It's later on Sunday, the kids are playing at the hotel pool with Mike and I have some time to blog before we go shopping and city-exploring. I think I will actually be able to get caught up - at least with the blogging of the trip. I still have hotel & restaurants reviews to write - but I can do that when we get home.

In any case, yesterday started with breakfast at the hotel and then a leisurely drive to Uxmal, which is probably the second largest reconstructed Maya site in the Yucatan. In my opinion, it's also prettier than Chichen Itza, but being out of range of Cancun buses, it's much less visited. There were only a handful of people during our visit. Cost-wise it parallels Chichen Itza, just FYI.

The whole family enjoyed the Pyramid of the Magician (which you can't climb) and the Nunnery (which you can) together. It was alternatively hot and cool - depending on clouds and breezes - and there was much to see, including, of course, multiple iguanas. There were no cute puppies here, but lots of birds (in particular in the very aptly named "Quadrangle of the Birds" ) which build oven-style nests inside the ruins.

Despite the fact that it wasn't that hot, Camila and I tired quickly, and decided to go back to the entrance and wait for Mika and Mike. Mika and Mike, meanwhile, explored the rest of the site, climbing every possible structure and having a lot of fun. Their most interesting moment came when they saw two male iguanas bloodily fight each other. It's disturbing how much they enjoyed the whole bloody mess.

After Uxmal we meant to stop in Santa Elena for lunch, but couldn't find any suitable restaurant, so we continued on to Kabah, probably the 2nd largest reconstructed Puuc site. It's sad to say that the kids and I stayed at the entrance drinking sodas while Mike explored it by himself - but hey, we are wimps! Mike explored to his heart's content, though, once again climbing whatever could be climbed.

We decided to have lunch in Ticul afterwards, at the famed restaurant Los Almendros, known for its Yucatecan cuisine. I had actually eaten there in my last trip (let's repeat again, eighteen years ago) and wanted to relive the experience. Alas, the restaurant had moved since then, and we spent close to an hour looking for it - under the false premise that it would be somewhere near downtown.

During our search it started to rain heavily in Ticul - and when I say heavily, I mean heavily, as in trees falling off the ground heavily. We were glad we weren't outside. We finally found the restaurant, coincidentally during a short reprieve, and had a good, but not outstanding, Yucatecan lunch. By the time we finished it was close to 4 PM, too late to make it to the Loltum caves, our next destination. So we headed back to Merida ... and to the hotel pool.

We had dinner in Plaza Hidalgo - a square I well remembered from my last trip here eighteen years ago. Back then there were restaurants there, and I could bet there still would be some. And so they were. Very expensive restaurants, but we've found that Mexico, at mid-level traveling, is just as expensive as America. C'est la vie.