February 24th to March 2nd: Yucatan, Mexico: We traveled with Arthur and Sharon to the Yucatan peninsula to visit some of the most famous but least visited Mayan ruins. Arthur had made all the arrangements which turned out to be wonderful. We flew to Cancun, rented a car and headed south to the border land between Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. Our first stop was Bacalar for a two nights lodging at Rancho Encantado on the Laguna Bacalar, a long fresh water lake. We all said we could have easily spent our entire time at this one location.
Next day was an easy site seeing day in Bacalar and Chetumal. We visited the Mayan Museum which gave us a very nice preview and history of the sites we were about to see.
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After having a few (I mean several) of the best Margarita's on the peninsula, we then got down to the business of seeing the ruins. We met up with our guide for the next two days, Diane (also the proprietress of Rio Bec Dreams where we stayed for the next two nights). Arthur and she had planned two full days -- which they were. Konhunlich was our first site, then Dzibanche (howler monkeys) and we ended the day at Kinichna. We drove to RioBecDreams just west of Becan and enjoyed a comfort food dinner of roast pork and peas in the middle of the jungle. Diane was originally from England, had lived all over the world, immigrated to Canada and finally settled down in the Yucatan to pursue her life's passion of studying the ruins.
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Our second full day of seeing the ruins was spent at Balumku and Calakmul. Calakmul was like New York and Washington, D.C. all rolled into one for the Mayans. It was a huge complex which we walked and climbed all day. We might have seen twenty to thirty visitors all day. We had chicken fajitas for dinner, more Margarita's and finally collapsed into bed.
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We said goodbye to Diane and drove back up the east coast to Tulum for our final two nights. We visited the ruins of Tulum, which are touted to be the most popular tourist destination of all of Mexico. I must say it was very beautiful and picturesque, though geared towards a great many daily visitors. Then we drove a short distance down the coast to have breakfast and spend a few hours on the beach, which, I believe, was the best beach I've ever visited.
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