Yucatan Peninsula (the bit that sticks up at the bottom)

So, we have driven all the way down through Mexico and have spent the last couple of weeks in the Yucatan peninsula where we have enjoyed more Mayan ruins, birds and some amazing sinkholes. Also many more tourists than anywhere else we have been in Mexico.

We arrived in the Colonial city of Campeche on Tuesday 12th July and installed ourselves in our hotel room, a rather knackered old colonial building, with a fan and broken down shutters but with a nice balcony overlooking the zocalo.

View of our hotel (blue building) from the zocalo

View of cathedral from city walls

Much of the history of Capeche seems to be tied up with pirate attacks, mainly from the English. From this side of the coin they talk about the ravages of the dastardly pirates who sacked the town so often that in the end they had to build a 25ft wall around the place which effectively put a stop to that sort of thing. After doing a bit of essential admin on Wednesday we went to have a look at the Museum of Archaeology and had a walk on part of the remaining city walls.

On Thursday we decided that we would have a trip to a Mayan archaeological site called Edzna, this turned out to be not quite on the scale of grandeur of Palenque but, nevertheless, very impressive. One of the main features of the place was the large numbers of iguanas which were sunbathing on rocks, climbing trees and generally behaving as though they owned the place.

Mayan ruins at Edzna

Iguana at Edzna

In the evening we were enjoying a very pleasant supper at a restaurant when there was a series of flashes of lightening, claps of thunder, the rain started and the road turned into a river. The river was flowing at about 6 knots carrying coke bottles bobbing along like little boats.

There were more delights waiting when we got back to the hotel because our room was under a couple of inches of water. This was probably at least in part because we had left the shutters open. We re-located to the adjacent room which was similar in all respects even down to the balcony and falling to bits shutters.

We left Campeche after lunch on Friday 15th, having first visited a colonial fort and then Skyped Casper (Alan's grandson) to wish him a happy 7th birthday.

Fort at Campeche

Sue in fort lookout at Campeche

We arrived in Merida, Yucatan's capital city, some 3 hours later and found a very pleasant and reasonably priced hotel which cost us all of £15 a night, including air conditioning and secure car parking. Merida is essentially a large city which is quite touristy in the centre, but it made a good base from which to visit surrounding places of interest.

Busker at Merida

On Saturday we made our way to the town of Celestun on the coast. This place is in the middle of a 'biosfera', in other words a protected area for wildlife, this one comprising a river estuary which is very rich in bird life. We did a deal with a boatman to get an entire boat to ouselves for a two and a half hour boat trip which took us from the beach area up the estuary. We were not disappointed, spotting amongst other things a group of about 30 pink flamingoes, some nesting magnificent frigate birds and roseate spoonbills.

Flamingos at Celestun biosfera

Osprey at Celestun biosfera

Frigate bird with young

Brown pelican

Roseate spoonbills and white ibis

We spent Sunday pottering around Merida and visiting the Sunday market, one of our favourite pastimes. In the evening we went back into town which had miraculously come alive with dancers and singers and bands, entertainers of all sorts and we found a delightful Italian restaurant (we are getting rather tired of Mexican food).

We were up early on Monday morning to visit another Mayan site at Uxmal which, as usual, did not fail to impress. The carvings on this particular sight are a lot easier to see and to understand and we think it was probably from a slightly later period than some of the others that we have seen. There were also many impressive iguanas on this site, probably up to about 4 feet long.

Rattlesnake carving at Uxmal

Temple at Uxmal

Ball court with goal - Uxmal

Carving at Temple of Macaws - Uxmal

There are about 6,000 cenotes (natural sinkholes) around the Yucatan peninsula so we have been very keen to vist a few whilst in this region. On Tuesday we went to see if we could find the Cenotes Cuzmala which are described in the Lonely Planet as being off the beaten track and accessed by a horse drawn rail cart.

Horse drawn rail cart - transport to Cenotes Cuzmala

After taking a few wrong turnings we arrived at the 'departure' area and climbed aboard our carriage which went rattling off down the railway line for several kilometres to the first cenote. This was accessed from a steel ladder which descended about forty feet. At the bottom was a wonderful round hole which apparently is 27 metres deep and about the same across with a small hole up in the roof where the light comes streaming in. There were other people there and it was a glad occasion with folks jumping off the sides and swimming around, the water was cool and it was a delightful place to swim.

Cenote with tree roots

Sue emerging from cenote

After this we got back on the rail cart and drove another few kilometres to the second cenote which was very similar except that it was accessed from a narrow hole down a vertical ladder. On the way back we stopped at the third cenote, this was different in that it was accessed by climbing down basically through the roots of a tree and then down a sort of ladder into a cave which was in complete darkness. The swimming hole here was long and narrow and Alan swam the length of it by torchlight but Sue wasn't brave enough!

The whole thing was a really good experience, much of the delight being the interface between the hot, humid, steamy, fly ridden ground level of that part of the Yucatan and the cool, fly free, dark subterranean pools with their crystal clear waters. We can understand why the Mayans thought that these sink holes were the entrance to the underworld, they certainly have an ethereal quality about them.

On Wednesday 20th July we left Merida and drove east to Ek Balam where there is another Mayan ruin and a sink hole, the X-Canche Cenote, nearby. We were able to set up camp right next to the cenote, the campsite being a piece of cleared bush but the facilities were spotless, even the cold shower.

Campsite at X-Canche Cenote, near Ek Balam

The cenote here is open, about 90 feet deep and you access it down some rickety wooden stairs. One of the main attractions for Alan were the motmots which were nesting in the holes in the limestone cliffs.

Sue swimming in cenote with catfish

Cenote at X-Canche

We were up early on Thursday morning to walk the 2 kilometres to the ruins at Ek Balam whilst it was still cool and before all the other visitors arrived. Here there was an amazing carved entrance to the temple, it was basically the open mouth of a jaguar with teeth, very impressive.

Mayan ruins at Ek Balam

Mouth of the jaguar at Ek Balam

Yet another early start on Friday, this time so that Alan could photograph the motmots at the sink hole just as the sunlight was starting to touch the nesting holes in the side of the cliff.

Motmot with locust at X-Canche cenote

 

Motmot at nest hole at cenote

We upped stakes at about 10 o'clock and drove north to the coast to another biosfera at Rio Lagartos where the mangrove lined estuary is home to many bird species and some crocodiles.

Friday night we got no sleep at all, we were in a nice hotel overlooking the estuary but it also turned out to be on top of the central party spot of Rio Lagartos and all night there was music and squeels of laughter and pounding bass drums going on under our feet. We were then up at 5.30 am (this travelling is getting to be quite hard work!) to get out on the estuary by 6 am.

The boat trip was very, very good, it was wonderful watching the sunrise over the estuary and we saw lots of flamingoes, wood ibis, egrets, black hawk, osprey, pelicans, frigate birds, roseate spoonbills, a boat billed heron and a crocodile.

Flamingo preening itself at Rio Lagartos

Frigate bird drying its wings

Roseate spoonbills

Croc looking for a spot of bovver

Black hawk with fish for breakfast

Osprey looking for fish

We then drove back down south to Valladolid and found ourselves a nice cabana beside a cenote just outside of town. Our main reason for coming here was to visit the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza, the pyramid here being one of the seven wonders of the modern world.

As per our familiar routine we were up again at the crack of dawn yesterday (Sunday) to get to the ruins as soon as they opened. The pyramid and the rest of the ruins are indeed impressive but we didn't enjoy the experience much. Chichen Itza is a very big tourist attraction and it wasn't long before the tour buses arrived and the place was also teeming with vendors trying to attract our attention and flog us tatty Mayan souvenirs.

Pyramid at Chichen Itza

Group of a thousand columns, Chichen Itza

Snake finials on staircase

Snake carving at Temple of the Warriors

Carving of warrior with severed head - Temple of the Warriors

 Platform of the skulls

Sacred Cenote of Chichen Itza

We have visited several cenotes whilst we've been here and swum in most of them, the deepest being 60 metres deep!

Tomorrow, Tuesday 26th July, we will be on our way again back towards the coast for our last few days in Mexico.

Waterfalls, lakes, Mayan ruins and a bat cave ......... just a typical week really

On Monday 4th July we left San Cristobal with the intention of travelling south to some waterfalls and lakes and then moving in an anti clockwise direction to see some Mayan ruins close to the border with Guatemala.

We arrived at the site of the Cascadas El Chiflon mid afternoon and then walked alongside the river, up and up past a series of increasingly impressive waterfalls until we reached the lookout to a huge waterfall which comes cascading over an escarpment. There is a great white crashing, continuous roar of the flow which falls pretty well unimpeded for 120 metres into a large splash pool and then goes on to the other waterfalls. We got very hot during the climb, so it was wonderful to stand on the viewpoint and have a shower in the spray and mist coming from the waterfall and even more wonderful to have a cold beer at a strategically placed cafe on the way back down.

Rio San Vicente leading to Cascada El Chiflon

The climb to the Cascada El Chiflon

Back at Footloose Lucy we deployed the tent in what was essentially the top end of the car park but we were the only ones there. We cooked supper, sat and drank a bottle of wine whilst we watched all the fireflies dancing about and the next morning we awoke to the sound of forest animals and birds and the distant song of the river.

Camping at El Chiflon

After de-camping on Tuesday morning we continued our way south to a very picturesque area called the Lagos de Montebello. There are apparently 59 lakes in total, although we only visited a few of them, and they are all different colours ranging from brilliant aquamarine, turquoise and sapphire to deep green. We found out later that they are all fed by underwater rivers which issue in the bed of the lakes. The colour of the water is to do with the minerals through which the underground rivers run and also the aquatic algae which are to be found in the lakes.

Laguna Agua Tinto, one of the many Lagos Montebello

Laguna Esmeralda

We eventually came to a lake at a village called Tziscao where we found a hotel which had an adjacent camping area. We set up camp right next to the edge of the lake, surrounded by pine trees, and we both agreed it is the nicest campsite we have stayed in so far.

Camping at Laguna Tziscao

Sunset from the campsite

As we were at quite a high altitude it got quite chilly as evening approached so Alan lit a campfire around which we sat until about 10 o'clock toasting our toes and putting the world to rights.

The hotel had a number of broken down sit on kayaks for hire and as one of us was feeling in need of some exercise we took one out on Wednesday. There was only one decent paddle, the other one was a home made wooden thing with parallel blades which was extremely heavy and uncomfortable to paddle. Sue did use the paddle but she got a blister rather quickly so it was decided that probably we would just give the old man a workout which he did for something over two hours around the western side of the lake.

Alan lit another fire in the evening and a very fine fire it was too but then the rain and the wind started. We sat by the fire until the rain became more persistent than intermittent and then we retired to bed. During the night the wind and the rain really got into their stride, we could feel the entire body of the tent whacking around and it seemed to us very likely at one stage that the whole lot was going to tear loose. We lay listening to the coming gusts as they moved through the trees and made their roaring noise which got closer and closer and then the tent got hit and started bouncing about. When we got up thankfully everything was intact, the struts were where they should be and Alan said that if he'd had a glass of wine in his hand (which he never would have at 8.30 in the morning) he would have raised it to the man who made the tent!

After everything was dried out we set off again on Thursday morning along the road which follows the Mexico/Guatemala border and which was peppered both with army check points and very large potholes. Also, thankfully one or two nice views.

Confluence of two rivers from top of gorge en route from Lagos Montebello to Frontera Corozal

We reached our destination of Forntera Corozal after a 6 hour long drive and set up camp at a place called Escudo Jaguar, basically a bunch of cabanas on the banks of the Rio Usunacinta which forms the international boundary between Mexico and Guatemala, our purpose being to see the Mayan ruins of Yaxchilan.

There we met up with another travelling couple and they suggested the best way to see Yaxchilan was to get out there first thing in the morning and, with a little reluctance, we did that, getting on the boat at 7 o'clock for the 40 minute trip to the ruins. This turned out to be an exceedingly good idea because when we got to the ruins there was no one else there apart from some very vocal howler monkeys.

Howler monkey photographed from Rio Usumacinta

The ruins were quite amazing! The whole site is in an area of thick jungle, some parts of which have been cleared to allow access to visitors but much of the site retains the 'Tarzan in the jungle' feel to it. There were several dozen Mayan buildings which were apparently erected between about 300 and 800 AD, occupying a jungle site on a horseshoe bend in the river from where presumably they controlled the movement of the traffic up and down the river. There were winding steps going up through the jungle wrapped in strangler fig tree roots and a huge series of steps going up to the top of the biggest of the pyramids with intricate carvings recording the various victories of whoever happened to be top Mayan at the time. It was hugely atmospheric, the more so because of the musical accompaniment of the howler monkeys, the ever present proximity of the river and Guatemala on the other side.

Mayan ruin in the jungle at Yaxchilan

Jungle surrounding the Mayan ruins of Yaxchilan

Mayan chief having a crafty drag

More of the ruins at Yaxchitlan

After we got back we went for a stroll amongst absolute myriads of yellow butterflies down by the river.

Have you ever wondered what happened to Snow White?

..... or Tarzan?

On Saturday morning we packed up and headed north again to Palenque where there are yet more Mayan ruins. We found a nice campsite in the grounds of a very pleasant hotel with a lovely pool to cool off in, just half a kilometre from the site of the ruins.

Campsite at Palenque

We spent most of Sunday chilling out and Alan pottered off on his own for a couple of hours to see what he could find in the jungle. What he found was a bat cave! He had found a track going off from the road which very quickly ran out in some fairly thick jungle on the banks of a stream. He followed this stream for some distance, getting deeper into the jungle and then on rounding a corner he noticed what looked like a cave up ahead. This turned out to be a man made stone culvert and the water within it was approximately 3 feet deep. He knew that because it reached the parts that most streams don't get to.

Jungle stream near Palenque

Wriggling down into the culvert area he was amazed to see that it was inhabited by about 100 bats. They were hanging from the ceiling and as he got in and started taking flash photographs they became somewhat exercised and started flying around although quite a lot of them just came back and hung from the ceiling again. He returned unscathed and very pleased with his discovery, the only casualty of the trip being his mobile phone which got a good soaking and then refused to function.

Alan's discovery near Palenque - Mayan culvert complete with bats

Inside the bat cave: detail

Later on, as we sat eating our supper we watched as hundreds of fireflies came out and gave us the most wonderful show. It was just as if the stars had fallen to earth and were dancing on the grass.

We got up early on Monday morning to visit the ruins at Palenque as soon as the site opened at 8 am to avoid the crowds and try to keep cool.

Palenque is yet another of Mexico's World Heritage sites and we thought the ruins were amazing. You approach them through a jungle path and then come out into a great plaza with monolithic stepped buildings all around.

Mayan ruin at Palenque - Temple of the Inscriptions

Temple of the Skull at Palenque

View of the Palace with observation tower

Gallery at the Palace

Bas relief on the Temple of the Sun (within the Palace)

The Temple of the Cross

View of Palenque ruins from Temple of Inscriptions

As we were walking down from the main group there were a number of culverted streams and the designs of the culverts were pretty well identical to the little bat cave that Alan found about a mile away in the jungle, suggesting that the developed area of Palenque was far bigger than the site currently excavated. We crossed a stream with a wonderful series of pools which were described as the Queen's bathing pool.

Overgrown ruins at Palenque

Queen's swimming pool at Palenque

We got back in time for a nice lunch and a leisurely cool off in the hotel swimming pool, followed later in the day by another wonderful firefly display during supper.

Whilst we were packing up Footloose Lucy on Tuesday morning we were entertained, not to say disturbed, by a bunch of howler monkeys in a tree just next to where we were camping. We have been constantly aware of these monkeys the entire time we have been in this area due to the very loud howling noise they make but this was the first time they put on a good show for us, leaping around and orchestrating in their inimitable manner. The other great memories we will take away from Chiapas are the butterflies, dancing around in their hundreds by day, and the fireflies dancing around in their hundreds by night. Magical!

So, we bid farewell to the Chiapas region on Tuesday and arrived in Campeche after a 6 hour drive. We are very much looking forward to our next few days here.

PS - Whilst writing this post we have read the news that Theresa May is the new UK Prime Minister which we very much welcome!