Hi there,
In this post I want to talk about a beautiful place that is among the things that we liked the most about Mexico. After seeing Chichén Itzá, which seemed horrible to me because of how destroyed it is by mass tourism, I spoke with a friend who had already been to Mexico, and he recommended me to go to Calakmul because it was what had impacted him most of the entire trip.
Being in Bacalar, we began to investigate about Calakmul and how to get there, because things did not seem easy. Since we used public transportation, we saw that there was a bus that arrived at Xpujil and from there we could visit Calakmul. Xpujil is like a road town of those lost in nothingness.
Looking for the Chaac Calakmul, which was the hotel that had the best score on Trip Advisor, we found a boy on the street who claimed to be the son of the hotel owner. He took us to Chaac Calakmul and left us with his dad, Oscar. This hotel is a house in which rooms have been made for rent. From day one, Oscar advised us on everything we needed to know and gave us two options to go to Calakmul:
1. Rent a car to make the trip
2. Take a bus that leaves at 8am and leaves you at the entrance of the reserve and then hitchhike to get to the entrance of the park.
We ruled out the second option because being low season, there would be few or no people going there. Also, I wanted to leave the hotel early to make sure I was there as soon as the park opened. So, we rented the car from Oscar’s brother because it was the cheapest option and at 6am, we were already leaving Chaac Calakmul.
You must make a payment at the entrance of the reserve and 3 more payments throughout the route. In total it was 88 pesos, not even half of what the entrance to Chichen Itza costs. In Mexico, in many places, the indigenous people of the area take control of the parks and charge you fees for “maintenance”.
Since we entered the reserve, it was a show of free animals everywhere, tarantulas and snakes crossing the street, monkeys, anteaters. We arrived and the one who charged us the entrance told us that there was only one tourist in the park.
Calakmul is a Mayan pre-Hispanic archaeological site, located in the southeast of Campeche. It covers approximately 70 km² and has more than 6,000 structures. Its space is divided into 5 large compounds organized around the central square. In this square is where Structure II is located, which is the most important building in the complex and has a height of 45 meters.
From the top of this pyramid, you can see the largest tropical jungle in Mexico, and I have read that you can even see the Mayan ruins of El Mirador, located in Guatemala (I couldn’t see them).
What I loved about Calakmul is that it was not overrun by vendors or tourists, so it is possible to walk quietly, always respecting nature, and enjoy the place. When you climb the pyramids, what you see is infinite green and a jungle that seems intact. In addition, the animals are free and in their habitat; when we were there, we saw how the monkeys went from one monument to another, jumping between the trees.
In short, in Calakmul we enjoyed virgin jungle, free animals, structures in which we were alone and beautiful views. We spent the whole morning going up and down steps and yes, sweating a lot. The place is difficult to access, and I think it is thank to this that it has been preserved and has not been destroyed by tourists. I hope it stays that way.
Here I leave the link to my YouTube channel in case you want to watch a little of the route: