Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil, and Labna Ruins – Our First Mayan Ruins on the Ruta Puuc

We got up early to get going to Uxmal which is about 1-2 hours south of Merida where we had spent the night. On the way out-of-town, Shelly wanted to email her family as she had promised. We just didn't have the opportunity, and we found this tiny house that had a sign that said Internet. Handwritten and messy. It looked like a house, and an old lady seemed surprised I was talking to her and shocked to see me in her little internet café.

$4 Dollars For Your Life Story

Well there was no coffee, and a room about 4 feet wide by 6 feet long. with 3 computers in it. While Shelly emailed, I spoke with the "old lady" there and learned her life story. A mother of 7 with 18 grand children. She couldn't have been older than 60. She only charged us 40 cents for the half hour, and I gave her 4 dollars. She was so grateful, and when she said it was too much.... I told her the rest was for the great conversation. And it really was great to talk to this old woman in Spanish and learn about her culture and life.

Uxmal - Ruins on the Ruta Puuc

We got to Uxmal around 9 or 10am, we really cannot remember. This place was amazing! HUGE!  One giant pyramid that was supposedly built by a midget son, of a witch in one day, (as the legend goes) was really interesting. There were Iguanas everywhere, and it got HOT! Like 90 degrees hot, with a lot of humidity. We climbed around the pyramids, and grounds and took a lot of pictures.  Uxmal is an amazing place incredibly well-preserved buildings and some of the most ornate stone work that exists in the ancient world.  There weren't too many people in the park and we were able to climb all over the ruins.  For our first set of ruins on this trip, we can say with all assurance, that we picked a good temple complex to get our feet wet.  We hung around for a couple of hours and left to go see some more sites in the area.

Uxmal - Our first Mayan Ruin

We got to Uxmal around 9 or 10am, we really cannot remember. This place was amazing! HUGE!  One giant pyramid that was supposedly built by a midget son, of a witch in one day, (as the legend goes) was really interesting. There were Iguanas everywhere, and it got HOT! Like 90 degrees hot, with a lot of humidity. We climbed around the pyramids, and grounds and took a lot of pictures.  Uxmal is an amazing place incredibly well-preserved buildings and some of the most ornate stone work that exists in the ancient world.  There weren't too many people in the park and we were able to climb all over the ruins.  For our first set of ruins on this trip, we can say with all assurance, that we picked a good temple complex to get our feet wet.  We hung around for a couple of hours and left to go see some more sites in the area.

The Labna Ruins

We were greeted immediately by a black girl who asked us in English if we were going back to Merida. We told her we were not and that we were headed back to Valladolid most likely to spend the night. She asked us for a ride to the nearest town with a bus and is pretty much hitching and busing her way around. We all explored the ruins together and honestly, this is my favorite place so far! MAGICAL!!! The place just was beautiful, and had an amazing feel to it. It's hard to explain how you feel in these places of huge historical value and antiquity. Yet, this place was special. We were the only 3 people in the whole ruins and had them to ourselves. (maybe that's why we liked it so much) We ended up seeing what we could, and heading to a place about 45 min away to drop off the black girl. She told us her name but we both forgot. She talked our ears off for the 45 min ride. She said she was an English teacher who teaches here in Mexico, and that she is from California. Honestly.. that's all I really got. 🙂

Heading to Valladolid

We once again were driving roads through backwoods towns, with people staring at us. We really were in some places that some of these people may have never seen foreigners drive a car through their town. But everyone was nice and cordial. And we made it to Valladolid about 7 or 8pm. We ordered a pizza from a pizza hut imposter called SUPER PIZZA!!  It was ok, but different. The sauce or cheese is just different here, and the crust was covered in poppy and sesame seeds. We got a hotel at a place called Hotel Lili, and this place was better in some ways than the place in Merida, but worse in other ways. No mosquitos and we actually had an air conditioner, but no hot water (luke-warm at best) poor water pressure, and the TV was on the Fritz and was unwatchable. (and of course no internet) We got to bed, dead tired and a little burn from our exciting day of exploring our first Mayan Ruin Sites!!! An Amazing DAY!!! They just keep getting better!