Thinking Allowed: Yucatan roadtrip!

We left Playa del Carmen with few regrets; it was too touristy and noisy for our liking, although the beach was lovely and the girls loved running around the athletics track. We squeezed into a maroon 5-seater car and set out for a week of exploring the Yucatan.

We came up to a police checkpoint as we left Playa, and thought we'd keep a low profile since we're six to a car - unfortunately, we're new to Mexican speed bumps, and the policeman raised an amused eyebrow as we crunched over the concrete obstacle. It turns out Mexican roads are littered with speed bumps - large and small, visible and invisible - which add much excitement and swear words to any road trip.

Our first stop was Valladolid, which turned out to be quite nice; it's not a major tourist destination and definitely has its own identity, with narrow streets, a bustling town square dominated by a big beautiful cathedral (the churches here tend to be massive and made of concrete); and a monastery built on a cenote, which we explored (Tova prayed, of course, to whatever she felt like). On New Year's Eve we went out for surprisingly good pizza to give Tamar's acid reflux a respite from all the salsa, and then Tamar and Zadie conked out while the rest of us played various games: Parble (invented by Sophia), Double Trouble Scrabble (invented by Jakob), and very many rounds of 21 and Shithead (which Jakob learned in high school, it has been renamed.) Even Tova lasted until midnight, at which point we listened to a bunch of fireworks we couldn't really see, exchanged hugs, and fell into bed.

From Valladolid we took a few day trips; Chichen Itza was incredibly cool to see, this 1,500-year old pyramid and ruined city of 50,000 people; we made up our own very of pok-e-pok involving more poking and less violence otherwise, tried to tune out the constant interruptions from hawkers trying to sell us t-shirts, hats and carvings, and admired the architecture and history of the Itza. We also went to several cenotes: natural sinkholes that you can swim in. We all loved these, most of all Zadie; the rather cold water was perfect in the 30+C weather, the stalactites hung down in the gloom over dark water creating eerie effects, and they weren't too crowded. Zadie eagerly swam way off into the darkest recesses of these caverns, and we had to keep an eye on her; good thing life jackets are mandatory.

We then headed west to Izamal, a Mayan city whose claim to fame is that it was painted completely yellow in 1993, and is a big canary to this day. They layered on the paint to celebrate the Pope's visit (it's also a main Mayan colour which was a win-win) and it was quite lovely walking through such a sunny town. The highlight was probably a tall pyramid in the middle of town that's open for anyone to climb right up; we also explored the monastery, checked out some overgrown ruins on the edge of town, and had lots of paletas (popsicles) to beat the heat (Jakob boldly tried the chili pineapple flavour, but it was coated in salt and so nasty he just couldn't face it. Tova also ventured to try kiwi and it was way better. Oh well.) In hindsight, though, one day in Izamal would have been better than two - we're glad to have gone, but liked Valladolid better.

Finally, we drove right across the Yucatan, stopping to see the Coba ruins, to Tulum and Akumal. We've only been here a day, but have snorkeled amongst schools of colourful fish in the Yal-Ku lagoon, played in the waves on Tulum beach, enjoyed yummy smoothies (peanut butter - banana - cocoa, mmm), and endured awful traffic and totally reckless drivers. The girls have been reading some good books along the way (Aurora and Sophia just finished "Tequila Mockingbird", as Zadie thinks it's called) and are generally having lots of fun.