Alright so it's just after 7:00 a.m. and we're about to head to Chichen itzá
and in this video i'm going to tell you how much we paid, where we went, how it went and
what to expect on this trip so I should give you a breakdown on where I am
I'm currently in Playa Del Carmen and because it's very much a tourist town
expect higher prices although now it's the middle of September so it's
currently the offseason now I was originally planning on taking the ADO
bus from Playa Del Carmen to Chichen Itza but after looking at round-trip tickets
and the price of a admission to Chichen Itza I quickly realized the savings
would only be between 200 to 300 pesos. After I realized this I started shopping
tours of Chichen Itza a long Fifth Avenue. Now when you do this you
definitely have to be prepared to bargain. I was quoted as much as two
thousand and eight hundred pesos or a hundred and fifty US dollars to a low of
seven hundred and fifty pesos or 40 US dollars per person. The best deals I
found was actually inside the ADO bus station in Playa Del Carmen or from this
travel agency along Fifth Avenue I was expecting people selling tours outside
the tourist area of Fifth Avenue to offer better prices but that wasn't the
case either way I recommend checking out these two locations I mentioned and
shopping around to see if you can get a better price. So I'm out here in Cancun
and prices are a little bit cheaper. Chichen Itza is thirty dollars and I've
seen it as low as twenty five. If you're looking for a better deal. Not sure why
it's cheaper but it must be the location or something. Although remember these prices
are in the off season and I shopped around and negotiated. I suspect if you
visit during the tourist months prices are significantly higher with less room
to negotiate. So this is the tour agency we used
in Playa Del Carmen. Their website seems to less higher prices so remember to
negotiate we use this tour accompany, Group sightseeing and as far as I can
tell everyone in Playa Del Carmen was selling the exact same tour experience.
I'm sure there are others but this seemed to be the default tour
experience and as I'm about to show you it's worth experiencing. Now there's a
couple things you need to know about this tour. They do pick you up from your
hotel and since the journey to Chichen Itza is a few hours drive, be prepared
there's a lot of up-selling on this tour. So you should at minimum bring a hundred
extra pesos per person for tipping and souvenirs. Bring food, snacks, water, bug
spray and sunscreen. They offer all these on the tour but they are expensive
during the trip they provide you with a lot of information on the Mayan people.
It was a mix English and Spanish tour so it can be a little long but very
informative. They show you how the Maya people kept records and made paper as
shown here. This is an example what a Mayan book would look like and this would
be an example of their numbering system.
The Mayan people strongly believed in the medicine man. They would act as a
medium between the real world and the spirit world and was someone who was
highly regarded in the Mayan culture. One of the more interesting parts of this
tour is you really get to see authentic Mexican and Mayan towns. This Mayan town
shown here still has a large population of native Mayan speakers. The first stop
in our tour was to the Hibiku cenote just north of Valladolid Mexico. It was a
three hour bus ride from Playa Del Carmen. Now when you are on this tour the
biggest issue is time. They only stop you for two hours what's includes an
all-you-can-eat buffet, they do a small dance performance while you eat
and entrance into the cenote. There are other things you can do like a tequila
room, a gift shop and a Mayan replica village but we just didn't have time to
visit them. The main attraction is definitely the cenote. A cenote is a
natural sinkhole resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that
exposes groundwater underneath. As you can see the cenote gets very busy as
most bus tour seem to stop here. For the price of the tour you get a admission to
the cenote, all-you-can-eat buffet and everything else I mentioned other than
drinks. It's a fantastic deal but two hours goes very quickly. This cenote is
beautiful, well-kept, over a hundred feet deep with crystal clear blue water.
Before we headed back the tour stops in the city of Valladolid, Mexico. This city
is surrounded in Mexican history and culture. The tour stops in the city
centre and focuses on this Catholic Church. This location was once a Mayan
city that was taken over by the Spanish in the 16th century. It was demolished
and rebuilt to what you see here. As you can see it was raining so I didn't get a
lot of footage but the city center is a magnet for most tour buses as they head
back to their destination. We only spent 30 minutes here so use your time wisely
now to the main attraction of the tour, Chichen Itza. Obviously the tour begins
here at the most iconic Mayan temple Kukulkan. Also known as El Castillo.
I'm sorry if I pronounced any of that wrong. Seeing this temple in person is
spectacular. If you are in the area I highly recommend it.
Entrance to Chichen Itza was covered by our tour but cost of admission to this
site was just over two hundred pesos per person for foreigners. If you arrive here
before the tour buses you most likely have the place to yourself and you can
hire tour guide to give you a private tour. Unfortunately if you take the tours
they sell at the resort towns you end up with a limited amount of time at Chichen
Itza we had a 45 minute tour and an hour and
a half of free time to explore and take pictures. Next our tour guide led us to
the Great Ball Court. It's hard to capture how impressive this site ís. Almost
five hundred square feet with walls going up 26 feet high. Mayans would play
a team of seven where they would somehow get a stone rock thrown through the hoop
of the walls without using their feet or hands. A game of death where Mayans would
play against slaves. The tour ended at the Temple of Warriors and the plaza of
a Thousand Columns which was used as a civic and for religious purposes.
Alright so that's the end of the trip. This is Chichen Itza. It was a lot of fun. That's what you
can expect for private tours. There's lots of vendors here. Everyone's selling everything
for about a dollar US when you pay so I feel really bad for them because
they're all competing and it looks tough. So I hope you support them. Thanks for
watching, like my video, subscribe to my channel and thanks for watching until
later I'll see you later