This post I will tell you about Pepe, our guide, Gabriel, the driver and the five of us: Gary & Lynn, another couple from Finland, and myself. i thought I had a pic of Pepe, but cannot find it now. Gary, the photographer of the group, is supposed to send me a few photos also.
Anyway, my pick-up was for 7:15 AM, by the time Gabriel & Pepe drive up with the others it's going on eight and they have been driving since 6:00 from Cancun! Now, the road down south is really bad with construction and military checkpoints, both can take up to an hour to get through as drivers play chicken to squeeze infront of one another. i am so glad i didn't decide to try to drive here : P
So, we drive and drive and drive, stopping once or twice. I slept and slept and slept, having the whole back seat to myself : ) It takes a while to get through traffic in Merida to our hotel, finally arriving about 1:00 and scheduled to leave for Uxmal at 1:30. no food included until 5:00 PM dinner : ( the others race out for a bite. i luckily had some kind of breakie bar & must put in my eyes for the pyramids of Uxmal.
Well, Pepe, the guide (who also slept most of the way) sends us all off while he sleeps some more in the hotel. Fine and Dandy, except that Gabriel can't even find his way out of the city! And once we finally get out we miss the turn off for Uxmal. All of us are looking at the maps in our guidebooks and trying to get Gabriel (no English) to pull over or call Pepe for directions. We finally insist and after two hours of more driving arrive at uxmaal with one hour before closing.
now, it's a good thing that we all had a very positive outlook or it could have been ugly...we all laughed and made the most of it, discussing how we would sacrifice Pepe the next day on top of the Chiten Itza holy pyramid. So, we had a tour, enjoyed a decent meal (the tours do always manage to have really good food) and went to the light show (disappointing, Pepe didn't provide English translation headsets, so couldn't understand much.
The next day was better, I splurged on room service, knowing that breakie was not included in the tour. We set off for Chiten Itza at 8:30 AM, making a quick stop at a beautiful colonial town on the way. Then finally Pepe had to work! He, himself gave us a whole one hour tour of Chitzen itza, but sneaked away before we could do a ritual sacrifice : P We enjoyed a nice buffet meal, before hitting the road again ( I slept, the whole back seat to myself. Got a nice massage, it was kind of like Devi's massage chair, but I was laying down and it was hours long, really quite nice. Of course, in Mexico, take the long way. Pepe tried to find a way to split us up so Gary & Lyn wouldn't have to go clear to Playa, no luck. it was hours! (I slept)going back and getting through the construction/military sites. Gary was getting a bit irked by the end, which I really can't blame him. They couldn't have gotten back to Cancun much before 8:00 PM on New Year's Eve! And were headed back to Singapore (30 hour flight!) in the early morning!!! UGGG ; (
Me, I got back around 7:00, cleaned up & enjoyed New Year's out on the Pedestrian street, one block from the hotel & filled with revelers.
Nothing to be done...we saw the State of Yucatan, Uxmaal, Chiten Itza & enjoyed ourselves and our predicament. Both couples were really very pleasant, the Finns didn't speak much English, but we all got on well, Even with Gabriel & Pepe (when he was awake....
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