Day 328 – Merida
Dzibilchaltun Mayan Ruins and Swimming Hole
Today we left our airbnb, Departamento Completo Independiente Jardines to a more central location. Our new airbnb was located close to the nice street Paseo Montejo. The name of the airbnb is, Best Location One Block From Paseo Montejo.
This new airbnb, is really nice. The highlight is the outdoor area which has seating and shelter. The owners were also super friendly. Furthermore, the room was large with a hammock inside. Very cool set up!
We walked towards Paseo Montejo and had lunch at a touristy restaurant called Sukra. The service and food were really good. But the prices were high.
Getting to Dzibilchaltun Ruins from Merida
We then decided to try and go to a small Mayan ruin close to Merida called Dzibilchaltun. We had gotten some information from the tourist information centre saying that collectivos can be found at San Juan Park. This turned out to be wrong. There were plenty of collectivos around the park but none were going to the ruins. As we bounced from one collectivo driver to the next, we finally gave up and started walking back.
Along the way we saw a bus with “Dzibilchaltun” printed on it in a terminal. This was at a bus company called Auto Progreso. There was a bus leaving at 1.30pm. We waited around until 1.30pm, when the bus started accepting passengers. We paid 16 MXN / $1.22 AUD per person (pp) on the bus.
Auto Progreso Bus Timetable
The bus is a slightly run down local bus. It will stop whenever someone flags it down. We arrived outside the ruins at 2.24pm. From the bus stop, there is a 10 minute walk towards the site.
For such an unknown site, the entrance fee was expensive. It cost us 227 MXN / $17.35 AUD pp. In addition to this, we were not allowed to take our backpack into the site (which was our 15L day pack). Instead we had to pay another 50 MXN / $3.82 AUD for a locker. It’s really strange, as the ruins have a swimming hole called cenote so our bag was full of swimming gear. We were able to take a plastic bag with our swimming gear into the site.
Firstly we went to the on site museum, as it would close at 3:30pm. One out of the two museum buildings were closed. The second building was good at explaining some of the history of the site and the Mayan people.
After the museum, we walked towards to ruins. The ruins are separated by a long ancient road. We went to the furthest ruins and then to the other side. As always, the ruins are very impressive.
Chapel made in 1590s by the Spanish 130m long structure from around 600 CE
We then walked towards the swimming hole / cenote. It was really cool. The cenote was full of fresh water, and there were lily pads growing in the centre. Small fish were also present. At 4:30pm, staff told us that the cenote was closing.
Return to Merida from Dzibilchaltun Ruins
After leaving the cenote, we left the site and walked back to the spot where the bus dropped us off. As we were waiting we could hear thunder and saw lighting in the distance. Luckily the bus arrived at 5.10pm, just before the rain reached us. The bus ride costs 16 MXN again.
After a few minutes on the bus, the heavens opened up. Due to the heavy rain it took more than an hour to arrive back in Merida. The bus was driving down the street Paseo Montejo, so we got off near the Walmart. We did some grocery shopping here, before walking back to our airbnb.
Our first cenote experience was amazing and after a quick google search, we can see Mexico is full of more cenotes! Cant wait to see more.