date last edited: 02/06/2011

2009 Rio Bec Trip;

by Dwayne Shreve

Participants were Dieter Richter, Raul Noriega, Gaye Greenwald, Skip Caldwell, Louis Gravel, Greg Vandiver and me.

       The first day of the trip was going to be a long one, no matter what happened. First, I was to fly to Cancun, arriving 20 minutes before 11 AM, hop a bus to Playa del Carmen and another to Chetumal.  Then there would be a last one to Xpujil. Another trip member, Gaye,  was flying with me, so I was not all alone for this portion. If all went well, we would arrive in Xpujil around 8 PM. Fortunately, I got bumped into first class for the flight, so it all started out quite well with a very good breakfast and free drinks on the plane once it would have been late enough to start back home.  This upgrade was a rather mixed blessing, because my fellow traveler, who was still back in steerage has an incredible cheerfulness that somehow never gets annoying.

        Arrival was on time, as were subsequent buses, based on my earlier searches of Ticketbus.  In Playa, as prearranged, we ran into Greg and Skip at the station and rode with them to Chetumal. They were to be staying in Chetumal with plans to see the ruins at Kohunlich, Kinichná and Dzibanché along their way the next day.   Both had been on my 2008 trip and both are reliably seasoned travelers. Because it was fairly clear that we would not have much time for lunch, Skip had gotten Gaye and me some locally barbecued chicken, which we ate with enthusiasm.

       I was to call the office of Servidores Turísticos Calakmul in Xpujil when I was sure when I would be arriving, so that the owner, Fernando Sastre, would then keep it open until I arrived. By the time I got to Chetumal and really knew when I would arrive, I called, but it was after 5 PM and he had closed for the weekend. The plan had been to pay for the first two trip days until the office reopened on Monday.

       Arriving in Xpujil, Gaye and I got off the bus and walked to Hotel Calakmul, where she and I went to arrange our rooms. Right afterwards we ran across Raul and Louis drinking rum in the common area outside the nearest rooms. Raul works at Yaxhá and Nakum as an expert on Maya architecture and he came on my 2008 trip as one of the drivers, but here he would be just another member of the group.  Louis, (pronounced Louie) is a French Canadian, who lives in Vermont.

       Dieter (pronounced DEET-er) was asleep in the nearby room, so five of the seven of us were there. Dieter is co-owner of Cafe Yaxha in Flores and he runs some interesting tours of his own there.

       Louis was to be my roommate in a cheap 250 peso room with fan for the next several days and Dieter and Raul were also sharing another of the cheaper rooms. The hotel also has two other tiers of room quality. Rooms of A/C and television cost 600 pesos and those with A/C, but with no TV cost 450. All seemed to have two beds. Gaye had one for 450 and Skip and Greg were to share one for 600P.    

       It turned out that my much earlier phone call to make reservations had gotten lost or forgotten. I had considered the possibility and had this been the high season, I would have called a second time to be sure. The fact that they recognized my name on arrival was only due to Louis listing me as roommate on his earlier arrival. We did later have a laugh about the hotel's apparent inability to keep track of reservations.

       The next day, the plan was to see Dzibanché and Kinichná after still arranging the whole thing with Fernando. It started off well enough. This did not take place, because of a series of errors in both finding and paying Fernando.

       When it was too late to see those other sites. but we had finally just arranged to pay as we went, Fernando told us of a small ruin we could go and see, which he referred to as Ixpujil Dos. We followed the directions as we understood them and went to the Hotel Mirador Maya, where we unfortunately asked for additional directions and we headed in. We did see a couple montículos, but none of it was impressive. Later, when we were all done on the journey together, the others had left and Fernando was driving to Xpujil to drop me off at the bus station, he pointed out where we should have gone in, which was a bit further past that hotel. That pretty much agreed with his original directions, but we had asked for further ones at the hotel.  

       Greg and Skip showed up much later that day and checked into their room. We had a good time that evening, most renewing acquaintances and some meeting for the first time. My thought was and is that we had a good array of friends and companions. There are things that I would do differently with the trip, but changes in the group would not be among them.

       Fernando picked us up the next morning at 6 am. First he drove us to the campamento, which is at the end of a long driveway a few kilometers from the highway on the way to Calakmul. There he had his son, also named Fernando, drive us to the Calakmul ruins and show us around. There is now a 40 peso per person toll for merely riding on the road to Calakmul and a 41 peso entry fee to the site itself. All along the way, it seemed like entry fees were odd mounts for tickets that could be for any other site. On the road in, one of the fellows counted 47 turkeys in and near the road. The road is still narrow, but it seemed wider than when I had visited last.

        My previous visit had been by myself in a rental car that sputtered with a bad load of gasoline from the Xpujil Pemex station, so I had been distracted and unable to really enjoy it then. There had also been some serious reconstruction done during my long absence, so it was like seeing it for the first time. In fact, I am pretty sure that I had not seen it all before.

       After Calakmul, we headed back to the campamento, where we had lunch.  The campamento has campsites and some large tents with mattresses inside, which would have cost 200 pesos apiece.  However fun it would likely be for a youth group to stay at, we preferred our location in town. The meal was good at 65 pesos and the cold beer a bit pricey at 25,  and then we visited the Balamku ruins and saw its frieze. 

       We came back and I eventually met up with the others at a local restaurant, called Asadero El Pollo. I wasn't very hungry. but I still ate a little of the rather tasty chicken. I gathered that the side dishes were also quite good. 

       That night, Raúl and I headed off for cold beers in a nearby cantina, also called a "bar familiar", which is just a bit up the hill and also on the south side of the highway. It didn't hurt to know that two really big guys, Greg and Skip, would soon be joining us. We sauntered in and after we satisfied an inquirer that we just wanted cerveza, we sat down and ordered. It appeared that they had served food earlier, but that was over for the day. The really bad news was that the cantina only served Sol.  As for me, I prefer beer with flavor, but I can put up with basic brews for the alcohol content where there is no real selection.

       The only other customers were at a long table with 7 or so men and just one woman. One or two of them kept looking at us and saying things like "hola".  Soon Greg and Skip wandered in, joined us at our table, and they also got some beer. One of the locals must not have been thinking too clearly, because he decided that he could drink a bottle of Sol faster than the largest among us, Greg, so he challenged him.  This resulted in Greg quickly taking the lead and coming to the finish line as he then tipped his bottle to show that it was empty.  The smaller fellow then went and bought another two bottles and then stood on a chair next to Greg, so that they could be eye to eye in the next competition.  This was, of course, a repeat of the previous one, with Greg finishing line well before the smaller competitor. At that point, we decided to finish our beers and head back to the hotel and the others. It usually seems best to leave a cantina on a high note.

       While sitting in the common area and sipping good beer, we then met a Swiss fellow, Thomas, who wanted to see Calakmul, but who was daunted by the prices asked for a ride there and back. Although he was a day late for seeing that site with us, he was welcome to see Rio Bec with us the next day.  Dieter had already offered to charge him $30 US in pesos for us taking him along, though he did leave the collecting of it to me.

       Early the next morning, Fernando picked us up and all of us (with Thomas, once he finished breakfast) headed off toward Rio Bec. Stopping in the nearby 20 de Noviembre Maya village, Fernando both arranged our noon meal and switched us to a 4x4 truck with driver for the rest of our way to Rio Bec. He offered Gaye a ride in the cab, but she would have no part of it. As for me, I was very glad to be in the back of a pickup on the way to Maya ruins again. There is something quite exhilarating about watching jungle go by while leaning over the cab of a pickup.

  There was a group of French archaeologists at the site,  and in sequence we saw  Rio Bec sections B, D, N, A.  This was the one day that we had paid $90 for the services of a guide, but the difference between not having a guide and having one was hardly discernible and certainly not worth paying for.    

Back in 20 de Noviembre, we had lunch in the local Maya home. A pathetic little dog came in looking for food and some of us obliged him. Unfortunately, he apparently choked on a too large scrap of chicken and he died at our feet before anyone realized what was happening.  That and memories of pathetic dogs and cats on other trips got me to looking when I got home for organizations that help to ameliorate such things. I found that Spayucatan.org is one such effort. 

Our next stop was at the ruins of Ramonal. I mused to myself that if every Maya site that had Ramon trees in or near it had a reference to them somewhere in its name, there would be a lot more of them listed as such.  Ramonal is not a large site, but it is one of four located inside the ejido, along with Rio Bec and two others that we did not see.  We also enjoyed some cold beer that we had brought in Fernando's ice chest.  

      Our last morning in Xpujil was to again start early and we would work our way north, seeing four ruins along the way and spending the night in Campeche. On the way, Fernando stopped at a restaurant in Dzibanché, where we had a brunch with scrambled eggs.  Dieter suggested this option, because of the relative speed of cooking the same thing for everyone. It was also a good way to minimize any risk of food-borne illness.  

        At Hochob, after viewing the main buildings, I went behind one of them to find a clear path heading off.  Any time I see a path at a Maya ruin, I want to see what is there.   So I followed it,  found few interesting things and I started back.   Coming along, some of the others asked me if it was worth seeing.  I reported that it was worth it, and that I had  seen some metates, a couple of chultuns and some montículos. Right after that, another of us came up, not having heard me and he offered the opinion that there were only a couple chultuns, so it wasn't worth bothering with. I suppose it all depends on one's perspective.

       Along the way, we found Dzibilnocac to be a small site in a pleasant setting close to the village of Iturbide.   We also stopped in at Tabasqueño, but Santa Rosa Xtampak was by far the largest and most impressive ruin we saw that day. It was well worth having enough time to wander around it.

      Getting to see all those sites in one day involved spending the night at Campeche instead of driving back after dark, which Fernando would not do, so I had made reservations at La Parroquía, which is a hostel in downtown Campeche.  The hostel was pretty basic, but mostly okay, Gaye had a private room and Skip and Greg were staying elsewhere, so everyone was reasonably happy.  Staying there included "breakfast", which was the skimpiest version of a meal that I can imagine outside of a starving country. It included a very small slice of watermelon, one cup of coffee and a glass of orange juice. However, one could buy a regular breakfast there as well, though I did not.

       The restaurant at the hostel is quite good and not expensive. We ate there our farewell banquet there on our only night in Campeche. I put in most of what Thomas had paid to go with us toward the meal and saved a little for meals for Fernando the next day.

       Our last day together had originally involved just heading back to Xpujil, but Fernando was amenable to changes. For one thing, I suggested that we see Museo Arqueológico de San Miguel, which went over well and that brought out other ideas as well. After a quick breakfast, we dropped Dieter off at the bus station and we first visited Edzná. Then we dropped Louis off for a bus to also get him to a good bus back toward Guatemala. In addition to the first museum, the rest of us also saw the Museum of Maya Stelae.

       Then Fernando dropped the others off at the bus station and he and I headed away. It  was getting somewhat close to lunch time and I mentioned seafood as a good option, so Fernando drove into Champotón on the other way back, where there were several seafood kiosks selling cold cooked shrimp in what turned out to be a very pleasant sauce. It seemed that he had a particular one in mind and we stopped there.  In my delight, I lost track of the number of shrimp I ate.

       Once back at Xpujil, I hopped the next bus to Chetumal and worked my way back to Isla Mujeres for some R&R for several days.  It is always best to have a good location at the end of a trip and although my eventual hotel destination, Hotel Las Palmas,  had gotten spruced up by new owners and was a lot more of a splurge than it used to be, it was still right across the street from the comedors and the market and just up from the Post Office. Being close to two beaches is never bad either, so it was a good place to rest up a bit when I was not riding one of the hotel's rental bikes.

Isla Mujeres has changed, but not as badly as Playa del Carmen. However, it is no longer possible to head down to Playa Norte and sip an expensive Leon Negra. In fact, it is hard to find that beer anywhere. The only place selling it retail was Mini-super La Muyuyita on Calle dAbasolo at Av. Hidalgo, the place with the enormous Corona bottle in front. The only bar I found selling it was Jax.  I saw Dayron E El Boom playing for free in the square Friday night, so all in all, this was a great place to wind up at the end of a trip.