Southeast Mexico
After subjecting us to a year of country arrest, the immigration Gods finally took pity on us and released us from our bondage. We gladly accepted the new freedom and travelled overseas for the first time in more than a year (well, we did cross the Gulf of Mexico, so it should count as "overseas"). Destination was the eastern states of Yucatan peninsula - Yucatan, Campeche, Quintana Roo and Chiapas.
We flew in and out of Merida, the capital of Yucatan, and hence, spent our first day there. Most of the morning was spent in checking off the city attractions: the Museo Regional de Antropologia and the Palacio del Gobierno.The former gave us a wonderful introduction to Mayan history and the latter gave us the taste of 20th century Mexican murals. Fernando Castro Pacheco's answer to Diego Rivera's masterpieces in Mexico City. In the afternoon we took a bus to Izamal, known for its brightly coloured 15th century convent.
Following morning, we hired a car and drove to Uxmal - our first ruins of the trip. Uxmal's stunning architecture, especially its Casa del Adivino kept us engaged all morning. In the afternoon we drove the Ruta Puuc checking out the lesser known ruins of Sayil, Kabah, Xlapak and Labna. Apart from the ruins, the route is also home to the largest underground cave in the peninsula - Grutas de Loltun (Loltun caves) - occupied by the ancient Mayans around 2000 BC and later used by their descendants as a makeshift fort during the caste wars of early 20th century.
The following day was the first of three long drives, an option forced on us by the fact that Camepche's attractions are closed to public on Mondays. Hence, we had to drive past Campeche on Monday and return here the following day in order to avoid skipping it. Edzna was the only stopover for the day. It is lies a little off the main Puuc route, but still has quite bit of its influence. The site's primary attraction is its edificio de cinco pisos (five story building), a wonderful mixture of a pyramid and a palace. Our destination for the day was Palanque, a huge mayan settlement set in a spectacular rain forest setting. Palanque is easily the most dramatic of all Mexican ruins. Only less than 10% of the site has been excavated and open to public - more than enough to capture anyone's heart. After exhausting ourselves roaming around the site, we drove back to Campeche.
Campeche's historic centre with all its buildings gleaming with brightly coloured facades itself was worth the driving effort. Campeche used to be a prime target for the pirates - the single biggest reason how Spain lost all the wealth that she looted from the new world. In a futile attempt to stop the bleeding, Spain built quite a number of forts to protect the city and today these are prime targets for the tourists. We visited the most celebrated fort in Campeche - El Fuerte de San Miguel, home to the petite Museo Arqueologico, worthwhile for its two stunning jade masks a brilliant view of the city from its roof.
The final drive was 400 km long taking us from Campeche to Chetumal. What made the trip even longer was an additional 120 km detour to visit the most secluded of all Mayan ruins, Calakmul - situated deep in a biosphere reserve. Although the ruins were interesting and the setting dramatic, the long drive and the longer walk to the ruins made it a bit of a drag. Like the Puuc route through Uxmal, the route from Campeche to Chetumal are also lined with Mayan ruins - these go by the sobriquet of Rio Bec sites. Thanks to the Calakmul detour, we had time to visit only one of them - Becan, the best preserved of the lot. The city of Chetumal has one little gem - its Museo de la Cultura Maya, easily the best of the region.
A few hours behind the steering wheel, the following morning, brought us to Tulum, the southern tip of the Mayan Riviera. Its location alone makes it one of the most visited. Set atop cliffs overlooking pristine Caribbean beaches, it attracts many day trippers from Cancun and rest of the Mayan Riviera. After being squeezed in and out of the site in an hour, we spent the rest of the day taking a guided trip to the nearby Sian Kaan (which means "where the sky begins" in Mayan) biosphere reserve. Floating down the secluded mangrove forests and witnessing one of the best sunsets in the world came as a welcome break from gaping at Mayan ruins.
We left for Valladolid via the shortest path, the following morning. This helped us avoid Cancun, crowd and other annoyances and provided an opportunity to knock off one more Mayan jungle ruins - Coba. Coba is the home of the tallest pyramid in Mayan land - the 45m tall Nohoch Mul (Mayan for "big mound"). The pyramid is located a good 3 km from the entrance. In order to preserve our energy to scale it, we had rented bicycles to reach the pyramid. Unfortunately, only I had enough determination left to climb the 115 steps to the top of the Mayan world. The view from the top was quite rewarding.
After a brief stopover at yet another ruins Ek Balam (Mayan for "Black Jaguar" - home to one of the best preserved relief in the peninsula), we made our way to the most celebrated ruins of all, Chichen Itza. Due to its proximity to both Cancun and Merida, Chichen Itza attracts more tourists than most other sites and unlike Tulum, it deserves all the attention it gets. Its sheer size and scale can absorb most of the visitors and you can visit the site in relative peace. Chichen Itza's El Castillo (the castle) is definitely the most striking of all structures in the Mayan world. We spent an entire afternoon roaming the site - the longest we had reserved for a single place in an action packed week - waiting for the evening sound and light show. An untimely thunderstorm ensured that it was nature and not man that provided the sound and the light for that night.
On the final day, we planned to check out the bird watchers paradise of Rio Lagartos, situated about 100 kms from Valladolid. Our trip was almost cut short in half as we got lost in the maze and mess of Tizimin, the only city enroute. After a bit of searching around, we finally located Diego of Isla Contoy (the guide recommended by Lonely Planet). In the next two hours, Diego transported us to a completely new world of bird safari. It was every bit exotic and exiting as the one in East Africa. For someone who could barely say a turkey from a peacock, we were became expert birders by the end of the memorable couple of hours at the lagoon.
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