Calakmul Ruins Hidden in the Jungle

Calakmul is an ancient Mayan city located deep within the Mexican jungle.

Not too many tourists make it out this way, mainly due to it’s remote location. Calakmul is definitely one of those off the beaten path kind of places.

After my Mexican President roadblock issue the day before, I finally set out on my 2nd attempt to visit the ancient Mayan ruins of Calakmul. Only this time I got halfway into the 60 kilometer trip before my legs told me to stop.

If you remember, I had biked 40 kilometers the day before (to the military roadblock and back). So today my body was too tired to continue up and down the jungle hills for the whole trip. So, I hitchhiked.

A small pickup truck was driving by and picked me up to finish the trip to the Calakmul ruins. I sat in the bed of the truck with my bike like everyone in Mexico does, and had a great fresh-air drive through the jungle. The friendly people who gave me a lift consisted of a nature guide and two travelers from South Carolina.

Stella with Pigment Still Showing

The Calakmul Ruins are Vast

We arrived at Calakmul and I had 4 hours to wander around and explore pretty much to myself. The site is huge and 4 hours was rushing it, if you can believe that. There are two gigantic pyramids, with the largest one 55 meters high (165 feet).

This makes it the 2nd tallest of all the Mayan pyramids ever found, and you can climb it! I spent a good half hour at the top taking in the vast jungle and the strong cool breeze.

Another traveler joined me up there, a Bulgarian who also hitchhiked to the ruins. We had a little chat where I learned he spends 8 months in each country he visits! A permanent traveler. And I thought my year long trip was a big deal…

View From the Top

Ancient Mayan City

The city of Calakmul is thought to have been populated with 50,000 people. One of the coolest parts about these ruins is that they are so remote, and still covered with jungle.

There are many great stelae at this site too, large slabs of stone that have been intricately carved with pictures and glyphs. Some of them still have pigments of color on them, like the one at the bottom of Structure 2 in my second photo here.

The pyramids are very steep, and the steps are not that big, maybe just the length of your foot, many are shorter than that… Climbing the two big ones in the blazing sun, after all the biking I did over the past few days was quite a workout!

My legs felt like rubber when I finally left.

I no longer had any energy to bike the 30 km back to my campsite, and knowing this had arranged for a taxi to meet me there for the ride back to town.

After packing up camp, we arrived at the little town of Xpujil where I slept for 12 hours in a hotel with air conditioning! I decided to splurge a bit on the hotel, which cost $200 pesos (about $16 US).

It was worth it though, despite the power in the building going out 4 times throughout the night…

Overall, my trip to Calakmul has been my favorite adventure in Mexico thus far.