we had a bit of an issue getting to xpujil (in the south of campeche), the bus we were meant to get on, never showed up, we got our tickets changed though, and got on the next bus. we arrived in xpujil about 4pm (on a saturday), which is pretty much just a town on the side of the highway. there are restaurants and hotels, but not much else, we didn't look too hard for a place to stay, and ended up spending the most for accommodation of the whole trip. that evening i went down and asked some taxi drivers about prices to get to calakmul (as this was the way i'd read to get there), they all quoted $800 pesos (even chatting amongst each other), so i'm not sure if any bargaining was possible. we didn't bother, we just wanted to get there.
the plan was to leave the hotel at 6.30am and get to the site by 8.30am. so a very early start (to get the best light and least tourists). up we got at the crack of dawn, and our taxi driver was waiting for us outside the hotel.
it's about a two hour drive from xpujil, about 45 minutes to the turnoff to the calakmul biosphere (west back towards escarcega), then another hour or so up the road to the entrance to the ruins (where you'll see dozens of wild turkeys, maybe some deer, a brown lemur-like animal, and other assorted birds). surprisingly, for such a big site, the entrance fee was only $39 pesos, unfortunately, there were no maps to be had there, and make sure to bring your own water, there weren't any hawkers either. only one other group of tourists showed up at the same time as us, a couple of small buses appeared about the time we were leaving, but otherwise we had the place to ourselves.
from what i could see, the site encompasses something like four sections (could be that that is all that has been uncovered), the main plaza (where structure ii is located), structure i, and two gran acropolises, of which we went to the one with structure xiv. it takes about twenty minutes to get from the entrance to the first site, the central plaza, walking on a cleared path, with trees to each side (and howler monkeys roaring, didn't see any though 
). i decided that we should head straight for structure ii, the largest building at the site. a massive pyramid with tall trees growing all around it, it's hard to take a good picture of it (for someone with my skills). it's a tough climb too, you get up to a certain point, then realise, you have to go down a few metres, then climb up another flight of stairs to the actual top. once there though, it's an awesome feeling, the view, the breeze, the sense of grandeur, it's quite remarkable.
like the pyramid of the sun at teotihuacan, there is a very pleasant breeze at the top that totally relaxes you. we sat up there for about 15-20 minutes before heading down to explore the rest of the plaza. only one other structure there has a view above the trees, that would be structure vii (it's a good one though). other interesting artifacts include stelae, and carvings, and all the signs in front of the structures have a spanish, mayan?, and english description, so that's not a problem.
we headed for structure i next, about 10-15 minutes away, past structure iii (which is not particularly impressive (not to me anyway)) and on the way to the gran acropolis with structure xiv. the structure with the highest point at the site, the top had a surprisingly small platform. maybe enough room for ten people, lucky for us, we were there by ourselves. again, a very nice breeze, and a great view (supposedly on a clear day, you can see the ruins at el mirador in guatemala, it was clear for us, but perhaps you need binoculars), not as good as from structure ii, but not bad 
.
after that, we headed down, and decided to see the gran acropolis closest to us (it had a structure that we could see above the trees from structure i). i think it was about a twenty minute walk, but the view was well worth it. we did see some other tourists there, but they didn't bother us , be careful at structure xiv, there is monkey shit everywhere (as ozzy learned) . it actually provides great views of structure i and structure ii (which i'll post in my gallery), and was our last stop before leaving. there are other structures in the vicinity, and also a whole other acropolis to visit, but we didn't want to jerk the cabbie around too much, so we left it at that.
on the way back to xpujil, we decided to go to chicanna (for an extra $100 pesos), a smaller mayan ruin about 12km west of xpujil. it's a pretty small site ($39 pesos entry, no maps, hawkers, or tourists) with only about six buildings, one of which has a very cool monster mouth doorway.
we only spent about twenty minutes there, and decided not to go to becan (another 4km back toward xpujil) as well as we were just too stuffed by that point. becan are ruins that can be seen from the highway, but you'll obviously need to go inside to see them properly.
we got back to the hotel around 3pm, and didn't do too much after that, there's not much to do in xpujil. i have to say, this was one of the things i really wanted to do, after reading about it in the lp, and on the web, and i have to say, despite being the most expensive part of the whole holiday, it was well worth it. i don't think i have the pictures to prove it, but it was my favourite site (possibly because there weren't any other tourists there), but also the setting is so serene. unfortunately, it's not the easiest place to get to (which probably helps keep the tourists away), and there isn't a lot to do in town, but don't let that hold you back, calakmul is very impressive. and on that note, i'll finish, and take off again in tulum, quintana roo.
pic of me (david tran) taking in the spectacle of structures i and ii from structure vii at calakmul.
Last edited at 5:03 18th-may-2008
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