Chichén Itzá is the largest of the archaeological cities of the Maya civilisation in the Yucatan Penisula of Mexico. It is one of Mexico's most visited tourist destinations and a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was recently selected as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
As a result, it is visited by bus loads of tourists every day so to avoid the rush we stay in a nearby hotel the night before so that we can be there to start exploring after the gates open at 8am. Even so, a long queue has already started and we have to wait for 30 minutes to get in. The ruins are spectacular but even so , we much preferred the smaller ones we'd visited earlier without all the "enhanced tourist facilities" and without the hoards of tourists. We escape after 3 hours exploring the sites. Good timing as bus loads of tour groups are piling in. We head off to our next destination Vallalodid (easier to say when you know that the double L is pronounced as a Y) stopping off en route at an excellent little roadside restaurant for lunch.

Vallalodid is a small city but still with a small town feel. There are more tourists here than we have seen since Merida, many of them are on day trips by tour bus from Merida or Cancun so in the evening, the place is fairly quiet. Here again we've a room with a balcony overlooking the main plaza which is dominated by a cathedral. There's lots of souvenir and food stalls set up on the Sunday and in the evening, there's traditional dancing in the plaza followed by a live band when the locals get up to dance. There's a good selection of restaurants to choose from and ice cream parlours too to finish off the evening. The former convent is worth a visit. It has its own cenote, which 500 years ago had a waterwheel to provide water to the convent and nearby town. Archaeologists dived down a few years ago and retrieved old artifacts in including weapons from the Caste wars (Mayan uprising against the Spanish rulers) in the mid 19th century. A small museum displays the findings. We had a lazy afternoon after our hot Mayan ruin morning trip and spent evening at neighboring restaurant before an ice cream from the parlour next door to our hotel.