In all my travels across Europe, Asia, or the Middle East I have never explored the Americas south of New York City or Chicago. Part of my reluctance to Central and South America were food and language issues.

Having exhausted much of Europe and Asia and looking for a low budget option I decided to pay interest to the Americas. Lately I've been watching shows about a lot of the Maya civilizations so wanted to explore options to see the ruins.

Most package vacations go to the resorts of Cancun, Playa de Carmen, or the island of Cozumel all on the eastern coast of Yucatan. However all the archaeological sites I wanted to visit are on the west site of Yucatan.

Not wanting to navigate local buses by myself as I do in Europe or Asia I looked for tour options to explore the ruins. To my surprise I couldnt find any tours that did the land route I wanted. Was I the only one that didnt want to goto the beach?

The most famous and easiest site to get to from Cancun is Chichen Itza. However I expected this to be very touristy with the day trippers from Cancun and wanted to explore more of the sights to the west.

Known as the Ruta Puuc this is an archaeological circuit south of the city of Merida. Again it was not easy finding day tours online, they didnt do all the sites I wanted, or wouldnt respond from online inquiries due to poor english or seeing I was travelling alone and not in a group.

A travel agent friend suggested I base myself in Merida and look at options from there. From my days as a 'supposed travel agent' I'd kept some of the promotional materials so knew the sites I wanted to visit in Yucatan.

Originally I found a bunch of day trips listed on the online site Viator but most started at $99 US. Looking for local hotels I found one near the town centre with nice historic character, but also ran most of the trips I wanted at half the price listed on Viator.

Here is a list of their tours http://www.doloresalba.com/Tours.php

The day of my flight I had an 8.15am departure so had to be at the airport by at least 7am. I opted for the new airport express train which has dropped the price from $30 to $9 due to poor ridership!. I woke 4am and took the 6am bus to get to the station.

On the train the attendant told me I had tapped the green Presto card pod instead of the Silver UP Express train pod. What silver pods and where does the website make any mention of this when it talks about discounted presto card fares??

Going thru security the lady wanted to scan my hand palms for residue for some reason when they didnt scan anyone elses. At the gate they announced my name so now I worry my middle name "Ahmad" is going to get flagged for some no-fly list as I was flying over the US.

Everything went ok and we boarded. The flight was mostly empty as this is a new trial route with direct flights from Toronto to Merida once a week hence the week long stay. I thought we would fly south over Niagara but we went further west and into cloud so not much to see.

When the cloud cleared it must have been the Florida coastline as we passed over coastal communities. Later checking on Google I identified this is New Orleans and parts of Louisiana so I relabelled pics.

On our descent there were clear waters with ripples of sand visible. We passed over the northern coastline of Progresso one of the day trips I had passed on.

On arrival the immigration officer spoke no english for a flight of westerners just arrived from Toronto. There was a tourist info which spoke good english and told me which bus to take into the city.

I had to walk out the terminal to the main road and take 79 Aviacion / Uman / Centro but not Situr / Curcuito. After watching a few buses pass, some which were full minivans and did not stop I flagged one down as none had the names I was looking for.

Bus fare was 7P ($0.50) in a rickety old bus but glad to be out of the heat. I had been worried about heat but so far it was a breezy high 20s.

A lady started talking to me in Spanish and I didnt know if it was some locals scam for the lone foreigner getting on at the airport. She wanted to know where I was from, my name, and where I was going.

Then she yelled to other people in the bus trying to find someone to take me to the centre of town. A lady who spoke english came and sat with me. Turns out she works at my hotel and was heading to work so would take me right there!

Her name was Maria and works in the back office but spoke perfect English so was giving me other advise about my stay.

The hotel was just as nice as its pictures and reviews, with an old traditional courtyard and modern style with pool. I was overlooking the pool and could now change out of my winter pants into shorts for the balmy tropical weather.