Starting the new year in Valladolid

A lot has happened since my last post. So, it’s time for an update:

I spent New Year’s Eve 🎆 and the first couple of days of 2024 in Valladolid and I have to say - I could not have made a better choice than that. During my time in Valladolid, I stayed in the very cozy and welcoming hostel “Xtakay” close to the main square. This family run place 🏡 is just awesome! It reminded me a lot of the great time I had in the Hostal Central in Oaxaca. When I come back to Mexico 🇲🇽 one day, I am almost certain that I would start my vacation there.
And I did not have to spent New Year’s Eve alone. Matt (from the UK) and I aligned our travel plans so that we would celebrate New Year’s Eve together in Valladolid. He arrived on the same day as me but came from Merida. I knew him from Oaxaca and we already had managed to meet in Puerto Escondido a week earlier. To our surprise many bars and restaurants were closed 🔒 on New Year’s Eve. Valladolid is not such a big and touristy place as Cancun or Tulum. The people here seem to rather celebrate in their home with family and not so much in public places. We honestly had to visit 5 different (closed) bars and restaurants 🧑‍🍳 until we found two places that could accommodate us! In the “De los Santos” restaurant we had dinner and in the “Los Frappes” bar we celebrated the arrival of the new year. It was quite lively as the place turned into a Salsa Club 💃 with live music before midnight (see video).
The next morning I slept in and only got up at quarter to ten. After some delicious quesadillas for breakfast, Hyesun (from South Korea 🇰🇷), Matt and I went to Ek Balam - another Maya ruin 🐲 that is in the middle of the jungle (like Palenque). It is a 20 min. drive away from Valladolid. So, we took a collectivo in which we met Tommy from cologne in Germany. He was the first of many Germans 🇩🇪 that I met in Valladolid. Tommy travels the world whenever he has time and is on a mission to see everything. He already had been almost everywhere from my perspective which makes him also a great source of information for travelling. And I was particularly interested in what he had to say about the African continent and his travels to Kenia 🇰🇪 and Tanzania 🇹🇿 as these countries are in my itinerary for February and March this year.
At Ek Balam we walked around and inspected the ruins. It was a small place - smaller than Palenque - but therefore there were also only a few people there. From the temple you had a great view on the surrounding ruins and the rain forest. I was a bit shocked by the entrance fee though. At almost all ruins you pay a second fee 💶 to the state of Mexico in addition to the actual fee of the site. That second fee is many multiples of the actual fee and drives up the cost significantly. Nevertheless, I think it was worth going to Ek Balam - especially since we could visit the nearby Cenote Xcanche. Cenotes are deep water wells or sink holes which are fed by the filtration of rain 🌧️ as well as the currents of the rivers that originate from the underground of the earth. The rocks are made of limestone and have eroded and eventually collapsed over a very long time - giving the Cenotes their interesting shapes.
You can find cenotes all over the world 🌍 but the Yucatan Peninsula is completely unique due to the sheer number of them (up to 10.000 according to estimates). Many Cenotes and caverns typical of the Yucatan were formed 66 million years ago by the impact of a meteorite which also caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. 🦖
Xcanche was the first Cenote I have seen and I found the clear blue water as well as the long roots of the trees which reached from the surface to the 20 meter deep water reservoirs and the stalactites on the ceiling particularly impressive. This was truly the best New Year’s Day I have had in my life. 😊
In the evening Hyesun, Tommy, Matt and I went for dinner. Our host in the hostel (Jonathan) kept recommending the Loncheria Olich. So we tried to go there but were putt off by the expected waiting time of 30 min - probably Mexican minutes. So, we were realistically talking about 45 min. to an hour 😅
We went to a French restaurant instead - it was horrible. 😩 The waitress was sleep walking and it took for ever until drinks and food were served. My lasagne was OK but the portion was small. To our delight, Hyesun saved the day when she warmed up the kimbap (Korean for Sushi) 🍣 in Hostel which she had prepared on New Year’s Eve so that we did not had to go hungry to bed.
On the next day Matt, Tommy and I went to visit Chichén Itzá - yet another but super popular Maya ruin 🛕 It is one of the most visited archaeological sites in Mexico today and it is pretty big in comparison to the other ruins that I saw so far. Apart from the “El Castillo” pyramid in the centre, “The Great Ball Court” - a huge playing field - is what I remember most about my 2-3 hour visit to Chichén Itzá. Measuring 168 by 70 metres (551 by 230 feet), it is the largest playing field in Central America. The walls at the east and west of the playing field are 8 metres (26 feet) high. Between these walls the game of Pok-a-Tok was played, the most popular sport 🥇 among the Maya. Although it was played by people from all levels of Maya society for fun, Pok-A-Tok was also used as a way to settle conflicts between warring groups and noblemen. It is like a mix between soccer ⚽️ and basketball 🏀 but you could only pass and shoot the ball using your thighs and hips (see this YouTube video to get a better understanding: https://youtu.be/jKvQjgC9sIY?si=7TJB5nnQ7gO1F4TE ). Like cricket, games could go on for hours and sometimes days. 🕰️
After visiting the archeological site it was again time for some more cenotes 😅
This time we visited “Samula” and “Xkeken” - both in the southwest of Valladolid and close to each other. The cave-like Xkeken cenote was particularly beautiful with the illumination of its stalactites. After two hours we went back to prepare for dinner. 🍲 We didn’t want to repeat our experiences from the evening before - so we picked the “De los Santos” restaurant again (which Matt and I knew from the New Year’s Eve).
Before we left the hostel, I got to know two German girls from Berlin - Kim and Stephi. Kim was staying in our hostel. Her friend Stephi was staying close by. Both had just arrived and were still undecided where to go for dinner. So, we agreed to team up and left our hostel. Stephi brought yet another traveler from her hostel along - Monique from the Netherlands. So, our small group of 4 people has quickly grown to 7 and on the way to the restaurant we even picked up another random person to fill our 8th spot at the dining table 😅
I tried one of the local dishes (Poc Choc) at “De los Santos” and the food was again delicious. Afterwards we took a seat in the outdoor area of the “Los Frappes” again (hoping to relive our New Year’s Eve experience) but this time it was pretty chilly 🥶 and less lively outside. Therefore, we left the bar only a few beers 🍻 and a brandy 🥃 later.
Matt was leaving to Cozumel in the next morning. Kim, Stephi and I rented scooters 🛵 from our hostel and drove approximately 45 km (30 miles) to the northeast of Valladolid. Our destination was an area with 3 cenotes that Luiz - the farther of our host in the hostel - has recommended: Sac-Aua, Secredo Maya and Xcanahaltun (that’s a real mouthful 😂). Despite their beauty, there were very few people in all of them. In the last two cenotes we were even all alone! The Secredo Maya cenote had a very relaxed vibe and was ideal to spend the lunch time there. And in the Xcanahaltun cenote there were many little fish that ate the dead skin from our feet 🦶Sounds gross but it is like getting a treatment in a Spa, I was told by the girls. It was also funny to see how they competed for the number of fish taking care of them. ☺️ It was a fun day driving through the countryside of Yucatan and I was in good company. Our little group of Berlin people got along very well. 😎
After coming back to the hostel, I met Siân (from the UK) which I already knew from Oaxaca again. It took me completely by surprise and it goes to show: basically everyone is travelling more or less the same route here in Mexico 🗺️ … only the direction (east/west) differs.
For dinner, we finally tried out the Loncharia Olich (the recommended restaurant we could not get in in the evenings before). Lisette (from Equador) was joining us as well. She was in the same room as Kim and also was about to leave for dinner. The food was really good and delicious. The service could have been better though. 😮‍💨
In Stephi’s hostel there was a happy-hour (which we missed by 15 min. 🙈) and a pool and bar. So, we decided to go there to have some drinks together. I was back in my hostel by 3 am and I was feeling it the next day. 😵 Initially, I wanted to do a free walking tour in the morning but instead I just walked 🚶‍♂️ with Kim at a later time through the city to see it at daylight - up to this point I had visited always some kind of site outside of Valladolid during the day and therefore have seen it only in dark. ✨ Nevertheless, I did attend a free walking tour together with Stephi and Monique later in the evening. It did not reveal more places than I already knew but it added a lot of context.
Another activity that did not happen as planned was the visit of the “Zací” cenote in the middle of the city. It seemed to be very popular with even a waiting list 📋 for visitors to get in. We were too late to enter that day. I didn’t mind though. After seeing 6 cenotes in the past few days I had a pretty good impression of what they can be like anyways.
Knowing that this would be our last evening together before most of us would head into different directions 🧭 (e. g. back home or to Merida or to Playa del Carmen), I had reserved a table for dinner 🍲 in the restaurant “Le caat” in the popular “Calz. de los Frailes” - the only diagonal street running through the checker board layout of the city‘s streets. It was a really nice atmosphere in the garden of the restaurant where a Mexican musician interpreted popular songs on his guitar 🎸
After dinning we went back to Stephi’s hostel for some more drinks 🍸 Although she had to get up early the next day, she was hell bend on going on a Pub crawl and dragged Monique and me with her. That might be one of the reasons why I had serious symptoms of a flu right the next morning 🤒 I must have looked really bad since Gaby - the mom from hour host - quickly made me a ginger tea and Stephi gave me some of her cough pastilles. For a moment, I felt like a little kid again 😂
Anyways, I am thankful Stephi encouraged me to go to the Pub Crawl because by the time I had been more than 5 days in Valladolid and didn’t see anything of the nightlife yet. I guess this really made my picture of Valladolid complete.

Happy New Year everyone! 🥳Read more