Hi everybody,
One weekend we rented a car to visit Valladolid.
First, I must tell you that finding a car rental that was not so expensive was an odyssey. We asked in many agencies, and none made the reservation for the following week, you had to ask the same day in the morning to see if they had availability.
Prices ranged from 1,000 to 1,500 pesos per day ($48 – $72) for cars that were the most basic and of poor quality. In the end, we rented through a contact of the one who managed the apartment where we were staying. This person rented us the car for 850 pesos a day ($41), which was still expensive. Also, the car was filthy.
Here’s an interesting fact. Individuals rent their own cars in cash and a little cheaper because they make a scam. They do not register the cars as rental in order not to have to pay fees or more expensive insurance; So, they warn you that if the police stops you, you have to say that the car was loaned to you by a friend. That way, they don’t ask you for a security deposit either.
Think that, on our first trip to Mexico, the rent in Baja California Sur cost us 600 pesos and it seemed very expensive. In Turkey and the Algarve, for example, it cost us 25 euros per day. In other words, in Yucatan car rental prices are more expensive than what we have paid in Europe.
We booked through booking.com to spend 2 nights in Valladolid and it was $45 per night, which is also on a European level.
What we visited:
- Cobá
- Valladolid
- Cenotes Xkeken and Samula
- Xcacel Beach
Friday we left Playa del Carmen early to get to Cobá. Here are the prices:
- Parking: 60 pesos
- Entrance: 100 pesos
- Bicycle rental: 60 pesos
The archaeological complex of Cobá has 6km in total and bicycles are not necessary. In addition, there are pedicab that are even less necessary. I didn’t like Cobá because it seemed expensive for what it was; Furthermore, after visiting Uxmal, Palenque and Calakmul, it seemed such a little thing.
When we spoke with a local who did tours, he told us that “the archaeologists seemed to be architects instead of archaeologists” because the photos from when they discovered the archaeological sites were nothing like how they are now. We understood this in Cobá because we heard a guide tell tourists that a mountain of stones “had been left like that because they didn’t know what it was.”
Then we went to visit Valladolid and we were happy to find a truly Mexican place again, since Playa del Carmen (and the Mexican Caribbean in general) totally lacks identity.
The city is covered in a few hours because there is practically nothing to see. We visited the Ex-convent San Bernardino de Siena (40 pesos) and it’s not worth it, it has nothing.
As for prices, Valladolid is as expensive as Playa del Carmen.
The next day we went to visit the cenotes of Xkeken and Samula:
- Entrance to a cenote: 80 pesos
- Entrance to both cenotes: 125 pesos
- Life jacket: 25 pesos per cenote (you cannot use the same for the two cenotes)
Both cenotes are underground. In the Xkeken cenote we were completely alone for the first hour and then people began to arrive.
I was complaining to Diego about how absurd it was to have to pay twice for the vest and the guy who worked as a lifeguard asked me what the problem was.
He explained that the town is divided into two and each half took a cenote to get money, so in each one you must rent a different vest.
He also told us that now the state was expropriating the cenotes that did not have the proper papers and that in all the expropriated cenotes the use of the vest was mandatory.
I asked what was better, that the cenotes were in the hands of private parties or the state. He told me that it was the same because nobody gave money to the people, but “at least now they were not killing each other“. Years ago, between the towns they fought and they killed each other. I could not believe it.
In addition, he told us that the money from the cenotes was kept by “the commissioner” of the town who spent it in the bars of Valladolid with many girls.
Get an idea of the level of corruption and disaster in the management of tourism in Mexico.
Then we went to the Samula cenote, and it was bigger and more impressive. The bad thing is that already at that time there were people and a scandal. The good thing is that it had more natural lighting and the photos came out better.
The truth is that after spending most of the day in underground cenotes, I wanted open cenotes, but we decided to visit the Cenote Las Palomitas the next day. This cenote is a little further from Valladolid (40 minutes).
We arrived and saw that the price had gone from 80 to 150 pesos, so I decided to leave and thank goodness, then I saw in many reviews that people’s cars had been opened and everything had been stolen.
We returned to the center to try our luck with the Zaci cenote, and the water was disgusting. We saw the central market and I tell you that it is the ugliest market we have seen in Mexico.
In the end, we decided to go directly to Tulum to Xcacel beach.
Xcacel is a natural reserve since the turtles spawn there. Before they did not charge entry and one donated the will, but that is over. Now the entrance costs 91 pesos for foreigners and it seems to me a reasonable price, it is not the theft that you find in the rest of the Mexican Caribbean.
I really liked this place even though only a very small part of the beach can be used, the rest is a protected area. The good thing is that the consumption of alcohol, smoking, and music is prohibited and only fruit and water can be entered.
Here is my opinion about this visit:
- Cobá is not worth it. There are archaeological sites much more spectacular and without mass tourism.
- It was not necessary to go to Valladolid for two nights. We could have gone and return the same day.
- In Valladolid there is nothing to see, and the city can be visited in a couple of hours.
- All of Yucatan is full of cenotes and they are all more or less the same. If you see one open and one underground, it is enough. Next to Progreso there is also a natural reserve full of cenotes, perhaps this area is less massive and better to visit.
Here is some interesting information about the origin of the cenotes:
The impact of a meteorite that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago is the origin of the cenotes of Yucatán.
https://tierrasmayas.com/wiki-maya/origen-los-cenotes/
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