Sylvie's Travels Home

December 22, 2023

We packed our suitcases and walked to a little café to get coffees then went back to the house to finish picking up, got a little sand sample for our collection and went to Naia for breakfast. We said our goodbyes to El Cuyo then drove 2 1/2 hrs to swim in the beautiful Cenote Xcanche, an open-air cenote located in the Yucatán jungle, about a mile from the Ek Balam archeological site Pogo and I had visited last year.

We then drove another 20 minutes to visit hacienda Kaan Ac, right outside Valladolid. Built in the 16th century, it is now an hotel. They were getting ready for a wedding but we were able to walk around the building and property anyway.

We arrived at our airbnb around 4:15pm. From the outside, it was just a door on a long plain wall but once we opened the door, we entered a cute courtyard with a small pool. On the left, the kitchen and living room were separated by the outdoor dining room. An outdoor spiral staircase brought us to 2 big bedrooms, one with an open-air shower. On the right of the courtyard, the master bedroom was on the main floor and a second bedroom with a big patio was on the second floor. Totally unexpected and gorgeous.

We took a quick shower (which was quite precarious as the tiles were quite slippery and the water was splashing on the floor making the whole bathroom like walking on a skating rink) then walked to the city square to get dinner. There were a lot of Christmas decorations.

We had dinner at Restaurante El Atrio del Mayab in an inside garden and all had local specialties: garlic shrimp for Shaun, a mix of regional dishes for Edward and queso relleno (stuffed cheese balls with ground pork, raisins and olives) for the rest of us.

After dinner, back in the square, we shared some churros and some marquesitas, (rolled up thin crispy crepe) with banana, chocolate and cream cheese. We saw some dancers in colorful and traditional outfits dancing with bottles on their heads. We walked through stalls of goods but didn’t see anything worth buying.

Pogo decided to go to bed, still under the weather, but it was still early so the rest of us went to a bar for a nightcap. On our way home we heard music so we turned back and saw a small car parade with Christmas music and decorated cars with lights and balloons. Santa and the Grinch were in a trailer. We were the only ones watching them on that corner but we were waving and filming them and they were throwing candies at us. How fun!

We all had a great and exhausting day and were all in bed by 10pm.