Mayapán

Mayapán

We almost missed Mayapan. We came down the road from Merida and the sign for the small road taking to the entrance was outgrown by vegetation. I pulled in reverse and entered the narrow path that took us to the entrance book. It was 8:30 in the morning but two men were already in around the booth. We paid our tickets and we pursued with the preparations for the visit. The site was surrounded by the jungle and learning from our previous mistakes we took our time in covering our exposed skin with a lethal lotion for mosquitoes. The bottle with water was not forgotten and I cleaned my camera's lens.

We were the only visitors of Mayapan. It is not one of the most visited ones due to its location outside the main roads. In the visitors book at the entrance I counted maybe 10 visitors in average per day.

Inside the vegetation was overpowerful, it covered everything through the years. Archeologists did their best to salvage and restore part of the city but there are parts that are covered by the vegetation.

The main building is the main pyramid. It is partly restored but still covered by grass. There is no access to its top.

We saw also a large mask of Chac, the rain god, main deity in this riverless part of Yucatan. There are also some badly deteriorated stele on which the representation can only be guessed.

On the side of the main pyramid a whole in the ground opens into a sort of a cavern leading maybe top a cenote.

I enjoyed Mayapan for the image that it gave me about the power and resilience of the nature. Man might be a winner in a series of battles but will never win the war.

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