Villas Arqueologicas Uxmal

The bus was late, again.

And the site closes at 5pm, so that I had 1h30 to visit. And it's big.

As you enter you find yourself face to face with this big pyramid, the main structure, and a preview of the surrounding jungle (with iguanas and birds 'n all). Impressive.
The rest of the site is made of ...

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 ...

... ljudi, ptice in krize. Zanimiv je bil tudi kip dvoglavega jaguarja in pa ogromno kuscarjev, ki so se sprehajali naokoli ali pa se soncili po rusevinah. Ob vecerih tukaj priredijo vsak dan show z glasbo in svetlobnimi efekti, vendar nama je ogled tega prekrizal dez....Sva si pa v blizini ogledala vhod in del ene izmed najvecjih jam na Yucatanu Calcehtok. Za ogled celotne jame potrebujes strokovnega vodica in pa kar nekaj casa ter dobro opremo.

... and stalagmites fusing together which, when pounded correctly, make echoing chimes that sound vaguely like Lol-tun. As legend says, our guide explained, virgins are not able to hear the sound. This comment led the other members of our group to ask us if we could hear the noise and then to laugh uproriously when we just looked confused (we pieced together what they had been saying after the fact).

Finally, we came to a massive ...

Uxmal, our last Mayan ruins stop on this trip - a very interesting architectural site..

http://picasaweb.google.c om/tommnow/UxmalMerida?feat=directlink

This morning we are off again, the first stop is at the Mayan ruins of Kabah. We are now in the middle of the heart of the Mayan buildings in the peninsular and these buildings are linked by a 20 km road to our next site at Uxmal. At the start of this road is a huge archway, also at the site we can see a large complex that they think was a soldier's barracks and off to the side the prize exhibit of the site a temple with a 100 metre front covered in mask ...

... all of the northern Maya area. Sometime after about 1200 no new major construction seems to have been made at Uxmal, possibly related to the fall of Uxmal's ally Chichen Itza and the shift of power in Yucatan to Mayapan. The Xiu moved their capital to Maní, and the population of Uxmal declined. After the Spanish conquest of Yucatán (in which the Xiu allied themselves with the Spanish), early ...

... was going to be a huge problem but is wasn´t so bad as most of the cave was fairly big and the guide spoke loudly and clearly. Another highlight of the caves was near the end of the tour where there was a couple of different chambers that show skylights. After not having such good luck finding places that appeared to have the appropriate levels of cleanliness to eat here yesterday, our hotel recommended Tutul-Xiu on Calle 45 between Calle 50 & 52 in ...

... like a previous-generation Sentra and is commonly used as a taxi. Four manual gears, no radio, no power steering...but functional. First stop was at an old hacienda, Hacienda Ochil, that was restored starting nine years ago, and is now operating as a restaurant and set of workshops for local crafts, plus a small shop and some museums. We had a bit of lunch at the restaurant, after which Sheila discovered this sort of concrete water basin that you can swim in, and she ...

... anything of interest I've forgotten. The most traumatic part was getting incredibly lost trying to find my way to the airport to get my flight from San Christobel to Xalapa. I had to travel from San Christobel to the city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez and stay overnight for a morning flight the next day. I didn't realise that the airportwas a very long way from the city but luckily I decided to make enquiries the night before. I couldn ...