So another three days have passed. We haven’t done anything super exciting as we’ve waited around for hospital crap, but we also haven’t had anything horrible happen. We’re waiting on tests that won’t be done until Monday, so after amusing ourselves in Merida for a few days, we headed for the coast to the utterly beautiful little town of Celestun, which is as charming as its name.
After spending the night in front of the church with the mountain bike racers, we visited the ruin the next day. The parking lot was a great place to walk the dogs after being afraid to go more than 20 feet from the camper in town due to all the street dogs.
This archeological site is very close to the city of Merida, and we were struck by the contrast of the Maya site in the foreground with the modern city of Merida in the distance.
The site isn’t large, but it is interesting combination of time periods. This is a Spanish era chapel built in the middle of the Maya site.
This is a very long temple, from the bottom and the top.
This is the Temple of the 7 Dolls, down a very long Sacbe from the rest of the site.
When we weren’t walking around Maya sites, we found a couple of malls in Merida which are pet friendly! You can take your dogs and walk in the mall, and even stop for delicious chocolate sorbet at Häagen-Dazs! Ty thought this was the best thing ever and got so excited he got the zoomies and was jumping on our laps.
We made a really big purchase - a vacuum cleaner. Between being in the camper with three dogs and a cat, and going to the beach, it became necessary for our sanity.
One of the things Tom did while we were parked and killing time was to fix the damage caused by the tree branch and a subsequent low hanging wire. Our front rail is now more securely attached, and only the bracket on the driver’s side looks mangled at this point.
Because we don’t need to be back in Merida until Monday, we made the hour plus drive to the village of Celestun on the Gulf coast for the weekend. We’re staying in the Villas Del Mar parking lot, which is set up for overlanders, and it’s beautiful. We’re on a level paved spot with beach access, showers and toilets and water if we want them, and miles of beach.
The beach is just over a tree covered dune.
Thanks to the daily thunderstorm, we go a full-arc rainbow!
And this was the sunset from our camper steps.