We left Tulum by 9am for a short run of 330km to another set of Mayan ruins called Uxmal. The ride through the Yucatan peninsula is flat, hot, similar in many ways to the African bushveld and peppered with tiny little Mexican towns and thousands of churches and speed bumps!
Our days ride…
The Pyramid of the Magician
Although Uxmal is not considered the most important, in my humble opinion, they are the most beautiful in that the amount of detail that has gone into the construction of this city is amazing and we spent hours simply marvelling at the reliefs. The fleur-de-lis, for example has appeared on countless European coats of arms and flags over the centuries, it is particularly associated with the French Monarchy in a historical context and according to Wikipedia, “fleur-de-lis crossed the Atlantic along with Europeans going to the New World, especially with French settlers”….yet here it appears at Uxmal which was built around 500AD??!!
Fleur-de-Lis Mayan style!
Queen Elizabeth the II visited on 27 February 1975 for the inauguration of the site’s sound & light show; when the presentation reached the point where the sound system played the Maya prayer to Chaac (the Maya rain deity), a sudden torrential downpour fell upon the gathered dignitaries despite the fact that it was the middle of the dry season!
The ball court for playing the famous Mesoamerican ballgame..
We are spending the night at a great little place called Hacienda Uxmal which is an old hacienda set across the road from the ruins of Uxmal and a wonderful place to unwind by the pool after spending a few hours exploring.
