We drove to Santa Elena today, past small villages, derelict henequen plantations and ruins at Oxkintok where we stopped to stretch our legs. Driving through small villages some people are still living in Mayan huts with walls made from a lattice of sticks, stuck together with mud and grass, with a roof made from palm fronds. Concrete is taking over though, as most houses have at least concrete walls if not a flat roof as well. Either way though, they still cook in a cooking hut behind the house, where the smoke from the wood fire can escape through the sticks of the walls.



The most common form of transport in the villages is either a pedal tricycle, usually with a seat or storage at the front, with or without sunshade, or the more modern auto version which unlike the tuk-tuk in India where they are all identical except for the paint job, all look like they've been knocked up in someone's garage, each a custom job according to preference - bike to one side, bike at back, bike at front!!





So far the landscape has been very flat, in fact the whole peninsular is one of the largest limestone platforms on the planet, a karst landscape with no overland rivers, just water below in acquifers. As we have driven around, all roads have looked virtually identical ... long, straight, with vegetation on both sides and no view! The problem is you get lulled into a bit of a trance, so after a trip to the market we are now accompanied by Trova and Salsa to keep the driver awake! This is handy, as on the approach to each town and village there Iare usually slow down signs and topes signs for the speed humps and some are even painted, but others come completely without sign or warning and can remove the undercarriage of your car instantly!



But today we saw a hill! We have reached the Puuc region, Puuc being Mayan for hill, so there has been a little more variety to the driving.



Generally, the quality of the roads has been very good ... but it wasn't going to last! Ironically, we had just noticed one of the tyres was a bit flat, and when we asked where we could get air, the policeman directed us to a tyre shop. They did a great job of repairing the tyre, which all in all took half an hour or so, and Chris and I were discussing what it would cost. I said at home it would be maybe £60 and we thought it would be less, but we never imagined to get a bill for £2! It also came to light that the spare was useless with a hole in it.



Shortly afterwards, we turned off the main road, in retrospect going a bit fast, only to find the road pitted with holes big enough to swallow a car, ok not quite that big, but it all made a very loud noise and I thought we had done serious damage to our little red racer. Fortunately, despite the horrid noise, no damage was done, and we proceeded with utmost caution, since we still didn't have a serviceable spare. We spent the next day, with help from Ivan in Ticul, getting a temporary repair on the spare and ordering a new tyre, which arrived the next day.



We are staying at the The Flycatcher Inn, a pretty B&B with gardens and yummy breakfasts. Santiago, Kristine and Rosita were all very welcoming and helpful, and made our stay a joy.



There is with a nature trail round the property, so we followed the yellow stick road, through the Yucatan jungle, passing a chultan or shrine on the way. Unfortunately the leaves underfoot were very crunchy and all the birds and critters heard us coming a mile off and scarpered ... so unfortunately all we saw was one rather sleepy lizard!



Ticul is the nearest big town, with serious looking dudes at every turn!






















It is also a shoe manufacturing town with a Feria de Zapatos in the autumn, hence the topiary and the many colourful show shops.





While in Santa Elena, we visited the Mayan ruins on the Route Puuc, which is a name for the style of architecture as well as the area. Having reached the hills, there are no cenote here, so for centuries Mayans have built underground cisterns to store water between rainy seasons. the rain-god Chac becomes even more important, and this can be seen in the architecture, starting with the largest ruin at Uxmal. There is the Pyramid of the Magician with a unique oval base, which legend says was built in one night by a dwarf.



There was a quadrangle with impressively decorated facades, a carving of a feathered rattlesnake with a warrior's head emerging from its jaws, Chac rain-god masks, one above the other with hooked noses and the east facade which is beautiful in its simplicity.





Finally The Governor's Palace, considered one of the best examples of the Puuc style with a frieze of 20,000 pieces of mosaic stone. Diagonals run through the design, with Chac the rain god and his hooked nose, grid and key patterns and stylised snakes. The central section shows an intact regal headdress adorning the head of a seated person now missing, which also featured in Catherwood's prints, and there seems little difference today.
















We continued the Puuc Route with four small ruins, Kabah with the Palace of the Masks covered in a profusion of Chac rain-god masks with hooked noses, and a couple of statues at the back and the impressive Kabah Arch, gateway to the city;







Sayil with the Gran Palacio decorated with bamboo effect stone pillaring;



Labna where we particularly liked the Arch and Xlapak with its small palace, with yet more Chac rain-god masks!



We also visited Plantacion Tikul, the only place where cocoa is grown in the Yucatan, together with a very interesting little museum and tastings of spiced hot chocolate ... yummy!



We did see a couple of road signs, the first warning of deer, and shortly afterwards we saw a little bambi run off the road into the bush. It concerned us to see the second sign, but fortunately no jaguar sighting followed ... not really surprising as they are very rare.



We really enjoyed the day, wandering between the ruins along lovely shaded paths, driving between the sites listening to my lovely birthday Mexican blues CD, and seeing few other tourists, and completed the day with dinner at the Pickled Onion, where we have eaten a couple of times while in Santa Elena. The food was delicious and I was surprised by cake and a candle on my birthday which was lovely.

Time to move on again ... back to the seaside!