This morning we took a collectivo to El Balam, a Mayan site about 20 minutes out of Valladolid. It was quite the contrast to Chichen Itza. Much smaller and less monumental, and clearly not intended for mass tourism, so it hadn’t been cleared of jungle and there were no paving stones. Blessedly, there were also no touts and souvenir stalls inside the site so one got a good sense of the layout of the place, which was almost impossible in Chichen Itza. Although far less spectacular, I enjoyed it more, I think, as there were far fewer people – later, around noon, a couple of tour vans arrived, but still not too many people – and we could walk around the monuments and even into the jungle. It was permitted to climb up some of the structures, in particular the main pyramid, with its steep, tall steps leading to a platform with a view over jungle on every side as far as the curve of the horizon, pierced only by mobile phone masts, even though we knew, of course, that there was plenty of habitation surrounding us. About a kilometre away from the site is a cenote where we went for a swim. It was a bit crowded but people came and went in waves and most tended to congregate around the steps into the water and the ropes to swing from so it wasn’t too bad. There were the black catfish in the water, small bright blue dragonflies just at the surface, and yellow birds swooping after insects just above. A very pleasant day indeed, though I felt very hot indeed by the time I returned.
The entrance for El Balam was nearly the same as for Chichen Itza, and it occurred to me that one might easily feel miffed at this, as this site clearly has less money spent on it, nor does it have as much spectacle to offer. But actually it works really well. Large tour operators will restrict themselves to Chichen Itza and avoid adding on a trip to Ek Balam because the perceived bang for the buck will be much higher. The individual visitors, such as myself and the Gentleman Friend, will value Ek Balam and its ruins amidst jungle and the lack of people – the latter will not benefit large tour groups anyway, as they will themselves constitute a crowd. So a good argument for the second and third sites of an area to have the same entry fee as the first. Of course I have no idea if this is true or not, but it seems plausible speculation.