February 15, 2018 Chichen Itza. Dinner – Las Vigas

February 15, 2018 Chichen Itza. Dinner – Las Vigas

Today we started by taking the bus to the Fiesta Americana hotel shopping complex to pick up our car at Europcar.  It was Chevrolet Spark, a bit larger than the mini without the horsepower.

We drove to a supermercado where we bought Bolillas, ham, sliced cheese, water, beer, mayonnaise, tangerines, apples, sun tan lotion, bug repellant, and an interesting 7 oz.  tube of Jose Cuervo tequila filled chocolates totaling just over 500 pesos.

We made ham and cheese sandwiches in the parking lot when we returned to the car at around 11:00 for a quick brunch and then drove the 1 hour and 45 minute drive to Chichen Itza in the direction of Cancun on a good 4 lane highway.  We spent two hours circumnavigating the large archeological site.  There were three areas I wanted to see, the sacred cenote, the main pyramid (el Castillo), and the Observatory.  We saw them all by a path circling the main pyramid.  What is different from when I first visited 40 years ago, is the organization for thousands more tourists and the profusion of vendors.  Every pathway to each of the three areas we visited was lined with stalls of souvenirs and vendors hawking their wares, which mostly looked identical to me, as if bought from souvenir Central.  Suzette loved it because it made her feel that she was in a living commercial zone, perhaps as it was during the Classical Mayan times.

I was experiencing a fair amount of pain in my right leg, so my feelings were not a generous.

Suzette bought a silver arm bracket of a serpent that was quite nice.

We returned to the car a bit after 3:00 and shared a cold Negra and then drove to Ik Kill Cenote, which is a well developed commercial swimming area in a cenote. centered in a privately owned historic unexcavated Mayan ruin about 2 ½ miles from Chichen Itza. We put on our bathing suits and walked down the stairs to the water level about 50 feet below ground level, but found the water too cold to swim, so we enjoyed the view inside the cenote with its hanging vines and then walked back out and drove back to Mérida, arriving at a little after 5:00.  We parked the car in a garage two blocks from our hotel for 150 pesos per day and paid for four days.

When we returned to our room we were really hungry.  We checked several guides and chose Las Vigas because it was recommended to have cheap drinks and tasty food.  We walked the four or five blocks to it.  When we arrived it was packed with folks drinking buckets of 25 peso beers.  It looked liked a working class bar and restaurant.  Suzette ordered a 20 peso margarita and I ordered a 25 peso Bohemia.  Suzette then ordered BBQ Pork ribs (“Costillas”) and I ordered a chicken breast covered with mole sauce.  Suzette’s ribs were delicious but the accompanying French fries were cold.  My chicken breast was pounded flat, which was nice, but the sauce was not exceptional.

We were happy to eat but will not go back because of the average food and noisy atmosphere.

Bon Appetit