Discovering Southern Quintana Roo with a Rare Solar Eclipse

The tension builds slowly. Navigating down a narrow, unpaved road, we park and join a small crowd, everyone wearing white, and headed to the temples. The jungle canopy is almost as thick as the humidity that hangs in the air. But not nearly as heavy as the anticipation for this truly rare and special event, just a few minutes away.

Arriving at the ancient Mayan site of Kohunlich, we ready ourselves. Once, and for hundreds of years, this was a flourishing regional centre, built on major Yucatan trade routes, a rambling place with plazas and citadels and courtyards. Its most distinctive feature remains the Temple of the Masks, built to honour the sun god.

Which seems somehow appropriate, because today I’ll be witnessing an almost-total solar eclipse. A guide hands me square- shaped paper sunglasses, which look appropriate for 3-D movies. But when I put them on, I find myself wrapped in almost-total darkness. Assured they’ll work well, I climb a small pyramid, snap on the glasses, and wait for the one of the greatest wonders of the cosmos to commence.

Part of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, this is a corner of the Yucatan rarely visited by North American tourists. Just to the north, the famous resorts of Cancun, Tulum and Playa del Carmen welcome thousands. I landed at the small airport in Chetumal.

The state capital, Chetumal is a small city that sits close to the border with Belize, home to about 170,000 people. It offers an alternative for those seeking a more tranquil, authentic visit to Mexico. Small, functional hotels line a beautiful, blue bay of the same name. It is home to a planetarium, which I visit, in anticipation of the eclipse, surprised to find a fairly absorbing film broadcast on its spherical ceiling.

Nearby, I visit the largest Mayan museum in the state. While most of the interpretation is in Spanish, the place is impressive, with scale models of famous Mayan sites, genuine artifacts and displays showing day-to-day life in that ancient world. Some of the miniature reconstructions have been placed under a glass floor, so you can walk overtop and see the entire layout.

Very soon, this part of the peninsula will be seeing more visitors. The long-anticipated Tren Maya is slated for completion in December of this year. (However, we crossed the route a few times, and while work is well underway, it didn’t appear to be right near completion.) The line will run more than 1,500 kilometres, forming a loop around the entire Yucatan.

Whenever the train starts running, many more visitors may start flooding south. And there are plenty of them to go around—last year, according to Travel Pulse, some 12.5 million people visited Quintana Roo. There are also additional opportunities by air: in 2022, American Airlines launched direct service to Chetumal from the United States, although it was soon scuttled. Perhaps a first attempt at something we will see more of in the future, as the area develops.

Either way, this coastal southern end of the state remains a prime place for agents to recommend, for travellers looking for quiet and a slower pace. Most hotels remain small and personal (although it’s doubtful many offer commission). Stunningly beautiful places like the Bacalar Lagoon remain relatively undiscovered. A true beauty, the water in this lake is fed by an underground river. It seems to elide all the shades of blue, and is sometimes known as the Laguna de Siete Colores, the Lagoon of Seven Colours. Prehistoric stromatolites sit just below the surface. Beach bars remain unpretentious and friendly.

And Mayan sites further north, like Tulum and Chichen Itza, often teem with group tours. But even on the day of the eclipse, only a relative handful gathered at the spectacular Kohunlich, and mostly locals. Meaning travellers can visit and still feel a bit like Indiana Jones, discovering this far-lesser-known, but still spectacular, site.

At the end, the eclipse was an unforgettable wonder, watching through those dark glasses as the moon almost totally covered the sun. Followed by a Mayan ceremony, honouring all four directions, and the cosmos above. A rare and special moment in time. And, ultimately, on this day, one only possible here in the southern reaches of Quintana Roo. 

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