World Mexico Yucatan Ticul

Melinda's Merida Mini-Break!

Uxmal Ruins Apr 28, 2006

On the way to Uxmal it was determined to be time to stop off for a quick bite to eat! So off the main highway we pulled into restaurant, one which caters exclusively to the tour groups and tourists who bound along the highway to Uxmal. I had my first taste of region Yucatan cuisine with a chicken dish that was incredible! The other perk was the starter of homemade guacamole which was honestly to die for!!!! The best I had ever had and it turns out the best on the entire trip!

Already seated in the restaurant where the occupants of the large tour bus outside (okay here come those Hainan flash backs again!). Form the conversations floating in the air they sounded to be a combination of German (mainly German) and French tourists. Actually I admit they could have even been Swiss....

After lunch it was back in the Atos and onto Uxmal. This time there was no doubt that the ruins were at the end of the road as the highway was loaded with hotels, resorts and restaurants like you wouldn't believe, there was even a hotel practically on the grounds of the ruins.

The entrance was a full service information/history/museum center and outside were stall after stall of merchants. Including a lady selling those kidney shaped mangos Jules and I loved so much in Hainan, I am telling you Hainan is not the Chinese Hawaii I am beginning to the think it's the Chinese Yucatan!

As I entered into the site area, and began my climb up the stairs, well that's when I began to realize how small Oxkintok really was... And how glad I am to have had the experience of seeing both.

The Uxmal site is very well excavated and maintained; you can easily lose your self in there for hours... Wondering in and out over the stones, and through the landscape, the sheer site and magnitude of the Gran Piramide (Temple Mayor) as you come up the main stair well is quite the site, and again what an amazing view to see. And as you take it all in you have to stop and ask how? How on earth did such work get done? And the detail and workmanship that is in every building and at each turn is absolutely exquisite. And it is honestly so big that you could wonder around and never run into to another human soul.

The other nice thing about Uxmal is that it gives a very good idea of what life was like at the time it was being built and was inhabited. My pictures do not begin to do it justice.