A day at the majestic Mayan site of Calakmul

At the entrance of the Calakmul biosphere reserve.

The night was cold. It was still dark when I woke up and headed out towards the bus station. The plan was to go to the entrance of Calakmul biosphere reserve by bus, and then from there to catch a colectivo van to Calakmul, or hitchhike. So I took an early morning second class bus to Palenque, which picked up passengers in Xpujil at around 6am (this was the only option, because the first class bus does not stop at such places, and the next second class bus went at 1pm). I asked the driver to tell me when we will be there so I can get off. By the way, it’s always good to mention to drivers where to drop you off twice – once at the start and second time remind them when close by, because if you only tell them at the start they may forget about it (happened to me in Puebla).

I arrived to the entrance of the Calakmul bioreserve at 6:50 am. There is a ramp gates that are lifted when each visitor buys a ticket to biosphere reserve. So it’s mandatory to buy both the ticket to that and to the archeological site (each costs around 60 pesos). From the entrance of Calakmul biosphere reserve to Calakmul archeological site one needs to drive for some 60 kilometers. There was already a car there buying tickets to biosphere reserve when I came.