On this 3 day Yucatan Round-Trip you’ll see the real Mexico. You’ll visit Ek Balam, Chichen Itza and Uxmal, as well as the colonial cities Itzamal and Merida. You will swim in cenotes to refresh yourself and go on a round trip over the famous Paseo de Montejo in Merida. You’ll stay over 2 nights in a hotel in Merida, close to the Zocalo, and you can see a reenactment of the Maya ball game or any other event on the day we are there. You'll visit a chocolate factory. where they make chocolate based on 3000-year-old Mayan recipes.
Day 1
Ek Balam (Mayan for "black jaguar").
The earliest traces of settlement date back to the period between about 100 and 300 AD. Ek Balam’s heyday was between 700 and 1000 AD. A double ring of walls over 1.25 square km big surrounds the enclosed center of Ek Balam. The settlement outside the walls covers an area of almost 12 km ². Ek Balam is dominated by the building, today usually called Acropolis, whose old name in inscriptions is specified as Sac Xoc Naj (White House of Learning). It is undoubtedly the largest surviving building of the Mayan culture in the north of the Yucatán Peninsula. The building occupies a rectangular area of 160 m length and 70 m width. The highest component projects today 31 m above the ground, but was originally about 6 m higher. The fourth level of the building is dominated by a huge snake mouth entrance in stucco relief that let the standing stone slabs figures, outstanding of the façade, look fully three-dimensional.
Lunch
On your way to Merida you'll have a real Mexican lunch!!.
Chocolate factory
Learn why Cacao had more value to the Mayans than gold, learn why the Maya chocolate is real healthy, contrary to our chocolate!!! and have a taste of real Mayan chocolate. The factory is a small family business where they make chocolate by hand after 3000-year-old Maya recipes, learn everything about the history and production of Maya chocolate, have a taste of the different flavors and if you want you can even buy some of the chocolate.
Leaving the chocolate factory you will have a round-trip of the famous Paseo de Montejo and you will see the monumento de la patria (homeland monument) bevor you check in to your hotel!!!
Merida
After check in at your Hotel in Merida downtown you’ll go to the Zocalo to see a reenactment of the Mayan ball game played with a fireball After the ball game you'll have free time for dinner, strolling around downtown or visiting a bar.
Day 2
Uxmal
Uxmal (Yucatec Maya: Óoxmáal [óˑʃmáˑl]) is an ancient Maya city of the classical period in present-day Mexico. It is considered one of the most important archaeological sites of Maya culture. Maya chronicles say that Uxmal was founded about 500 A.D. by Hun Uitzil Chac Tutul Xiu. For generations, Uxmal was ruled over by the Xiu family. It was the most powerful site in western Yucatán, and for a while, in alliance with Chichen Itza, dominated all of the northern Maya areas. Sometime after about 1200, no new major construction seems to have been made at Uxmal, possibly related to the fall of Uxmal's ally Chichen Itza and the shift of power in Yucatán to Mayapan. Uxmal was dominant from 875 to 900 CE. The site appears to have been the capital of a regional state in the Puuc region from 850-950 CE. The Maya dynasty expanded its dominion over their neighbors. This prominence did not last long, as the population dispersed around 1000 CE
Choco-story
You will be able to travel to the time of splendor in a Mayan environment, learn how the Mayan people lived, go into their homes, cornfields, gardens, learn about the transformation of cacao into chocolate, continuing the timeline with the arrival of the beverage to the Spanish court, where it was consumed only by the upper class. The path continues toward the 19th C, crucial moment for chocolate, when it was developed into tablet form marking the beginning of the huge industry which would extend around the world with a variety of textures, mixtures, flavors, and fillings. When the 20th C arrives we see the last great impulse of this fruit which has a worldwide demand; and the arrival of new producing countries, techniques, and qualities, initiating an endless amount of possible ways to taste, present, and prepare chocolate. Observe a real Maya ceremony and learn about fruits and vegetables that grow wild in the jungle. Afterwards you{ll stop at a restaurant where you can have a real Maya lunch, cochinita pibil or pollo pibil, pork or chicken cooked in a ground pit.
Day 3
Chichen Itza (in the mouth of the Itza spring)
Chichen Itza is located about 400 km west of Cancun and is probably the most famous Mayan ruin city in the Yucatan. Chichen Itza, founded around 400 A.D, had its heyday from 800 to 1200 AD and was the center of political, religious and military power in the Yucatan. In its architecture is a gradual change of the architectural style, starting with the one in the Puuc style in Uxmal ruins and other cities in Yucatan and reached its peak with the Maya - Toltec style, recognizable by their similarity to the style in Tula, the ancient capital of the Toltecs, Oaxaca and other Toltec ruins cities along the Gulf Coast. Chichen Itza was a very large Mayan city with many inhabitants, who lived scattered around the religious zone that we now know as the ruins. Despite the large population, there was plenty of drinking water by many leading water caves and cenotes in the region. On a tour of the city, you will learn about the history of the Maya and Chichen Itza.
Cenote
After your visit to Chichen Itza you'll visit a beautiful Cenote to refresh yourself and go swimming. Then you'll have lunch at the restaurant close to the cenote.
Valladolid
Established in 1543 by the Spanish Conquistador Francisco de Montejo and named by him after the former capital of Spain. In 1545 Valladolid was built in its current location over a city of the Maya named Saki 'or Zaci-Val, where the buildings were torn down in order to use the stones for the Spanish buildings. Visit the square, the old Monastery; build in the 15 hundreds, learn how the monks used to live there and see the old weapons found in the Monastery’s Cenote , from the Monastery. Your last stop will be at the Zocalo before you drive back to your hotel in the Riviera Maya.
See more photos in our gallery.
Details
What is included?
- transportation
- entrance fees
- Gua Gua ride
- 2 nights at hotel in Merida
- lunch
- guides
What is not included?
- tips
- drinks at lunch
- dinner
What to bring?
- bathing suit
- towel
- sun lotion
- bug spray
- closed shoes
- pocket money
Availability
Pricelist
| # PERSONS | PRICE per Person |
|---|---|
| 1 | $ 1549.00 |
| 2 | $ 998.00 |
| 3 | $ 789.00 |
| 4 | $ 699.00 |
| 5 | $ 549.00 |
| 6 | $ 499.00 |
| 7 | $ 459.00 |
| 8 | $ 439.00 |
Interested?
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