The transport from Isla Mujeres was straightforward. We took our ferry back to Cancun, refused a taxi inside the port, walked outside in the rain and flagged one down for a third of the price. The taxi took us to bus station, where we purchased tickets for the next bus to Valladolid, leaving in a few minutes time. The journey took a little over two hours and passed quickly. On arriving in Valladolid, we took a stroll through the streets to look for a hostel. We didn't find the one we were looking for, but we did find Hotel Rosalia close by. This looked nice enough and the room was clean and large (we later discovered the room also leaked in the heavy rain, had a funky smell due to the rain, had sparking plug sockets due to the rain, and had no bed sheet).

After checking in, we walked back to the centre and went to the park, Francisco Canton Parque, and the Cathedral of San Gervasio . We checked out a few of the streets around the centre, and decided to get an early dinner. Breakfast had been a long time before. We found a place which sold jacket potatoes! The first we'd found in 5 months of travelling! This was serious comfort food and it was needed, as a tropical storm had broken outside. It was actually cold. We couldn't remember the last time we'd been cold (barring the over-air-conditioned buses, cold showers, zooming along in a fast boat on a lake, or camping up a volcano). We went back to the hotel, discovered the leaking roof, did nothing about it, and finished our £1.20 box wine.

We chose to go to Valladolid as a jumping off point for Chichen Itza. Chichen Itza is a set of Mayan ruins with temples and carvings, and it said to be one of the 'new seven wonders of the world'. We love a good ruin, so were looking forward to going to see it. Valladolid is a town in Mexico which has the usual churches and parks, plus cenotes and art museums on offer .

On Thursday 6th, we had an early start, grabbed some breakfast and coffee and took a bus to Chichen Itza. It was about a 50 minute drive away and the bus was busy. We knew that tour groups arrived from Cancun, Playa del Carmen and other areas later in the day, and were keen to avoid the crowds if possible. We bought our entrance tickets and more coffee and hurried in, to see our first sight of a large temple, El Castillo, dominating a grassy area. Things like that never fail to impress. We sat and looked at it for a while, before heading to the Templo de los Jaguares (Temple of the Jaguars) and it's attached ball court. We found stone carvings around, which made us think of Copan's ruins. The ball court was huge and apparently has an acoustic effect where two people can converse, comfortably, from either end of the structure.

Next up was the Plataforma de los Craneos (Platform of Skulls). This was apparently where people were sacrificed . It was covered in carvings of skulls. We went back to El Castillo to look at an optical illusion of serpents on the pyramid - but this illusion only works during the equinoxes. Next, we wandered to the Cenote Sagrado (Sacred Cenote). This was a site of burials, sacrifices and offerings. Now it's a murky green hole surrounded by iguanas. We thoroughly enjoyed an ice lolly here, as it had started to get very hot and busy by this time.

We walked to the Temple de los Guerreros (Temple of Warriors) and took in the temple and the hundreds of posts surrounding it, called the Group of a Thousand Columns. These were carved with depictions of warriors, and they just kept going. We took the opportunity to take some arty shots. Next we visited the Tumba del Gran Sacerdote (High Priest's Grave) and the surrounding carvings, before finally heading over to the El Caracol (Observatory) and Edificio de las Monjas (Nunnery), some of the oldest buildings in the site. As mentioned, the carvings were reminiscent of Copan, whereas the dominating temple of El Castillo reminded us of Tikal. The numerous iguanas reminded us of Tulum! It was also different from the other three due to the no climbing rules - we weren't allowed to scale any of the buildings. Still, we enjoyed our trip to Chichen Itza and had a happy four hours wandering around. We were definitely glad to get on an air conditioned bus to head back to Valladolid, as it was extremely hot by the middle of the day.

The bus back was in good time and quickly we were back in Valladolid. We had a relaxed afternoon, before heading out for a terrible evening meal. We didn't get what we asked for, instead we received a random assortment of things which wasn't tasty and wasn't what we wanted. Then Ken found hair in his food and it was all downhill from there. To make ourselves feel better, we bought a bottle of wine (not a box wine!), walked around some of Valladolid's streets, and had a not-so-early night after enjoying the vino.

Next stop - Palenque!