Uxmal, Mérida, Izamal, Chichen Itza

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We arrived at Uxmal with just enough time to have a quick dinner and then go in to the light and sound show. We were spending the night in the parking lot - it cost 100 Pesos, which is more than we have paid at some campgrounds that offered more facilities, but at least it was convenient. The light and sound shows seem to be quite popular at the larger and more visited ruin sites. It gave another perspective to the structures and the lights accentuated some parts, but I must say I really prefer the daylight to view these ancient buildings. There was also a narration set to music and we paid the extra to get a headset that played it in English. It was very dramatic - but whether it was very factual is open to question.
Sleeping in the car park meant we were up early as the workers began arriving soon after 6.00, but it also meant that we were inside the site by soon after 8.00 - only a small German tour group entered before us. So we were lucky to have this large site almost to ourselves for a while. The Pyramid of the Magician - which is said to have been built by a sorcerer in one night - dominates the site as you enter. It is 35 metres high, but unfortunately it is no longer possible to climb to the top. Uxmal is by far the most impressive site we have so far visited in terms of stone carving and mosaics as building decorations. And also, so many of the buildings are complete - either well restored or rebuilt. We spent considerable time in the Nunnery (mis-named by the conquering Spanish) which has 4 buildings surrounding a large plaza and all of them have amazing decorations. We had experienced the Light and Sound Show here, but in daylight I found it much more stunning. The Governor's Palace is also beautiful and very well preserved. I overheard the tour guide of the German group telling them that Frank Lloyd Wright pronounced this the most beautiful building he had seen - but I can't attest to the accuracy of the statement! Other than the Pyramid of the Magician, it is possible to climb up and walk in and out of all the buildings at this site, and this makes it more possible to imagine the people and their lives. And one more thing that added to the experience was the number of Iguanas living there. You had to be careful not to tread on them because a lot of them don't move for anyone!
Since we had made such an early start, we were also done by about 11.00. We decided to drive back to Kabah, a smaller site we had passed on our way to Uxmal. There are several buildings to wander around and they were also decorated with carvings and mosaics, but we didn't stay long as it was getting very hot out. We thought something a little cooler would be nice, so we decided to visit the Loltun Caves, which are believed to be the largest system in the Yucatán. A guide is obligatory and they lead you through on a pre-assigned path, with lights going on in front and off behind you - you had just better keep up or you might be left in the dark. There is evidence of Mayas living in the system, including ancient wall paintings, and they also used it to escape during the Caste Wars. There are stalactites and stalagmites as well as other rocky structures - one of them named the 'Grand Canyon Room'! I was quite impressed by the system, Juergen less so.
We had hoped to stay in the parking lot overnight as the tour finished at 5.30, but it wasn't possible. So we ended up driving almost back to Uxmal to a campground, during which we were constantly looking for another option for spending the night, and that was close to a 2 hour trip. We had to backtrack a little in the morning because we wanted to follow the Convent Route to Mérida. It includes Mayan villages, colonial churches, cathedrals and convents, as well ruin sites. Our first stop was Mani, which has a huge church and convent. It was here that Fray Diego de Landa supervised the burning of Maya documents and artefacts. A couple of interesting things Juergen uncovered in this town: the town has a population of about 4800 people. Approximately 500 of them have migrated to Portland, Oregon and from there are supporting the community's infrastructure financially (eg money for hospital and schools). The other was some Mayan carvings incorporated into the wall on the front of a local house. It was a very tidy town and gave the impression that it was well cared for by its inhabitants - as we left town we passed the tidiest rubbish dump we have seen in Mexico!
Teabo was the next town and has a 17th Century church - the locals sitting on the steps of the church were very friendly and we tried hard to converse with them. The town of Mama is reported to have the oldest church on the route, but unfortunately it was closed. But it did have one of the neatest traditional houses we have seen so far. The next town, Tekit, is also purported to have a noteworthy church, which was also closed. Our next stop was the ruin site of Mayapan. I was very surprised by this site as it had been portrayed in our guide books as having only a few buildings uncovered and lots more work to be done. In fact there were many buildings in varying stages of restoration, and you could climb up and down all of them. It has some well-preserved murals and stone carvings. It also has a cenote. A word of explanation - cenotes are actually limestone caves, sometimes open to ground level, which have flooded with water, and are quite prevalent on the Yucatán peninsular. They were also an important source of fresh water for the Mayans, and so were often considered sacred.
Tecoh has a large church and convent, which is built on a pyramid base, but one of the most interesting and incongruous sights on this route is found in Acanceh. Here a pyramid, a colonial chapel and a more modern church stand side by side on the main plaza. From Acanceh it was a short trip to Mérida and the Rainbow Trailer Park on the outskirts of the city. Unfortunately the campground had many mosquitos which made it really unpleasant to be outside of the camper for any length of time.
Mérida was disappointing, particularly for Juergen. When he was in Mexico in 1989 he found Mérida to be quite a captivating place. Now we found it to be noisy and busy, with far too much traffic for its narrow streets. We did stay for 3 days and there were some highlights. It was also useful in that I easily found a medical centre where an English speaking specialist checked my skin and removed some sunspots. I also had my shortest hair cut yet. It is reportedly the best place to buy a hammock and so we did. We had looked for panama hats in Campeche without success, but in Mérida there were plenty to be had and we got a good bargain on the two we bought. We had some good food, and some interesting food! I ate papadzules, a local specialty of tortillas stuffed with boiled eggs and served with pumpkin and tomato sauces. It was an interesting taste sensation and it is unusual that local specialties in Mexico are actually vegetarian. The El Colon Dulceria y Sorbeteria seems to be an institution - from 1907 to 2007! They serve ice-cream, sorbets and dulces (usually small, sweet cakes or biscuits) and seem to be almost always crowded. We went back for their refreshing sorbets so many times that the waiter knew what we wanted before we sat down - slight exaggeration, but we were impressed. We also had a very nice dinner in the Amaro restaurant, which serves a lot of vegetarian dishes and the waiters are a very friendly lot.
The one thing that is a must-do in Mérida is a visit to the Regional Museum of Anthropology and History. We have gradually gained the impression that when artefacts are found in ruin sites, the best of them go to Mexico City to the Anthropology Museum, the next best go to the museums in the state capitals and only a disappointing fraction remains in the site museums. As a result we hardly ever give much attention to museums at ruin sites. And we don't really expect to be very impressed by the city museums. The one in Mérida is a notable exception. It is well laid out in a beautiful mansion on Paseo de Montejo and has some amazing pieces. It has information on the body decorating (deforming?) habits of the Mayans - filed teeth, scarring of the face, flattening of baby's skulls - they were even into body piercing in a big way. All very interesting, and proof that there really is nothing new under the sun. I do wonder how many of our young people know that their generation wasn't the first to go in for things like that. They might even get some new ideas by visiting a Mayan museum!
The mansion, which houses this museum, is an exquisite example of the riches once flourishing around Mérida. At the turn of the last century Mérida was one of the most prosperous cities in Latin America, and evidence can still be found all over the city. Particularly along the northern part of Calle 60 and Paseo de Montejo there are richly decorated mansions and villas, some designed by prominent European architects and fitted with imported luxuries like Italian marble, French furniture and English table silver. Mérida used to be the centre of Henequén production (better known as Sisal, an Agave fibre), and the haciendas around the city relied on cheap indigenous labour to produce the riches for this elite class. Once synthetic fibres replaced sisal as rope material for industry and shipping, this glamorous town suffered badly. These days some of the mansions have been renovated, many more stand in need of attention and a lot have disappeared completely, replaced by boxy glass and concrete structures.
We decided to leave Mérida on Saturday and drive to Izamal. On the way we stopped at the restored Hacienda San José Cholul, which was once a Henequén producing property that would have made its owner very rich, and is now a luxury hotel. We asked if we could look around and were basically told we could go where we liked. The gardens are beautiful and the buildings are faithfully restored, even with their original colour scheme. It would be a nice place for a restful holiday - but I don't think it's in our price range!
Izamal is a small town which is interesting for a number of reasons. The first is that within the town there are a number of Mayan sites, five of which are open to visitors. It also has a huge church and convent built on top of a Mayan religious site, re-using the stones. The atrium of this church is said to be the second largest in the world - after the Vatican! Pope John Paul visited here in 1993 and held mass specifically for the indigenous Mayan population. The town centre is painted yellow with white trim, and this gives rise to the sometimes nick-name of "the yellow city".
When we arrived it was early afternoon and we were greeted by a member of the tourist police who gave us permission to stay in the Zócalo overnight, assuring us he would be around to keep an eye on things. He disappeared at about 5.00 and we didn't see him again - he didn't even come back for the tip he suggested! The town was very quiet when we arrived but it livened up in the evening and then never really went to sleep. There was a constant stream of motor bikes and cars around the centre and they didn't seem to stop all night. And then the early risers were around by about 6.00am! So it wasn't a very peaceful night.
But we had a good look at the church and went through the Folk Art and Cultural Centre on Saturday afternoon. Both were impressive, the former for its size and city views and the latter for its incredible collection of the best folk art from all over Mexico. They also had a display about the Henequén industry - its history and the current restoration of the haciendas. On Sunday morning we walked up Kinich Kak Moo pyramid, walked a little around the town, and then visited a couple of artisan's workshops before leaving town. We were so tempted by the quality of the hammocks available that we bought another one, but I think this one will be a present for someone back home.
We then drove on to Piste to stay the night before visiting Chichen Itza. The only place that provides camping for RVs in Piste is the "Piramide Inn", which is right on the Hwy 180 that goes all the way to Cancun. The place for us to park was at the front of the hotel, right on the side of the road. The road is a very busy truck route, particularly overnight. This resulted in Juergen getting up in the middle of the night, packing up the camper and then driving around the town until he could find somewhere off the main road where we might be able to sleep. Fortunately he was successful and we had a few hours of unbroken sleep.
Chichen Itza is one of the most visited sites in Mexico and reputedly one of the most magnificent. Unfortunately for us it was a disappointing experience. The first thing was that upon entering we noticed that there was obviously a movie being shot there that day - and all the vehicles associated with the project were parked all over the place. If they had just tried to put them out of the way they may not have been such a nuisance, but they were very often right in front of something you would really have liked to take a picture of. Their filming had to take precedence over everything else - we were not the only visitors having a grumble at being told we could not walk here or there. There is no doubt that this is an amazing site, but it would have been nicer to have visited it without this invasion.
The other disappointing thing is that all the buildings are now roped off and it is not possible to climb any of them. This would be understandable if it were for preservation purposes, but it has been done because one very old woman tried to climb the huge pyramid that stands at the centre and fell to her death. This pyramid, often called the castle, has an incredible temple on top that sounds like it is really worth seeing and the stairs on two sides of the pyramid have been fully restored to allow for climbing. It was really a shame to miss some of the best parts.
We also found some of the staff to be less than friendly or helpful and this is the first time we have experienced that at any of the archaeological sites. It may have something to do with the countless tourist buses which arrive daily and disgorge thousands of visitors so that there are lines several hundred people long waiting to enter the site. After a while I guess it gets harder to smile politely at another tourist's demands.
Maybe we really do need a break from trekking around ruin sites in the heat of the day - maybe we did too many in too short a time - or maybe this site is really being over-visited and it will do it harm ultimately. I'm not sure really but we drove away from there with no good feeling - and that is very unusual. On the way to the coast we stopped in at Cobá thinking maybe we could spend the night and visit the ruin in the morning. It was very hot there and the guard was not interested in letting us park overnight - even though we have heard that others have boondocked there - so we decided to drive on to the sea. It was a very good decision. We both slept exceedingly well and even though it's taken me a lot of the day to write this piece, I have an incredible view of a beautiful ocean and I can walk down and jump in the clear, warm water any time I like. It doesn't get much better than this!

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