We crossed into Guatemala, worried that we would struggle with our spanish after having been in english speaking Belize for two weeks, but the words came back to us and the border crossing went very smoothly.
El Remate and Tikal
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Tag Archives: pyramids
Ruins, Rivers and Caves
We headed towards Caracol, the largest Maya site in Belize. The road is rough and slow, so we planned to camp half way and then get to Caracol early the next day. Before setting up camp, we stopped at Rio On Pools and played in the water for a few hours.
Xunantunich
(Somehow this post got out of order…it should have been prior to the one about Caracol…)
Xunantunich is an ancient Maya ruin close to the border of Guatemala. The road to Xunantunich was fun in that it included a ride on a hand cranked ferry across the river.
Calakmul
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!
Chichen Itza
Chichen Itza is maybe one of the busiest archeological sites in Mexico, so we knew we wanted to get there early. We found a great little spot for the night camped in the parking lot of a small hotel and restaurant a few kilometres from the site. Hotel Delores Alba had two nice swimming pools. We were able to camp next to a large palapa beside this cool pool. It had a natural floor that consisted of sand and limestone that was lit up at night with lights that cycled through different colours.
Uxmal
Uxmal, an archeological zone in the state of Campeche, allows trucks to overnight in a grassy field near the main entrance of the ruins for a fee of 131 pesos per night, not 130, not 135…131 pesos. Not sure how they came up with the number, but that is the price, less than $10 Canadian.
Cholula
We hadn’t planned on visiting Cholula, but we needed to break up our drive to Oaxaca and Cholula was about halfway. It turned out to be one of our favourite stops.