Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The coffee came instantly, but it was too hot to drink. I could hear the cook scrambling my
eggs when Mary came into the cafe and said, “The driver has arrived.” It hadn't been five
minutes since Mary hung up the phone.
"Can he wait?" I asked.
Mary said, "He can't park. He'll have to go around the block."
I rushed back to the waitress and asked for my breakfast to go. The tour guide made a
quick circle around the block. I entered his car holding a Styrofoam box with eggs, beans
and toast, but no coffee. It was still scalding. I thought of the McDonald's incident, and I
didn't want to spill the hot coffee, so I left it.
It was a forty-minute drive on a good two-lane road, with hardly any traffic to Edzna.
My guide was really only a driver. He would wait for two hours while I visited the site.
I paid the 33 pesos entry and found myself nearly alone in Edzna. There were only three
other visitors and a gardener riding a lawnmower, trimming the football-sized grass field
in front of the main temple. I did not tarry. I read each description, climbed the temple's
steep staircase and photographed the chromatic masks carved in the monument.
Included in the description of the Maya's culture and achievements, was the disclaimer,
"The Maya were never helped by extraterrestrial beings." Someone was concerned that
Erich von Daniken's bestselling book, "
Chariots of the Gods
" and his hypothesis that as-
tronauts built the pyramids, would discredit Mayan achievement. I finished my self-guided
tour in an hour, and my driver Juan was pleased to return early to Campeche.
Expenses: Taxi $3, City buses $1, Meals $29, Tour Edzna $30, Hotel Lopez $38, Total:
$101.
