Muchas Gracias Amigo's for joining us again as we leave the Gulf Coast and head across the Yucatan peninsular to the Caribbean Sea.
We broke camp at Campeche on Tuesday the 12th of February headed for Uxmal one of three major Mayan ruins on this leg of the trip. About half way we saw some signs on the side of the road for some caves that weren't listed in any of our books. We pulled in a kilometer or so from the road and for about 5 bucks had a guided tour of these very deep caves that had steps and lights along with an automated English commentary of the Mayan interpretation of the beginning of the world and the legend of the hidden woman caves as the local name translates to. The colors that the light show threw off the rock formations were amazing and we all enjoyed the break in the days drive.
We reached Uxmal early afternoon and dry camped in a parking lot next to the ruins.
While we were here we enjoyed a scrumptious buffet lunch at one of the flash hotels close by and Watched the evening Light show at the Nunnery Quadrangle, this was actually a Mayan government palace named by the Spanish because it resembled a Spanish nunnery.
We had headsets to translate the show's commentary that I had to leave my drivers license for as a deposit. After the show we lost one of the rubber earpieces and they wanted to charge us 50 pesos for something that should have been replaced before the next use anyway.
After looking around in the dark for a 10 minutes I was a bit shirty and headed back to confront them and get my license back only to be met by the official who handed it back and said don't worry. I think he saw the look on my face and decided their little earner wasn't going to pay with me.
We have heard lot of stories of the police and gas pump jockeys demanding bribes and running different scams on the gringos that visit. So far I don't think we have been touched other than paying a couple of cents or a buck too much for a taxi ride or a souvenir at the markets.
Next morning we headed for Chichen Itza (Chicken Pizza) another big ruins about halfway across the peninsular. We headed up some more remote roads to link back onto the Mex180 and stopped in a small village to buy some fruit and veg off the back of the truck from a mobile fruiteria. I chased him down the road after finding we had picked up a grocery bag full of ground chilli powder with our purchases. He was very happy I returned it and so are we considering the damage it could have caused.
Chichen Itza was great, a huge site with many interesting ruins. If you clap in the large grassed area in front of the main pyramid you can hear the sound run up the 90 steps and echo with a loud sharp reply when it hits the temple on the top. It makes you wonder what it was like in its heyday with thousands clapping together while the priests were offering sacrifices to the gods up above.
A lot of the people we spoke to didn't enjoy the place due to the large number of vendors flogging their wares but we had a ball as we were in the market for a few souvenirs and love to barter, well Mom and the boys do anyway.
We hit the highway just before lunch with one of our highlights being the Pollo (chicken) place we found the evening before. 140 pesos ($14) for 2 whole butterflied chickens BBQ'd and served with platters of rice and coleslaw and all the tortillas and hot salsa you can handle. Washed down with a couple of $1 Coronas.
Next stop was Vallalodolid. On the way into town we toured the amazing underground Cenotes or artesian wells at Dzitnip. One had stalactites hanging into the cool clear water and the Cenote Samula we swam in the crystal clear water with the roots of an Alamo tree dropping 50 feet down from a small hole in the roof. A shaft of sunlight shone through this hole onto the water reflecting light up onto the cave roof. It was pretty hot and the general consensus was that cenotes had it all over ruins as far as we were concerned.
We had a good look at the city while trying to find the local LPG plant to top up the rig before heading to the only campground, the parking lot of a restaurant on the outskirts of town. Here we ran into Arthur and Jean our British friends and along with Alberto and Jo celebrated Arthur's birthday with a nice meal by the pool. After being assured by the owner that that the gates would be open early so we could get a 6am getaway we spent almost an hour hooting the horn, revving the engine and banging on doors before we woke the old codger up.
We wanted an early start so we could get to the coast, tour the Tulum ruins and then head south to Bacalar where the nearest campground was situated. We achieved all this after getting lost and driving our rig to the back gate of the ruins due to bad signposting and directions. After our visit we had to back out 200 meters down the road to the nearest driveway because we couldn't turn around.
In Bacalar we couldn't find the campsite the book mentioned but we were escorted to the local municipal park by a chap on a motorcycle and enjoyed a night dry camping next to the beautiful sweetwater laguna Bacalar where we swam and bathed from our own private jetty before the short drive to Chetamul the next day.
Yhats another story uf course, so until next time,
Hasta Luega Amigos.
The McGregors-6
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