By James Stone -


After about eight hours travelling and four bus changes I finally arrived at a sun-kissed clearing in which I found a haphazard shack, which was big enough to contain no more than four single rooms, propped up by what looked like a few twigs. A sprightly middle-aged Mexican woman hopped out from the kitchen area, grabbed my things and shoved a plate of rice, chicken and frijoles (Mexican beans) in front of me, with some tortilla wraps on the side. I decided to stay.

After a few hours sleep beneath a rather opaque mosquito net – I was deep inside the jungle now – the temperature was approaching 30 degrees, so I decided to explore.

Set deep within the Mexican jungle, Chichen Itza is a stunning site. Apparently it was a ceremonial centre of the Mayans in this area with many old temples and altars for human sacrifice. The site features a stunning 24 metre high temple called Kukulkan, which is flanked by a ball court, a temple – the Sacred Canote – which accesses an underwater river and a group of columns which feature carvings of Toltec warriors, a nearby tribe.

The American and European tourists were racing around in a photograph frenzy laughing and joking about the ancient ways, even mock simulating a human sacrifice.

However, I was silenced by the ruins. Although the civilisation had decayed, the spirit certainly hadn't and I found myself in awe of how such a relatively small tribe so long ago could have constructed such imposing monuments in honour of their spiritual convictions. I was relieved there was no 20th century equivalent – a Burger King built to the god of gluttony.

When I got back to my shack, and ever-zealous Mexican housekeeper, I decided to carry on my journey south, I had, on good information, that there were plenty more ruined sites ahead of me. My intrigue into such a mystical culture was only just beginning.

The Yucatan peninsula is site to some of the most stunning ancient Mayan ruins. Palaces, observatories, temples and offering sites remain in the region, having kept superbly well for thousands of years. I made my way to Tikal, where the ancient Mayan buildings are crumbling on the edge of cliffs overlooking the crystal waters of the Caribbean and then on to Uxmal and to Palenque.

It wasn't enough. So I crossed the border into Guatemala. A few hours travelling and a great deal of resolve brought me to Tikal. Set deep within the jungle, it took me about half a day to make the long journey through trees to seek out this most haunting of Mayan ruins. Howler monkeys scream through the trees as the upper layers of the fauna teem with exotic birds and the leaves drip with the heat.

The intriguing part of Tikal is that one minute you are crawling through the trees and then as if out of nowhere, a clearing develops that houses a monumental pyramid. I spent a whole day within the perimeters of the park getting lost in the undergrowth and climbing up to the top of 30 metre temples where I could see right over the trees to the horizon.

I was thus reminded of a line from a song about a certain mythical fugitive: "You can't run away forever – but there's nothing wrong with making a good head start."

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