From Akumal, we headed back to Cancun for a night to leave our diving gear behind and packed small backpacks to continue the rest of our trip with a short tour of the area via the Mayan Train.
Our first stop after 1.5 hours on the train was Valladolid. We stayed at the Hotel Meson del Marqués which was right on the central square. Saturday night was very busy with music, dancing, food and other vendor booths. The church on the other side of the square was lit up and a wedding ceremony was taking place. The music lasted late into the night and we were woken very early Sunday morning by the church bells.
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| Courtyard of the hotel from our breakfast table |
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| Wedding in progress |
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| We wanted to have supper one night on the rooftop restaurant of the hotel. We chose the one night it rained for a bit so we sought shelter in this fancy conference room. It cleared up in time for us to eat outside. |
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| View of the church from the rooftop restaurant at the hotel. |
Sunday morning, we got a taxi to Ek Balam, an archeological site about 25 minutes from Valladolid (separate blog post on that).
Chocolate Story
In the afternoon we went to “Chocolate Story”, a museum very near the hotel. The history of chocolate and the transformation of chocolate to what we know today, was interesting. From providing chocolate to the man just home from hunting, to its growing popularity amongst the elite, to having a “Molina” maid, moustache cups for any friends with moustaches, to the vast commercialization and per capital consumption.
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| Chocolate for the man who has just come from a hard day of hunting. |
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| Chocolate consumption by country. Not surprisingly, Switzerland and Belgium top the list! |
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| Various types of cacao beans. |
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| We think the McKinlay family needs a Molina! :-) |
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| Copper, ceramic and silver chocolate pots. |
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| "Mustache cups" to prevent men from getting their mustaches in the chocolate. |
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| A more modern-day stamp for marking chocolate. |
The next day we went to Rio Lagartos for a birding tour by boat (also a separate blog post).
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