Who knows how to say it (I guess it's Zee-bon-chee), and we're not even sure how to find it. We're driving and following the signs. It says 55 kilometers, then 5 kilometers later the sign says 60 kilometers.
Typical Mexican road signs.
We follow the sign that says to turn right for Dzibanche, even though there's a sign straight ahead that says Dzibanche 22 Kilometers.
Okay. Whatever.
We're headed to the boonies because this is supposed to be the 'monkey' ruins, and we're hoping to catch some glimpses.
Winding down around, through pueblos and fincas, we're wondering if we went the wrong way. But then we see the turn. Five more kilometers down this dirt road.
"This seems like a long 5 kilometers," Greg comments after awhile.
"I'm sure it was just an estimate. Give or take."
Finally we see the ticket booth. We're kind of surprised. There is actually a ticket booth for these boonie-ruins?
It is a discounted price though, $46 pesos for adults instead of the usual $51. We pay our fee, then drive to the parking lot, wondering if there will be a bus load of tourists.
We're the only ones. "This is my kind of ruins!"
We start the hike, avoid sun as much as possible. The humidity causes enough sweating, without adding the suns rays to the equation.
"Please take extreme caution when climbing the pyramids. Care for them, they are yours," reads the sign.
We'll do that.
The first pyramid is impressive. We trek up the over-sized steps to the top of this ancient temple. It's the first of many.
Marching up and down stairs, legs burning, body's sweating we explore residences, courtyards, murals, carvings. This boone-docks, 'hickville' city is pretty impressive. I wonder how many people lived here?
But still we haven't seen any monkeys.
Little Aaliyah (who's now 5) is thirsty, so the two of us walk back to the truck. As we walk, I hear a rustling in the trees. Cocking my head back, I see some branches moving, and wait until I spy a little black figure.
Aaliyah runs back to tell the others we've spotted our monkey. They eagerly come and we all gawk at the miniscule figure in the tree tops.
Becoming more accustomed to our presence, the monkeys start to move closer. There's two mommas with their babies, a couple of other adults, and the big daddy.
Comfortable and curious, they swing across branches to get a better look at us. One, two, three cross, then momma makes a bridge out of herself for baby to cross from one branch to the other. Ahhhh, how precious!
Seven year old Parker finds a little trail cutting off the main path into the jungle. He penetrates into the thicket just a bit, and looks up at the troop that's directly above him now.
Big daddy doesn't like this strangers intrusion, and lets out a loud, territorial howl. (We'd postulated that they were howlers, now we knew for sure.)
Parker retreats posthaste, as daddy lets out another aggressive howl. This is so cool!
Soon they tire of us, and contented in discovering our monkeys, our stomachs motivate us to move toward food.
I didn't get any photos of anything, because my camera was stolen in Tulum. I did get some very cool video, though, you can watch it below:
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