stay over at their Chichen Itza hotel, do the Ek Balam tour next day, then arrange for transport back to Merida.This was too complicated to explain by email and best to do in person. When she called their other hotel to...