Over the last month and a half of my travels I have seen ALOT of Mayan ruins. (Well 3 :P) Starting with Chichin Itza in Mexico where I almost got stranded in the middle of the jungle. The beautiful seaside ruins of Tulum in Mexico and lastly the Guatemalan Mayan ruins of Tikal.
Chichin Itza Mexico
Tulum ruins Mexico
Some of the ruins in Tikal Guatemala
Let me first start by saying I’m not massive Mayan culture or Archaeological buff. But by the time I got to my third set of ruins within a month Tikal I was all ruined out. Which is a shame seeing as looking back now at Tikal it was an amazing set of ruins. It probably didnt help that I did the sunrise tour so I was pretty tired and after seeing the sunrise at the start of the day I knew it wasn’t going to get any better than that.
Tikal Sunrise
That being said I think that each set of ruins had their own charm. The sheer grandness of the major ruin in Chichin Itza was really impressive that and the awesome carvings on the walls around the ruins. However Chichin Itza felt a bit ruined for me by the 100’s of people constantly barraging me to buy things everywhere I walked. As a result of this I’d have to rank Chichin Itza as my least favorite ruin of the three.
Wall at Chichin Itza
More ruins at Chichin Itza
Chichin Itza pillars
Here’s a few more Chichin Itza ruins for ya!
Crowds and stores aplenty at Chichin Itza
Coming in as my second favorite ruin is the Tulum ruins also in Mexico. The thing that I loved the most about these ruins is the fact that they were so quiet and non commercialized There was no one at the ruins selling a single thing. That and the fact that it had the backdrop of the amazing Caribbean coast and even had its own private beach that we got to go lounge around on and take a dip after traversing the ruins for a couple of hours.
Ruins in Tulum
More ruins at Tulum
Now for something completely different…..more ruins in Tulum
Beach in the Tulum ruins
Me splashing around like a fool in water near Tulum ruins
My favorite mayan ruins overall were Tikal. Located in the middle of the Guatemalan jungle the things that impressed me most about my time at the Tikal ruins wasnt so much the ruins itself but the atmosphere and other cool things I got to experience at my time at the Tikal ruins.
To start with I went on the Tikal sunrise tour which involved me getting out of bed at 3am from my hostel in Flores to take a 2 hr shuttle to the Tikal ruins. each wielding our own torch we navigated our way into the park and sat on top of the largest temple and waited for the sun to rise up over the jungle to the chorus of hundreds of monkeys.
Sun rising over Tikal
More ruins in TIkal 😀
Our tour guide found a tarantula. haha kind of glad that wasnt me 😛
Our tour guide also found a deadly snake 😀
Tikal ruin half exposed
More Tikal ruins
Saw this guy at the ruins, I feel bad for not remembering what its called.
This is an area that I really want to visit. More so now after seeing these excellent photos! Thanks for sharing!
Elle of Solo Female Nomad recently posted..My Top Five Travel Moments of 2012
Amazing photos! Tulum was a cool town. Awesome ceviche at El Camello! You’ve inspired me to visit Tikal now.
Curious Nomad recently posted..5 Festivals to celebrate the end of the world
Amazing structures.
roamingpursuits recently posted..Parliament House & Gardens