We decided to take the bus to Valladolid. The 141km distance between the coast and this inland city would require that we overnight halfway and we just couldn’t secure accommodation anywhere. Turns out it was a good plan as the road had no shoulder and we didn’t pass a single hotel.

We took a first class ADO bus and stowed our bikes below standing upright no less for about $15 each. The ride was fast and very comfortable. Nick got us seats up the front so we could see the countryside.

We arrived in Valladolid at about 5pm and made our way to Casa Tunich Naj. It’s a B&B we found online run by this lovely woman Daniela and her grandsons. It only has 2 rooms and we had to wheel our bikes through the sitting room to get to the courtyard.

The city of Valladolid is roughly 50,000 people of primarily Mayan descent. The architecture is mostly Spanish though as most Mayan remains were destroyed completely or torn down and reused to build in the Spanish style. The plazas and churches are very pretty and we spent much of our time walking and exploring the different neighbourhoods. we didn’t meet any other Canadians as most travellers seem to be European right now.

The following morning we hopped on our bikes and did a 30km ride exploring a cenote and some neighbouring towns and haciendas. There are 100’s of cenotes in the area plus the ruins of Ek Balam as well as Chichen Itza. The city is a great jumping off point to explore as well get a true taste of the culture of an inland city.

The remaining day was spent wandering, having a siesta and a late supper of traditional Yucatan food.

We probably could have stayed in the area a couple more days but our room was already rented and we had a room booked in Merida so I could have good wifi for my accounting course in two days time. So we planned for an early night to have an early start the next day to cycle to Chichen Itza. I was looking forward to the ride and to be back on my bike.