We arrived promptly at around 8:30am and practically had the site to ourselves. This, together with the greenery, and the complete lack of hawkers, made a refreshing change from Chichen Itza. Uxmal's structures are in great condition and have amazing ornamentation.
Immediately on entering, we were hit by Casa del Adivino, or "Magician's House". It's 39m high and was built in an oval shape. Unfortunately you're not allowed to climb it, but there were some renovations going on while we were there. The workman on the pyramid give a good idea as to scale.
And here's the curvy sides of the structure:
Iguanas seem to be the lizard of choice at Mayan ruins. This was an impressive specimen.
Here, Sean is showing us the Nun's Quadrangle, or Cuadrangulo de las Monjas. It may have been a military academy, a royal school, or a palace complex.
The west temple of the Nun's Quadrangle, which is hugely ornate:
Looking back east from the north temple in the Nun's Quadrangle, towards Casa de Adivino:
Chac, the rain god or sky serpent, features prominently at Uxmal, because of the arid conditions of the area. His image is everywheree in the form of stucco masks protuding from facades and cornices. There are also feathered serpent motives along the top of the west temple's facade:
We headed south to the Juego de Pelota - the ball court. Not quite as big as Rod Laver Arena at Chichen Itza, but I still love the stone hoops in the sloping walls.
Westwards again was the Grupo del Cementerio. Largely unrestored, there were still some cool square blocks carved with skulls and crossbones! I wonder if pirates stole this symbol from the Mayans....
We climbed up to the temple.
Not sure what this holey slab was all about, but it looked groovy.
Casa del Adivino viewed from the south-west.
In the southern part of the site, we headed up the stairs of the Palacio del Gobernador - the Governor's Palace. Aside from the main Palace, there is this cute little Casa de las Tortugas - the House of the Turtles.
Can you see the turtles carved on the cornices?
OK then, here's a closer view. Cute, huh?
The Maya associated turtles with Chac, the rain god. According to myth, when the people sufferred from drought, so did the turtles, and both prayed to Chac to send rain.
The vertical columns or "rolled mats" running below the turtles is typical of the Puuc style.
Now for the Governer's Palace itself. The facade is nearly 100m long! The upper part is full of stylised Chac faces, and lattice or fretted design work.
Can you find Sean in the above photo?
Okay, I'll make it easier:
Looking back northeast to Casa del Adivino.
The detail is incredible!
Sean on the west side of the Governor's Palace, touching - gasp - a Mayan rock!
Finally, a pyramid with permission to climb! This is Gran Piramide, southwest of the Governor's Palace. You can hop across from the terrace of the Governor's Palace onto the pyramid, but it's not supposed to be safe, so we firstly climbed back down, and then, in a froth of excitement, climbed the pyramid's stairs.
Sean is ascending - the pyramid is 32m high.
We were so excited to be on top of the north face (incidentally, the only restored face) of Gran Piramide. Our first Mayan Pyramid Climb!!
Looking back to the north-east and Casa del Adivino.
I am touching genuine Mayan carved stones!
This is El Palomar, or the Pigeon House (seen from the top of the Gran Piramide) - the latticed roofcomb is reminiscent of Moorish pigeon houses, but the "belfries" sit on top of an eroded base whose function is unknown.
Pyramid climbing might look easy, but it's STEEP. And it's rather hot weather. You have to drink a lot of water (which means carrying a lot of water) and you have to be careful. The zig-zag walk works much better than bumping down on your butt. I am proud to say I never performed the latter manouvre.
Moving to the south east, there is a little crop of stone phalluses. Quite bizarre.
This is the Casa de la Vieja (Old Woman's House). It's mostly rubble. I've included it here so you can see what these structures look like prior to restoration. It's boggling to imagine the work and vision required.
With that, we had fully explored Uxmal and returned to the visitor's centre. Our efforts were deserving of a mango iceblock!
After a quick look in the excellent book shop (OK, and maybe some purchases), we left Uxmal around noon.
It was time for some serious driving south. About 500km south, to be exact.
We left Yucatan State and entered Campeche: we were heading down to Palenque in Chiapas. Just south of Campeche, we hit the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. This was my first time seeing the Gulf since 1994, when I did a reserach diving cruise to the Dry Tortugas off Florida. It was great to see the Gulf from the Mexican side.
We had heard many hairy stories about driving in Mexico, but apart from a few idiosyncrases, we found it relatively easy. What idiosyncrasies, I hear you ask? Okay, just off the top of my head:
- speeding is the norm (140-160 k/h when 100-110 k/h are the state limits)
- hazard lights are used commonly when a vehicle has stopped for any reason
- overtaking occurs regardless of the lane markings
- truck drivers in front of you indicate when it's safe for you to overtake
- there are no gradual reductions in speed as you enter towns - but you're brought up VERY short by "Topes" - vicious speed humps that can be almost invisible and that deserve serious respect
- vendors will gather at Topes and try to sell you stuff, such as pineapple and mango in zip-lock plastic bags.
- there is only one fuel station type in Mexico - Pemex - which makes petrol stations easy to spot. No-one tried to dupe us with regard to refuelling, although we had heard stories where it's happened.
- military checkpoints are common, particularly in the more southern states that are closer to Guatamela or to the drug-running states of Mexico. Although the officers are heavily armed, they were always friendly to us - they just asked where we'd been and where we were going, and after a visual inspection of our backseat revealed such items as maps, empty water bottles, backpacks, Disneyland hats and/or drying swimsuits, we were cheerfully waved through.
As we headed further south, we encounted more hills and lots of farmland.
I think there were a few too many cows in this truck:
All was going swimmingly until we found that the state of Campeche had apparently decided to improve the state of its roads. All well and good with the increased tourism, you might say.
And I'd agree with you - except that, in Mexico (or at least in Campeche state) they seem to go in for ripping up the road in 35km-long swathes - with perhaps a team of about 10 men working the road every 10km or so.
I kid you not.
And of course, it was Lucky Nat who happened to be at the wheel when the tarmac gave way to very rough dirt. Or should I say, stones and dirt.
Oh, what the heck, let's just cut to the chase. I was detoured into a QUARRY.
Don't believe me?
Here, take a look.
Be glad you were not in that car with us. The air was blue with profanity. When, after almost 2 hours, the 35km of rubble restored itself to sane asphalt, we changed drivers and I had a nice quiet little nervous breakdown.
We thought we were home and dried, but just as we started feeling smug, Sean encountered ANOTHER 35km stretch of ripped-up road!!!!
But I had it tougher - he didn't have to go through a quarry. Hmph.
We forged on doggedly towards Tabasco, racing the light as the sun sank as a bright red ball in the sky. We did get to enjoy some rather charming pastoral scenes, such as this farmer with his goats.
Finally - FINALLY - we crossed the border into Tabasco......
.....and soon after, into Chiapas. You can see we were losing the light. With about 20km to go, darkness fell, which wasn't such a huge deal given we were in striking distance........but then the heavens absolutely opened, and we were treated to a HUGE electric storm, complete with forked lightening and absolute sheets of rain.
It was quite terrifying.
What was worse, was that this was the only night out of the entire tour where we were staying in somewhat obscure, more bohemian-style lodgings in El Panchan, a rather hippie village tucked in the jungle just outside of the town of Palenque, and close to the ruins.
Do you think that "Ed and Margarita's Cabanas" was clearly signposted? Nope, me neither. We ended up driving back and forth between the town and the entrance to the archeological site, straining to find the joint amidst the greenery, the darkness and the slashing rain. We even asked the guys at the military checkpoint, which we passed about 6 times going back and forth (I think we provided them with some amusement for the evening!)
Finally we stopped at a little restaurant, and got soaked just stepping out of the car, but luckily one of the patrons spoke English and was able to give us clear directions - we hadn't realised that we had to take a separate side road to El Panchan. After that, it was easy, but it was after 9pm by the time we finally pulled into the dirt carpark.
And there was no paving anywhere - just cobbled paths, which were slippery as anything in the still-slashing rain.
We were not given a particularly warm welcome. A young bloke in a smelly reception room basically tossed us our key, said "In this building, around the back and 2 doors along". And then, "You're late". Never mind that I'd explained on the phone we might be getting in late, and that we'd still arrived within office hours.
I gave him one increduluous look, and, mirroring his rough brevity, replied "Roadworks. Huge storm. No sign - we got LOST".
Then we had to struggle to find our room and work out how to open the door, and Sean had to walk half a mile back to the car in the pouring rain and return with our two huge bags. We got absolutely saturated, but no-one sprained an ankle, and as soon as we were safely inside, we laughed about the whole thing - albeit a tad shakily.
By this point, we were expecting a fleapit, but just wanted somewhere to crash that wasn't the interior of the car.
Fortunately, we were pleasantly surprised (peacocks!)
Sean reckoned he had the best night's sleep since Australia. Must have been all the roadworks, and the jungle air.
We had made it to Palenque! Tomorrow, some of the most anticipated ruins of the trip!
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