For the second year in a row, we’ve called Mérida our home for a couple of months, so we really feel like we’ve come to know this place. Our hood of choice this time around has been Barrio Santiago, one of our favourite barrios in Mérida, a tightly packed grid of hot dusty streets that…

Just outside of Izamal is the glorious Hacienda Sacnicté, a beautifully restored 18th Century henequen (agave fibre or sisal) plantation that’s been converted into a small boutique hotel. We’re here for Ants’ birthday treat – and what a treat. The Hacienda has 10 luxurious (but astonishingly affordable) suites all with cathedral ceilings, original colonial features, four-poster…

We were in Izamal for the first time just over a year ago. One year later and we’re just as a captivated by the glowing yellow colonial architecture, the tranquil atmosphere (the lack of tourists post-Easter), the hot dusty narrow streets and, in particular, Restaurante Kinich, one of the best restaurants in the region. I’ve…

By the time the conquistadores arrived in the Yucatan in 1541, the ancient Mayan city of T’ho had been long abandoned save for around 1000 people still living in the area. According to one Spanish account at the time, “A small village of Mayan Indians settled in thatched and wooden huts and the remains of…

One thing you won’t see in Mérida over Easter, or anywhere in Mexico for that matter, are Easter bunnies (maybe in Walmart) or Easter egg hunts – here, there are two things that dominate the period of Semana Santa (Holy Week): religion (of course) in this deeply Catholic country, and food – the fattier and…

Just another 8 or so kilometres down the Ruta Puuc from Sayil and you come across yet another wonder of the ancient Maya world, Labná, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This temple complex was built in the late and terminal classic era and has a date of 862 AD (but using the Mayan calendar) inscribed…

A further 9 kilometres along the Ruta Puuc and you come across the Mayan temple complex of Sayil, with the same dusty carpark, empty of cars and people! Once again, we were the only ones there at this site, so free to roam these wonderous structures at will.  Sayil is a Classic Maya site, built…

Travelling through the dense jungle along the hilly Ruta Puuc, the first of our four Mayan sites of the day, Kabáh, presented itself suddenly to either side of the road. We drove into a dusty car park with a small ramshackle ticket office, paid our 70 pesos entry and then wandered off into the site…