This is the third in a series of posts about Tony's Mayan drive trip.

Fortified by my breakfast of huevos motolenos, I leave Hacienda San Jose headed southwest, deeper into the Yucatan interior. At the behest of the hacienda staff, most of which are Mayan, I’m off to see the ruins at Ake, only a 20 minute drive away.

Driving along in the warm sunshine the road gets progressively narrower as I get closer to Ake, from a comfortable two lane highway to a two lane secondary road flanked by the arid jungle. Traveling through a small village I’m moving slowly, stopping occasionally to snap photos of the passenger-laden cargo bikes with their colorful awnings. A large pickup truck looms in my rearview mirror and I think back to times of being behind slow moving sightseers so I pull over intending to let him pass and be on his way.

Instead, the truck pulls up alongside, stops, and a woman’s voice calls out from the open window asking if I ‘m lost and, after hearing I’m headed for Ake, offering to show me the way on the map. With that, the whole family gets out of the truck, husband, wife, and their 20 something year old son carrying his infant daughter. They all gather around me and my map to discuss the best way to get to Ake and make sure I understand.

The woman explained that they don’t often see American tourists in the area and they were hoping I’d pull over as they wanted to see if I needed any help or directions. We chatted a little bit more, her excellent English honed from having lived in Los Angeles for a time. Ake was definitely worth a visit and she hoped I was enjoying my visit to her country. She certainly exemplified the friendliness of the people of Mexico.  After that pleasant encounter I continued on my way, cruising into Ake a short time later.

Ake was originally a minor Mayan settlement constructed during the Classic Period (600-900 A.D.) before the Spanish established a hacienda there. I’m looking for signs to the ruins as I drive by small houses first built to accommodate the hacienda workers and now home to the families of their descendants, past a few short dusty side roads and onto an unpaved track that rings an open grassy village square. A similar road leads off to my right and on the corner several men stand around watching as one of them is preparing a whole pig for roasting on a table setup in someone’s side yard.

The square itself is surrounded on three sides by homes and the far side is bordered by what looks to be a scrubby hill. In the square itself, some type of structure is being built out of bamboo, plywood and palm fronds by an army of locals. Driving around the perimeter to get a closer look at the “hill”, I see the stone blocks amongst the vines and small trees and realize it is an unexcavated Mayan structure. Not knowing what to expect, seeing no signs saying “Ake Mayan Ruins - This Way”, and only this bit of vegetation-covered stacked blocks, I’m a little bit disappointed.

I turn my attention to the activity in the square and my curious look is rewarded with a one word explanation yelled out by one of the men working - ‘bullring.’ It was fascinating to watch. The two-level round frame was about 75 yards in diameter made with what looked like lengths of bamboo or saplings lashed together and thatched with woven palm fronds. Sheets of plywood were laid over the top of the first level of the frame to form the upper spectator level.  The bullring was being built and the pig dressed to roast in preparation for the celebration of the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, one of Mexico’s most important religious observances.

I decide to explore the hacienda factory ruins and head towards the large main building with its’ graceful arched openings and partially collapsed roof  that housed huge pieces of abandoned machinery as well as machinery dating back to 1850 still in use as part of the present day sisal factory processing. The majority of the processing work is still being done in a long, low building hidden behind the main building, the dirt road between them crisscrossed by small gauge rails for the railway carts used to move materials around the grounds. Driving around behind the smaller building I discover the ticket office for the object of my quest, the ruins at Ake. After purchasing my ticket for about $2.50 US and declining the offer of a guide, I enter the site only to realize I’m the only visitor there. I was not, however, the only person on site.

To my delight, an archeological dig was being undertaken on the pyramid at the far side of the main plaza. About 30 Mayans were at work in the brutal heat on the excavation using a variety of tools. Men were digging gingerly with small shovels and pickaxes, others were cleaning off freshly excavated stone blocks or using tiny brushes to sweep between blocks, men were carrying blocks or were in the process of rebuilding collapsed sections while still others were navigating loaded wheelbarrows around workers, blocks and holes. It looked like something right out of National Geographic complete with the quintessential head archeologist, Roberto Rosado, dressed in a long sleeve chambray shirt and khaki pants, his 6 foot plus frame topped by a high crowned, broad brimmed panama hat.

The main ceremonial plaza was roughly 275’ across flanked by two pyramids facing each other and a massive stone pavilion between them facing south towards a stele marked path disappearing into the dense jungle. In his book published in 1841, Incidents of Travel in the Yucatan, adventurer John L. Stephens described the pavilion best as:

"... a great mound towering in full sight from the door of the hacienda, and called El Palacio, or the Palace. The ascent is on the south side, by an immense staircase, one hundred and thirty seven feet wide, forming an approach of rude grandeur, perhaps equal to any that ever existed in the country. Each step is four feet five inches long, and one foot five inches in height. The platform on the top is two hundred and twenty-five feet in length, and fifty in breath. On the great platform stand thirty-six shafts of columns, in three parallel rows of twelve, about ten feet apart from north to south, and fifteen feet from east to west. They are from fourteen to sixteen feet in height, four feet on each side, and are composed of separate stones, from one to two feet in thickness. But few have fallen, though some have lost their upper layer of stones. There are no remains of any structure or of a roof. If there ever was one, it must have been wood, which would seem most incongruous and inappropriate for such a solid structure of stones."

A thoroughly impressive sight to see and the summit offered a panoramic view of the hacienda, village and holiday preparations while the local Catholic church could be seen in the near distance built upon another Mayan pavilion. With a final look around, I reluctantly took my leave as I still had some driving to do and wanted to reach Hacienda Santa Rosa early enough to have a swim. I waved to the excavation crew and went on my way.