After having such a great, chilled-out time in Merida, Valladolid – our next stop after Merida – had big shoes to fill. We had three nights at another really well-reviewed hostel called “La Candalaria”, and were staying in a private double room … with shared communal toilets and showers., the first shared facilities of our trip (I get the feeling it certainly won’t be the last)!
The hostel itself was bright and colourful and our room was pretty teeny but clean – the main thing. There was a massive fan on a desk as well as a ceiling fan – both good to know as the humidity and heat had continued to follow us! Upon our arrival we cooked up some noodles that we had purchased along the way for a quick, easy and cheap late lunch before exploring what Valladolid had to offer.
We were staying about 4 blocks from the zocolo (the main square), an easy 7 minute walk, and as we made our way there for a gander, both Dave and I felt like Valladolid was just a smaller version of Merida. The same types of houses, the same colours everywhere, the same food on offer – it was nice to feel a sense of familiarity 
The main reason for us choosing to stay in Valladolid initially was so we could venture out to Chichen Itza as it was only a half hour drive versus the 2.5 hour drive from Merida. However, as you know from my earlier Merida post, we weren’t sure how the weather would hold up whilst we were in Valladolid (thunderstorms were forecast) so we decided to do Chichen from Merida, leaving us pretty much free time in Valladolid.
This was pretty handy as this time it was Dave’s turn to feel crook for a couple of days – unfortunately for him, there was no air-conditioning, and no privacy of our own bathroom! In fact, poor Dave had to risk the thousands of mossies in the middle of the night as he visited the toilet repeatedly – did I mention it was an outdoor toilet…?
Despite Dave not feeling too crash hot, we still had a couple of pretty cool days – exploring a famous Mexican folk art museum, viewing the best lightshow I have ever witnessed and swimming at a pretty awesome cenote just out of town.
Casa de los Venados
Casa de los Venados is the private home of the Venator family, and they rebuilt what was a crumbling old building over about ten years to turn it into a beautiful home, as well as a national cultural tourism attraction with the largest museum quality collection of Mexican folk art in private hands.
They currently have more than 3,000+ pieces in their collection, and the beauty of it is that all of this art is literally used as furnishings for their (beautifully designed) two storey mansion just off the zocolo. The art is curated really well, with some pieces given their own alcoves focusing on particular regions, and others just incorporated into their home – for example, the custom designed plates and vases. You can find out more about this interesting home/museum on their website at http://www.casadelosvenados.com
Here is a snippet of some of the works of art we saw
The Mexicans certainly love their skeletons and skulls! But the bright colours and vibrancy that shines through everything takes away any notion of it being macabre.
The Valladolid Lightshow
Upon checking into our hostel, the staff recommended that we visit the lightshow that is on a few times a week and held at what is commonly referred to as the ‘ex-convent’. Full name of Convent de San Bernardino de Siena.
Not really knowing what to expect, we went for a pretty average, but pretty expensive meal – we should have known better to be honest, dining smack bang in the touristy area! – and then got a comfy spot on the grass opposite the old, impoing monastery and waited for the sun to go down and the show to begin.
Before shot of the convent with just standard lighting
And we were blown away. I was expecting a few roving spotlights to feature in the lightshow, but what we saw was a comprehensive history of Valladolid and the convent, displayed in full illustrations of the most vibrant, bright colours, on the whole side of the convent – it was phenomenal!
Here are just a few of the images we captured of the different lighting effects – although we were so enthralled at the story unfolding in front of our eyes, we didn’t even capture the best parts!
And the lightshow photos!
AMAZING, right?!
The show lasted for about 15 minutes (I think!) and the commentary was in English initially, and then repeated in Spanish afterwards. We loved it and walked away having a great understanding of how the Mayans had risen up against the Spanish conquistadors and even the more modern Mexican government over the last couple of hundred years – fascinating stuff, and a great free way for tourists to get to know a city and its people in an interesting and thoughtful way.
Cenote San Lorenzo de Uxma
With Chichen Itza already done and dusted, it did not take us too long to decide to spend our free day visiting of the cenotes not too far from town. This one was particaulrly recommended by the hostel staff as it has a swing rope you use to swing over the cenote before dropping about three metres into the refreshingly cool cenote-water below.
We caught a local cab out there and after descending down about 10 flights of stairs until we were about 20 metres below ground, although with this cenote, the sky was clearly visible as the cenote was more of a hole in the ground than a cave.
The cenote entrance and the staircase down
Upon arrival it looked as though we would have the entire place to ourselves so we did a swing and were chilling in the water for about ten minutes before another traveling couple joined us.
Dave taking in his first view of the cenote
(you can just see the swing on the far right)
The swing part was actually a lot harder than I thought it would be – you start on a little ledge about 5 metres above the water where you hold the bamboo attached to the rope (which is attached to a tree branch way up on ground level), then you swing across the diametre of the cenote, letting when you’re over the deepest part of the cenote, Much scarier to step off that little ledge than I was expecting!
Check out the tree roots!
This cenote is also renowned for the interesting black catfish that live in the waters, but who have over time, evolved and now have no eyes! For those that know me, this did not please me as much as the cenote staff thought it would… anyway, the fish were swimming around but seemed to steer clear of us swimming!
Me swimming to the ladder after swinging the swing -water so refreshing!
After being in the cenote for awhile, we decided to get back into the sunlight and went up to the resort-style pool for another dip and some cold beers while we waited for our taxi driver to come collect us.
All in all, was a great unplanned way to spend our last day in Valladolid! Next stop…. Beach time in Tulum!!