Kiuic

We spent most of the weekend at a biocultural reserve in Kiuic. Biocultural reserve means that they not only try to preserve the ruins and protect them, but they also work to preserve the natural environment. It was great to participate in ecotourism! We stayed in huts, which were actually pretty nice. There was electricity, but no warm water. And we were given a hammock and a blanket to sleep with. Luckily, they were high quality hammocks, which is really good when you're sleeping in it for the night. Unfortunately, it was a colder weekend, and we froze during the night. I ended up covering up with my towel along with the blanket because I got so cold. The daytime temperatures were perfect though.

When we first arrived at Kaxil Kiuic (the reserve), we went on a short hike up a big hill to a lookout tower. We were in the Puuc hill region of the Yucatan, so the landscape was filled with huge hills. The view from the tower was awesome. The sun was starting to set, and the breeze was wonderful.

The next morning we went on a hike around the reserve and looked at the ruins from the old Mayan city of Kiuic. In many places in the Yucatan, ruins are reconstructed to look pretty for tourists. Often times, the architecture may be inaccurate, and few sites are studied thoroughly. They're used mainly for tourist money. At Kiuic, many of the ruins are in their natural state. It was neat to see them as they were discovered. Obviously that means that we didn't see huge temples or intricate carvings. But we saw houses and smaller temples and all sorts of carvings. Sometimes all we saw was a pile of rocks and rubble. But it was still neat to see!

That afternoon, we climbed the stairway to heaven. It's a path up a huge hill. On top are some ruins from Kiuic, many of which are in bad condition. Very little restoration has happened up on the hill top. I don't blame it because the climb was not fun! I huffed and puffed and finally made it up without falling. The view was once again amazing. We arrived there about the time the sun was setting, so I got to see another pretty sunset. We walked by one tree and saw HUGE claw marks about the height of my head. Kiuic is in jaguar country. That was a little scary! Luckily the Jaguars left us alone...although a little wild pig wasn't so lucky. One of the dogs on the reserve showed up with a severed head of a tiny pig- likely killed my a pretty big cat!

Kiuic was a very interesting place, and I'm glad I had the chance to go, even if sleeping in a hammock in the cold wasn't so fun. Climbing hills and seeing beautiful sites and ruins was worth every minute!