Oxkintok

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  Last weekend we visited the Oxkintok ruins, an archaeological zone near the town of Maxcanu which is a little more than an hour away from Merida. It is a less-visited site for a few reasons; it's in the hills, the site is not completely uncovered, and the two roads most frequently used to get there (after you exit the highway) each have their own problems. If you take the route we did (the clearly marked exit), you will be travelling on a winding, increasingly sketchy road up a hill that turns into gravel/rock for the last part leading to the site. The other route has you take a poorly marked exit off the highway, but is more direct, and maintained.

  No matter what road you take, you will be rewarded with a site that is massive (even though it is not completely uncovered) and devoid of tour groups. This site has a number of pyramids to climb, and carved sculptural column figures. It is very apparent from the site that it really has not been completely unearthed. Beyond the cleared area, you can see the edges of pyramids and walls still covered by the scrub brush, vines, and trees in the area. There are also (again) lots of iguanas here, sunning themselves on the pyramids.


 Because this site is not completely cleared, it is a little more challenging to explore, but not too much that it would be a problem with kids. You just have to be a little more observant of your surroundings. There are plenty of places to rest for shade, either in the shadow of the ruins or under shade trees. Like most places in the Yucatan, you should bring water with you because it will get hot and you will dehydrate without it (even if it feels cool or humid). If you come here with a baby and stroller (which I actually saw while we were there), know that you probably won't be doing much beyond rolling the stroller in the flat fields and having to haul it up uneven stone stairs to get to the raised terraces.


As this is a remote site, there isn't a large gift shop/ convenience store combo here. There are bathrooms at the entrance where you buy tickets. They also sell some spanish language books on the Mayan ruins, and wooden carvings of pre-columbian figures at a very affordable price. We picked up two carvings for $500 MXN ($26.92 USD). I will probably treat and seal them, because we won't always be in the Yucatan.




If you go:

Admission is $56 MXP per adult. Kids are free.

It should probably go without saying, but I will say it anyway- if you have Spanish (any level), use it. The people working at the site do speak some english, but you will get a much better response (even if your Spanish is horrible).

Note that there is a cave system, the Calcehtok caves, right next to this site. We didn't visit it, but it is also open for visits. We will probably see it on another trip.

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