Sylvie's Travels Home

December 23, 2023

Our airbnb included breakfast and they arrived at 7:45am to prepare it. We had yogurt, granola, bananas, pears, sweet bread and avocado toasts, accompanied by fresh coffee and hibiscus juice.

We left the house at 8:45am to go the Chichen Itza, without Pogo who had not slept well because of his coughing. He was ok about it since he had been to Chichen Itza in September. Max came along even though she had slept only an hour because of the noise from the barking dogs, the traffic and the roosters. She slept on the back seat after sharing the direction with Edward who was the ‘copilot’.

The drive went well but closer to the parking lot was bumper to bumper. We were lucky to get a place right in front of the entrance. Buying the tickets was a challenge as we had to go to 2 different windows. One to buy the tickets and one to pay for the tax. At the second window, I needed a photo id. I didn’t have one with me so Max gave the lady her driver’s license. The lady didn’t accept it because it was a different name from my credit card. Max said that I was her mom but she still wanted Max’s credit card. Max said it was crazy and the lady started yelling at her and telling her coworker that Max had said Mexico was crazy!

Max had hired Luis for our guide and he was fantastic and we learned so much in the hour we spent with him. She kept his credentials for future tours.

Being Saturday and assuming just before Christmas. It was really busy there with tourists and vendors so we were happy to leave when we did but I was so glad to finally have visited this special archeological site.

Back in Valladolid we stopped at a street vendor to get tortas (sandwiches) and we ate them back at the house. Pogo was finally starting to feel better.

After eating, Michel and Edward went for a walk and the rest of us took a nap.

We left the house at 5pm, stopped at a few shops and had a long leisurely dinner at Idilio Folklore Cervecero, a beautiful indoor courtyard restaurant. While we were enjoying our cocktails, a wedding was performed in the center of the restaurant. Dinner wasn’t the best but conversation was very interesting and we certainly learned a lot more about each others from Pogo’s questions: what one item would you save in case of a house fire and what would you tell your younger self? 3 hours later we left the restaurant and went to see a little Christmas flower display which I assume would have been much nicer during the day because the lighting made everything look red and we also saw a light show on the facade on the Convento de San Bernardino.

We did a little more shopping before going home at 10:30pm.

Around 11:30, I heard another Christmas parade go by and there was a loud music party going on until at least 4:30am. Feliz Navidad!!