The Oval Palace of Ek' Balam

Ek’ Balam is an ancient Mayan city located on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. A big internationally-mixed group of us decided to visit the pre-Colombian site for the day via collectivo.

A collectivo is a taxi-van that waits around until there are enough people going to the same place to fill up before it leaves. It’s the cheapest way to get around in Mexico. So all of us headed out to look for one.

On a typical day, I’d get asked 3 different times by collectivo drivers if I wanted to go to Ek’ Balam while out walking around. But for some reason this morning we couldn’t find any!

View From the Top of the Acropolis

Packed Taxi Ride

We gave up and decided to find a taxi. We talked a taxi driver into cramming all 5 of us into his tiny 4 passenger car. For $40 pesos each, he would drive us over to the ruins (a 30 minute drive), and wait there 3 hours to drive us back into town.

On the ride in we could see and smell burning forest. Our driver told us they are clearing the land to build more tourist facilities in the area.

This is kind of sad, as I think the sites lose their mystery when they start adding giant bus parking lots and hotels all over the place.

Climbing the Ruins

Ruins of Ek’ Balam

The ruins themselves were very impressive. It’s estimated they were built around 800 A.D. The name Ek’ Balam means “Black Jaguar” in the Mayan language.

The main Acropolis structure is 95 feet high, and the stairs are very steep. It was quite a workout to hike up it.

One of the great things about this site is that you can still climb on all the ruins. Another plus is that it isn’t as heavily visited as some other ruins in the area, and if you go early, you can often be the only people there.

The X'Canche Cenote

Swimming X’Canche Cenote

Right next door to the ruins is a cenote called X’Canche, a sink hole in the ground filled with fresh water. This cenote is about 1 mile away though, and because it was closing soon, we had to rent bikes to get to it in time for a swim before it closed.

The cenote was very cool, with a suspension bridge and a rope swing. It was not in a cave like other cenotes I visited in Mexico, this one had a roof opened up to the sky.

We swam for 25 minutes or so, then got out to take some photos before they closed it up for the day.