It’s about 6:30 am and we wake up to what sounds like thousands of birds singing, so loud that it’s almost deafening and of course roosters trying to out do the birds. Then suddenly a loud bang! It sounds like a huge cannon firing. Cindy and I came to the conclusion it was maybe a device to keep the birds away from a nearby crop or something, as it wasn’t consistent, but lasted until daylight.
We begin getting ready for the day ahead of us and right on time our host knocks on the door and asks us if we would like to eat inside or out. Since, it’s turning into a beautiful day we opt to eat outside.
Our morning breakfast consisted of fresh orange juice, fresh fruit and a homemade deep fried tortilla with shredded chicken inside smothered in fresh cream. Wow, it was delicious. After breakfast we had our cold showers; refreshed and ready to hit the road to start exploring.
South we go, roads are narrow but in excellent condition. Our first destination for the day is Uxmal Ruins. We will need to drive west, but as we begin to make the turn, we’re instructed by the policia that an accident has occurred and the road is closed. No problem, with a bit of a detour, we find our way. We pay a parking fee to park the car and realize that although it’s early, quite a few cars are already there.
We get our stuff together, pay the entrance fee, pass through the subway type counter and up some stairs and there it is. Uxmal. Our strategy is to start at the North end and make our way to the south, exploring every nook and cranny and of course taking the paths that lead away from the structures hoping to see something others don’t usually see. On the one path we found the site where the Mayans buried their dead, mounds with carved skulls and cross bones carved into the limestone boulders surround the mound. I found it interesting that the skull and crossbones were around before the pirates.
Taking pictures of the fantastic view, we come upon an elderly couple with the wife ahead and her husband desperately trying to keep up with her. We watch with amazement as every step he makes is very thought-out and although it seems like such an effort for him, he still has a smile on his face. We say hello. They are having such a great time, taking pictures and exploring; even though it is so obviously difficult, especially for him. Off she goes first and we watch as he is contemplating how he’s going to get down the steep steps. We’re not sure how he even climbed up in the first place! I offer assistance and slowly but surely we make it. The wife is grateful and so is he; they grab each other hands and smiling they’re off. Back with Cindy, we can’t help but hope that we will still be exploring at their age.
Of course we had to climb every structure. It’s a rather large place and when we were nearing the four hour mark we decided we had seen enough. The last ruin we climbed had the best view, high above the other structures.
Walking back out toward the parking lot to the car, there are lots of vendors selling their wares now. From t-shirts to other usual souvenir items, ten minutes later, 200 pesos lighter, some shirts for our for our friends and kids, we head to the car.
Just outside Uxmal, there is a resort/hotel and a restaurant. Not knowing what lies between here and our next destination, we go for the buffet. The food was ok, we felt full and rehydrated. Not really Mexican food, but it did the trick.
Taking the road back, we see why it had been closed earlier. The road is very windy and a large truck had lost its’ load of hay bales on one of the curves. The truck was gone, but every local was now in the ditch trying desperately to load the huge bales into their trucks and into whatever means of transportation they had with everyone helping each other. It must have been such a gift as they were all smiling and laughing. We slowly weaved our way through with the aid of the locals waving their bandana’s at us to proceed.
Although we’re pretty tired from all the walking, we’re off to find our next adventure! Winding our way through back roads by following our little print out map off the internet, we finally find the road to the caves we’re looking for. It’s very narrow with high grass and reeds on both sides. It’s difficult trying to avoid the huge potholes. Hopefully we don’t rip out the undercarriage of our rental nor meet anyone coming from the opposite direction, as there is nowhere to pass each other. The vegetation is so dense the road is practically overgrown.
After about fifteen minutes, we spot a car parked up the road. This must be the place, as there’s nothing else around for miles. Not knowing what to expect I bring my hoody, water, camera and movie camera with us.
We make our way through a narrow path and we see hammocks hanging between some trees. A young guy gets up, greets us and asks if we’re here to explore the caves? In our very limited Spanish we figure out that we need to hire Marco and he will guide us through the caves. We agree on a price and off we go.
Amazingly, the Calcetok caves are dry caves, which once had water in them. We walk up to the edge of basically what looks like a huge dry Cenote. Marco directs us to climb down the homemade steel ladder to the bottom. Not quite what we expected, but no problem. In his flip flops, Marco has us follow him into the cavern. Hey if he can manage, I’m sure we can. Cindy and I both have good traction type shoes on and we are slipping all over the place as the ground is both of a limestone and a clay mud type substance. We hold onto a rope as we start descending into the darkness until we come to some even ground and we stop. Marco takes his backpack off and out comes the headband lights we are to wear. Now the most interesting part: do we want to take the tourista, adventura or extrema route. After asking Marco a hundred questions about the different routes, we opted for the adventura route. Bad choice……..
With Marco leading the way, we walk for several hundred feet in the pitch dark, up and down, around curves and crevices, with our tiny little lights desperately trying to see what we’re doing. We crawl, yes crawl, through a small opening that lasts about 15 feet and pop out into a big pitch black space again. No problem I thought, this is easy. It’s so dark, the only way of knowing where Marco and Cindy are, is by the lights on their heads and Marco’s flashlight that he’s shining on the rocks for us to see where we’re stepping. The heat is almost unbearable with moisture hanging so heavy in the air that you can see it thru the narrow beam of light coming from our heads. I’m sweating, so I ask to stop so that I can take off my jacket. Marco offers to put it in his backpack, thank goodness, as there is no way that I can carry it and get thru these tight spaces. As we begin crawling through even tighter spaces, pulling ourselves on our elbows, I’m thinking to myself that our clothes are going to be ruined and how are we ever going to get back and are our cameras going to survive? Finally we’re thru and stand up only to see what our next feat will be. Looking straight up into a small chute opening, a rope awaits us. Still in pitch darkness, Cindy begins the climb, using the rope to hoist herself up and with the aid of small crevasses to help out, manages to reach the tiny ledge about twelve feet above us. After a bit of struggling, I’m able to pull myself up as well, but as I’m standing on the small slippery ledge I see a couple of openings so small I’m thinking I’ll surely get stuck trying to crawl through either one of them.
By now, I’m sweating big time and really starting to not enjoy this at all. In my best Spanish I ask Marco, how many more small openings like this. He says a few. That’s it! I tell Cindy I can’t go any further as I’m sure that there is no way I can get thru that tight space. So back down the rope I go. Cindy follows as well and just as she sets her feet on the ground, all of a sudden she slips and she starts sliding down ….. and down ….. and down. Finely she comes to a stop about fifteen feet down from another ledge we realized we were standing on. With the aid of Marco’s flashlight, Cindy climbs her way up the greasy slippery rocks. With some nervous laughter and a drink of water, we begin to head back. Again we follow Marco, heading back where had just come from, through a range of small crawl spaces. It doesn’t seem like the way we came and I’m kind of getting worried that maybe Marco didn’t understand that I wanted to see daylight again. After it seemed like forever, I see a slither of light and we find ourselves back to the opening from where we came from.
Breathing fresh air now, we slowly make our way back to the hammock where the trek all began. We learned that Marco’s dad and granddad had been taking tourists through the caves for years and he was following in their footsteps.
As we departed, I asked Marco what the Extrema route was and he explained it’s about five hours of what we had been through with extreme drop offs and even tighter crawl spaces. I can’t imagine how hard that would be to do. Apparently there is also a graveyard several miles back into the caves. The best part of this adventure was the Mayan rocks on the floor of the caves that had been carved out to catch the fresh water dripping from the ceiling and of course, the light at the end. The most interesting part was the fact that Marco emerged with his t-shirt still bright white and his flip flops still in tact.
Cindy and I thank him and as the sun is setting, with our mud drenched clothes and shoes we get in the car and make our way back to the Hacienda for one more night.
An hour later we enjoy a refreshing shower and pour ourselves a nice cold beer and wait for dinner.
Ah dinner. We are served a crunchy thick tortilla like cake with chicken and cheese. I didn’t eat since I had the feeling I was getting Montezuma’s revenge. I apologize to our host and try to explain that I’m not feeling well as Cindy enjoys her dinner. I take drastic action and pop half a sypro tablet and hope for the best tomorrow.
Hit the bed and we both fall asleep instantly….
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