Calakmul — Attraction in Campeche

Excellent adventure-filled tour and an overall highly professional experience!

I visited the Calakmul and Edzná ruins after a long drive (6+ hrs.) from Orange Walk, Belize into Campeche, Mexico. At the border I was greeted by their driver, Ivan, and although his lack of English (and my astonishingly bad Spanish) provided for some interesting communication, the drive was very interesting and worth it.

After reaching Calakmul, Antonio took over and drove us into the bio-reservation area of the archeological site itself. Bear in mind that it lies deep within the jungle, so another approx. 2 hrs. drive (after an interesting hike where we saw spidermonkeys, crocodiles and various other animals) is needed to reach the actual site.

Calakmul itself is really special; all the pyramids can be climbed. Between the main structures (2 & 3) there are also trees inhabited by howler-monkeys (which seemed to be adults, judging from the calls and comparing the sizes of others I've now seen) which put on quite the show with what was basically demonic howls back and forth.

Our tour guide, Bianca, was equally excellent, very helpful and knowledgeable, and also did the calls for the spidermonkeys, which I think contributed to them showing up and being calm (at least no-one were being tossed sticks or them performing their bathroom activities on members of the group;)

The next day was reserved for Edzná - another somewhat long drive but very much worth it. Posting it here as it does not have an activity of its own.

The site is the most symmetric and visually impressive I've seen thus far (one of the few ones that can actually also be seen from the road); its main square is completely flat and perfectly maintained, and the acoustics are simply awesome. The one drawback is that due to some unsafe steps the main temple cannot be climbed though.

However, there are plenty of good vantage points from the adjoining structures.

The tour guide, Hernan, was very knowledgeable and offered up at ton of information regarding this and other neighboring Mayan sites, feuds, lineages, etc. I planned to stay for 2 hours but ended up staying almost twice as long.

They also rent out bikes, so there is an option to vistit the nearby smaller sites such as Becán - which is a good activity if you only have a few hours.

A few words about the lodging at Casa Ka'an; the location is excellent behind the village and surrounded by birds. The accommodation is basic but adequate. There were some issues with water pressure (basically none at the faucet in the bathroom), but the shower and the adjoined kitchen worked, so not the biggest deal. I know the water in Calakmul is very scarce so this certainly helped saving it.

The people running the place (Nico & Lili) are very helpful, even ordering food for you and driving you into the city (and back) and also organizing other transport.

Breakfast was very good; they have it arranged for you every day at the time you specify. It is a cooked Mexican breakfast, either (in my case) flour tortillas (w/ cheese) or eggs on top of corn tortillas mixed with salsa and it was quite excellent. Kudos to the person who fixed this.

I can highly recommend doing the tours and staying at Casa Kaán, the service and experience was top-notch. If I'm ever back in Campeche I would surely...

We visited Calakmul on the 21st Sept - it was amazing but read on for more tips.

Check the website or ask local guides to confirm the site is open on the day you want to go. Due to the building of Tren Maya there is a high chance construction may mean it's closed.

The site is not quite as 'in the wilderness' as we had wanted initially which is good and bad. Good: there is a decent road going to the site, it's single lane for a bit with some dodgy passing points and the locals go much quicker than the required 30km/h which makes it a tad scary, but very doable. Bad: there were trucks and vehicles in the site where the temples were and people doing construction of signage so I think lots of animals that would have usually been there may not be anymore. Having said that we still saw spider and howler monkeys which was exciting.

Ideally go sooner rather than later. I reckon in about 3-6 months they'll have the hotel built which looked huge and will ruin the nice calm that was there. Also if the train is built by then it will definitely be very commercial and not as unique as it is now. They had already built the tourist centre to the park by the time we were there and had paving on the site.

The entry to the site is confusing but Google Maps does work for it if using this point as the direction. There are multiple points you're stopped at. Firstly when you come off the main road and see the first main sign for Calakmul there is a woman in a chair who will ask you to pay ~150 pesos per person at a hut behind you - YOU HAVE TO PAY THIS - they'll give you your wristbands and passes. This is checked about an hour into your drive so you don't want to have to return and pay this as it'll add 2 hours to your journey. We did not pay this as we thought it was a scam and the national guard flagged us down which was a bit scary so we went back and paid!

There's another checkpoint an hour in and the road becomes single lane but is still a road that's quite new with no potholes so not bad to drive on.

Overall Calakmul was amazing but check it's open before you spend 2 hours...

If you are looking for a maya ruins site not packed with tourists and away from everything this is the place to be! Amazing ruins, pyramids ready to be climbed and stunning view from the top. Few recommendations which are not clear when searching the internet. The road to get access to the ruins is 60km long from the main road and it takes around 1.30 hour due to the difficult road, full of pot holes and dirt surface, which don’t allow a speed over 30/40 km/h (speed limiti is 30). Last 10km are the hardest as the road is under paving construction work and one lane is on dirt and the other is concrete, with a tall step (around 30cm) between them, which doesn’t allow to switch lanes unless you have proper off-road wheels. It is doable with a regular car but a bit more difficult. Another “issue” is the opening time. From the gate on the main road (where you buy the entrance ticket) is from 5am to 10am as the site opening hours is from 6am to 11am. At 1pm the site shuts down so arriving a 11am is not recommended because 2 hours visit is just a rush through it. There is another ticket to pay at the site entrance, cheaper than the first you pay at the gate. Get food and water beforehand as there is nothing once you passed the gate. There are different routes to walk across the site. The main plaza with the main buildings will take around 2hrs. If you plan to visit the whole site, that will take at least 3 hours. For families, pushchairs are recommended because the access trail to the site is paved and not hard to get on to reach the main site’s spots. Best recommendation is, visit this amazing site before the humongous new infrastructure, the Maya train, will be completed as the site will be easy accessible for everyone, good for local tourism for sure, but it will make it...