anyone going to be in the Yucatan next week?

Whaza matter? That Calgary winter getting ya down?

Ha baby, it's better than the rain My sister's in N. Van these days and can't wait to hop a plane to somewhere.

Dont venture off to the Mayan ruins unless youre in a big group. Im serious.

Really? That is too bad. I went to Tikal in a small plane as part of a group of three women plus the pilot. If there was anyone else on board, I forget. We got to be pals, for a short time anyway, letters as follow ups, with the anthropologist tour guide there at the time, a woman who had herself hitched to Tikal from (was it?) Rio. She was a brit, if I remember.

The roads to paces like Chichen Itza and Uxmal and Tikal were sites of several attacks on tourists in recent years. Last time we went to Chichen Itza was in the early 1990's and it is not as peaceful now.

Mame, babe, buy me a postcard. Not that you need to send it from there, but pick one up and we can exchange postcards later. (I'm rich with postcard treasures, if not with money.)

I'm particular. Forget the new big glossy postcards and the panorama cards - older and tacky is good, or good and or interesting photography in smallish format.

Or you can choose to not accept this assignment and have a margarita instead. I'll be with you two in spirit.

I suppose I understand the caution and maybe even the people doing the attacks (for money? for politics? a mix?). I'm viscerally anti being part of a tour group (I'll change when I get to eighty), not for others but for myself.

I had a few useful tours in my days, through the Pienza palace, in german, for example, and my german is very spare, but that was only an hour or so and I was glad to see the Piccolomini pope's place - he's said to be the only pope to write an erotic novel but also was an early person (the first, or so I read, as I'd have to recheck Sixtus IV) in later day (read renaissance) town planning, for the town of Pienza - and some that were insane, e.g., a wildflower tour by bus.

Most of my trips have been by whimsically driving north (or other directions), or well researched by me or a travel companion, with room for not following plans.

I'd be a perfect victim going to Chichen itza except that I have no financial account to benefit from.

Sure, I'll look for one for you osso. And I won't send it from there or you won't get it until who knows when.

FM - we thought we'd take the bus - do you suggest we go on a tour?

yes do the tour, buses are notoriously unreliable and a driver wont protect you should you get held up. Tours will often have a soldier or two. They wont **** with a soldier with an automatic rifle

I've never seen a soldier in those places but I don't mind taking a tour. Thanks.

I'd love to see some hard info on Farmerman's saying. Perhaps there is.
On that logic, I'd tell Mame to be aware of crocodiles. One ate a tourist in Nichupté lagoon a few months ago.

Anyway. Don't miss Tulum, Xel-Ha and Xcaret (even if the latter is made for tourists). Snorkeling in Cozumel is a must...
For Yucatec food, go to Los Almendros, in Cancún.
Have fun!

Thanks for the food tip, fbaezer... I'll put that in my notes.

We're going from Cancun to Playa to Cozumel to Playa to Tulum to Cancun. Unless we extend our stay (which we're considering), we're not going to have time for the others. We plan on some day trips (Puerto Morelos, for example)...

I've been there several times before and I always stay safe, as evidenced that I've never been eaten by a crocodile. But I will, of course, watch out

Will let you know how the roads to the ruins are. And remind me to get Osso a postcard.

I have an unfortunate tendency to take Fbaezer as wise.
You can prove me wrong, Mame

So it means you are not going to Chichén Itzá or Uxmal, then.
I think you could rent a car; that's what my son and his German girlfriend did a couple of years ago (they stayed in Akumal, just past Playa del Carmen); the Cancún-Tulum corridor is great.
(For Chichén and Uxmal, I'd also advise the tour, but for confort reasons, mainly).

Have fun! (and a coffee at Savio's, in the main mall of Cancún).

Been to Chichén Itzá but not Uxmal, and been to Akumal. This is mainly for my sister, who has never been, and I just want to get away from the Great White North.

The bus seems okay - runs all day long, plus there are the Collectivos we can catch. I think we'll be fine. All short distances, too.

Thanks for your input,

I'm sure that Mame would love to get all shot up just to prove you wrong, Osso.

So, you would be all scared?

Mame and I know each other. You are a vapor.