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Published: February 1st 2009
Us on Calakmul structure
We didn't climb all the structures, but when we climbed what we though was a pretty high one, we were rewarded with a view of a much much higher one off in the distance (Estructura II). One of the sites that we were most excited to see was Calakmul. This is a Mayan city that rivaled Guatamala's Tikal back in the day, that had some of the tallest pyramids in this area. The ruins are now in the middle of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve - a giant section of fairly undeveloped rainforest bordering on Guatamala. This means that, unlike most other ruin sites in Mexico, it is difficult to reach without taking an expensive tour from a nearby city; buses don't really go there. Also, since 'nearby' cities are about 6 hours away, tour groups probably don't get much time in the ruins themselves. Thus, we had originally planned to rent a car from Chetumal and drive there ourselves. Since we are still travelling with the cherubs, however, we made new plans; we would stay the night in the tiny town of Xpujil, take a taxi to the ruins, and somehow get to the next town on our route (Palenque) in the same day. No problem!
We took a bus from Tulum to Chetumal, a city further down the Peninsula in the state of Campeche. We stayed there an uneventful night, then took a bus to
Xpujil
Laura and Lorenzo in our room. the tiny town of Xpujil. We stayed in the Lonely Planet's recommended hostel, some cabanas rented by a nice guy named Don Jorge. Our room was pink and had some walls made out of cardboard (although, to be fair, it proved to be waterproof). Our toilet door was a flowered shower curtain, and the toilet was a do-it-yourself flusher. It was fairly clean, but even more embarassing than normal ensuite bathrooms.
We hired a taxi to take us to Calakmul for 800 pesos. The driver was quite helpful and recommended we go early in the morning to see more animals; he picked us up at 6am. We drove for 1 hour on the highway, entered the park, and drove for another hour down a narrow winding road through the forest, dodging rainbow-coloured turkeys.
Calakmul was an amazing place; it is underdeveloped compared with almost any other ruins in Mexico, and although it is a huge place, we only saw about ten other people in the four hours that we were there. We saw spider monkeys
in the trees above us (one of the cherubs got pooped on) and many birds. Some of its large buildings have grown trees rooted in the middle of them. The tallest buildings rise above the treetops, giving an amazing view of the surrounding rainforest. We ate sandwiches atop of one of these giant structures, and smoked a celebratory cigar on the second (it was awful - the cherubs smoked most of it).
After returning to Xpujil, we negotiated a five-hour ride to Palenque with a different taxi driver. We didn't want to take the only bus to Palenque, because it would arrive late at night. The area is notorious for highway pirates who rob late-night buses, sometimes taking everything - we have heard first-hand accounts of this. Thus, we braved a five-hour car ride crammed like sardines in the back seat. To get a fair price for this ride took a lot of haggling. Our first taxi driver, when asked, told us that the standard rate to Palenque was 1500 pesos, but when we went to the taxi stand to ask, they stated firmly that 1800 pesos was the lowest anyone would possibly consider. It was only when we
walked away from them to the bus depot to confer amongst ourselves that one of the drivers skidded around the corner and shouted ¨1500, let's go!¨. On to Palenque!
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