(silvena) Hi everyone. Thanks so much for writing to us. Even though we have promised ourselves to come to an internet cafe and write every two days, we cannot help ourselves and come and check your comments every day. So a HUGE THANK YOU!

Travelling in Mexico by bus seems to be a pleasant and quite well organzied experience. Probably because they do not have too much train service here, their bus transportation is very easy and comfortable. We are using Merida as a base for this week from which we are exploring (in day trips) the Maya ruins around. The bus ride to Uxmal, another very important Maya city, was about an hour and there was absolutely nothing on the way, just low vegetation which is brownish even now in the winter (the one we thought were swamps from the plane), so i cannot imagine it during the summer. This bus, even though a regular public service, had only tourists reading all kinds of Lonely Planet like books. When we got to Uxmal though, it felt like we had the whole place for ourselves...until we saw some animal crawling quite close to us... an iguana! I thought we were SO lucky to see such a strange animal so close to us so we even made an attempt to take a picture of it (with the zoom of the camera of course because no matter how interesting i thought it was, i am not so brave :) and then we saw another one... and another one... and another one... Uxmal might have been once the home of a great Maya civilization but now seemed to be the kingdom of iguanas. I was so scared! they look just like stones and we were afraid we will step on one of them. My fear of animals like that is well known among my family and friends, i was in some frenzy yesterday. Michal was just telling me, oh don´t look to the right, just go! and i went! oh, now don´t look to the left! those iguanas were HUGE! they were harmless of course and i even know that some people have them as pets (noone I know!) but there and then, they were quite unpleasant.

Anyway, they did not stop us from really admiring the ruins. In Uxmal, as opposed to Teotihuacan, the stone work and carvings were much more elaborate and since the ruins are situated among some greenish hills, the views were spectacular. Not so much to climb too, so it was relatively easy on us. (We will post pictures soon).

We knew Merida is well known for the fact that there is always something happening here but it really exceeds our expectations. Last night we were strolling aimlessly the streets when we heard some music coming from a courtyard within the University building and we walked in. It turned out to be an opening of a sculpture gallery followed by a romantic concert. This concert actually very much reminded me of our old Bulgarian estrada (pop).Not much tourists there but we got held up by the free piña coladas and champagne :) Just when we were ready to call it a night, and just accross the street we saw some crowd beginning to form in front of a building for some Korean night!!! Yes, Korean!!! Yes, in Mexico!!! we walked in very confidently (Michal insisted that since we were well dressed, not looking like tourists, since this time we were not wearing shorts and sandals), and if we walked in VERY confidently, noone will dare ask us for invitations. And the guy at the door did indeed just let us in. I am still not sure if this was a by invitation event, but nevertheless we attended a Korean dance performace in the beautiful opera house of Merida, which was preseded by respectfully long speaches by a number of Korean and Mexican authorities. We learned that there is a sizable Korean immigration in Mexico and the friendship among the two countries is florishing.

We did call it a day after this. And in fact, we were quite tired and for the first time last night some doubts about whether and how will we actually manage to get through the rest of our planned travel came to my mind. I am hoping that it all came from the fact that the hotel we stayed in until today in Merida was quite uninviting and in the evenings when you feel like getting some quiet time and some rest, we just did not want to go home. Today we moved to a different hotel and it makes a world of difference. The rooms are again centered around a courtyard (as seems to be everything around here), but they are much sunnier and cleaner and just more pleasant to be in. The owner (the parrot lady, as Michal calls her) is an American woman who gave us a huge list of tips with places to visit and things to do, etc. We have a hammock in our room (yes, in our room) which makes it difficult to leave it. these hammocks here (which are one of the most famous worldwide) are huge and so soft. So we have been taking it very easy today: just walking to the north side of the city where the middle and upper class lives and there are some beautiful mansions from the beginning of the 20th century, visiting the modern art museum which had some very interesting art installations, we spent several hours just talking to a retired American couple from Seattle around the pool of the hotel, discussing American policies in the Middle East and Russia´s importance in the world (you all know some heated discussions came out of the second topic among Michal and me :)

Well, this will be all for tonight from me since i have a hungry lion next to me waiting to be fed :)
Good night!