Uxmal and the Jungle.....

During our Mérida visit we took a day tour to Uxmal.  I would have to say that this was probably one of the highlights of our many holidays to Mexico.  We used the service of William Lawson....

Lawson's Driving.....

William offers a 'private driver' service, taking you anywhere you want to go at the pace you want to go for a very reasonable hourly rate.  We hired William to take us to Uxmal with no set agenda.

Bright and early at 7am, William picked us up at Casa Pocito and whisked us away on our adventure.   And boy!  Was it an adventure!!  William, originally from BC, Canada, has lived in Mérida for 25 years and is very knowledgeable about the area and its history.

It was a beautiful sunny, not-a-cloud-in-the-sky kind of day.  It was going to be HOT!  On our way to Uxmal, William asked if we'd like to stop and see the view once we reached the top of a hill.  Yes, a hill!  There aren't many of them in the Yucatan, so we quickly agreed.

It's difficult to see in the photo, but you can actually see Uxmal in the distance.....it's that white spec in the top centre area.  Don't worry, there will be lots of photos of it to come!

We enjoyed the view and met an acquaintance of William's at the nearby curio shop.  Pedro is amazingly talented, extremely nice and very passionate about the history of the Mayan culture.  We did a bit of shopping.....some carved gourds...

We enjoyed the view of flora and fauna and then Pedro offered to take us on a bit of a walk to show us some of the many historical findings in the nearby jungle....

It's about 8:30am, getting a bit warm already and the sun is beating down, but hey, we're game for anything so off we go.  Little did we know that our little trek would turn into 3 hours of crawling and climbing through jungle and rocks and into dry cenotes.  Even though I think I nearly died along the way from heat exhaustion, it was amazing!!!!  In fact, Uxmal kind of paled in comparison to this adventure.  It turns out that we were the first guinea pigs, oops, I mean, tourists, to go on this 'tour'.  It wasn't even an official tour yet.  We are truly honoured that Pedro spent the time to show us his world and all the work that he had done to prepare the area for a 'tour'.  He is so proud of his culture and heritage.  Here are a few photos from our jungle trek....

'Air plants'

Pedro showing us the village of Muna in the distance...

It's hard to tell, but there is a very deep dry cenote that Pedro is pointing out to us.  The boys climbed down a ladder and explored....

Brian and Vince at the bottom of the cenote...

It really was an amazing adventure.  It was completely unplanned but it was the highlight of our day!
William wrote about our day here......  William Lawson's Blog.....our jungle adventure

And William now has this tour as an option for booking.....appropriately called the 'Indiana Jones Tour'!    William Lawson's Indiana Jones Tour

Saying a fond farewell to Pedro, we continued on our way to Uxmal.  We were on such a 'jungle high', that I'm not sure if anything could have impressed us, but yes, Uxmal did impress us.  Having seen both Chichen Itza and Tulum, I knew what to expect, but it was so much more.  For one thing, there were hardly any people there!  Such a nice change from the masses that frequent the other ruins.  And we were truly impressed with the site.  Majestic, yet simple.  If only we could snap our fingers and see what it actually looked like in its heyday.

The Ball Court

This is where I had my mini breakdown....I climbed up these steps no problem.  I didn't know we would have to go back down them.  I was hit with severe vertigo and just couldn't do it.  Brenda finally came up and helped me and I ended up going down backwards!  I'm such a wuss!

I thought this structure was amazing....looked more like something from Thailand or Cambodia....

Notice the vulture....he followed Vince and Brian as they climbed to the top of another pyramid....

We definitely enjoyed our visit to Uxmal.  It certainly makes you wonder.....how did they build these structures?

Feeling exhausted and exhilarated, we fall into William's car and relax for the drive back to Mérida.  William has one more surprise for us though.....stopping at an abandoned henequen plantation.  For more information on henequen.....  Henequen

There ends our day of adventure!  We can't thank William Lawson enough for this memorable highlight of our holiday!