Dzibilchaltun Mayan ruins

Today our plan was to get up early to go and visit Dzibilchaltun ruins, which are about 30 minutes outside of Merida.  This place was inhabited for over 2,000 years, much older than Chichen Itza. 

First problem of the day is the smallest denomination of cash we have is $500 pesos, which is about $35 Cdn.  We know this won’t do as we are doing lots of little things.  We are also running low on cash so head off to a bank machine and we are good to go.

We decide to go by Uber, I couldn’t find the ruins online for our destination, but I found the town of Dzibilchaltun which I knew was close by.  I have come to love Uber, you can see where the car is that is picking you up, how much it is going to cost before you even get in.  Very cool, except you need internet, not so cool when you are in Mexico with no data and relying on wifi.  Uber fare 140 pesos, I have no idea how they can make any money doing this.

Reach our destination of Dzibilchaltun and there is no one at the pay entrance gate.  It is now 8:50 AM, and they opened at 8AM.  There are guys at the entrance to get into the ruins, but they are just stopping people from going in with backpacks, there is a check room where you leave them, no charge.  We also enquired about a guide, but they haven’t shown up either.  The guy checking for backpacks takes us over to a map and shows us where to go.

We are off, we headed to the far end right away to see the buildings there before it gets too hot.  There is the main road, or sacbe,  that was used for thousands of years, I followed a path through the trees to stay out of the sun as much as possible.  We visited the first temple which is where archeologists found 7 dolls in the 1950’s.  It is now called the Temple of Seven Dolls.

Temple of Seven Dolls

Road, sacbe, between buildings

After exploring the buildings at this end we started back towards the main entrance to continue and a man comes up to us with all his folders and papers and said he was looking for people that were asking about a guide.  Lol, how did he know it was us!  Anyway after a bit of negotiation because we weren’t going back to start again we decided on a price and he joined us for the rest of our tour, I think it was 500 pesos.

Next he took us on a quick visit through a small museum.  This is a fantastic museum that is not to be missed if you go here.  They have the 7 dolls on display here that were found, as well as burial urns cremation that were still intact because of them being buried.  There is still lots of excavation that could be done around this site, you could see mounds of stone in different places that have not been touched.

These were the seven dolls that were found by archeologists in the 1950's

Our final stop is at Cenote Xlakah.  A beautiful Cenote with lots of lillies in the middle.  Sunday is family day in Mexico, we think that families are admitted for free to the ruins as well as to see the cenote.  There are lots of visitors here today taking advantage of the water, it is another hot one.

Our guide leaves us at this point for us to finish the day as we like.  He told us the area to go to visit the ballcourt.  It is pretty much just behind the cenote, you can tell that very few people visit here, it really needs some tlc. 

Mayan Bees, they don't sting, but make beautiful honey

Church ruins

Guide had a picture of what this is thought to have looked like

Beautiful birds here, would have been nice to be here early in the morning to see more

Ball court, not many people venture here, it could use some work

There are many more buildings you could see in the brush that have not been excavated at all

Our first view of the cenote

Our next stop is back to the museum to explore a little more.  There are some pretty birds around here too that Andre tries to get some pictures of, not sure if he was successful.

These birds are nesting just outside the museum

Replica of mayan house outside museum

Deer bone with carvings found inside the burial urn

Merida became a very wealthy city because of hacienda owners producing Heneken for rope

We decide it is time for a swim.  We go back to the entrance to get our backpack and change to go into the cenote.  We cannot believe how many backpacks are here now, we were the first ones this morning!  No wonder they stop people from bringing them in, there would be so much junk around the cenote if all of this were there.

Back to the cenote and have a very nice cooling off swim.  It is not nearly as cold as others we have been in, but still refreshing after being out in the sun all morning. 

Andre ready to jump in

wendys turn

Lots of locals out on free Sunday family day to enjoy the cenote

After our swim we head back to change again.  Andre decides to climb one of the ruins, I took a pass, way too hot for me.

Andre climbing

View from top

We have now decided to go to Progreso and have some lunch and spend some time on the beach.  This is a town that shouldn’t be too far from here.  Our guide the other day had told us we could catch a little moto taxi to the next town, then catch a bus there.  I though we might try uber, but I wasn’t able to pick up the wifi, and there was a little moto taxi guy waiting so we decided to grab that to go to town.  He took us right to where the van would pick us up, in very broken english told us we needed to go to Liverpool, then change busses there to go to Progreso.  So I’m looking all over my phone for where Liverpool is and can’t find it.  One of those vans that are always packed comes by with Liverpool written on the front so we hop it, having no idea where we are going.  Andre pays 8 pesos, about 50 cents, not sure if he was supposed to pay for 2 or not, lol.  Anyway a younger woman ends up sitting beside him and again in very broken english tries to help us get to progresso.  We are following on the uber app and can see we are going the wrong way.  Then I remember that Liverpool was written on a big shoppinig mall by Costco, so we now know we are heading back to Merida.  Change of plans we will go out to lunch in Merida, then lounge at the pool, progreso will be another day.

Our taxi to the next town

Lug all our stuff to Chaya Maya, which is the same restaurant we went to with Lisa and Jacinthe, except this is the one that we had seen huge line ups for on Easter week-end.  It was off hours and still pretty busy when we were there.  I had a delicious lime soup, then a tamale which was very yummy.  Andre ordered the Sunday special, which we have decided is a Mexican boiled dinner.  It was all very good.  I drank my first margarita very quickly, ordered a second, then needed help from Andre to finish that. 

Delicious lunch

In the nicer restaurants they bring you over these stands to hang your purse, hats, camera etc on.  So different from travelling in Europe where you would never take your purse off and hang it beside you

Bill came in a little purse

Back home and I am in bad need of a nap.  The heat and margaritas have definitely gotten to me.

After naps and pool time we headed back down to the main square which we haven’t been to in a few nights.  Sunday night is live band and dancing night, there were so many people here it was fun to watch.  Andre had an icecream for supper, I had a popsicle.

We are starting to know the buskers, same ones out all the time

The square is packed with people dancing to live music tonight

Live band under the arches

Walked back home and I went straight into the pool.  I think this is the hottest night since we have been here.  We slept with the air conditioning on for quite a while, then switched to a fan.  I think our days of sweaters in the morning are over.