It has always been a bucket list item for my wife and I to visit a Mayan site. So, when the opportunity came up on our recent cruise on Icon of the Seas, we jumped on the chance. On the cruise itinerary, there are two stops in Mexico, Cozumel and Costa Maya that had ruins excursions so we had to weight through the options that best fit for us and our family.
We knew we wanted to bring our 8-year-old son with us, so that quickly ruled out the 3+ hours, 1 way trip to Chichen Itza, though after our trip this time, it has made me want to visit that site even more. We chose what we thought was the best site for our son’s (and ours) patience and selected Chacchoben Ruins. We also selected the smaller group version, “The VIP Exclusive Drive” because we figured that it would be easier to keep up with the tour guide and it might be tailored to our needs better and hands down that was the right choice for us.
From getting off the ship to getting into the van was about 15 minutes, which for anyone that has booked some excursion through Royal Caribbean knows that is about the fastest you will ever get moving on one of them. The van was nice and cool, I would say that for most people the leg room would be okay, but I am 6’1” and I had to sit sideways to avoid digging my knees into the seat in front of me. The size of our group was 9 people including us, and consisted of three “groups”; two families and a couple.
The 1-hour drive was pretty uneventful, especially after getting out of the port area. Our tour guide told us that most of the land between the port and the site was a protected mangrove forest and the road was the straightest road that I had ever seen. This gave our tour guide time to give us some history of the Chacchoben site and some history of the Mayan people. You could easily see that he loved what he did and was very passionate about the site and the history of the region. During that time, he also showed us an emergency button on the dashboard that was connected to a satellite in case of an emergency, because apparently there is no cell service outside of the port at all. He gave us all a chuckle about a past tour where someone hit the button with a flat time and assured us that a flat time is not a worthy button hitting situation.
Once we arrived at the site, we had a moment to freshen up in their restrooms. They weren’t terrible and were near a market that our tour guide brought us back to after the tour. They had a fruit / juice stand and bunch of touristy items / souvenirs that you could purchase. Once we all gathered back up, we were on our way to the site.
Here is where I say there was a decent amount of walking and some uneven surfaces and steps that you would need to navigate so keep that in mind if you are looking to do this trip. We all brought our hiking shoes and that seemed to be a good choice. It started out with a walk through was looked to be a cut path through trees that lasted a few minutes but then opened up to the site. The site had some rock stair cases that also require some climbing skills but required some decent caution while navigating them.
The site in itself is amazing. When you think of the sheer amount of work and effort the Maya people had to do to create and live there, it is mind boggling. The site has four large pyramids, one that is probably much larger that even what is currently exposed and a large platform that was build by the Maya. There were also a number of smaller structures and areas that our tour guild explained what it may have looked like a millennia ago.
Although the site was beautiful and awe inspiring, it still left me with the feeling that it was half excavated. There were a number of areas that you could see, once pointed out by our guide, that were still completely covered with earth. When asked if there were any plans to expand or continue to excavate the site, our tour guild said the work started when the port was planning to be opened and a majority of the excavation stopped once the port was opened. To read between the lines, they knew this would be a place of interest to some and “made it happen” for the port opening.
I cannot say if this is any different from other Mayan sites as this is the only one, we’ve ever visited but it left me with the feeling of wanting more. I imagined what the site would look like if more was uncovered and maybe that is the allure of it all. What was uncovered was amazing and coupled with our tour guides retelling of what they think each place was used for was a one in a lifetime experience.
Side note; while searching for information about the site prior to our trip, which was affirmed by our tour guide, you are allowed to take photos but there was to a small “fee” if you wanted to take videos. To be honest, I took a few short videos (with my iPhone) of my son walking about the site and no one stopped me or asked me to pay anything. So, I think this is more of a lost in translation, or if you had more obvious video equipment, they might stop you. It is probably more to do with commercial videos as we were also told not to take pictures of any of the archeologists working on the site while we were there.
Also, we did notice that most people were wearing shorts and tank tops, we did notice that there were a number of shady areas and wound up loaning our bug spray to a number of people that felt like there were being eaten by bugs. Luckily, we thought about this before and found some lightweight long sleeve shirts and “jungle” pants on amazon prior to our trip. I can say that even in late spring it was hot at the site, so you can judge for yourselves whether you wanted to lather up in repellent or cover up with clothing.
After the tour was officially over, we had about 20 minutes to walk around the site or go back to the souvenir shop, but after 90 minutes in the hot sun our son was shot, so we walked backed to the AC of the tour van where we were greeted with waters and beers. The other family came back with large cups full with mangos that looked delicious and we drove back to the port.
Hands down, I would recommend this excursion for anyone wanting to try out a ruins excursion. This was easily the best one on our cruise and we are so glad that we did it. Let me know if you took this excursion or if you have any questions in the comments.
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