Last night there was a massive thunder/lightning/rain storm. I was intending to share this post then, but clearly some higher power was not down for that. We ended up just eating sopa de lima and watching the lighting from the safety of our room.
Just to recap the two days, on Friday we went to actually see the Mayan ruins in Chichen Itza. We went right as the archeological site opened so luckily we didn't get trapped in the mobs of tourists that rolled in around noon. We walked throughout the site and saw the temple, the hall of the warriors, and the ollamaliztil field. Afterwards we headed into town to get lunch and we tried a variety of local food. After lunch we came back to the hotel and dived into the pool to save ourselves from the sweltering heat outside. After a couple of hours of pool time and reading and a quick siesta we headed back into town for dinner and then we went back to the ruins to see a new light show. The light show told us the history of the pyramids and the other ruins surrounding us (including how the cenotes - where we jumped the day before - were where they threw the bodies of sacrifices to the gods). After the light show we were all exhausted so we decided to call it a day.
Yesterday, Saturday, after a lazy morning, we left the hotel around noon to check out the caves in Balankanche. We walked half a kilometer into the ground until we were struggling breathing for lack of oxygen. The best part of the expedition was seeing tons of tiny bats flying around or huddled into little cuddle puddles. After the caves we continued further away from Chichen Itza and had lunch Valladolid. After lunch instead of walking around a little as planned we ended up just driving around the town because it was so hot. After driving all the way back to the hotel we were just intededing on resting until dinner but because of the rainstorm we ended up just spending our last night in.
Now we have a lot of driving, a few more hours of exploring, and a couple of flights and then we will finally be in Nicaragua!
