We drove to a little restaurant near the access road for Calakmul, a set of ruins deep in jungle. The access road is about 60 kilometres and we had read that it could take about 2 hours, so we wanted to spend the night close and then head in early in the morning. We started to set up, then immediately had to move to another spot, as Derek noticed a tarantula escaping into its hole right beside our camper steps!

Before dinner we dropped the camper and drove about 10 kilometres down the road to a place where you can hike into the forest and watch bats emerge from their cave. The guides who were there with the few other tourists at the site said that there were about 3 million bats living year round in the cave and that there were 7 different species. I overheard another guide telling his clients that his friend had rappelled into the caves. Apparently, the bat guano in the caves is about thigh deep and the dust is quite toxic.

 

The cost at our campsite was 50 pesos/night (about $3.50 Canadian). We thought maybe we should check out the restaurant. When we approached the restaurant we saw that we were not the only patrons…a couple who we had briefly met earlier in the day were sitting inside. Mauricio, originally from Columbia, now lives in Coast Rica, and Illiana is from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Mauricio was interested in our truck and they were both interested in someday visiting Canada, and we had a ton to talk about. They ended up sharing their growlers of various  types of beer with us and we talked long into the evening.

We were up the next morning, at 5:30 instead of the planned 5am (beer the night before, you know), and started our drive into Calakmul. We knew that dogs were not allowed, so we told Piper to “Lay down, stay, shhhh!” and covered her with one of our reflective sun screens for the windshield.  She did really well, we had two different stops where she had to hide…we now call her “Stealth Doggy”. On the road in, we saw some large birds that we think were Great Currasows, and maybe some baby foxes, although they ran quickly into the forest as we came around the corner. We have heard it is possible to sometimes see jaguars on the way in.

Once at the ruins we walked several kilometres through the jungle to visit the different sites. We saw parrots, spider monkeys, howler monkeys and heard a variety of different birds and jungle noises.

Here are a couple of videos Derek made…with narrative.

 

 

 

 

We have visited quite  few ruins now in Mexico, and they have all been special in one way or another.  Calakmul is particularly special due to it’s location deep in the jungle and the spectacular views from the top of the two largest pyramids.

We left Calakmul, and drove to a small lake near Bacalar to camp for the night. The day user crowds were on their way out when we came in, so we were expecting a quiet night. At about 9pm however, a few car loads of locals came in and took up residence in the small lakeside cabin near us. The music started, we heard chants of “Chug! Chug! Chug!” and , “shot, shot, shot” (apparently the same words in Spanish as in English) and the party lasted until dawn, when everyone piled into cars and drove off.

Our second night at the campsite was much quieter.  We met a Dutch couple who spend their winters cycling around North and South America.  They joined us after dinner and taught us the  proper way to drink Mate (a hot drink very popular in Argentina, similar to tea), while we talked travel, health, politics, and a whole array of other topics. It was a great visit. Their simple,  ambitious style of travel gives perspective to the relative comfort, ease and speed of our style with the truck and camper.