Dzibilchaltún

Some things work out even when they don't work out.

I visited Dzibilchaltún today and that went great except for the onsite museum being closed. Bummer. It's supposed to be good but at least I was able to walk through the outdoor Mayan tablets and sculptures. This site was first settled in 1000 BC and has over 8000 mapped structures. That's impressive but unfortunately the road between Progresso and Merida needed paving stones so what remains isn't much. The deconstruction of the site lasted until the 1950s although American teams started trying to conserve the site a decade earlier only to be interrupted by WWII.

The place is sort of a mess. There are heaps of stones everywhere so it's hard to tell what is a ruined structure and what is a pile of stones cleared off another structure to reveal it. The best and most photographed temple is actually an earlier structure that was built over. The newer structure was a complete ruin and mostly cleared away to expose the very cool Templo de las Siete Muñecas named for the seven clay figurines with deformities that later residents buried within.

The part that didn't work out was the rest of the mini trip. I had planned to continue to Progreso on the coast and points beyond. The word I got from the guys at the gate scrapped that plan though. While it is technically on the way the best thing to do is go back to Merida and get a direct bus to Progreso. Problem was I knew that it would be like two hours before a local bus came by to take me back. So I started walking back to the highway with my thumb out. I didn't get any love until on the main road with the highway in sight when a univerisity student picked me up. Very cool of him. We had a good talk on the short ride back to Merida.

So that's how things can work out even when they don't work out.

And the lesson is: pick up hitchhikers because they just might be me.