Chichen Itza

We left this morning at 7:30AM on a tour bus to go to Chichen Itza. Finally!

We stopped at several other resorts to let other people on, then drove at breakneck speed along narrow roads towards Chichen Itza. Some cars seemed to whizz by with about a foot of clearance between us.

Our first stop was for a swim at a cenote near Piste. We were given only forty minutes before the bus left. I didn't think there would be enough time, but Coreen and the kids really wanted to go.

Cenotes are fresh water sink holes in the limestone and dot the Yucutan peninsula. Many of them are extremely deep and are interconnected with other cenotes that form vast underground networks of water filled caverns.

By the time Coreen and the kids had finished swimming and the kids had remembered where they'd left their shoes and stuff, the bus had left without us. Fortunately, one of the tour operators had stayed behind and loaded us onto another bus which took us to a restaurant in Piste where we rejoined our group.

After lunch we took a short trip down the road to Chichen Itza.

Originally I had wanted to take a taxi or something so we could get to Chichen Itza earlier in the day. Coreen didn't think such a long trip in a taxi would work with the kids, and since I wanted at least part of our visit to be a guided tour we decided to take a tour bus instead.

After picking up passengers, swimming (briefly) in a cenote, and eating lunch, we had less than three hours to actually see Chichen Itza. I knew that wouldn't be enough time. The yellow dots above show where we went in the site and took photos. We missed a lot and felt rushed.

I was filled with anxiety, worried about how much time we had, as we passed through the site entrance and walked to the end of a tree lined avenue...

... only to be stunned into absolute awe when I walked out from under a tree to the sight of El Castillo.

El Castillo is not a building in the sense that Egyptian pyramids are (buildings for dead people) but a series of stacked platforms, the platforms denoting property, their height denoting status. At the top of these platforms is a shorter, step-like one on which rests the actual building: a temple.

There are four sets of steps on El Castillo, one on each side. Each set has 91 steps for a total of 364 steps. Add to that the one step-like platform under the temple at the top and you get 365 steps, the number of days in a year and a clue to the role astronomy played in Mayan culture.

El Castillo is big and impressive, but the awe I felt was not just from that. When I was twelve years old, I read a story describing the Maya and Chichen Itza. I still have the book and read it to the kids when we first planned to go to Mexico; the story made a huge impression on me. For a while I was absorbed by von Daniken's nutty ideas of Mayan contact with extraterrestrials, but even after I outgrew that I always felt a certain sense of magic and mystery about Chichen Itza and the people who lived there.

To stand here and actually touch El Castillo was a twenty-seven year dream come true.

Looking around the main plaza.

Next we walked past the Temple of Jaguars to the ball court. Look, it's Lara Croft! I'm taking a photo of her in front of the ball court while she's taking a photo of me in front of El Castillo.

Lara again, in the ball court. She was taking lots of close-up photos of the ruins and until we ditched her at the Temple of Warriors I had a really hard time getting a photo with her not in it.

The actors demonstrating the ball game at Xcaret had ramps they could run up to get close to the hoops. In the real game, I don't imagine the ball went through the hoops very often.

At the back of the court you can see the Temple of the Bearded Man.

The upper Temple of Jaguars at the ball court. Kinda like a stadium suite.

Some details of the carvings all along the ball court.

The Platform of Eagles and Jaguars.

The Temple of the Warriors.

A chac-mool resting at the top of the Temple of the Warriors. Supposedly the bleeding hearts of sacrificed human victims were placed on his stomach.

Suddenly time-outs don't sound so bad.

The Group of the Thousand Columns.

Donnie Darko and A---- make good use of the columns' shade.

El Osario (the Ossuary), with one of the columns formerly on top now on display at ground level.




I think this is the Platform of Venus by El Osario.

Chichanchob (the Red House). Not to be confused with Chichanchong.

El Caracol (the Snail) was an observatory. The doors were aligned so that certain astronomical events could be observed through them, like the vernal equinox.


Behind El Caracol.

Las Monjas (the Nuns), a palace, as seen from El Caracol.

The Annex of Las Monjas.

Eglesia (the Church), a temple decorated with depictions of the rain god Chaac.

Looking back between the Annex and Eglesia at Las Monjas...

... and all three from a different angle. A lot of visitors think this part of Chichen Itza is "Old Chichen." Old Chichen is actually a largely unexcavated site at the end of a trail through the jungle that starts behind Las Monjas.

A bit of a whirlwind tour, but it was amazing. The next time we go to Mexico we intend to spend a night here, in Valladolid, so we can get to Chichen Itza early in the morning.

One thing we'll definitely be doing is taking a tour on horseback to Old Chichen to see the ruins in their more pristine state.