A short ride today and chance to visit ruins at Iximche.

It was cool overnight in Los Ecuentros, but sun was out as we departed and there was a hill to climb starting out. We stopped a few hundred meters down the road to buy a few bananas from this fruit vendor.

From here the road wound its way around and over several hills today with ~600m of climb in 40km. Off to the right and down ~1000m was Lake Atitlan though we never did see the lake from the road on high. Our road continued as a four lane wide road with not light traffic. Most of the route the road was a concrete, though when fixing it they would patch with asphalt.

A local group doing what looked like a wedding as we passed by. As we got closer to Tecpan, we could tell it was becoming more touristy. Saw one or two nicer hotels as well as a bus with mountain bikes on the roof, presumably to take tourists to top of the hills and let them ride down.

By noon we had reached Tecpan and cycled in to the town and found place to stay. We unpacked our bags and cycled with now light bikes out to the ruins.

In Mexico “tope” is speed bump. The word “tomulus” is used in Guatemala, though this sign made me curious about this establishment.

We also passed this cross celebrating 500 years of evangelization.

After 5km, we came to the main ruins site. A good description of Iximche is here. The town was founded around 1470 and lasted until just at point Spanish arrived in 1524. The overview showed some of the main plazas, temples and surrounding buildings.

A picture of one of those temples.

Plants were now growing on top as well as in some walls.

Another overview picture.

It was nice to walk through the ruins site.

On the way back, this guy had loaded up his donkey.

Nice to have a shorter day as well as chance to see some of the tourist sights.