Exploring Muyil Ruins and Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve (Day 7)
We woke up early to meet our guide Miguel at 6 am at OXXO in the small town of Muyil , after getting some coffee and snacks from a local restaurant we started our birding journey in and around the town of Muyill. The small town being close to the Sian Ka’an Biosphere has a lot of birds in the morning and were hard pressed for where to look as there were so many new species of birds everywhere. Without our guide Miguel , we would not have been able to spot or identify even a 10th of them. A few of the species that we saw are:
After a grueling neck exercise for 3 hrs it was time to have breakfast and then go into the actual Archaeological site for some more birding and sightseeing. We went back to the same place as in the morning and had fried eggs with chorizo and spinach with tacos with some huge glasses of freshly made orange juice and papaya juice. It was a hearty and refreshing meal,much needed as the sun was out there doing its thing and it was very hot and humid.
The city of Muyil was one of the earliest ancient Maya sites on the eastern side of the Yucatan and is also known as Chunyaxché . Both are the names of two lagoons in the area. Muyil means “place of the rabbit,” and Chunyaxché means “ceiba log” in Mayan, ceiba being the sacred tree of the mayans.It is located on the edge of a lagoon in the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Preserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The biosphere reserve’s name, Sian Ka’an, means “entrance to the sky”, and once you see the place you can totally relate to the name. Even though the city did not have a direct link to the ocean , the Mayans dug a series of canals through different lagoons to link it to the ocean at Boca Paila “or the cooking pot mouth”. This link made it an important trading stop connecting inland cities like Coba, Chichen Itza and even Mayapan up north , close to Merida through the white road or “Sacbe”.
After paying the entrance fee we quickly went through the initial group of pyramids right at the entrance. These complexes are partially excavated and restored but all the rubble around tells you that a lot of work still is pending to get them back to their glory days. After these structure we took a left turn through a long trail to reach building #8 or the “The Pink Palace”. This temple is a 4 level structure and was built in phases as was common during mayan times. This building has a two chamber temple on top with an altar in the rear chamber. This building also has a thatched roof unlike the other structure which are made of stones. The trail to this section of structure is densely covered with trees and has a lot of birding opportunities.
We then turned back to the “Sacbe” and went towards the tallest building of the site known as the castillo . This structure has five levels and is 59 feet ( 15 m) high and is one of the most iconic structures in the complex.The ruins of Muyil are constructed as per Peten architecture style , and “ El CAstilo” reminded us of the pictures we have seen of the steep walled pyramids of Tikal in Guatemala. Excavation of the building has revealed two structures named the ' ‘temple of the herons” and the temple of the falcon’ as per the stucco decoration adorning the walls of these structures. While soaking in all the history and the beauty of these structures we kept an eye out for unique birds which are all over these frosted areas.
As we push forward through a hidden pathway behind the El Castillo building on the Sacbe which is the entrance to the Sian Ka’an reserve you walk through some dense vegetation with boardwalks over swapping/wetland areas before you arrive at the mouth of the Muyil lagoon boat dock. The trail which is a mile or so long is a wonderful place to see small warblers and other birds which prefer the dense bushes in wetlands. It is a great place for bird watching but quite difficult for photographing them as it's quite dark as most of the light is reflected /dampened light due to the vegetation. There is a wooden observation tower , which gives a birds eye view of the lagoon and the mangroves extension to the ocean , but we gave it a miss as we had to get on our afternoon boat trip.
Once we met up with our captain and paid all the necessary fees we quickly took off crossing the Muyil lagoon, and entering the Chunyaxché lagoon through a narrow canal with arching mangrove trees. The arching trees give way to vast mangroves dotted with herons like great blue, tri-colored , little blue and wood storks to name a few. Once you cross laguna Chunyaxché you reach another narrow canal with beautiful turquoise blue water and limestone bottom with mangroves trees on both sides.
A little way up the canal we got off the boat on a dock and quickly explored the small Mayan building called “Xlapak” or the Old Stone wall. Miguel explained that it was more of an outpost for the entrance to the lagoon. He also quickly showed us the common tody flycatcher which prefers areas like this. It's a beautiful yellow and black small bird with a black mask and white eyes. This is also where the famous lazy river folate starts. As both of us can’t swim , we put on our “mayan Diapers” ( Normal PFD, flipped upside down with legs through the armhole) along with another PFD and folate down the river. Initially it was a little scary but once you get the hang of it it's an amazing and relaxing feeling floating in the water with arching mangrove trees opening up into beautiful blue skies dotted with some puff clouds.
After the float we took the boardwalk back to the starting point. In normal tours this is where most people turn back if they are coming from Muyil or from Boca Paila but as we had a private full day tour we continued our journey to Boca Paila. After an hour of going through the curvy and narrow canals , the water starts changing from the clear turquoise blue to dark green to blackish as it opens up into a bay which is covered from all sides except on opening which has a bridge to cross on. In Between we saw manatees and crocodiles along with a lot of different kinds of herons and other birds who call the mangroves home. The channel after the bridge opens up very quickly to the open waters of the Caribbean Sea.
It was time to turn back, as we had a long way to get back to Muyil before sunset as it gets dark quickly. I was a little sad to not see the sunset on the ocean but the trip back gave us some of the best golden sunset views of the mangroves and the amazing Mayan canals. We reached the Muyil docks as the sun was setting and quickly walked through a shortcut to get to our car parked on the highway. We said our goodbyes to Miguel (knowing that we made a friend for life) and drove back to our AirBnb room.
We stepped out to get some burrito and beer from one of the restaurants in town and enjoyed it on our outdoor balcony after a refreshing dip. While out in the town waiting for our food we tried out some mezcal from a bar and immediately fell in love with the Mezcaleria of “El rey Zapoteca”.It was time to hit the bed as we had an early morning start for our another birding trip.