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Vintage Ventures - Yucatán 2018
February 2018
Valladolid
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VINTAGE VENTURES: I write my travel journals to look back and remember our ventures. A secondary reason is to allow me to organize all my trip photos. I have thousands of photos. Organizing them into a cohesive story makes sense. | |
I didn't know what to expect from Valladolid. It turned out to be a terrific city. | |
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DAY 8 – Saturday. February 10, 2018
VALLADOLID
Our ADO bus for Valladolid was scheduled to leave Tulum at 9:30 am. So it was up at 6:30 am, out the door by 8:45 am, and at the bus station a little after 9 am. We have learned that with buses being just about the only public transportation between cities, buses come and go like crazy at these bus stations. The announcements, of course, are in Spanish. But it didn’t matter what language was used, the public address systems were a garbled mess anyway. When 9:30 rolled around, we tried to figure out which bus was ours by showing each bus driver our tickets and trying to interpret their reactions. Finally, at 9:50, one bus driver nodded yes, and we were off and running.
The 1st class ADO bus was a brand new Mercedes, and it was beautiful. The movie on the bus was some chick flick with Julia Roberts, Jenifer Allison, and Kate Hudson, all badly dubbed in Spanish. It was a hoot to watch and helped make the 90-minute ride fly by. We arrived in Valladolid at 11:15 am. As we were driving through the city to reach the downtown bus station, I was struck with how much bigger the city was than I had imagined. Fortunately, the Airbnb host had a nice map on her Airbnb site with how to reach her place from the bus station. It turned out to be an easy 10-minute walk through the historic part of town.
|  | The modern ADO bus station in Tulum. | The Airbnb was located in the so-called Sisal Neighborhood, which turned out to be a wonderful part of town. Within a block of the Airbnb was the historic cathedral Ex-Convent San Bernardino de Siena; a huge plaza and festival grounds; the famous Calle 41A historic street; and a great Mayan restaurant, Taberna de los Frailes. The Airbnb was absolutely terrific. It was owned and operated by our host, Susi, a short older lady with a round face and warm smile. | Above and below: Our Airbnb room in Valladolid. | |
We quickly dumped our stuff and took off to explore. The first order of business was to locate the Cenote Zaci, a sinkhole right in the middle of town. On our way, we passed through several neighborhoods; a couple more cathedrals all hundreds of years old; more cool plazas; and tons of inviting tiny mom-and-pop restaurants.
We found Cenote Zaci fairly easily, and it was beautiful. A descending path wound around a jungle setting that opened up to a large gorgeous blue circle of water that was half under a huge earthen dome. Running off the roof of the dome down to the center of the pool of water was a waterfall accentuating the tropical paradise it was.
The day had heated up to the low 90s, so the cool 78-degree water felt heavenly. Snorkeling the underwater structures opened up a whole new alien world to us. So far, this was our 3rd cenote. Each one was completely different from the others. Each one was special in its own way.
| Walking down the historic and colorful Calle 41A. | The central downtown plaza. | Above and below: The church across the street from the central plaza. | Cooling off with a cold snack. | We snuck a peek into a hotel courtyard. | Every neighborhood had a church. | Above and below: The wonderfully refreshing and exotic Cenote Zaci. | |
After the refreshing dip, we returned to the city center and found a large roofed food court ringed with small mom-and-pop restaurant stands. One older mom-and-pop caught our eye, and we bought a couple of Tamale Colados.
Wanda’s mom used to make tamales, so we expected these to be along the same lines. Turns out we were mistaken. Tamale Colados are very unique. It has a dumpling-like texture made of pork or chicken, corn dough, and achiote (a traditional Mayan spice) paste cooked in a banana leaf, topped with a roasted tomato sauce. It was great and cost something like 12 or 15 pesos (about 70 cents US).
For dessert, we found a lady street vendor selling plastic bags stuffed with pre-cut mango slices for 10 pesos. We should have bought more. The mango was at its peak of ripened perfection.
| A food court in downtown Valladolid. | |
Being just a couple of days before Lent, this was carnival time – time to party before fasting. We learned that in Valladolid, during this carnival week, each day and evening, a different plaza celebrated carnival with a parade, vendors, DJs, dancing, drinking, etc.
We happened to fall upon the plaza that was celebrating that day. There was a big stage set up on one end of the plaza with a DJ and different dance troupes showing off their costumes and choreographed dance routines.
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Above and below: Dance groups celebrating Carnival. | |
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We read about two traditional Mayan dishes that we wanted to try, Poc Chuc and Cochinita Pibil. So, for supper, we wandered back to our Airbnb neighborhood to splurge on a traditional meal at the fancy Taberna de los Frailes just half a block away.
We ordered the Poc Chuc (smoked marinated pork) and Cochinita Pibil (shredded pork marinated in citrus juices and annatto-seed paste) and topped it off with a couple of “nectar of mango” drinks. Wow, it was all terrific and came out to be equivalent to $24 US, including tip.
| The high-end Taberna de los Frailes Restaurant featuring authentic Mayan cuisine. | Our authentic Mayan meal. Left: Conchinita Pibil. Right: Poc Chuc. | |
A light show depicting the conquering of the Mayans by the Conquistadors was scheduled to be projected on the side of the Ex Convent San Bernardino de Siena every Saturday night. Being just right across the street from the restaurant, we were ready for the show after supper. Sadly, being Carnival time, they must have canceled the show.
We met a young couple from Rhode Island also waiting for the light show and found out that this plaza was going to be the sight of tomorrow’s Carnival celebration. There was a wedding at the cathedral, so we got to go in and view the cathedral’s splendor. Later the cathedral was bathed in colored lights but no show.
| The church in the background is where the historical light show was supposed to occur. For some reason, the church merely maintained this static light show. | |
Above: A wedding taking place in the historic church.
Below: After the wedding, we were allowed to tour the church.
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