The Maya Route by Rail

This is a learning adventure tour that travels along the Maya Route by rail through the states of Yucatan, Campeche, Chiapas, and Tabasco.  Enjoy being pampered with four-course means on the new luxury Maya Express train, re-live ancient history at the classic period Mayan centers of Chichen-Itza and Uxmal, relax in the historical seaprot of Campeche, retreat to your own little bungalow surrounded by the Chiapas jungle at Palenque, and soak up the mysterious history of La Venta Park in Mexico's "Garden of Eden," Villahermosa.

After experiencing this trip at this time of year, I encourage you to take this trip at this time of year when the weather in the United States is the coldest it will be all year, and the temperature on this trip will average 70 degrees, with little variation in the evenings!  The hotel lobbys and restaurants in the jungles of  Palenque have no walls, as is true for Hawaii, as you know, so this area is always warm or hot.  Beware of traveling here in the summer months...very hot at the Palenque Mayan ruins, but the jungle bungalows are air-conditioned for great sleeping, and the train is air-conditioned for great travel.  Rest assured, however, if you take an S & S Tour to any destination, Sue only schedules her trips in the best weather for the region.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Yucatan peninsula lived its own "gold fever" with the industry of the henequen (sisal) fiber ('binder twine' to an old farmboy like me).  Hundreds of kilometers of rails were built among the lush vegitation of the Mayan jungle to link the wealthy sisal haciendas with their plantations and with the prosperous cities of Merida and Campeche.

Without the draw of the Mayan ruins, however, this train could not make ends meet.  However, with both the draw of this luxury train and the sites that can be seen within a short walk or bus ride from the train, the owner is encouraged by its ridership.  Add to this economical equation the fact that the Mexican cities at both ends of this train's route are served by international airlines.  Finally, add in the fact that there is no passenger service on this route, and very little freight travel, it makes for a unique and pleasureable journey for the train traveler.

Day 1-Travel by air to Villahermosa and the Hotel Cencali.  For specifics on my air travel, see How I Got There above. On the flight to Mexico City, I filled out two cards for entering Mexico.  (1) Customs Declaration, and (2) Migratory form for Foreign Tourists.  It requires your passport number.   One portion of one which needs to kept with your passport and brought back through US Customs.  

This United flight had the best airplane food I've had in years with a choice of pasta or chicken for lunch.  

I read a copy of "Budget Travel" on the plane and noticed that a new feature of the magazine will be "Reader Report."  To introduce this future column, Editor Erik Torkells says, "One of the most fulfilling parts of travel is telling people about what you found," and inviting readers to report their great finds in hotels, restaurants, or quirky shops, or a photograph with 500 words.  You may want to send in a report, as I plan to do, to readerreport@afbtmag.com, or click "Get your story in BT magazine" at BudgetTravel.msnbc.com.

The United flight to Mexico was uneventful, thankfully, with the movie, "Under the Tuscan Sun."  I had a 2-hour layover and the flight to Villahermosa was to leave at 7:30 pm, so it was dark when I entered the Mexicana A319-3.  I was struck by how much brighter this plane was than the same plane under United ownership.  It had white ceiling and sides and was well lighted.  Karen (stewardess) said it was a new plane.  Blue and green decor with white "Mexicana" head cloths.  

I had been the only guy in the entire Mexico City airport with a Hawaiian shirt. There were many suits and dark colors and plain colored shirts.  I surmised that the other fellow with Bermuda shorts and two straw hats was from the states as well.  (It turned out he was a great guy on our tour.).  All seat packet materials were in Spanish (of course), but I found a listing of hotels with pictures and was pleased to see a pool picture takes at dusk of the Cencali hotel where I would stay in Villahermosa.  The material at least had page numbers in English ;), as well as the hotel room numbers later on the trip.

I had an asile seat and NO ONE between me and the window...two free seats!  Twenty-five degrees C. in Villahermosa/74 degrees F. at 8:45 p.m.

Another credit point is given to United for having headset plugs so I could hear the movie and music.  Mexicana had no such plugs.

Mexicana Airlines had "meals" on the ticket, but it turned out to be no more than soft drinks (with ice if you requested it) and JAPANESE peanuts.  They tasted much the same as Jimmy Carter's version, but had smooth edible shells.  .7 oz. of peanuts isn't much of a supper!

After passing through Mexico City, I read that the airport was a 'Free Internet hotspot!'  (I tried it on the way back home, and could get no signal in the airport as advertised)  You can check for free hotspots (if you have a wireless card in your laptop) by going to movilspot.com or hotspotlist.com for International locations.

A van driver met me and two others on this tour, and took us to the hotel.  There we met Sue Stilwell, got our room assignments, and met for dinner in the hotel restaurant.

Day 2-Visit "La Venta" Museum/Park.  We boarded vans at 9:30  at our Hotel Cencali in Villahermosa after an 8:00 breakfast in the hotel. As we left for the Museum, we had a terrific downpour, so we went on a short city tour and past a cathedral in town.  Finally on to a guided morning tour of La Venta Museum where we saw colossal remains of IV Century Olmec carved heads  weighing 20 tons and measuring 2.7 meters high.  Many references in stone to the jaguar, but there are only jaguars on the frontier today.  All the artifacts were in an outside park.  Alberto, (blue shirt) our guide, pointed to a tree with red, peeling bark and jokingly said it was called the 'tourist tree.'  The people who inhabited this area were short, 1.5 meters, but stout.

Day 3-Palenque Ruins.  After breakfast at 6 of either Mexican eggs, fried eggs or scrambled eggs with toast or hot cakes.   We left for the ruins at 8 a.m.  Be sure to take the bottled water from your room, or buy water at the hotel restaurant, there are no restrooms nor water for sale inside the gate to the Palenque ruins.  It was a short van ride to the magnificent Palenque ruins, thought to be the most aesthetically impressive ruins in Mesoamerica, being built from the 6th to the 8th centuries A.D.  These ruins are especially impressive when you consider that the Mayan builders did not use the wheel or beasts of burden!  Alberto related that this is the site where the famous mask made of 9 colors of jade was found.  These Indians believed they were created from corn and blood.  They believed in 3 levels of creation, like the 3 levels of vegetation in the jungle.  They believe in reincarnation and when they died they went below ground and came back as gods.  When you see the flower head dress in a stone figure from their palaces, it represents a god emerging from underground.  Sue will provide you with a 2-page handout on Palenque in your tour packet so you can read the facts before you arrive, and therefore enjoy the guided tour employed for only our small group.

After a full morning touring the Palenque Ruins, we took the vans to the nearby archeological museum to see artifacts from the ruins, then a local restaurant for lunch.  Back at the Chan-Kah bungalows we had time to relax, and I worked with the many digital photos I had taken at the ruins. Another excellent dinner followed in the open-air hotel restaurant.

Day 4-Train Ride to Campeche  Finally we got to see the Expreso Maya private luxury train for the first time, and to ride it for eight hours!  We departed from the Chan-Kah jungle hotel for the Palenque depot.  As mentioned above, the Expreso Maya was the most impressive train on which I've ever ridden.  The cars were ready for travel, but the engine from the railroad company was not yet connected.  We entered the cars and before long were underway.  
Dennis introduced himself as our guide, not part of the train staff.  I sat with Dennis during breakfast at 8 a.m. as we watched another freight pass with many more Guatemalans on it than the last freight train I saw.  We ate toast, fruit juice, fruit plate, and eggs any style.  I chose eggs with sausage and coffee.  About 9 a.m. the sun came out, but it was still a nice temperature outside in the vestibules with the windows open for photography or just enjoying the countryside.  I asked, and was given permission by the Chief of Operations, to go on the vestibule of the last car, giving me 3 directions to shoot unobstructed photographs...out the left side, the right side, and the rear.  Inside the coach car, the temperature was watched by attendants with a remote control thermometer, and adjusted to suit the guests.  It was 23 degrees C when we boarded.


As we passed grade schools in session, students went to the windows to wave.  Since there are no other passenger trains on this route, the once or twice a month passing of the Expreso Maya is an event for everyone along the tracks.

The top half of all doors in all vestibules on this Expreso Maya as well as the Copper Canyon Express are open for excellent photography of scenes along the tracks.  However, the safety of your body (eyes, hands, upper body) is up to you.  The vegetation along the right-of-way on this train is not managed at all.  In fact, the only clearing takes place when the freight or passenger cars pass. You can, therefore, hear branches scraping along the cars all along the trip.  If you happen to look forward, out the vestibule, you might get whacked in the face, or even lose an eye.  I suggest, therefore, that you look through the closed windows in the next car forward to see if the branches are not right along the car, then quickly peek out and if the coast is clear, lean out for a photograph.  Wear solid sunglasses or even goggles for this activity.  I only had one instance when I was hit, and it was in the hand, not the face.  I was standing back in the vestibule, away from passing branches and we were passing homes with families out front waving at the train.  I was in the very last car's vestibule at the time and wanted the kids to keep waving for my photograph, so I was waving outisde the car.  My hand got whacked a good one,  but there was no damage beyond a sore hand for about an hour.  I learned the lesson quickly and had no other incidents.  During the 2nd day on the train, I noticed that the tall trees on both sides of the right-of-way were trimmed the exact size of the box cars that pass on this same route, almost like a rectangular tunnel in the vegetation...for miles.  I also observed that after a day of this type of travel, the cars' outsides were extensively marked horizontally from the branches.  Since I did not notice this at first, I beleive they must wash and/or polish the cars at the beginning of each trip.


It is my guess that our normal top speed was 25 to 35 mph for this day's trip.  The countryside was mainly occupied by Brahma cattle pasture land.  There were small poor towns.  Cowboys, machete weilding workers, railroad workers and in towns, tricycle taxi drivers.

John, from Tucson, and I talked extensively about his extended passenger train travels around the world.  He said he'd traveled with High Iron Travel and Trains Unlimited in Portola.  He had an annual report from Genesee and Wyoming, who owned and/or operated this rail line on which we were traveling.  They are an owner/operator of regional freight railroads in the US, Australia, Canada, Mexico and Bolivia, and provide switching services to industrial companies in the US.  They own, or have interest in, over 20 railroads and operate 8,000 miles of owned and leased track.  In the US, they have property in Oregon, Utah, Illinois, New York, and Pennsylvania. Their North American operation brings in 61.8% of their net income.  Their North American freight mix is:

30% Coal, 14% paper, 11% Minerals and stone, 13% metals, 8% lumber and forest, 6% petroleum, 6% farm and food, 4% chemical and plastics, 4% auto, and 1% intermodal.

During the day, I met Donna and Don McCormick, English speakers from Mexico, formerly from California.  They have traveled around the world on freighters and speak very favorably about that mode of transportation.  They make their travel arrangements through a newspaper from FreighterWorld.com and e-mail to info@freighterworld.com.

After picking up a brochure about the Expreso Maya in the club car, I realized that our group was not large enough to use all the cars.  The cars that were not in our consist were:  Chichen-Itza, and Uxmal, Deluxe cars; Tikal, Tourist car; Campeche, Snack Cafeteria.  This means there are actually eight cars in this private luxary train set.

How their arches were constructed and withstood years without a keystone.

Jack walks alone in the sacred city.

	At all Mayan ruins, there is a chain, or rope, to help to assend and desend the steps.
	If you stand at the right spot on March 21, the rising sun from the right, casts a shadow on the steps (left) to make the shadow of a serpent heading down the pyramid illuminating the snake head on the ground level.

Serpent's head at ground level.	The snake is represented on other structures as well.
	All Mayan cities had a ball court.  Chichen Itza has the largest.

	Jaguar (center) and Eagle (right).
	Snake head at the bottom of the pyramid.

Our restaurant chairs and the nearby beach.	New and old lighthouse, showing hurricane undermining

Sisel plantation, where the need for a railroad network  in Mexico began.	Conveyor belt taking sisel into plant.
	The fibers in sisel.

A quick	Sisel products.
Sisel products.

Lovers Seat