Mexico: Day Four, Part 2 - Chichén Itzá at sunrise

Las Monjas (the Monastery)

Back at the hotel, the waiter sees to my needs:  first a glass of freshly-squeezed orange juice.  Then he suggests an omelet - with a bit of everything:  cheese, onions, ham, even champiñones (mushrooms, or champignons in French), which Mayas don’t eat because they don’t grow here.  He says he’ll trade out the refried beans for half a nicely ripe avocado... but it’s Mexico so the beans come as well anyway.
       As I eat, the blackbirds dart in and pick off leftovers from cleared plates.  I find it funny but the staff doesn’t and either removes the plates or coifs them with those silver serving covers.  But the birds are smarter still and know there’s a hole iin the middle of the cover’s top, which they feed through until, defeated, the waiters clear the plates to the kitchen.  (It’s also mating season, so some fine dancing and feather-shaking goes on everywhere across the park.)
       My neighbors, Justin and Babette, who have a rental car, are at breakfast too, and we decide to try the cenote nearby.  It’s called Ik Kil, which means “the place of the winds”.  There are winding steps leading down - waaaay down - and they’re very slippery when wet.  Justin decides to be the Goods Guardian and Photographer while Babette and I fray our way through the Young Things on Spring Break.  The water is opaque and cool, vines hang down almost to the water’s surface, and about five waterfalls keep the cenote full.  It’s fun to swim underneath them... like swimming in the rain.  What’s less fun is climbing up the ladder behind one of several overweight young women in a thong bathing suit.  So little - almost nothing - left to the imagination!  I should gouge my eyes out!
       I give in to the urge to jump in the water from the platform 16 feet (5 meters) up.  Justin gets it on film.  And as I don’t kill myself, I do it a second time, to the guard’s slightly surprised “Otra vez?!” (“Again?!”) and to applause from on-lookers.  Or so Jason tells me when I surface.  Should have held my nose because some water got up it, and I cough a bit.  Obviously I didn’t touch bottom, as the water’s 150 feet deep (46 m)!
       We head back to the hotel where I just sit on the porch and enjoy where I am.  Life is good.

After they head back into Chichén Itzá for a hot extra visit, Justin and Babette invite me to join them for dinner at 7.  I choose the poc chuc, pieces of pork marinated in bitter orange.  I get it with guacamole and of course... refried beans.  As a starter, the proverbial chips and salsa, which are very good.  (Chips throughout the trip will prove iffy, depending on the batch you get.)  We polish off my bottle of red wine from last night.

El Caracol, from the hotel

     Justin suggests a nightcap at the bar, where it appears there are telescopes.  Turns out neither telescope works but the mojito is better than yesterday’s poor excuse.  Of course, this time I specify “más menta y mucho limón verde” (more mint and lots of lime).

       After a walk back through the darkness, a black dog appears on my doorstep and I end up giving him my just-in-case roll from dinner.  He sniffs but won’t accept it, so I leave it on the doorstep.  Two minutes later, both roll and dog are gone.  And I’m off to sleep.