Ruta Puuc - Uxmal Temple

The Ruta Puuc is a lesser-known trail of roads passing through little, old Mayan villages and a few different sets of ruins. With three days in a rental car, I was able to see quite a bit of this area.

(The Magician's Temple at Uxmal. No, I'm not the magician.)

(The backside of the aforementioned temple, surrounded by an elegant courtyard.)

(Faces of the Gods line the stair going up the extremely steep temple.)

(Another view of one of my favorite temples.)

(Adjacent to the temple is this massive courtyard, known as the convent, where a lot of the high class lived during the high period of this city, around 600 - 900 AD.)

(One of the many iguanas in these and other ruins, staring at me before retreating into his hole in the rocks. Apparently I won the staring contest.)

(Another set of ruins with impressive roof combs at the edge of Uxmal.)

(Another steep temple on the edge of the complex, demonstrated by a few groups of exhausted tourists huffing and puffing at the top to catch their breath.)

(Steep steps. Not all that easy to say for a non-native English speaker.)

(Some of the many carvings in the sides of the temples.)

(Uxmal is a fairly large site, and for its size, it doesn't get all that many visitors, so I was quite impressed.)

(On the left, you can see the alley where the ball court stood, playing a simple game hitting a rubber ball through basketball like goals mounted on the sides of the court using their hips and knees. Some of these games may have been played for life or death...though I don't want to start any wild rumors.)

(Finally I made my way back out of Uxmal, amazed at this wonderful set of ruins.)

(Then I also made it back for the light and sound show at night, part of the regular admission price. This is one of the snake gods as told in part of the long, tedious story that accompanies them lighting up many of the different temples in blue, green, red, white, yellow and purple. The show was decent, though I'd say it was a little long....I guess the Mayans didn't have a lot to do when the sun went down...)

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