After Palenque and Yaxchilan done in close succession, we were not sure if we were going to visit any more Mayan ruins while in Mexico. We had visited Tulum, Chichen Itza and Coba during past trips and thought we had seen the best of the best. We were wrong! Uxmal, another UNESCO World Heritage site along the 41 kilometer Ruta Puuc (an area filled with Puuc Mayan ruins) not only surprised us, but impressed the hell out of both of us. The only negative was that it was the most expensive site we have visited, it cost over $30 dollars for us both to enter. When you are used to paying around $4 dollars, it seemed crazy expensive. Welcome to the Yucatan!

Also, you can camp for $9 in the parking lot of the ruins, very convenient for the night time laser light show that is included in the price of your ticket. It is a rather ugly campsite, but across the street is a great tropical feeling hotel with a pool, bathroom and nice outdoor shower. You can use the pool if you pay $8. After visiting the ruins, it was the best money I have spent in months. Wow it was hot here during the day!

Uxmal

We had the most beautiful day here. Blue skies and lots of clouds. Perfect for pictures.

This pyramid had rounded sides, the first we had seen that looked like that.

The detail on the top of the pyramid was crazy. I felt like I could imagine a Mayan priest standing up there with a beating heart in his hand. (No more Mel gibson movies for me…)

This main plaza highlights the Puuc style architecture that was more ornate than the other Mayan styles.

The stone work here was just beautiful, all these interlocking latice like squares.

The Mayan arch (that was called a false arch).

Parts of the ruins felt a little like Greece to me. Really enjoyed it here.

This was one of the only Mayan cities that was not built next to a cenote. Instead, they built 160 large cisterns for rain water. They prayed a lot to the rain God Chaac.

There were two pyramids you could climb up here, but not the large one.

If you wander around the site, you will find signs to the cemetery. We loved the grave stones here.

After climbing up the larger pyramid, I collapsed in the shade. It was very hot. Make sure to bring in lots of water.

View from the pyramid we just climbed up.

And then if you still have energy you can come back at night for the rather long and somewhat boring laser light show. The whole thing was in Spanish, and kind of played out like a tela novella. I understood things about no rain and a princess who did not want to marry the prince from Chichen Itza….

The lights were pretty cool though, and it was a warm balmy night and we were hanging out with an Australian family who is motorcycling the PanAm that we keep running into over and over. They are really fun and so hard core! Oh, and you could always leave if you get really bored.

I loved the ones illuminated in the distance.

The colored lights highlighted all the architectural details.