Day 14. Can’t believe it’s February already! We had a well earned lie in then sampled the local cuisine of Papadzul (hard boiled eggs in a tortilla with pumpkin seed sauce), not to be confused with Pozole (spicy chicken soup, a weekend-only speciality of Palenque). With Annie well recovered and a free afternoon with no desire to visit cathedrals and municipal buildings, we went AWOL ventured out on public transport on our own steam, without a guide, with our tour compadres Emma, Justine and Willie to the nearby “Cenote” of San Ignacio. This was not as easy as it sounds. We first had to find where the connectivo (shared minivan bus service) to San Ignacio could be found and ended up asking four or five different people for directions then walking for 45 minutes randomly around the city.
Factoid: The guide books quite accurately tell us that Mexicans tend not to like saying “no”, and if they don’t know the directions to somewhere, will often confidently give you their best guess to be helpful.
Once we found the connectivo, we were surprised that the 40 minute journey only cost 15 pesos (about 75p) and we spent the whole of that time fretting where the bus was taking us as the organised tour cost at least 200 pesos. Fortunately we were dropped right at the gates of San Ignacio by our friendly driver. Not only was the Cenote a lovely experience, but we were doubly pleased with ourselves for being able to make our own way there … and back! We realised that having someone organise our hotel bookings and transport was well worth it!
Factoid: A Cenote is a “sink-hole”, a naturally occurring underground limestone cave filled-with mineral spring water pools and beautiful rock formations, stalactites and stalagmites.
Sink-hole
Annie and Safe in sink-hole
After dipping in the Cenote of San Ignacio, clients are required to pet the baby goats. We didn’t question why.
Goat