Day TWO! Our Last Epic Day in Cancun

Our last day in Cancun was by far the most epic, as we woke up super early around 5am and headed to start our journey! Our destination was…

We met with the tour guides and buses at this hotel close to our Airbnb. It would take us three hours to get to our destination by bus. The destination we were headed to was one of the 7 Wonders of the World. That term in my opinion is a little biased as there are so many beautiful places in the world that if there was a number of top places it would be more than 100. Nonetheless, this was surely a true wonder of the world. This top destination was Chichen Itza or as most tourists commonly pronounce it as “Chicken Pizza”.

Before I get too ahead of myself, let’s start from the beginning of our arrival.

After a three hour drive, we got to our first destination, which was a Mayan village. We were greeted by a Mayan ritual of blessings and more. After the ritual, we headed to a souvenir store that contained some very fascinating items, such as Mayan paintings, calendars, attire, jewelry and much more. The quality at the shop was top notch, a bit expensive but worth it. We ended up getting a miniature pyramid of Chichen Itza, a deer skin Mayan Calendar painting and more.

With regards to the alcohol bottle above, the tour guides tried to sell us that and had presented it with our photos on the bottle. Brilliant marketing but we don’t drink so we didn’t purchase it.

Moving on, there was some Tequila tasting, which only one of my friends pertook in, Alejandro , and the rest of the people in our group tour. When that was done, we had a buffet. The food was mostly vegetarian and made by the Mayan people of the village. They served meat as well, although I couldn’t eat it since it wasn’t Halal. With our meals we got served Horchata (the Mexican rice drink) and Hibiscus drinks, which were super refreshing especially in the really warm climate. For dessert, we had rice pudding similar to what Pakistanis and Arabs make. It crazy how cuisines from different countries that are so far away, yet can be so similar.

I have to say this was probably one of the best dishes I have had in Mexico. I guess nothing really compares to freshly made village food.

After our departure of the Mayan village, we headed to Chichen Itza. Chichen Itza is archaeological site that became a Mayan capital almost more than 1000 years ago. You can see the history and breathtaking architecture as you walk around the historical site.

Chichen Itza is well known for the Mayan pyramid and temple called El Castillo. This pyramid is different from the one we visited in Mexico City (the Sun and Moon pyramid) in that we were not allowed to climb its steps. This is most likely due to the fact that they want to preserve it and it may not be safe to climb.

Below, I tried some different photo edits with this breaktaking Mayan pyramid/temple.

These columns below were just so eye catching!

Towards the end of our guided tour we made two more stops. Our first one was where we visited this beautiful cenote. A cenote is basically an underwater cave or sinkhole. There are over thousands of cenotes just in the Yucatan peninsula. However, we forgot to bring our shorts, so we didn’t get swim :(. The view was unreal and reminded us about a similar cenote in Cuba.

Rule Numero Uno, don’t forget your swimming gear

Our last stop before we headed back to Cancun was the city of Valladolid. In this city we got to visit a stunning Catholic church called Iglesia de San Servacio.

When we got to Cancun late at night we were starving and decided to eat at the Indian Halal restaurant. It had been one whole week where Omer and I (Zaroon) hadn’t eaten any meat so this was our first chance. If you are ever in the Cancun region and want to try some Indian food or just Halal food in general be sure to check out this spot. It is called Taste of India.