Visiting Calakmul was a big goal for this vacation. On my original plan, I planned on us visiting just the northern sites, such as Uxmal and Chitzen Itza. I thought that Calakmul was inaccessible and too deep in the jungle. But Melanie really wanted to see this major site, so did some research on how we could get there. So we modified our trip plan to come down south. Coming south also allowed us to add the sites of Kohunlich, Chicanna, Becan and Balamku. It turns out that getting to Calakmul is no problem at all, there is 60 km paved road that leads right to the site. There are a couple of potholes once you get south of the museum, but it can easily be reached with a standard rental car.

Calakmul is a tremendous site, covering 27 square miles, with hundreds of structures. In addition to its large city center, there were several satellite cities that were closely allied to Calakmul. The history of Calakmul appears to be an aggressive power that constantly battled with its major rival Tikal, which it defeated and dominated but never quite destroyed. Eventually, Tikal rose to prominence and defeated Calakmul before both cities collapsed in the general Mayan fall. Calakmul also attacked and conquered Palenque. Caracol appears to have been an ally against Tikal, and Quirigua may have rebelled against the rule of Copan with the aid of Calakmul.

Because of the remote location, there are not many other tourists at Calakmul. Often we were the only people climbing on a structure. We didn't see any guided tours. Including the drive and museum visit, we spent most of the day here. It was getting toward evening when we drove back to highway 186. We stopped at the Hotel Calakmul and had a nice dinner of fajitas in their restaurant. That evening we spent some time sitting at the bar of Rio Bec Dreams talking to some other tourists about what they had seen. It was a terrific day!

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