It seems that lately I am writing heaps of blogs, but that probably has something to do with the fact that we are doing so much here in Mexico. We hired a car after all and I think it was the best decision we have made...now we can go anywhere we want and don´t have to worry about buses and schedules and carrying our bags further. It also means that April, Laura and I can visit more sites; sites that buses don´t go to!!! Rob and Amy aren´t really thrilled at that idea, but they are happy to have a rest day or do something else on those days. So we hired the car in Puerto Morelos and drove to Valladolid...that was quite the experience. I was driving first and it takes a little getting used to driving on the right hand side of the road and the left hand side of the car. But once you get going it´s fine...until you come to an intersection or a turnoff and there are 4 people telling you different things to do! We made it though and thats the main thing. We checked into our hotel and its pretty nice, has a pool and internet (although it keeps dropping out) and a restaurant. Then we had lunch at a restaurant in Valladolid and it was so nice, the town reminds me of Antigua in Guatemala with the big church and the plaza, its really cute.
That afternoon we went to what we thought was a small site called Ek Balam. It was only 30kms from Valladolid, so that was sweet but we wern´t expecting the high entrance fee. We were disapointed that some sites obviously stack on this extra fee, like a local government fee as well as the INAH national fee. Oh well in the end we were pleasantly surprised...the site was absolutely amazing. Although it was a small site it was incredible and I was not expecting the buildings to be so impressive. First of all it has a wall, but it was not big enough for defensive purposes so it probably served as a symbolic boundary of the ceremonial area; secondly the first building we saw was rounded at the back and had several phases of construction; and thirdly in the other plaza held the longest building i´ve seen to date (i think). There were also 3 stela that had been carved, but most of the carvings had eroded. The big building was so cool, it had a central staircase that went all the way up to the summit and then along both sides at the front were long low buildings that had about 6 rooms on each side. Some of these rooms had little chambers and sleeping beds also. April and I were walking around together and just kept saying ¨wow,¨ it was just so impressive! To top it off, about half way up the structure there was a stucco facade (that had been somewhat reconstructed, but the best reconstruction ever). It was a depiction of a monster with its mouth open really wide (that was the doorway) and teeth surrounding the edges. Above the doorway was these 3 people dressed as dancing angels with wings; not sure what they represent, but the open mouth is a representation of going into or coming out of the underworld. After we saw that we walked to the top of the main pyramid and did our usual sitting, looking out at the site and the surrounding jungle, enjoying the serenity. It really reminded me of El Mirador, because it was mainly flat, but every now and then you could see mounds poking up out of the trees and you just knew it was a Maya pyramid.
So after that big day of travel and site seeing we went back to the hotel and April and I were the only ones game enough to go for a swim...the others thought it was too cold and just sat by the edge watching us...i think we had more fun. The next morning we were quite lazy to get up...it was 10am before we left to go to Yaxunah. I only took about 1 hour to get there and because we didn't really have a map all the way to the site we stopped and asked someone along the way for directions and he had no idea what we were talking about. We probably should have seent hat as a sign, but we continued anyways and found it....but it was not what we expected! It seems that not all Mexican archaeological sites are maintained and guarded. We had to go down this dirt path (I call it that because it really wasn't a road) then the car park was really whatever we wanted it to be, we just parked on the path. The site was so overgrown that you couldn't walk to the pyramids without getting grass seeds all over your pants and socks. We enjoyed it none the less, and it was actually really fun for April, Laura and I because it was kind of like finding a site and seeing how it looks unrestored. There were 3 small structures that had been reconstructed and 2 really big mounds that hadn't. They were really overgrown, but we had to see them up close. We climbed our way up (and when I say climb I really mean climb because there was no staircase and we had to dodge spiderwebs and prickly tree trunks and god knows what else) and took in the view. Apparently there was a causeway that linked this site with Coba which is a site we saw a few days ago, but we couldn't see it. The funny part is when we were at the top we saw a small path that wound its way back down to the bottom. We took that way down, it seemed a little safer and that way there would be less leg scratches and bruses tomorrow. Tomorerow is the magnificent site of Chichen Itza, one of the new 7 wonders of the world. I cant wait!!!
