Matt & Sarah's Big Trip: ¡Hola chicos!

Hola from Mexico! After a long flight to LA from Auckland with a quick evening and night spent exploring downtown and trying to catch up on sleep we jumped on a flight to Cancun, Mexico to start part 3 of our honeymoon.

We didn't spend long in Cancun...

First accommodation in Central America - basic!

But managed to fit in a quick beer on the roof terrace and our first meal - some tasty quesadillas!

Tired but happy

Given we didn't want to blow all of our budget on staying in the Zona Hoteleria in Cancun we decided to jump on the first bus to Valladolid, a colonial town inland for a couple of nights.

Beautifully lit church on the
main square in Valladolid

We loved the place - full of history, easy to navigate and we managed to turn up to a lovely hotel without booking. Some proper sleep finally after what has been a hectic few weeks.

More Mexican food was sampled:

Matt described this as a 'pizza-strudel' - yum

A canteen type eatery - tasty frijoles
on the side of everything (beans)

And some evening strolling around the town centre:

Social chairs

A big reason for starting our trip here was nearby Chichen Itza - one of the best preserved Mayan ruins in Mexico was only 45 minutes away. Arriving there felt like the clock was wound back to one of the last places we visited on part 1 of the honeymoon - Angkor Wat. Obviously these were the ruins of a completely different city, across the other side of the world from a completely different ancient empire. There were lots of similarities though, and we loved getting a taste for what the Mayans were all about.

The epic 'El Castillo'

We eavesdropped on a few official guides and learnt all about the Mayan version of football. Apparently once every 13 tournaments (occurring once every 4 years) the player who scored the winning 'goal' was sacrificed to the Mayan gods... Scary stuff and weirdly real when you're stood in the middle of where they played centuries ago.