Dzibilchaltún was my ONLY bad experience at an INAH site, and I’ve been to more than 40 of them. Full scale rant later. Worst run site of any size.
Update
My husband and I went to Dzibilchaltún on 26 February around noon. We paid for parking, then we purchased our tickets and headed for the gate to the park. I was stopped by staff members who said my water pack was too large. I showed them that all that was in it was water, and they said it was too large and I couldn’t take it in. I walked my pack back to my car, then came back and entered the park.
Ten minutes later, while inside the park, we were approached by a man in a white INAH shirt who asked to check our tickets. He took our tickets, examined them and put them in his pocket. When we asked for our tickets back, he mentioned how hot it was, turned around and walked away. I was shocked, because there are INAH signs at many other sites warning visitors about this. There is no legitimate reason for them to take a ticket back from a visitor – if they’ve taken it, the signs say, they are reselling that ticket and pocketing the money for themselves.
Throughout the park were women in tour groups with large purses and bags that were much larger than my water pack. I had a small bottle of water, it was 35C, and it was right around noon. I ran out of water, and I struggled to get through the park.
I’ve taken that water pack through every other site I’ve visited in Mexico. I took it through Uxmal and Chichén Itzá when I revisted them this year. I still have my tickets from every other site I had to pay to enter. Only Dzibilchaltún took my ticket back. I thought it odd that they didn’t punch my ticket when I entered.
If you can’t see any other Mayan site, be forewarned. Otherwise, there are dozens of sites in the area of Mérida. I strongly recommend going to any other site.