Calakmul Ruins Hidden in the Jungle

Calakmul is an ancient Mayan city located deep within the Mexican jungle. Not many people make it out this way due to it’s remote location.

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 km trip before my legs told me to stop.

If you remember, I had biked 40 km the day before (to a military roadblock and back). So today my body was just too tired to continue up and down the jungle hills again.

So I decided to hitchhike.

But that’s not as easy as it sounds. There aren’t very many cars out here in the middle of nowhere.

Luckily a small pickup truck happened to be driving by and brought me the rest of the way to Calakmul. I sat in the bed of the truck with my bike and had a great fresh-air drive through the forest.

My saviors? A friendly nature guide and his two clients from South Carolina.

Stella with Pigment Still Showing

Calakmul Ruins in Mexico

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. Among the many interesting structures, there are two gigantic pyramids — with the largest one reaching 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 happened to hitchhike to the ruins. We had a little chat where I learned he spends 8 months in each country he visits! Often working odd under-the-table jobs to support himself, he’s been doing it for many years. And I thought my trip was a big deal…

The ancient city of Calakmul is thought to have been populated with about 50,000 people. One of the coolest parts about this site is it’s remoteness, right next to the Guatemalan border. I love that it’s 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. Unbelievably some of them still show pigments of original color.

View From the Top

Ancient Mayan City

Calakmul’s pyramids are very steep, and the stone steps are not that wide, 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 a bit scary and 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 preparing for this, had arranged a taxi to meet me for the ride back to town.

After packing up camp I made it back Xpujil where I found a small hotel with air conditioning. I decided to splurge a bit on the hotel, and passed out for the next 12 hours.

It was worth it. Even with the power in the building going out 4 times throughout the night…

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