OK so it's been a couple of days since the last update, but really we haven't been quiet.

On the 2nd we took a 4 and 1/2  hour bus ride to a town called Merida, the largest city in the state of Yucatan.  It is a smallish city inland built in between the two Mayan ruins sites of Chichen Itza and Uxmal.  A really interesting town and certainly by far the most authentic Mexican experience so far.   Whilst I have called it a city, just over a million people, it is really funnily like a small town.   The first night we arrived we heard there was a big band playing and dancing down in the town square, so we wandered off for a look and low behold there was a big band playing plusseveral hundred people dancing, not as a demonstration just for the joy of it, was quite funny joining in with all these Mexicans, not understanding the instructions and making up our own dances.  Last night at midnight fireworks started a big celebration as it is the 470th anniversary of when Merida was conquered by the Spanish - seemed a weird one to celebrate.

The first thing we did was head to Walmart - weird I know..... but Bec's bag decide not to work so we had to go and buy her a new suitcase.

We then had a day trip off to see Chichen Itzma, one of the new seven wonders of the world and then another day/night trip to Uxmal.  Both of these are ancient Mayan ruins they believe dating back to the year 500, so roughly 1500 years old.  Both were really amazing places, according to the locals Uxmal is equally as important as Chichen Itza, however we much preferred Uxmal, far fewer people and you could actually climb the ruins! Which was actually quite scary, one pyramid which was built for the king to sit on a throne at the top had the steepest stairs, was very slow coming back down.  We stayed at Uxmal for a sound and light show in the night, where they told a story about the history of Uxmal and all the ruins were lit up at different points.

We also had our first experience with Mexican police! Not us, but the bus driver at least.  The police are everywhere and funnily enough drive with their lights on everywhere.  The police set up road blocks and randomly pull people over to check for drugs/guns, last night on the way home our bus was waved in and the driver questioned for his paperwork and torches shined in the bus to make sure that there was nothing dodgy going on!

Next, today another bus trp to a new town, back to the beaches of Tulum.  The buses here are excellent, they even have different classes of bus, ours a 3 star bus with a toilet and just 3 tv's on board to the 5 star bus with wifi and tv's for everyone.

hope you are all well.

Andrew