Maya

San Cristóbal is one of the cheaper places to stay in Mexico, and I was long overdue for some shmontse and shmutter shopping in a Mexican market. So this morning, I headed on down to one of the city's bigger mercados, and found some nice stuff for my sisters back home. I got a pair of dolls; a pair of wooden flutes; a small herd of stuffed animals; and two beautiful little Mayan blouses. Cute stuff, don't you think?

After two full days of just hanging out in the Jungle at El Panchán, I finally made it to the ancient ruins of Palenque this morning. Tara, Dan, Alan, and myself hopped on a colectivo (shared taxi / minibus) after breakfast (which we had at Don Muchos, of course), and gave ourselves a nice little tour of what I suspect is Mexico's best and most magnificent archaeological site.

Steve, Kyden and I went and saw the ruins near Tulum beach this morning. It was great weather on the beach; but unfortunately, we got there too late to beat the crowds (about 10am). The ruins are very nice, but they're not quite on the same scale as most of the others. The best thing about them is the gorgeous cliff-beach-and-sea backdrop that enfolds them. Back in the day, this really must have been prime Maya real estate.

A group of us from Valladolid got to Chichén Itzá at about 9:30am; and it was lucky we got there early, because 2 hours later, the entry queue was over 30 metres long. Chichén Itzá is the least amazing of the ruins I've seen so far in Mexico. The ruins themselves are impressive as usual, but the place is completely overrun by tourists.

For us 5 Uxmal road trippers, the Uxmal ruins themselves were definitely the highlight of the day. Uxmal is probably one of the least visited of Mexico's must-see ruins, and yet (I think) it's also the best. The light-jungle surroundings, the serene environment, and the very impressive pyramids and temples, all combine to make Uxmal a great Maya site to visit.

A live video showing Kanako's daring jump across gaping holes in the ruins of Mayapán, near Mérida.

At 8am this morning, 5 backpackers piled into a Mexian rental car, and took off on a day-long road trip to the Maya ruins of Uxmal. We covered a big route through the area south of Mérida, and then we visited Acanceh, Mayapán, Mama, Labná, Kabah, and Santa Elena, as well as Uxmal itself.