The ancient Mayan city of Uxmal

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The Mayan ruins of Uxmal aren't very far from Merida, the nearest city to Celestun, so we planned to go there and do an overnight close to the ruins so that we would be able to get up early in the morning and explore them before the full heat of the day. We felt well orientated to the Mayan world following a trip to the Museo del Mundo Maya in Merida. This is a fantastic museum, opened in 2012, very interactive(and air conditioned )if you are interested in finding out about the Mayans. You can pick up a bus to take you there a block away from the Cathedral. We took a bus to Uxmal (direction of Campeche) from the Oriente station on Calle 69 between Calle 68 and 70. You can also take a colectivo to Muna (from la Plaza de San Juan) and take a taxi from Muna. We arrived at the bus station at 1.30 pm to initially check out the bus times and discovered that the last bus of the day was at 2pm. The gods were with us! The bus dropped us right outside the entrance to Uxmal an hour later and our hotel was right across the road. When we checked in, we were pleasantly surprised to get an upgrade to the Mayan resort -to a room with a view of the Pyramid of the Magician! We were also there in time to see the Light and Sound show commencing at 7pm. We weren't too bothered when it started to rain, at least we were in pleasant surroundings with a roof over our heads! Luckily the rain stopped on time to allow the show to go on! It was wonderful to be there in the midst of this magical place at night. The Light and Sound show was well worth going to, for the atmosphere alone as neither of us had enough Spanish to follow the commentary! Next morning we were up at 7am for breakfast and exploring the ruins in daylight by 8.30. It really was worth it to be there early, we avoided the crowds and the intense heat! Uxmal is an ancient Mayan city, designated by UNESCO as a world heritage site in recognition of its significance. It is incredibly well preserved. We were ready to leave by 12 o clock. We waited by the bus stop with a few others for a Colectivo, but it didn't look like there were any about, so we managed to get a taxi to Muna from the hotel(100 poses) which we shared with a young Swiss couple. At Muna., we got a colectivo to Merida.

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