Uxmal

Today we went to Uxmal. After taking a couple of wrong turns. Anyone seeing a pattern here?  lol. It's supposed to be about a 70-80km trip. We drove 150km to get there. First we missed the Ruta Puuc turnoff and had to turn around in Mérida. Then we got confused about another turnoff we were supposed to take. The sign pointed left but there was no road to drive onto. So we kept on going. And going. And going. I had mentioned to Señor B that perhaps we were supposed to make a retorno and make the turn that way but he didn't seem to think so. Finally we decided that since we weren't seeing any more signs to Uxmal, we'd turn around. Sure enough, had we made a U-turn at the next retorno, we would have been on the right road. It seems that Señor B's amazing sense of direction works better in the city than it does on country roads...lol.

It was about 11:30 when we got there so we decided to have some lunch before we ventured out. Señor B and I had Yucatecan chicken which is my favourite dish down here. It was ok. Not great but it was edible. The girls had sandwiches and fries. They both had some sort of spread in their sandwiches that they didn't like so they didn't eat all their lunch. They didn't eat all their fries, though, so I think they were ok.

Uxmal is amazing. There's a huge pyramid as soon as you enter. I couldn't imagine anyone being able to climb all those stairs. A large courtyard is surrounded by buildings that are still so beautiful it's hard to believe they're centuries old. The masonry is phenomenal. The blocks of stone are so smooth. I'm sure the experts know how they managed to get the surfaces so flat but, as lay people, we have no clue and we were amazed by the skill. The architecture and the carvings were incredible. To think they did all of that without today's tools. There were rooms that were open for people to go into. The green mold and mildew on the walls told of how the site had been hidden away for so many years. It was all so mystical.

Further along is a cluster of what appears to be houses. There was only one shack standing and around it were short (as in no more than a couple of feet high) walls. The walls all seemed to join each other so it was hard to picture what it would have looked like back in its day. The girls and I climbed up some stairs to another level that had another large building on it. And then we climbed the stairs of the building. Those folks who know how afraid I am of heights would be impressed that I did this. It sure impressed YD.

From this vantage point we could see even more buildings farther out but we girls decided to call it a day. Señor B wasn't able to climb up with us due to the steepness of the stairs. He was a trooper for managing as well as he did but we girls decided that the other buildings were way too far for him to hobble to on his crutches. Plus, it was a very hot day, around 30C with no breeze, and we'd all had enough of the heat.

We had planned on hitting the pool when we got back but there was a party going on down there and we didn't want to crash it, so we just hung out in the condo for the rest of the night.