Trip continues in Xpujil and preparation for Calakmul

The Mayan temple towers in Xpujil.

It was sunny morning of the late April this year when I took a bus from Campeche to Xpujil. The second class bus station is on Avenida Gobernadores – only some 15 minute walk from the hostel where I was staying. It took about five hours to get to Xpujil, but partly driving trough the villages along the Gulf of Mexico was quite nice. I listened to a very appropriate music – it was a compilation of songs of Keola Beamer, a Hawaiian musician. It was a very relaxing and comfortable trip.

I arrived to Xpujil in the early afternoon. I knew roughly where I was about to stay, although nothing was arranged. On my paper I had written down “Don Jorge Cabanas”. I heard it is a cheap and decent place, so decided to check it out. The taxi driver knew where that is, and didn’t even charge me anything, because, as he said, it’s only one kilometer from the bus station. But probably the real reason was because he hoped I will hire him the next day to drive me to Calakmul. The latter is the ruin of an ancient Mayan city, which in its golden days was one of the most important Mayan center, together with Tikal and Palenque.

Great surprise at the Mayan site of Edzna

Main plaza in the ancient city of Edzna.

The Mayan ruins of Edzna was the primary reason why I’ve came to Campeche. The plan was to catch an early colectivo van and spend the day in Edzna. The colectivo vans were located in the street that goes parallel to Avenida Gobernadores, close to the Mercado. It took me a while to find it, but after asking a few people I managed to catch a colectivo van that dropped me off at the very entrance to the site of Edzna. It took about an hour to reach it.

It was still very hot in Mexico, so I’ve spend a while in the shade, preparing for the exploration. Only people that I’ve seen during my entire stay was a bus of school kids and a dozen or so more people later on. I was pretty much there by myself. First group of objects that I’ve seen consisted of several ruined temples and an acropolis. As I was approaching one of those ruins I’ve seen lots of iguanas starting to run away. There were so many of them that I felt a little uncomfortable – I’ve never seen them in such number before. As I climbed up the acropolis I was greatly surprised by the amazing view of what’s behind it – the main plaza with the pyramid temple, and behind it on the higher platform was an amazingly intricate complex of a palace with temples.

Gaining momentum in Valladolid Part II: Chichen Itza and cenote Samula

Downtown Valladolid.

After finding out where the colectivos for Chichen Itza is located, I went to that place fairly early. I was told that the first colectivo to that most popular Mayan ruin in Mexico goes at 7am (which turned out to be inaccurate information because it goes at 8). I intended to catch that early one so to come there and explore before the crowds starts entering. When I came there at 8am I saw two couples talking and waiting for the ride. At 8:30 we finally hit the road and were on our way to Chichen Itza. On our way there I conversed with one of the couples that were waiting. They were an easygoing young people from Ontario and the purpose for their travel was to spend a month on the Caribbean cost, taking care of someone’s house.They were very much looking forward to that break, and told me many things about their overall travel in the area.

After some 45 minutes we arrived to Chichen Itza. The admission fee for the site was around 250 pesos, which was the most expensive ticket for archeological site in Mexico (most of other sites were 70 pesos). Yet, it is worth paying that much to see what this most popular Mayan site has to offer. It was almost 10am, yet the many buses that would come from Cancun were not yet there, which was good. However, there were lots of sellers already at the site.