Category: Travel tips

It is close to 70 km from Campeche to Edzna. We started late in the day, way after lunch and expected to reach the pyramids in an hour but it took a little more, the road is not so good. but what a bonus – we were in the whole pyramid complex ALONE! That is more one can expect. At first we thought maybe they are closed – only our car in the parking. So we stayed for the full 2 hours till they close at 5 pm. It was amazing! Here is a path from the parking that leads to the ancient city:

And here is what we saw once we got out of the forest, one after another ruins, pyramids, town squares started unfolding:

And again I mention -there was nobody except for one bird, a woodpecker, disturbing the silence.

The main pyramid is the most impressive. Though there was a sign telling not to climb the stairs, I have to confess – I couldn’t stop myself from this sin…On the other hand – there was nobody to see me climbing, except for Andrei. So I climbed, the stairs were not well restored, it was a little scary, but the most disturbing was the feeling that came from the very top of the pyramid, the temple. I guess I wasn’t worth yet to reach the top, the spirits who guard it didn’t want to let me in and I stopped:

This pic is done by Andrei from below, I am the little white dot on the stairs, close to the top, but not yet. And here are the views I saw from there:

Andrei is a little blue dot in the field or main square.

There were more pyramids to climb which was permitted, so I did some yoga on one of them, it was fantastic:

Some of the stones of these stairs have images, or glyphs:

A jaguar here. there is pretty ruined pyramid with some very elaborate sculpture work,but it is at the bottom of it. So you have to bend down very low to see the images of the gods of East and West:

Here is a new structure they are building, I mean – restoring. In makes me imagine how beautiful those pyramids looked freshly built, like a white city form a fairy tail.

In conclusion – the feeling is amazing, I already want to go back…

 

 

 

Campeche is on the other side of Yucatan peninsula, on the Gulf of Mexico coast, which i snot as attractive as the one in Florida. The color of the Gulf is grey there and you can see it best from the highway stretching by the water. The downtown is further from the sea and is not only enclosed in walls, but has forts on all four corners and several gates to enter the town as well as many orderly lined streets with orderly painted facades:

This street is #59 – no cars can park here: a photographer’s paradise!

We stayed for 2 nights in a perpendicular street Calle 12 ,close to this church and we could park in front of our hotel “Lopez” . A very nice hotel! As everywhere in Mexican cities – you don’t know what to expect before you enter the building and go deeper and deeper into it. So here are the inside spaces or lobbies of Hotel Lopez:

And here is the hotel pool where I didn’t swim…Till this time I feel I haven’t accomplished something in Campeche…

And here is another hotel where we didn’t stay. Our American friends pointed it to us to visit for some pictures – it is built over some old monastery ruins with appreciation to the past and incorporating them into its gardens and pools:

So one can swim in among the old rooms…Personally I don’t find it attractive – to me it seems like a flooded house, like misery. But they think it is wow! and therefore their prices are around $500 a night .This hotel is on Calle 59 at the very East side of it, by the city wall.

Campeche has many museums, enough for me to wander around for 2 days. One of them:

In the very central square, by the Cathedral:

there is a rich man’s house-museum: Casa Seis (facing the cathedral on Calle 57):

It is always nice to see how rich people lived or live 🙂

What was nice about the stay in Campeche – they have lots of music and dance concerts in the Man square. Also – the restaurants are good. There is a choice for different tastes. We even found a vegetarian cafe close by in the center, owned by a German yogi-woman. But she was much more interested in yoga than cooking. so it took as a while to catch when they are open and not lazy to cook and serve food :-).

Before leaving Campeche we drove on the very beautiful seaside highway south to Fuerte de San Miguel – a Fort still in the boundaries of Campeche. There a museum of ancient Maya art there, it pleased us to see how talented those people were:

Just to show how cute their glyphs are. The Stellas are brought from one of the archeological sites.

I am not sure if it is ethical to show a dead person in his burial attire…

They used to cover the mummies of their kings with a mask of blue jade.

The museum halls are in this fort around the inner garden.

 

 

 

 

After a good breakfast at Pickled Onion, where they they really pickle onions, we drove to Uxmal Archeological site. It is a big site, like Chichen Itza, but much more beautiful! So if you have limited time to visit Maya pyramids – this is the one I would highly advice to visit, never Chichen. Though it is not so close to Cancun, but it is pretty close to Merida. We never drove more than 230 km per day, and most of the days we drove less than 200km. So the distances and not long there. sometimes the roads are not perfect. though I have to say – they are rebuilding so many roads that in a year or two this who peninsula will look like a perfect traveling destination. When asked if we felt safe during the trip – what could I say seeing French people driving on bikes with their babies attached in bike-cradles through the wilderness of Yucatan…And we felt safe, only had to slow down at military check points, which are arranged evidently because of drug wars still going in the North of Mexico. Also – saw some police or army trucks fully loaded with armed solders. But other than that we saw or heard or felt nothing scary. So here is the first view of of the main pyramid of Uxmal:

Because the pyramid is of an interesting form, here is the side view:

Can you see how steep it is? It was not permitted to climb up, but at least we could walk close by (unlike at Chichen where every building is fenced ). Also – the location is not flat. so some structures are higher, some lower, which makes for a very cozy anchient city setting:

Their stadium is seen here – where ancient Mayas played some kind of game similar to football, but they couldn’t touch the ball with hands, only their bodies, shoulders and had to push it into a stone ring hanging on the side of the field wall. A very hard and brutal game as we understood.

This little pyramid was built for the Kings’ mother-in .law. The special about it- it was permitted to climb it!

Evidently, everything the discoverers found of ancient cities was in ruins and overgrown by jungle. So all the nicer buildings or parts of them are diligently restored, with so much work sill waiting.

This is the highest pyramid we could climb there. There was usually a temple on each pyramid where their priests held their rituals, some of them being very cruel. I hope little Mayas didn’t have to climb those stairs very often/ because as I noticed earlier – the steps are very high and narrow, and t is a little scary to climb it:

The views from above:

There were several courts or squares making that city and buildings surrounding them. They were decorated elaborately in their time and even what remained now pleased the eye:

There is a way to know more about each building besides reading before the trip- To hire a guide, of which many are waiting by the entrances to those sites, speaking different languages. The cost is something around $40 for the whole excursion, as long as it takes. So it is more feasible to be with a small group. On the other hand – I didn’t even want to know too many facts about Maya history, for some are gruesome, some maybe noble, but…most of them travel to that drawer in ones memory box that is never opened…I just wanted to enjoy the city planning, the architecture, the masonry, the sculpture and feel the atmosphere, maybe even the energy.

Sadly, but this two headed lion is not just for beauty. Girls to be sacrificed were on it -saw it in paintings in museums…

What a nice way to make stairs! Or maybe they were seats for sports spectators. The rhythm…

The main inhabitants of the abandoned cities – iguanas. They are everywhere, heating their bodies in the sun, eating plants and catching bugs, not afraid of us almost at all.

The last glimpse to the main pyramid from its back and we are off through the modern entrance-visitors center:

After looking through the pictures I am still amazed at their grandeur! While being there – it was so hot and humid (even in February), so the feelings for their beauty or energy are a little dulled. And you never stop marveling- who could build them? No, the theory that aliens helped ancient Mayas to build them is pure fiction. However our waiter said his grandpa met a tiny Jungle person at night – one of who were supposed to really help Mayas in their ordeal. Their version of Snow man, just very tiny. But when Mayas say tiny – he must be really tiny. But with strong stature and strong hands to carry stones. Who knows…

 

 

Santa Elena is a small town past Kabah and some 30 km before you reach Uxmal. Just a place to sleep. Actually, we didn’t even see the town, because the B&B – The Pickled Onion – was right on the road. Owned and run by a British lady it is charming. She bought an almost bare hilltop, brought a lot of soil and planted nice surroundings, while building several cottages in Maya style. They are supposed to be efficient in holding heat or cold depending on the time of year:

A beautiful doctor from France that I got acquainted in The Pickled Onion.

The good features about this B&B are -the pool, nice gardens, nice tastily built and furnished cottages, a good restaurant with waiters who speak English! There is also a labyrinth for meditation:

And the owner can offer a massage:

As usual in Mexico – the tile and stone work is attractive:

Only one shortcoming – being so remote the internet is with glitches. Though the owner got our e-mails, my high -tech husband couldn’t connect to the world. Therefore we couldn’t stay there longer than one night:

This is a road from the town Oxkutzcab through Kabah -the pyramid to Uxmal A.C. It is narrow, winding, but very beautiful as most of the roads there. I am not sure what Puuk means. but the road is worth driving because of several Archeological sites along it. Those sites are ancient Maya cities with pyramids, palaces and other constructions, claimed from the overgrowing jungle. Those particular sites are nice because there are off the beaten path. Very few tourists and the tickets are cheap. This is the first palace we saw once we walked through a park like forest in Sayil:

Oranges…

The rain god.

This is another example how Yucatan people like to paint – the trees are whitewashed…

This is what they found when they discovered their archeological sites…Then they took those stones. looked how they fit together and restored some of the structures based on the pictures.

The famous Maya arch -made with the same small blocks, no wood or large slabs involved.

The paths or roads between structures are wide and usually white (not brown like this one) – it is a very hot a humid climate. so the builders usually worked at night, the white roads helped. Also – the stones there are usually white, so no choice :-).

You can see clearly the part of the stairs that are restored and the part that is not.

The view from the top. To tell the truth – those stairs once you climbing them – are pretty scary. They have very narrow steps and very tall ones, I wonder how those tiny people managed to walk up and down while I with my long legs had a hard time… 🙁

Then we stopped at X-Lapak and Labna (some 10-20 km appart):

Here are more sites yet to be restored. Interesting how nature claims its lots very fast…

It was already too late or we were too saturated with archeology that we didn’t go into Kabah Arch. site/ but saw the main pyramid from the road and that was enough for that day.

We drove south from Merida on the Convent road that leads towards Uxmal Arch. site. As the name says – there are several small towns with convents by that road, the history of bringing a “better” religion to Maya people.

Lucky enough we stopped at a right time in one of the towns -there was a Maya weeding going to start:

The middle aged ladies are wearing Maya national dresses, which they wore at all times and everywhere we saw them. Those dresses are very elaborately embroidered, different decors on each of it , therefore they are pretty expensive from what we saw in their stores and more so having in mind their life standards. But – the ladies look always very white and clean and pressed – are they not busy enough ? that was my question…Also – they don’t have to think much or fuss about what to wear for a wedding :-).

For me the outsider the wedding looked very sad…No smiles, no joy, no happiness on the bride’s or flower girls faces. Maybe they are not used to show their emotions, or maybe their suppression of many years is manifesting on those serious faces…

The priest was also pretty fast and non emotional in reading his words.

The churches on that way were not very impressive. but..they told the story of how Catholic missionaries came, took away their pyramids and built their churches on the sites from the stones of the pyramids. Here one can see the glyphs on the open stones on this wall. At least they didn’t cover them…If there was a reason to bring Mayas on the right path to spiritual joy – that very much failed. They are now not so much into their old gods, neither to the new ones and didn’t look very happy…

This convent garden seems to being restored. So we walked to take pictures. A man ran towards us shouting “privado!”, like in Felini’s movie . So we left. Would be nice to know – what is it going to be there, but we don’t speak Spanish…On the other hand – a secret is sometimes more romantic that a plain truth. The thing that we noticed in Yucatan – they like painting, repainting their walls and facades. The makes their towns rather colorful and prety for us, travelers.

This is not a doll town or dog town, but a cemetery!

And lastly – the sad part – they have no landfills, evidently, so they dump their trash by the main road at the end of each town…creating a gathering place fro skinny and aloof dogs and some big birds:

 

 

After a very long break, for which I am very sorry, I want to continue describing our Yucatan trip so that it won’t hang in the air unfinished. To never leave thing unfinished! Why such a long break between blogs – the answer is spring and summer in our very hot Utah. There was so much work in our garden and house, we had pretty many very nice guests, with whom I spend sometimes long hours of talking, so it goes…And now the hottest time of the summer started, guests temporarily disappeared and so I can devote for remembering the trip, describing it and giving some good advices!

So we drove to Merida – the biggest city in Yucatan, not counting Cancun. which to me is more like a conglomerate of hotels, but not an authentic Mexican city. it was raining hard and the streets in the center are very narrow, one way. so we had to make several rounds until we found the Nomadas Hostel. As I mentioned – it is in the very center of town:

 

The pictures show the inner gardens or inner yards of the hostel. From the outside all the buildings are connected in one wall, so typical to Mexico, and life begins once you enter through the main doors:

Here we had our breakfast, here guests would sit and talk and exchange info about places of interest.

It is so strange that once you enter a house – different areas open deeper and deeper into the block, like this hostel had even a swimming pool and a nice park when you would never suspect that there can be such things…

There are plenty of hammocks here and there and they are popular. But to me they seemed a little too humid – have in mind they stay there during their frequent rains and don’t always dry out, so the smell…

We stayed there for 3 nights and had a very good time. There were salsa dance lessons every evening in front of a huge mirror. We walked in the city center:

The cathedral is built from ancient Maya pyramid stones…

checked the museums:

This sculpture was used for human sacrifices…

And we found a university on our way:

then ate in nicely decorated restaurants:

The latter scenes depicting those sacrifices…

And left Merida with good feelings and this little lizard on our bed:

 

 

 

Next town on our way – Uayma. We got to know about it from polish couple we met at the Hostel. That is one of the main reasons I like hostels – you meet people while having breakfast, they are usually very open to interactions and sharing their impressions. We would have missed this very different and impressive Uayma cathedral:

And I can say for sure – as many more churches we saw – none of them had anything like those flower…Interesting how some artist came to a very original decor, having in my that there was no internet way then…

Here is the town itself – heading towards our car. We wanted to have the Maya lady in her national dress standing by the entrance to municipal market:

And the roads looked like this, like a tunnel through an endless yellow blooming meadow:

In a couple of hours or so we reached the next destination -Izamal – a town in yellow color! I would say that Izamal means Amber, but as if it is named after Amaryllis, the flower, which I have never seen in yellow…why not Daffodil?

As we entered through this gate – all the buildings were the same color:

No problem to park the car, lots of “estrangeros” driven in horse carriages, a little tourist town which has a main point – the Cathedral:

The Cathedral, The Anthony Convent as it is called, is not as big or impressive. But the front yard, as I call, is the second after Vatican’s St Peter’s Basilica’s yard by its size:

Pope Paul II visited this town in his times and held a mass in this yard, so that Mexicans built him a monument. Here is the entrance to the Cathedral with “the dance of shades”:

The cross Maya people adjusted to their own taste – draped with their national floral embroidery:

A cloister inside – not yellow?!:

And the decorated gates:

The Cathedral with its yard is beautifully situated on a hill in a place where ancient Maya pyramid stood – as we noticed it was a common practice for the catholic missionaries to disassemble pyramids and build churches using the same stones. Here are some more nicely decorated houses:

Books say that there are still some Maya ruins intact in the town, but had no time to look for them. were heading to Merida!

Initially we planned our trip in Yucatan like a circle – starting from Cancun to Valladolid: 2 nights, then Merida: 2 nights, then Campeche –2 nights, then Xpujil: 2 nights and a night in Bacalar and in Tulum on our way back to Cancun. We planned to see not only the cities, but also the archeological sites closest to them. Xpujil was to be a base camp for investigating the very tropical jungle and the sites as Calacmul, Becan, Balamku, Kohunlich and others. But…we figured out that it was unrealistic and inefficient to skim through so many nice and interesting places on our way and not to have time to enjoy them. Also – the roads are not so good there. I mean not all the roads are good enough, the way we are used to and the way we plan. 100 km in Yucatan are not the same as 100 km in Lithuania, let alone the USA. There are so many little villages on the road and that means very slow speed, lots of “vibrators” and speed bumps “tapes” , that you are literally crawling. A bicyclist is faster than you in a car. And we were warned – do not speed!

While searching on the internet for places to sleep- some cities got us enticed to several ones and we wanted to experience them so that we know. So against my strong belief not to overuse the resources of nature, we slept in two places in Valladolid, different for each night…One was hotel La Aurora, as I described before, a very good one, almost in the center of the city, except that the rooms facing the yard are much more quiet that the street side. But nobody spoke English there, though it is not a big deal. The other night was at Hostel ‘La Candelaria” – in Candelaria square, a block from La Aurora. The Hostel in not only in a perfect location – they had a tent-church set up in front of a real church in that square and the masses and singing of all town enthusiasts lasted till 12am :-). But also – the staff speaks good English, they are very friendly and informative about places to go and see. I can’t express more gratitude for them! They told about the cenotes, they told about the best restaurants. And the decor there was so pleasant! As it is typical in Mexican hostels we visited – there was a jungle garden, colorful little shacks, and “sceleton art” (they call it De Arte Popular – the Day of the Dead themed) pictures and paintings. Here is what we saw once we parked our car on the street and headed towards the hostel:

Without being ashamed – I love this picture! looks like some Tibetan flags but they are Mexican-Catholic flags…All the cultures have connections deep inside and sometimes they show up those connections outside…

Here is the hostel:

behind the blue door was our room. The experience there would have been really nice, except two things. They had to fix the water tank in the evening and until it filled up by the morning -there was no water, no toilets…And it is not so good for quiet night seekers like we are. Besides the noises from the square and my big efforts to finally fall asleep our neighbors came drunk and the American “she” was chatting in her high pitched voice by our door until they both fell asleep there, on that balcony path…Yak…But, the morning was beautiful and it offered more nice pictures:

Every hostel usually has a dog, a cat. This one tiny creature is called Bob.

The time before Mardi Gras in Mexico is a time of festivals. Here is the Town Fair in Valladolid:

We saw such cows in the fields, and now we saw them in the Fair. Friends who travel to India said that this breed is brought to Mexico from India. Looked very exotic to me, except that it is painful to see them on such short ropes…

Valladolid Cathedral at night and the Burrito Andrei ate at a very artsy-fartsy restaurant Conato on Calle 40:

It is a pity I didn’t take any picture of its interior…It had several copies of Frida Cahlo paintings, some other interesting decors, worth visiting. And the food was good!

While most of the streets in Valladolid intersect at the right angle, Calzada Los Frailes is an exception. It can be called Diagonal, like in St. George we have one, but far from the looks I saw here:

Boy, I loved this street. This is what I expected to see in Mexico and here it was. In a way – it was a dream come true! The Diagonal leads to Ex Convento San Bernardino:

Two Maya ladies chatting by the entrance…

As it is clear from the name of it – the monastery or convent is not operating any more, but there is still life inside:

Here is the square in front of the Ex-Convent with blooming trees:

And here is Valladolid’s cemetery on the way from the town towards Merida. First I was stunned when we entered it:

Like a town of doll houses. I can’t understand how bodies are buried there, so little space for each tomb, except for the newer part of the cemetery and rich family chapels on the sides…

As you can notice – most of the tombs are decorated with tiles. They are very much into tiles in all their structures, I bet they are producing them there and with a peek into one of the tile stores I was amazed at the variety you can get.

Lots of graves have a symbol of an open book – not a finished life story?..

(still much more)

To me -this was it. This was the most beautiful and pleasant and impressive cenote of all we saw on the trip. But that doesn’t mean it is the most beautiful, for we all have our preferences. It is on the way from Valladlid to Chichen Itza, only 7 km from V. There are two cenotes at that site – with a large parking lot and “a building” in the middle. They like having those inadequate big buildings, which are always in contrast with the rest of the people living around, and leads to a thought that they are heavily sponsored by the government. At least people get jobs while building them and now sitting and selling tickets. Well, there are actually 3 buildings. The biggest one is for selling tickets! The others are on each side of the road – fro crafts people to sell their goodies. Each cenote costs 54 pesos to enter. but you must be attentive and be prepared which of the two you want to visit this time – they have different ticket sellers sitting side by side. And if you buy a ticket to Dzitnut, it woun’t be valid to Samula and vice verse. Strange. Luckily. though rushiing as always , we somehow managed to get to Dzitnup this time and left Samula for the next. Here how the surrounding area looks:

You wouldn’t have a suspicion that there is something underneath, but this hole is kind of giving a hint:

It is fenced so that there would be no victims of curiosity or absentmindedness:

And those big trees are feeding from the waters of cenote. Here is the entrance:

And here is the “beauty”:

Stalaktites and the roots of those trees are hanging like curtains, the water is transparent and of perfect coolness or warmth, ropes are stretched for the fun or safety of the swimmers and the main point – there was nobody swimming when we came and it was so quiet, the colors lights changing every some minutes:

Light comes also from that hole in the surface among trees, it is seen in the picture from below.

It brings you to a feeling of Bliss! Your body is embraced by the most loving hands of nature and your mind is in a meditative state, what else can you wish for…

But we still traveled more, continue to follow us…