Day 318 – Xpujil

Small and empty Ruins

After our late night yesterday, which was technically this morning, we woke up super late. Luckily we had not arranged any trips to Calakmul Ruins, since they depart around 6am.

We took our time and headed out for a late breakfast. The area surrounding the ADO Bus Station in Xpujil was very sleepy. Maybe as it was Sunday morning. Out of the few restaurants that looked open, we went to  Restaurant La Concha del Caribe, which had decent food for a reasonable price.

Becan Archeological Zone

After breakfast we crossed the road to the Taxi rank, and took one to the Becan Archaeological Zone. The one way taxi cost the two of us 80 MXN / $6.07 AUD. If we wanted a round trip with the taxi driver to Becan and then Chicanna (1 hour at each site), the cost would have been 250 MXN / $18.97 AUD.

The entrance tickets were 60 MXN / $4.55 AUD per person. The site is smaller than any other site we have visited so far in Mexico. However, it was still impressive and there was hardly any other tourists. Some of the buildings were massive and this was our first glimpse at a fully complete pyramid style building (~32m tall). The stone carvings were also unique and decently preserved. We spent 1.5 hours at the small site. 

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As we were leaving the site, we could hear thunder in the distance but we didn’t really take any notice.

Chicanna Archaeological Zone

We were hoping to see a taxi along the way, but we couldn’t find one, so we just walked 4 kilometres to the Chicanna Archaeological Zone. Luckily there was a separate bicycle lane all the way which was nice to walk along. The walk reminded us of our visit to Yaxchilan (Day 316), as there were plenty of butterflies along the way.

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Chicanna was deserted, except for us and a staff member at the entrance. The site is set up as a one way path, which takes you to all the buildings. The site is also home to a building called the “mouth of the serpent” due to the shape of the entrance. It’s really cool to see and was unlike any other building facade we had seen so far. The entrance is 55 MXN / $4.17 per person and we spent 1 hour and 20 minutes here. Twenty of those minutes was us waiting for the rain and lightning to subside. And this site is smaller than Becan.

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We sheltered under some ruins. Since they were ruins, we weren’t fully sheltered and we were getting marginally wet. But at least the lightning wouldn’t hit us. Once the thunder died down, we left the site.

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The staff member had told us that the Ecolodge Hotel on the main road would call us a taxi if we wanted. Once we reached the Ecolodge Hotel’s guard house, they just told us to hail a taxi on the road. It was raining heavily again, but our main issue was the lighting, which was all around. We waited at a bus stop for around 20 minutes, but saw no taxis. The lightning looked like it was moving further away. Therefore, we decided to walk / run in the direction of Xpujil, with the intention of stopping the first free taxi we saw.

Unfortunately every taxi that passed was full of people, until we had gone past Becan. The taxi driver was going in the opposite direction, but he turned around and took us to Xpujil, not caring that we were drenched! We got him to take us to the outskirts of town, as we had seen an information booth near the Xpujil Archaeological Zone.

Xpujil Archaeological Zone

At the information booth the lady didn’t speak much English. She told us to go to the entrance of the Xpujil Archaeological Zone. We were after information, on how to get to Calakmul. At the entrance, the guy called over a boy who could speak basic English.

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The different ways to get to Calakmul according to them is as follows;

1. Collectivo at 8am near the pharmacy which is opposite Willys supermarket on the main road. Cost is 400 MXN / $30.38 AUD per person (pp) and you can spend approximately 3 hours before coming back on the same collectivo. This price excludes entrance fees.

2. Private transport to the site for 1,000 MXN / $75.94 AUD pp, which includes transportation, lunch, entrance tickets and two additional sites.

3. Private English speaking guide, with lunch, 3-5 hours on site, transportation and entrance tickets for around 1200-1350 MXN / $91.13-102.52 AUD pp.

We never actually went into the Xpujil site, as we thought the entrance fees were adding up and we were very wet. In retrospect, we wished that we did go, as we were told by others that the site is small but nice.

We found another option in town for getting to Calakmul, which we went for;

4. Experience Calakmul Travel Agency, offers a guide, lunch and transport for 800 MXN / $60.02 AUD pp. This doesn’t include entrance tickets. Experience Calakmul is located near the main roundabout. We only had to place a 50% deposit. The tour will start at 7am tomorrow, with pick up from our hotel.

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Xpujil Town

We then ran some errands like paying for our accommodation, grocery shopping and dropping of our laundry. In the process of dropping of our laundry at Lavendria Calakmul, we were almost attacked by 4 dogs. Luckily they were all bark and no bite, and the owners rushed outside to call them off. Lavendria Calakmul charges 15 MXN / $1.14 AUD per kilogram.

We then wanted to try out La Pizzeta, which is owned by our accommodation. We tried the recommended Aloha Pizza, which was very nice.

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