Dzibalchen (pronounced sibalchen) but I have been kind of getting sick of just hanging out in the middle of know where, and had enough unwanted attention. I new this was a town that never had any tourists. The total ride would be about 160km, so I packed my bike at took a bus to Dzibalchen. First bus ride, got sick on all the hills and not planning on getting into the habit. Rode a nice flat 20km to Dzibilnocac (see-bill-no-cock). The town is a bit depressing, and I had to ask about 5 people to find the ruins on the edge of town. Dzibilnocac is a large and important ruin that has building starting at least by the late preclassic (400BC), but only a single cleared building is open to the public. I had a lot of riding and was nonplused by the locals so that was going to be all I saw.
The only cleared stucture. A long building with three temples on top.
The southern temple is very well preserved. It has one real doorway and 3 fake doorways with a monster mask facade on each face.
Still looking good!
A great suprise. The base of the center temple has been cleard revealing the lower jaws of what must be another buiried monster mask facade. These curled teeth are just the front platform (see photos of Ek Balam or Hochob below). The actual mask is likly buried and possibly in a very good state of preservation. If this is the case, than this structure probably looked just like structure 2 at Hochob (see below), was changed to look like twin tower complex (see Hormiguero in the next few days) and finaly changed into the triple tower complex seen today.
Next stop was the small, but well preserved ruins of Hochob, with its famous structure 2. This site is a small courtyard with three buildings still standing. Two monstermouth buildings and a twin tower complex. Not too much to see, but a nice place. Unfortuantly just about all my photos turned out overexposed. Not the worst, all my masonry photos turned out just fine.
Structure 2.
Over exposed, but the building is in great condition, really one of the best examples of monstermouth doorways until the one at Ek Balam was uncovered.
Structure 1 is also a monstermouth structure that would have looked very much like structure 2, but it is in radically worse condition, not sure why. The masonry is very similar and is thought to have been built more or less at the same time.
A tower of the twin tower complex. I will get into the twin towers very soon, they are most common in the Rio Bec region where I am heading soon.
Next stop was the small, but well preserved ruins of Hochob, with its famous structure 2. This site is a small courtyard with three buildings still standing. Two monstermouth buildings and a twin tower complex. Not too much to see, but a nice place. Unfortuantly just about all my photos turned out overexposed. Not the worst, all my masonry photos turned out just fine.
Structure 2.
Over exposed, but the building is in great condition, really one of the best examples of monstermouth doorways until the one at Ek Balam was uncovered.
Structure 1 is also a monstermouth structure that would have looked very much like structure 2, but it is in radically worse condition, not sure why. The masonry is very similar and is thought to have been built more or less at the same time.
A tower of the twin tower complex. I will get into the twin towers very soon, they are most common in the Rio Bec region where I am heading soon. The ride back was long and hilly...very exhusting, in the end I road about 115km, longest ride yet, but I only had a day bag.
Distance rode:115km
Trip total:987km
Distance rode:115km
Trip total:987km
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