Another adventure has begun! This has probably been the roughest start to any of my many trips so far, though. So much so that I’m not even in the right country. I was planning on three months in Thailand, but due to lots of miscommunication between Thailand immigration, the airlines, myself, and one stupid typo, I wasn’t allowed on the plane. The saga probably deserves a post of it’s own, but I’ll leave that for another time. Thailand, unfortunately, will have to wait for later this year. Instead, I spent two weeks furiously putting together another trip that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, and now I’m in Mexico beginning a three month journey through Central America.

I decided to start in Cancún, mostly because it’s the cheapest place to fly into, and make my way through Quintana Roo. Most people come here for the beaches, but not me. I’m only interested in the Mayan ruins scattered all over. I saw a bunch a couple of years ago when I visited Yucatan, now it’s time for another dose. I started my day at El Rey in the Zona Hotelera.

These sites in Cancún are fairly small and seem very out of place smothered by high rise thousand dollar a night resorts, but that also makes them pretty convenient. As for me, I’m staying in a thirty dollar a night hotel downtown smothered by taquerias. Yum!

Cancún also has a pretty decent Mayan museum. It’s chock full of artifacts found at the many Mayan sites throughout Quintana Roo.

Also attached to the museum is another small site. They’re not sure what the original Mayan name of the place was, so they named it San Miguelito. They do a great job of keeping these places surrounded by just enough jungle flora that you kind of forget that you’re surrounded by commercial excess.

After San Miguelito and the museum I walked a couple of miles to find the next Mayan site on the list, Yamil Lu’um. Unfortunately, I could not for the life of me figure out how to get to it, being surrounded by three large gated resorts. I instead settled for the crocodile hanging out near the sidewalk. I saw warning signs about the crocodiles all day, but I was still surprised to see one right there in front of me!

After a giant plate of tacos for lunch I hailed a taxi to take me to the next spot on my list, El Meco. I think the taxis in Cancún have got to be the most expensive in the world. I got the standard local fair price, but holy crap! And only to find out in the end that El Meco is closed for renovations. Bleh! I managed to get a pic of the main temple through the fence, but that’s it. And I will forever wonder if that taxi driver really didn’t know it was closed like he said just to get the huge amount of money from me. Hmmm?

The next morning I hit the bus station and headed for a short trip south to Tulum. I quickly checked in to my hotel and then ran back to the bus station to try and figure out how to get twenty two miles further south to the next Mayan site on my list, Muyil.

Now that you’ve seen the pic above, it’s obvious that I made it. Ha! No thanks to the bus, though. They told me the next bus left in twenty minutes, but it never showed up(?). Then I asked again and they told me the NEXT next bus left in an hour, but who’s got that kind of time? Not me! So, I asked the scooter rental place next door to rent me a scooter for the rest of the day. They were all too happy to rent me a scooter, but unfortunately, Muyil is outside the limits of where I’m allowed to take it. Bummer! On to plan C. The local colectivo system, which is just an army of minivans packed to the gills with people going in every direction imaginable. I’ve ridden various forms of colectivos in many different countries, so it wasn’t a huge deal. It is ironic, though, given this turned out to be the easiest way to get there and for some insane reason I made it plan C. I don’t know what I was thinking.

Anyway, Muyil, in the end, was worth the effort. It was established in 250BC and was a very important Mayan city until at least the 17th century. There were several really impressive structures left, some of which were in the process of being restored. Just to set the scene for you, the people restoring this first section had mariachi music blasting from this building with the three doors below.

The paths stretching between the buildings were really beautiful as well. The only downside was the mosquitos. They were just vicious!

The showstopper at Muyil is El Castillo. A very tall pyramid with a couple of interesting bird reliefs on the east side. There wasn’t very much information about it, but it was really impressive to see.

There are also several structures just hanging out in the shade. This one was called building 8. Probably not how the Mayans referred to it.

After my visit to Muyil, I flagged down another colectivo back to the far end of Tulum to see the Tulum ruins right at the edge of the city. The last entry into the site is at 3:30pm. I arrived at 3:45pm. Crap! Maybe tomorrow. Time for a steak and chicken enchilada dinner.

I was up early and walked to the bus station again, this time to catch a ride to Cobá about thirty miles northwest. And this time the bus didn’t let me down. I really wanted to visit Cobá a couple of years ago on my trip to Yucatan, but I couldn’t make it work then. Now’s my chance.

Most of Cobá is still buried in the jungle, but what has been excavated is really impressive. There were a surprising amount of intact stelae and other carvings scattered around as well.

There was also two, yes two Maya ball courts. The Maya played this team game where they tried to get a ball through their hoop at the top of the court, seen on either side in the pic below, using only their bodies, no hands allowed. The captain of the losing team was often beheaded afterwards. Yikes!

Cobá is a really well developed site. Lots of people visit from Tulum, Cancún, and cruise ships. It’s sort of remote, but not exactly an adventure to get there. Most people rent bikes to ride around, but I as usual, preferred to walk. It was really peaceful and between the big attractions are plenty of smaller structures hiding in the trees.

The star of the show is Cobá’s giant pyramid, Nohoch Mul. They say it’s the tallest pyramid “in the area”. I’m not sure what “the area” is, but it’s an impressive pyramid just the same. Unfortunately, they stopped letting people climb it a couple of years ago, though. Too bad, I would’ve loved to have seen the view from up there.

This is the other well intact pyramid at Cobá known only as, the pyramid.

I also bought a new camera before this trip and wow, am I impressed! I wish I had gotten this bad boy a few trips ago. Taking pics in super shaded jungles and forests like this are always the most challenging, but not anymore.

My only real disappointment so far in Quintana Roo has been the lack of iguanas. They’re supposedly everywhere, especially at all these ruins, but so far they’ve been a no show. I did see this really cool looking bird, though. No idea what it is, but he sure was pretty!

Outside Cobá while waiting for the bus back to Tulum, suddenly a taxi pulled up and asked if I needed a ride. It seems he was just driving his wife and two kids into town and thought he’d check to see if he could pick up a fare while he was at it. When I asked him how much, the price was surprisingly reasonable. Only slightly more than the bus, so off we went. The best part of not waiting for the bus and having much faster transport meant that I would have plenty of time to get to the Tulum ruins that I missed yesterday.

Apparently, I haven’t seen any iguanas anywhere else because they were all hanging out here. The scaly dude in the pic above was right at the entrance greeting everyone as they walked in.

Tulum was a very important trading outpost for the Mayans, founded around 1250BC. They traded all over from the tip of the Yucatan peninsula all the way down to Honduras. And the location right on these bluffs overlooking that crystal blue water can’t be beat!

This was a great way to end my time in Tulum. The ruins were beautiful and iguanas were absolutely everywhere. Seriously, I took A LOT of iguana pics!

Don’t miss the iguana on top of the arch in the pic on the left below. He got the prime real estate.

Tulum had some pretty impressive carvings intact too.

From the ruins, I walked back into town feeling pretty satisfied. The weather has been hot and humid, but not nearly as hot and humid as I was expecting. Nevertheless, between the sunblock, the skeeter repellant, and the sweating, I’m pretty gross at the end of the day. So, I took a well deserved shower and stuffed myself with delicious fajitas and then prepared for the journey to my next stop.

I have a small piece of Quintana Roo left to visit, but I think this post is getting a little long, so I’m going to split it up. All in all, though, this has been a great start to a trip that was born out of utter chaos. I hope you’re all strapped in and comfortable because this trip is gonna be kind of fast paced…