Merida and around
We treated ourselves to an internal flight to Merida – one and a half hours seemed better than 20 hours on the bus, particularly as the end of the trip feels like it is approaching far too quickly! Merida is a pleasant colonial town, with lots of attractive buildings, lots of old VW beetles and plenty of things to do nearby.
We went on a trip called the Ruta Puuc which was a quick visit to 4 archeological sites followed by a longer stop at Uxmal (Ooosh-mal). First was Labna. This was far more extensive than we were expecting. We were expecting a tumbledown ruin or two covered in jungle, but Labna is fairly extensive and well cleared.
From there we visited Xlapak and Sayil. Xlapak is more as we expected, one main ruin (but there are others being uncovered at the moment). Sayil is more extensive, but we had a very short stop there and didn’t have time to visit all of it. Again there is lots of work going on there (building new ruins?)
We had a longer stop at Kabah, which is a very impressive site and much more extensive than the others. We only visited the main section (there are three) and spent a long time enjoying the plaza with no-one else around. The Chaac masks here are fantastic, a whole temple front is covered with them.
Uxmal is the “main” site near Merida (then there is Chichen Itza a bit further away). It wasn’t as busy as we were expecting. You walk down an access path and then the Castillo del Adivino is right in front of you, quite a “te-dah” breathtaking moment. You can’t climb that pyramid, but you can climb the Gran Pirimide to one side of the site which gives good views over the jungle with the main structures poking out. Again, quite a sight. El Palacio del Gobernador is a huge building, with detailed freizes all the way around. Many of these are of Chaac the rain god with the big nose again (he crops up a lot – as the Yucatan is all porous there are no surface lakes so the Maya needed regular rain to survive). The Cuadrangulo de las Monjas is also very impressive. Probably 100m square with a temple on each side each with detailed carved facades. Much more impressive than the Inca monuments in Peru and around which are very plain with no decoration at all (those close fitting blocks seems to have been the Inca’s only trick – and only tiny parts of each site are made like that). We were really impressed with Uxmal (and Kabah), and although it was a bit rushed at times had a really good day out.
The following day we went to Cuzama to visit three cenotes nearby. Cenotes are underground lakes where the roof has totally or partly collapsed. I think we call them sinkholes. After a collectivo ride from Merida to Cuzama (all the collectivos here are A-Team vans with blacked out windows) we “transferred” to a bicycle taxi (a precarious reverse tricycle arrangement – you sit in an open fronted cage at the front between two wheels and your “driver” has the back half of a bike to power you along) which after some not so gentle persuasion eventually took us where we wanted to go! We then got onto a wooden truck thing that ran on rails and was pulled by a horse. Presumably the railway was built for transporting crops of somesort (maybe Sisal?) but there doesn’t seem to be much evidence of cultivation now.
After speeding along for a rickety 20 minutes we arrived at the first cenote. This was the most open of the three we visited with a hole in the cave roof maybe 10m square. This let lots of light in (to part of the cave anyway) and showed the beautifully clear blue water, with a few fish swimming around. It made for a very pleasant swim, which was refreshing as it is ridiculously hot and humid here now (it is the hot, rainy season after all).
The second cenote was 10 minutes further on by horse train thing. This one had a smaller opening in the roof, and the water was a little colder as less sun got to it. The third had a very small opening, just big enough to get through and it took a while for your eyes to get used to the dark before going for a swim. This one was colder still. All in all, another great day out (and slightly more refreshing than yesterday!)
Tags: Mexico, Travel
Jenni
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