VINTAGE VENTURES: I write my travel journals to look back and remember our ventures. A secondary reason is to allow me to organize all my trip photos. I have thousands of photos. Organizing them into a cohesive story makes sense.

Our Oriente bus and bus driver. Every Sunday, Oriente schedules a bus tour of the Ruta Puuc Ruins, an area south of Merida that includes five separate sites. It is a self-guided tour. Oriente only provides the transportation. Each of the five sites was well marked with info plaques explaining various buildings.

DAY 16, Sunday, February 18, 2018

RUTA PUUC RUINS

Our Oriente Ruta Puuc bus was scheduled to leave TAME at 8 am, so we were up at 6 am and out the door by 6:50. Sadly, we canceled our breakfast, but there always is tomorrow. We flagged down a bus with Centro on its windshield. That got us as far as downtown, but that still left us with a one-kilometer walk to the TAME bus station. We could have found a southbound bus to get to the station, but up until then, I had only figured out a few of the northbound buses.

On our way to TAME, we walked past Plaza Grande and saw that the streets were already blocked off and tons of vendors were setting up. We knew about "Merida en Domingo", the weekly Sunday street celebration at Plaza Grande, but we thought it was just during the evening. It looks like it is an all-day affair, and it will still be going full tilt when we return from Ruta Puuc – awesome. This was shaping up to be another perfect day, and we were just getting started.

Ruta Puuc refers to an area south of Merida that contains five separate but closely linked Mayan sites. The five Ruta Puuc Ruins sites included on this bus tour were:

1) LABNÁ: 55 pesos admission. 35 minutes are allotted. This was a small site with one beautiful building.

2) XLAPAK: Free admission. 30 minutes. A small site with one main building.

3) SAYIL: 55 pesos admission. 35 minutes. Another small site with one awesome building that had many terrific inlaid sculptures of gods. The road from Sayil to Kabah was very narrow and only wide enough for the huge Mercedes Oriente bus. Fortunately, we didn’t meet any oncoming traffic.

4) KABAH: 55 pesos admission. 50 minutes. A bigger site with several amazing buildings. There were tons of intricate sculptures and statues of gods and warriors.

5) UXMAL: 233 pesos admission. 2 hours. An unbelievable site, just as big as Chichen Itza and just as grand. The first building was a huge intact pyramid larger than the main pyramid at Chichen Itza. Around the back of the pyramid were several huge intact buildings forming a big square around a open plaza. Then there was the ball game court and another big pyramid that we could climb. There are many surprisingly intact buildings. Uxmal is a great site. When we were finished, we cooled off with a delicous strawberry and cream paleta.

LABNÁ

LABNÁ: Translation - Labná Archeological Zone. The cultural heritage of Yucatán, of the Nation, and of humanity.

LABNÁ: Gateway Arch

LABNÁ: El Mirador.

LABNÁ: Palace

LABNÁ: Palace

LABNÁ: Palace details

LABNÁ: Palace details. It is difficult to see, but the upper corner depicts a serpent with a human face.

LABNA: Palace details.

LABNÁ: Artifacts

XLAPAK

XLAPAK: The English section from the above sign summarizes the history of Xlapak.

XLAPAK: Small palace.

XLAPAK: Back of small palace.

XLAPAK: Details.

XLAPAK: A giant square godhead.

XLAPAK

XLAPAK

XLAPAK

The narrow road between Xlapak and Sayil.

SAYIL

SAYIL: Translation - Sayil Archeological Zone. The cultural heritage of the Yucatán people. The cultural heritage of the Nation.

SAYIL: The Grand Palace.

SAYIL: The Grand Palace.

SAYIL: The Grand Palace.

SAYIL: The Grand Palace detail. Notice the square godhead in the middle.

SAYIL: El Mirador Temple.

KABAH

KABAH: Palace.

KABAH: Palace.

KABAH: Peering through the columns at the Palace.

KABAH: The Codz Poop Palace, or Palace of the Masks.

KABAH: Above and below: Walls of godheads make up the Codz Poop Palace.

KABAH: Over 100 of these figures have been found. Archeologists are slowly placing them back into the walls of the Codz Poop Palace as they figure out where they go.

KABAH: The intricate stone artwork must have been outstanding in its day.

Stacked corner godheads.

KABAH: Statue at Codz Poop Palace.

KABAH: The only inhabitants left at Kabah.

KABAH: Teo Calli

KABAH: View from Teo Calli.

UXMAL

UXMAL: The massive Pyramid of the Magician. It is over 100 feet tall. It contains four temples inside. Sadly, we weren't allowed to tour the building or climb it.

UXMAL: The back of the Pyramid of the Magician.

UXMAL: Above and below. Buildings that are collectively known as the nunnery quadrangle. The nunnery quadrangle consists of four buildings surrounding a square plaza. I don't understand why it is called a nunnery. It is speculated that it was probably housing for students, priests, or soldiers.

UXMAL: Above and below. More buildings around the nunnery quadrangle. .

UXMAL: Above and below - The ball game court.

UXMAL: The Governor's Palace seen from the nunnery quadrangle.

UXMAL: The Governor's Palace from the front.

UXMAL: The Governor's Palace from the front.

UXMAL: The Governor's Palace from the back.

UXMAL: Climbing up the Great Pyramid. This structure was almost as tall as the massive Pyramid of the Magician. For some reason, I didn't get a photo of the structure. I only got photos from the top of it.

UXMAL: Overlooking the House of the Pigeons from the top of the Great Pyramid.

UXMAL: Overlooking Uxmal from the top of the Great Pyramid. The upper left is the nunnery quadrangle. The pyramid on the upper right is the Pyramid of the Magician.

UXMAL: Overlooking Uxmal from the top of the Great Pyramid. The ball game court is at the forefront. The nunnery quadrangle is in the background.

UXMAL: Overlooking the jungle from the top of the Great Pyramid.

PLAZA GRANDE SUNDAY STREET DANCE

The bus returned to TAME around 4:30 pm. We immediately went to the CAME terminal next door and purchased round-trip ADO bus tickets for Wednesday to Campeche, another highly recommended city. Two round-trip tickets cost 722 pesos ($40 US). The express bus leaves Merida at 8 am and takes a bit over 2 hours. The return bus leaves Campeche at 7 pm, so it will be a long day. 

The street dance at Plaza Grande was going full tilt when we returned. All four streets surrounding the plaza were blocked off to traffic and lined with restaurants under canvas roofs, street vendors, food carts, snack carts, trinket vendors, and a huge stage set up with the same Mexican big swing band and traditional costumed dance troupe that performed last Thursday at Parque Santa Lucia putting on their trademark show.

After that, a hot Cuban salsa horn band laid down the funkiest Latin rhythms imaginable. This band was world-class; hundreds of couples danced in the streets to their toe-tapping pulsations. Whoever runs sound for these outdoor venues is terrific. The sound is perfect, balanced, clear, and punchy.

MERIDA EN DOMINGO: The Sunday street dance at Plaza Grande.

The dance troupe performed while the big swing band wailed away.

Back in the heart of Plaza Grande, we came across a police drum and bugle corps. They put on their own snappy and well-choreographed military music show. Just as the sun set, a group of six tactical police wearing black special forces uniforms and sporting black menacing looking assault rifles took down the Mexican flag and goose-stepped their way out of the plaza. It was all very patriotic and I had to remind myself that it was Mexico and not the US.

The police drum and bugle corps.

Putting away the Mexican flag.

We pigged-out with all the food stands beckoning us. We started with roasted beef tacos and relleno negro salbutes at a food stand with two cute little kids waiting on tables. Then we sampled a strange nachos dish with white corn niblets, cream sauce, cheese sauce, mayo, legumes, and peanuts coated in chili powder. It tasted better than it sounds, but I got very nervous about the mayo as it was unrefrigerated in the 90-degree heat. We topped it off with a Marquesita, a chocolate syrup and cheese-filled crepe handmade at a street vendor cart. 

We walked back to the Airbnb down Calle 62, which was also blocked off for several blocks. Merida en Domingo is a carnival every week. Unfortunately, my feet are developing some big blisters.

The two cute young waiters at the food stand we ate at (the boy with the blue shirt and the boy with the khaki shirt facing backward).

A street food vendor making our Marquesita - a chocolate and cheese-filled crepe.

Merida en Domingo is a festive for all.

Dave and Wanda

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