12 APRIL (Saturday)
The next day we finished our explorations of Chichen Itza, and went back to the hotel for
a leisurely lunch and to checkout. We then headed off for the next stop, the ruins of
Uxmal (pronounced "Oosh-mal"). To get there we drove via the large town of
Merida (in the northwest corner of the Yucatan). During the trip we encountered a few
times where we were unsure of which road to take or if we were heading in the right
direction. After some anxious moments we made it to Merida, and from there we were able to
ask directions (in Spanish) at a gas station that put us onto the correct road out of town
towards Uxmal.
Following the signs to Uxmal, we arrived at our destination in the late afternoon. From there the road curved right up to the Villa Archeologica, where we checked in for a two nights stay. Like the one at Coba (and other ones at Chichen Itza and Teotihuacan), it is run by Club Med. It is just outside the front entrance to the archeological site, within easy walking distance.
When we arrived at the villa we were given a fax from our travel agent that said that she had reconfirmed our next set of flights, and unfortunately one of the flights, the one from Merida to Villahermosa, had been canceled (a not-uncommon occurrence, I guess). She had re-booked us on another flight for the same day and approximate time, but this time we had to be routed via Mexico City. Talk about a bad dog-leg. At least it kept us relatively on schedule.
After exploring the Villa's hallways looking at reproduction Mayan statues and artwork, we went through the small hotel gift-shop for the prerequisite post cards and other items. In the evening we had dinner at a large open-air restaurant just outside the Villa. Afterwards we went to the archeological site, where we bought our admissions for the 9pm sound & light show. This show was similar to, but perhaps better than, the one at Chichen Itza. Our vantage point was from chairs set up on an interior wall's plateau in the Nunnery Quadrangle. It was strange to visit a site for the first time at night, but we were kept to a limited path, so we couldn't really see very much, except what was lit at a distance during the show.