Lodge At Uxmal

So for today, we´re based out of Merida, exploring the city and, of course, the nearby ruins. We visited Uxmal this morning, which is a group of ruins ¨"in the classic Pucc style". In other words, the buildings are pretty, pink, and incredibly detailed. Although the site as a whole, and the buildings individually, were not as large as some ...

... of not looking like complete tourists.<br><br>A colectivo, it turns out, is a modified pick-up truck hauling a small hut-like structure with two benches. We piled in with the other nine passengers and the driver and set off down the road. Once at Loltun, we waited for the next tour. When the guide arrived, he looked at us quizically and asked if we really wanted the Spanish tour. "Si" we replied nonchalantly - score one for being legit ...

Santa Elena is a small Mayan village at a convenient point on Mex 261, which is the slower route between Merida and Campeche. The village lies 83km south of Merida ...

... we also saw a couple of huge iguanas, they are very common here, but these two measured some 2 ½ ft long from nose to tail and had a girth of about 5". On leaving the ruins we drove to Uxmal and parked up for the night. At 7 pm they hold a light and sound show in the ruins so we decided to go to see this. It is set in the main square in the site and we sat at the top of the square overlooking the ruins. The commentary, we had English headsets, told us ...

... documents suggest that Uxmal was still an inhabited place of some importance into the 1550s, but no Spanish town was built here and Uxmal was soon after largely abandoned. My experience: The light and sound show is great, colorful and although my spanish is still limited, they tell a great history of the life at that time. The site in the day is much more impressive though. Its a huge site, most of its ...

... s quite the industry here...there are several tiers of service provided by the coyotes depending on the time, comfort, safety, and likeliness of success you desire), living costs in the US versus Mérida... The rain never stopped, but we finally braved it with our rain gear and saw a few structures. The site appears sprawling without the concentrations of restored structures that we've seen elsewhere, so we only saw a couple of things. (-Aron) Our last stop ...

... guys. The tallest structure at the site is the aptly-named 'Big Pyramid', which you can climb. (I didn't realize that climbing the structures is largely prohibited at many sites.) The staircase is quite steep...perhaps it's only 45º, but it feels closer to 60º. You don't notice much on the way up, but turn around and it feels like you're atop a cliff. Getting down is really no big deal, though, though an American woman was loudly going on about the horror of it all ...

... hot again (80's) even at 10.30am, no wonder the Mayans have a lot of carvings dedicated to Chac the rain god! We parted ways at Kabah. Here you have the Palace of Masks whose facade bears the image of Chac, it is mesmerically reapeated 260 times, the number of days in the Almanac Year. Each mask is made up of 30 units of mosaic stone. Even the central chamber is entered via a huge Chac mask whose curling snout forms the doorstep ...

... I can't remember the name at the moment and as I have sent my CD home I can't even look it up. They were actually very entertaining and although they spoke only in Spanish and I hardly understood a word it was a very good evening. Fabio was also heading to Palenque the next day so we travelled down on the same bus and decided to stay at the same hostel/camp site. This consisted of timber huts in the rainforest shared with ...

... show was very sweet and gave the impression of having been put together by someone who head of son et lumiere, but hadn't actually been to see one. The crackly sound of ancient worshippers brought smiles to our faces. As well as the feathered serpent this crowd worshipped Chaac, and cried out his name: Chaaaaaac! Chaaaaaac! Chaaaaac! It probably wasn't intended to be funny, but it was ...