Being a history geek, I couldn’t leave the Yucatan Peninsula without visiting its most famous archaeological site – especially as it was on the way to our final destination. I was pretty blown away by the scale of the site and the beautiful carvings and buildings to be found all around Chichen Itza but there were definite downsides as compared to the ruins we had seen the day before.
As we had very limited time for this part of this trip I only managed a couple of hours sightseeing in Merida and, while I did fit a lot in, this town really deserves more love and attention as there is so much to see and the atmosphere is so vibrant and yet relaxed at the same time.
On excellent advice from the owner of our hotel in Merida we changed our plans and ended up renting a car for a day trip to Uxmal and Kabah with a detour to a couple of beautiful cenotes.
Another lovely colonial town, Oaxaca boasts beautiful buildings and a thriving art scene.
I blame the London restaurant’s incorrect spelling for the fact I pronounced Oaxaca wrong for an embarrassingly long time. Luckily I discovered it is actually pronounced ‘Wahaca’ (as per the restaurant name, not as the correct spelling looks) before I crossed the Mexican border – Oaxacans are (rightly) proud of their beautiful city so it would have caused some serious rouge-cheeks had I not been corrected!
The next stop on our mini tour of Mexico was the lovely colonial city of Puebla. Set in a valley and surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the bus journey from Mexico was almost as stunning as the UNESCO world heritage city centre. And, as the city centre is quite small you can easily get a real sense of it in just a day or two.
The capital city of Mexico was definitely the hidden gem of our trip. I’m not sure why, but in my head our time in Mexico City was a bit of a stop-gap on the way to more interesting places. Instead, I ended up loving the vibrant atmosphere, delicious food and drink and the wealth of culture on offer and wasn’t ready to leave!
As it’s a no-travel week, I’m going to take advantage of the idea of Throwback Thursdays and allow myself to day-dream of where I was this time last year…Champagne. Given it’s by far and away my favourite tipple, I can’t quite believe that it took me almost ten years of legally being able to drink the bubbly stuff to make the hop, skip and jump over the Channel to the Champagne region. Just a two hour drive or so from Calais, it’s the perfect distance for a long weekend.
We arrived in the city of sin just in time for sundown but, given our long drive, weren’t really in the mood to hit the casinos just yet.
So it turns out that Angel’s Camp to Las Vegas (especially at the end of winter, when lots of the passes are closed) is a long old road…around ten or eleven hours to be precise! Our road trip to Las Vegas took us round the top of Yosemite via Lake Topaz, Mono Lake, past Mammoth Mountain and through Death Valley. Rather than recount every twist and turn, I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.
After many days of eating and drinking I was keen to get out and about and see a different side to California. Luckily (or meticulously well planned depending on how you look at it) our next stop was hiking in Yosemite National Park.