Sun., April 20, 2014 - Mayan temple Ek Balam

After a delicious fresh cooked breakfast at the hotel, we headed out to beat the heat and tour the Mayan ruin Ek Balam

about a 30 minute drive from Valladolid. Lupita and Claudia have visited enough times to give a pretty good tour, plus they caught some of the Spanish tour guides' information as we passed through the ruins.  We climbed to the top of the temple structure

and around the ground and smaller structures until noon. We elected to skip the nearby cenote in favor of another ice cold coco water from a vendor outside the Ek Balam parking lot

and an air conditioned 2 hour road trip to Chiquila where we boarded an 8 person shuttle skiff for a 20 minute ride across the channel between the mainland and Isla Holbox.

Isla Holbox is a lightly developed tropical paradise island that allows no cars, but does have golf carts

and quads for transportation. Lupita had reserved the 3rd floor penthouse suite for us for the next two nights. 

 She stayed on the 2nd floor and we all enjoyed the view from our balcony

and the local beach until sunset,

 

then walked along the beach for a short 10 minute walk to the neighboring hotel where Eric and Claudia stayed - they are friends with Daniel, the proprietor/ owner.

He offers an organic foods menu for his guests and we enjoyed the ambience of his outdoor restaurant.   After dinner we walked back with Lupita to fall asleep to the very loud Mexican music being served up log at a nearby festival. They played until 3:00 AM!!!!!