Day Two

We hopped off the ship at Costa Maya and climbed aboard a bus for a 2 1/2 hour ride into the Mexican jungle to get to the Dzibanche ruins.

 

This is our tour guide, Jesus. We were part of his Mexican family... we called him "Papa"

As we were driving, Papa told us that all the mounds of dirt we were seeing were actually ruins that were buried, just waiting to be excavated. I didn't fully understand what he meant until we got to Dzibanche.

All of these ruins had been completely buried under dirt and had enormous trees growing out of them before they were excavated. The excavation started in 1992 and stopped last year when the archeologist in that particular area, passed away.  So many of the ruins are only partially excavated and some aren't excavated at all.

It was absolutely beautiful.

 

Angie practicing her excavation skills. She wants the job as the next archeologist for the site.

 

Me in front of Temple #1.

 

Temple #2

I love that the trees are growing right out of the temple here.There are several tombs in this temple that have been opened and excavated. The trees are growing over the entrances to the tombs yet to be unearthed.

This was my particular favorite. This is the Temple of the Owl.

 

We got to climb to the top of this one, and the view was well worth the steep climb.

Angie climbing the Temple of the Owl. I tell you, the picture doesn't do justice to how steep it really was.

Me and Angie at the top of the Temple of the Owl. 

The ruins of Dzibanche were stunning.

We climbed back into our bus and headed to the Kohunlich ruins. Kohunlich is well known for the Temple of the masks. They were covered in red stucco at the time that people lived here, and that red stucco is fairly well preserved. Papa told us that soon they would be enclosed in glass casing for their preservation.

It was a beautiful day, 80 degree weather and 90ish percent humidity. We headed back on the bus for our 2.5 hour drive back to the boat.

We stopped at a little shop near the pier and haggled for some beautiful little necklaces and then climbed back aboard the ship for some dinner and an early bedtime. 

After all, day 3 was going to be busy.

(I always love asking people to take a picture... it's kind of like a box of chocolates...)