Trip to Mexico

1. Valladolid
Named after Valladolid, at the time the capital of Spain, the first Valladolid in Yucatán was established by Spanish Conquistador Francisco de Montejo's nephew on May 27, 1543 at some distance from the current town, at a lagoon called Chouac-Ha in the municipality of Tizimin. However, early Spanish settlers complained about the mosquitos and humidity at the original location, and petitioned to have the city moved further inland.
On March 24, 1545, Valladolid was relocated to its current location, built atop a Maya town called Zaci or Zaci-Val, whose buildings were dismantled to reuse the stones to build the Spanish colonial town. The following year the Maya people revolted, but were put down with additional Spanish troops coming from Mérida.

2. Merida
Mérida is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of Yucatán and the Yucatán Peninsula. It is located in the northwest part of the state, about 35 km (22 miles) from the Gulf of Mexico coast. The city is also the municipal seat of the Municipality of Mérida, which includes the city and the areas around it.

3.Chichen Iza
Chichen Itza is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site built by the Maya civilization located in the northern center of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the Yucatán state, present-day Mexico.

Chichen Itza was a major focal point in the northern Maya lowlands from the Late Classic through the Terminal Classic and into the early portion of the Early Postclassic period. The site exhibits a multitude of architectural styles, from what is called “Mexicanized” and reminiscent of styles seen in central Mexico to the Puuc style found among the Puuc Maya of the northern lowlands. The presence of central Mexican styles was once thought to have been representative of direct migration or even conquest from central Mexico, but most contemporary interpretations view the presence of these non-Maya styles more as the result of cultural diffusion.

The ruins of Chichen Itza are federal property, and the site’s stewardship is maintained by Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (National Institute of Anthropology and History, INAH). The land under the monuments had been privately-owned until March 29, 2010, when it was purchased by the state of Yucatan.

4. Tulum
Tulum (is the site of a Pre-Columbian Maya walled city serving as a major port for Cobá. The ruins are located on 12-meter (39 ft) cliffs, along the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula on the Caribbean Sea in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico. Tulum was at its height between the 13th-15th centuries and managed to survive about 70 years after the Spanish began occupying Mexico. Old World diseases brought by the Spanish settlers appear to have been the cause of its demise. One of the best-preserved coastal Maya sites, Tulum is today a popular site for tourists.

5.Playa del Carmen
Playa del Carmen is a city just south of Cancun on the coast of the Caribbean Sea, in the northeast of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. The city is the seat of the Solidaridad municipality. In the 2005 census, the city had a population of about 100,383 people and it is rapidly growing in population. It is the third largest city in Quintana Roo, after Cancún and Chetumal.

6. Cancun
Cancún is a coastal city in Mexico's easternmost state, Quintana Roo, on the Yucatán Peninsula. As a rapidly growing city with a quickly changing skyline, the estimated population for Cancún is 705,000 in 2010 an increase 20% from the census in 2005. Cancún is located on the Yucatan Channel that separates Mexico from the island of Cuba in the Greater Antilles. The Cancún region is sometimes known as the Mexican Caribbean or the Mayan Riviera.

And to conclude the trip... COCOBONGO!
Coco Bongo is a must see - it is a cross between Circus de Soleil/Concert/Theatre/Nightclub. Everything from dance teams to trapeze artists, gymnasts and scenes from The Matrix and Batman is played out to mainstream dance music. The night really is a performance, not like any other club, and you are there to be entertained and amazed.
Yes it is crowded, but not more than is enough to give it a great atmosphere. The music varies from Elvis and the YMCA to Usher and Bob Sinclar, and it is not a place to take too seriously. The rest of the bars in Cancun are the same as you will find in any other mainstream entertainment area, but Coco Bongo is in a league of it's own, no other place like it!
A word from the wise - if you have had too much to drink, do not dance on the bar in the middle of the club, it's a long fall if you lose your balance.