on tuesday morning we headed out to see some of the beautiful sights in the area. there are many different mayan ruins to see and also a number of cenotes . . . cen-no-tayes, which are fresh water sinkholes and caverns suitable for swimming. i would also like to add several observations about this area. first, the people are very welcoming and many of them have been kind enough to learn english which makes our visit much easier. and the roads, even the secondary highways are wonderful. they're new and well marked for night driving. the only thing they don't do in this region is clear the brush from in front of road signs which can be confusing at times. i think the area . . . the mayan riviera is quite prosperous and may be representative of the new mexico which is showing signs of its growing industry and commerce base. i truly believe that mexico, india, china and brazil are going to become world leaders in the next decade.
we toured a couple of tiny villages on our way to the ruins. there were a couple of concrete tents that i guess the more affluent lived in and the rest was round huts about as big as your kitchen (if it''s a small one) with walls of sticks and a dirt floor.
anyway, we chose to visit the ek balam ruins which are about an hour north/west of here. we were told they are spectacular and, because of the distance and it's off the main highway, most tour buses don't visit. we pulled into a parking lot big enough to hold about 100 cars and even though there were only 3 cars there already this little kid of about 12 jumps out and directs us into a parking space that he was holding . . . just for us, lol. then he offers to watch our car so nothing bad will happen. we are used to this from other travels but i always go for it . . . they don 't want much and i think we need to encourage young entrepreneurs any way we can. we hired a mayan guide, casmiro, to tour the ruins with us and he told us the tour would take about an hour or maybe a little longer. we started asking him questions as we headed into the village and he just lit right up and we stayed on tour for well over 2 hours . . . he was clearly very proud of his heritage. the ruin was wonderful and we were allowed to climb to the top of the palace where the sight from the top was breath taking. we were well above the jungle canopy and we could see the entire ruin which consists of a palace and a village below. we have never been to machu picchu but ek balam rivals many of the pics we've seen. in some of the buildings, which are about 1,500 years old, they even had air return systems which kept the rooms cool. he also told us about some of the history that archeologists have determined happened here, but parts of the heiroglyphics are damaged and some history is simply a guess. i think all history is a little like that.
after ek balam we headed to our first cenote, x-canche . . . if you have never seen these wonders it might be worth the trip just for the cenotes alone. we paid about 60 pesos which included a bicycle ride on a three wheeled bike pedaled by a local guy to the cenote about 2 miles away. he was working pretty hard but it was mostly downhill so we didn't worry about him too much even though he looked even older than me if thats possible. after changing into our swim suits we walked about 80 feet down into this incredible sinkhole surrounded by rock formations and roots of trees and jumped into this pool of crystal clear water in a space about 50 feet across and 75 feet deep . . . we could clearly see to the bottom. there were even small catfish swimming around which indicates there is a river flowing through the cenote. we had a beautiful refreshing dip and then headed back to the car . . . by bicycle, as the old guy was waiting for us. after jumping off several times to help him push the bike up hills, i finally stayed off and walked back beside him . . . i didn't want to see him have a heart attack on us.
we finished the day by heading into valladolid . . . vyya-doll-eed, which is a beautiful colonial town . . . many beautiful old buildings, clean and with a beautiful park in the centre of town. we had supper there and came out to a marching band and thousands of birds noisily roosting in the trees in the park . . . wonderful day with many memories.
we toured a couple of tiny villages on our way to the ruins. there were a couple of concrete tents that i guess the more affluent lived in and the rest was round huts about as big as your kitchen (if it''s a small one) with walls of sticks and a dirt floor.
anyway, we chose to visit the ek balam ruins which are about an hour north/west of here. we were told they are spectacular and, because of the distance and it's off the main highway, most tour buses don't visit. we pulled into a parking lot big enough to hold about 100 cars and even though there were only 3 cars there already this little kid of about 12 jumps out and directs us into a parking space that he was holding . . . just for us, lol. then he offers to watch our car so nothing bad will happen. we are used to this from other travels but i always go for it . . . they don 't want much and i think we need to encourage young entrepreneurs any way we can. we hired a mayan guide, casmiro, to tour the ruins with us and he told us the tour would take about an hour or maybe a little longer. we started asking him questions as we headed into the village and he just lit right up and we stayed on tour for well over 2 hours . . . he was clearly very proud of his heritage. the ruin was wonderful and we were allowed to climb to the top of the palace where the sight from the top was breath taking. we were well above the jungle canopy and we could see the entire ruin which consists of a palace and a village below. we have never been to machu picchu but ek balam rivals many of the pics we've seen. in some of the buildings, which are about 1,500 years old, they even had air return systems which kept the rooms cool. he also told us about some of the history that archeologists have determined happened here, but parts of the heiroglyphics are damaged and some history is simply a guess. i think all history is a little like that.
after ek balam we headed to our first cenote, x-canche . . . if you have never seen these wonders it might be worth the trip just for the cenotes alone. we paid about 60 pesos which included a bicycle ride on a three wheeled bike pedaled by a local guy to the cenote about 2 miles away. he was working pretty hard but it was mostly downhill so we didn't worry about him too much even though he looked even older than me if thats possible. after changing into our swim suits we walked about 80 feet down into this incredible sinkhole surrounded by rock formations and roots of trees and jumped into this pool of crystal clear water in a space about 50 feet across and 75 feet deep . . . we could clearly see to the bottom. there were even small catfish swimming around which indicates there is a river flowing through the cenote. we had a beautiful refreshing dip and then headed back to the car . . . by bicycle, as the old guy was waiting for us. after jumping off several times to help him push the bike up hills, i finally stayed off and walked back beside him . . . i didn't want to see him have a heart attack on us.
we finished the day by heading into valladolid . . . vyya-doll-eed, which is a beautiful colonial town . . . many beautiful old buildings, clean and with a beautiful park in the centre of town. we had supper there and came out to a marching band and thousands of birds noisily roosting in the trees in the park . . . wonderful day with many memories.
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