Along the road to Chetumal

On the road again.......our week in  mountains  Chiapas state is over and we are headed to the beaches of Quintana Roo.  Along the way to the  beaches we have one more jungle ruin to explore.  We are very uncertain if any of the camping  places listed in Church's Camping Book will offer suitable maneuvering room for the clumsy Alpine Coach.  Ron is a excellent driver but the big old thing just doesn't bend in the middle.  To keep us out of trouble we drive the short distance to Escarcenga, disconnect the Jeep and check out a brand new RV Park just south of town.  We discovered it was not quite ready for prime time.  The owner had piles of gravel around to spread and firm the ground, but hadn't done anything with it yet.  The ground was so soft Ron had to put the Jeep in 4 wheel drive to get out.  We would have gotten both rigs stuck.

 

Our next investigation proved to be a great stop for the night. The Restaurant Myan about 30 miles before the Calakmul Ruins is a prize.  It's location is well off the road on the shore of quite a large lake.  The family who runs the restaurant could not have been more fun to try to converse with.  When I walked in to check it out I asked one of the daughters if we could camp here and she kept saying Bano? Bano?.  I keep saying no, camp and she took me by the hand and walked me over to the bathroom.  Some local customers were having great fun with our exchange and finally came to my rescue and translated.

This is their lake side restaurant where we had a absolutely wonderful dinner.  Unfortunately about dusk the chiggers started on us for their wonderful dinner and we ran for the rv's.

We left this enchanting place first thing after breakfast  the next morning for the ruin I have been waiting a long time to visit, Calakmul.  Oh I forgot to tell you there was no charge for our camping, they only asked us to eat there, which I already said purely was our pleasure.

Calakmul, has until the last few years been difficult to visit because of its location deep in the jungle.  There is now a paved road all the way and it still took us 1 and 1/2 hour in the jeep to drive back in there.  Some folks passed us going a lot faster but I am sure they missed the wildlife!

These lovely birds are known as Ocellated Turkeys and are known only to live in the Yucatan, Belize and Northern Guatemala around Tikal.

Turkey was a main stay of the Myan people in fact it was the only domesticated animal they raised.  The bird has such colorful plumage that it is hinted to be a cross between a turkey and a peacock.

Through out the Yucatan there are remains of old Myan trails that connected the different  sites.  We felt sure that the path we were walking on had been trodden by the ancients! 

Calakmul is a large site and very special one.  It was the second largest of the Myan Empire.  First was Tikal in Guatemala which we will visit in January.  It is made up of many plazas clustered around the main one and requires a lot of walking.  Some place to sit down was a blessing.

This is the second largest structure in Calakmul

This is the largest.

Oh darn look what we have to put with for the next 2 weeks or so.

And yes again it took us very little time to strip down to bathing suits and jump (in this case wade) into the bay.  The water is so calm and shallow here we could wade forever.

Thanks go out to Helen for most of the pictures in today's blog. Thanks kid.