Don't go into the Ruins after dark!

I stayed at Maya Bell several times over the years. I can't say that it was the friendliest of places. On one memorable visit, at around midnight, a friend and I headed out of the main gate and walked along the road towards the ruins. It was easy to see, however, as there was a full moon and a clear sky. Very prophetic.
I noticed, however, that , as we were left we were spotted by a local chap who worked at the camp site. Still, we felt that we were not doing any harm.
We wandered along the main road towards the ruins, intending to climb up the foot path along side the waterfall running through the jungle and in through the unofficial back entrance to the ruins. However, no sooner had we turned off the road it became pitch black. We had planned ahead and each bought a flash light.
No sooner had we left the main road we heard what sounded like a Jeep driving along in our direction. To our horror the vehicle stopped at the edge of the road, right close by to us. We had already turned off our lights and we waded into the waterfall and crouched there in complete darkness for what seemed like ages, as we listened to the voices of several men walking up and down the foot path, really close by. Thank God they never did shine their lights in our direction.
Eventually, after they presumably had reached the ruins, and after having searched for us there and returned, they gave up and drove away.
Naturally we decided not to bother with our original plan with the ruins, any more. It would seem foolhardy and anyway we thought they had might have left a guard or two up there, waiting, ready for us.
Quietly we retraced our steps back to the road and eventually made it back to Maya Bell without further incident.
That adventure was more than 15 years ago but I have always remembered it clearly.
The first is, I remember clearly having seen black and white photocopied flyers, of young missing travellers, pinned up around the area, presumably by their distressed friends and families.
I always wondered why we were hunted and what would have happened to us if we had been caught. It was a full moon and I just had a really horrible feeling about the outcome. I felt like I was about to become a part of some local ancient ceremony.
Any ideas, or thoughts on the subject would be most welcome.

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Thanks Mell,
You have raised a couple of thoughts which I had not even considered.
Being the hopeless romantic that I am, though, I am sticking with my sacrifice theory 😊 Reply to this

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Exactly my thoughts, except I think they have probably already nicked the artifacts, themselves, years ago, 😊 Reply to this

Don't you think that if you were a local in a little sleepy place, and were overrun by thousands of (comparatively) rich, badly behaved, idol foreigners that you might be a little resentful?

Well, I know what it is like to be the villager. I come from a little sleepy village in Ireland. I may sometimes be that 'rich' tourist these days visiting villages in the third world, but I do remember how it looks from the other side too. I was never resentful. I was more fascinated and entertained than anything. And we liked showing off our traditional dancing and music to the 'rich' American and Germany tourists. It was just ordinary for us, but we enjoyed that they liked it so much.
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What, you didn't dig out their hearts and chop of their heads at full moon? Reply to this

probably it was just the keepers looking our for someone who didn't want to pay the entrance to the ruins. Also, to avoid them getting hurt in some way ( climbing pyramids at night, animnals like howler monkeys and big cats that ARE still present in the jungle...)
Or, I'm sure that before you they may have had an unpleasant sistuation with people getting lost at night and then having to look for them ( or being accused) Reply to this