Ugly Americans

  In the hills an hour south of Merida, past the edge of the  Chicxulub crater , sits Uxmal.  Uxmal was a Mayan trade center from the Late to Terminal Classic period with about 20k residents at its height. It is an excellent example of the Puuc architectural style, and the pinnacle of late Mayan art. As it grew from a small town to a major center in the region,  sacbe  were built, radiating out to nearby settlements (the sacbe linking Uxmal to Kabah is still standing) and other large sites like Chichén Itzá. Even after it was abandoned, it was still visited as a pilgrimage site until the Spanish conquest in the 1400s. Due to its location in the hills, it remained well-preserved. It officially became a  UNESCO World Heritage site in 1996. The site has a number of well-preserved buildings and carvings, even before its restoration. If you visit, the first building you'll see after climbing up the steps is the Pyramid of the Magician (the f...

The Mayapan ruins   Forty five minutes south of Merida, off of I-184 is the archaeological site of Mayapan. It is an easy site to visit, as the ground is pretty level and clear of debris. Like previous sites we've visited, there are more uncovered areas on the perimeter of the cleared and restored area. The big draw of the site is its main pyramid, the Temple of Kukulcan. The temple, and the other structures found at this site are generally considered inferior to those found at Chichen Itza. But, unlike Chichen Itza, this place has fewer crowds. So if you get there early (like we did), you will have the site to yourself.    Even if you show up later and a bus shows up (as one did near the end of our visit) it's not a real crisis. People will beeline to the main pyramid (pictured at the top of this post), so your view of carvings and the mural at the site will likely go unmolested as other tourists scramble to clamber up pyramids in order to get selfies or grou...

  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. Be...

  Dzibichaltún is a tiny site, about 15 minutes from Merida. The two things people go there for are the small pyramid, and the friendly-for-everybody cenote on-site. There is also the ruin of a church from the sites second life as a colonial ranch (and you do have people visiting for that), but the bigger draws are the step pyramid and cenote. There are also many iguanas all over the place, and a gift shop/convenience store/tchotchke zone near the front entrance.   The day we went was a sunny, clear day. We left early to visit the ruins- mostly because you want to go early (anywhere) to avoid crowds in the Yucatan. We got to the site at about 9 in the morning, but there were already tour groups at the site. This is not surprising, because the site is also close to Progresso, where cruise ships berth when visiting this area of the Yucatan.   It's an easy site to walk, even with kids. You can climb on most of the ruins, save for the section with the actual i...