Mayans and mustard

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We had planned on getting the 7.15 or 7.30 bus to Chichen Itza today...buses run every hour from then. The sky is blue without a single cloud in sight...it will be hot so we need to be there ASAP. Ian tells me we have plenty of time - it is 7am, he is not dressed and we have to walk to the bus station and probably queue for tickets. OK, it will be the 7.30 then!

We proceed to walk around the streets in circles. Seriously, the bus station is only two blocks away, how can we possibly get lost? The grid system here either makes life incredibly easy or incredibly difficult - today it is the latter! Google maps is equally befuddled - sending us in one direction and then changing its mind and sending us back from where we came!

We pass a taxi driver trying to sell us a tour to a cenote. He becomes incredibly aggressive when I say we are going to Chichen Itza and can’t find the bus station. I no talk Ang-lazy to you, he says, you must speak Spanish! OMG, another rude person - is everyone in Valladolid going to be like this? I am beginning to conclude that they really dislike anyone who cannot speak Spanish here! It’s a bit of a shock after 10 weeks of travel where we have encountered nothing but kindness. Oh well, we might have been interested in a cenote tomorrow but we definitely won’t be going with you mate!

I see a street vendor who is more agreeable and points me in the right direction. I think we have probably missed the bus but now we have stumbled across a minibus colectivo which is almost full, and it will be much quicker than the bus.

It’s 7.40am and our minibus is almost full. There is still one seat left to fill but he leaves anyway. As it happens, another passenger is collected in the street. We are deposited at the entrance of the ruins by 8.15am - the same time as the 7.15 bus was scheduled to arrive.

The place is already busy - four tour coaches are parked and their charges are milling around the entrance foyer, being fleeced by the hat, water and sun cream sellers. Chichen Itza is thought of as one of the ‘new’ seven wonders of the world, and is the best preserved Maya site on the peninsula. Built between the 7th and 11th centuries, at its height it was thought to support 35,000 people. Spread over a larger area than any of the others that we have visited, most of the structures are still at the fringes of the jungle.

We start with El Castillo, a 35m stepped pyramid with steep steps on all four faces, topped with a temple. Like many other pyramids, this was built over an older, smaller one and, since being nominated as a ‘new wonder’, climbing the pyramid is forbidden. Several of the tour guides are demonstrating the acoustics of the structure - standing a certain distance from a face and clapping - making a sound which results in a much louder echo.

We move on to the Group of a Thousand Columns - essentially a large number of columns on three sides of a square, creating a huge plaza which may have been a market. While most of the columns are intact, they are now supporting nothing. Since the Maya had only stone implements, all of their worked stone needed to be softer than their tools. The result of this is that their stone columns alone could not support a stone roof, hence these columns would have had a wooden roof.

We pass a number of other overgrown pyramids and ball courts, and reach a small cenote. ‘Deep, dull, dirty and decidedly unappealing’ is my verdict after visiting those at Humon.

Arriving at the South Group of buildings, we sit under one of the many trees present to drink water and have a late yoghurt breakfast, whilst admiring the sun over the Observatory. This circular building, set on a square platform, has an external spiral staircase with platforms positioned to view the celestial bodies critical to the Maya calendar.

The Nunnery is, like the one at Uxmal, named due to the number of small, cell-like rooms, but it may have been a palace. Next to this is the Church, named due to its proximity to the Nunnery. It is a two storey, two room structure with intricate relief carvings.

The main ball court is, at 168m long, the largest in Mesoamerica - all of the others that we have seen being much smaller. It is possible to imagine play on the smaller courts - the hoop through which the ball need to pass being no more that 3m above the ground. Here the hoop is at least 6m up, and the court so wide and long that they could have used it as a car park!

We circle a platform known as the Tzompantli, whose perimeter engraved panels depict grinning skulls, as it is thought that the heads of sacrificial victims were displayed here.

At the far north of the site at the end of a Mayan road is the Sacred Cenote, a natural well and used for human sacrifice. While somewhat nicer than the earlier cenote, nothing would entice me to take a dip here.

We are all done by the time that most of the big tour buses are starting to arrive. The place is now manic. That includes long queues for both the entrance and the ladies loos! I’m now doubly glad that we made an early start.

We decide to make a side trip to Izamal. It’s a town we missed out on when staying at Mérida but since Chichen Itza is quite a way back along the road to Mérida we are a good way there. The only problem is that there is no direct transport. Never mind, it will be a bit of an adventure and I’m sure it won’t be too difficult. :-)

There is a tour bus driver waiting in the shade for his customers to return. He speaks very good English and explains that we must first take a bus to Kantunil, and from there we can get a colectivo for 4 passengers. He even walks me to the bus stop...which turns out to be the middle of the car park roundabout, under a large tree. We have to wait for a Mérida bus and tell him we are getting off at Kantunil. Apparently it will be along in 25 minutes.

From the roundabout, we have a grandstand view of all the transport chenanagans. The parking is a complete nightmare. You would think for a site as popular as this that they would have got it sorted! For a start off, the exit for all vehicles is through the coach park. But the coach park is full so there are coaches double parked everywhere! Of course, the cosseted tourists that arrive on these buses cannot be expected to walk so they have to be dropped right at the entrance. One driver parks in the middle of the road and offloads umbrellas and water - even opening the lids in case it is too much trouble for his passengers. :-) Meanwhile there is a queue of coaches stacked up behind him.

It looks like one of the double parking offenders has been told to shift. He edges his coach a few yards further up and double parks there instead. Now the coach that it was blocking is attempting to reverse. But he can’t because all the other coaches have moved up! Eventually it all gets sorted with the help of the driver in the first of these waiting coaches. He assists the coach out and then neatly takes the empty space.

Meanwhile we are still waiting for our bus! After attempting to board several incorrect buses (we would have asked before sitting down), a very helpful guy selling tickets explains that we need to get the Oriente bus. Several such buses arrive and depart but they are all Valladolid bound. Our guy has taken us under his wing - he shouts across when the next bus arrives and even tells the driver where to put us off!

Our bus ambles through all the local villages, taking us a full 90 minutes to reach Kantunil. We alight at the T junction in town, walk across the road, and get straight into a colectivo. He already has two passengers so he is ready to roll.

I jump in the front - not that it’s any more spacious as the floor area is occupied by a huge music speaker - they do like their loud music here and maybe he also doubles up as an advertising car?

Our driver is very chatty, wanting to converse despite the fact that he has only a few words of English and I have a similar vocabulary in Spanish! I learn that there are three languages spoken in Izamal - Spanish, Mayan and something else!

We stop to pick up a new passenger on the way...that makes four of them in the back. I’m glad I hogged the front though maybe best not to count my chickens! The lady and her daughter, our original travel companions, depart after a short distance so Ian is free to shuffle back into a proper seat.

We arrive in Izamal where our helpful driver takes us into a bus station to show us where we can buy tickets for our return journey. We thank him and say goodbye, then collect the timetable information.

How to market a small town and attract a lot of tourists? Buy a huge vat of mustard-yellow paint and cover every building in town in it. This is Izamal!

We begin our tour at the 15th century convent. It’s right opposite the bus station and painted a bright mustard yellow, so we can’t miss it. It was built on the base platform of a Mayan pyramid that the Spanish demolished, reusing the masonry. We climb the steps on one of its faces to make our visit. Up top we find a shady quadrangle which is nice given that we have arrived in the heat of the day. We can see some of the original 16th century frescos on the plaster wall - these lay hidden by a layer of whitewash for many years until someone discovered them whilst cleaning.

From here we make our way to the Kinich pyramid. We are promised excellent views of the town and jungle if we make it to the top. Sadly we don’t since renovation is incomplete. Only one face of the pyramid has been cleared of jungle and soil, and the set of steps have only been repaired a short distance up. While we could have scrambled the remaining height, we decide against it as we can see the difficulty others are having in their descent.

Now we are going to have a late lunch. This town serves typical Mayan food and we are keen to sample some. Ian has decided on lime soup. I just point at something on the menu, not really knowing what it is. I am served with chicken and spinach in a tasty sauce. There is also a portion of rice and the usual mashed beans with tortillas.

We are just about in time for the 3.25pm bus so we make our way over to the station and purchase our tickets. It arrives a little late but it’s not too bad - efficient air con and comfy seats, but the door doesn’t close properly. We get a food seller onboard too. I have no idea what he is selling but I will give it a go. It looks like a choux bun with a lurid pink filling. Ian passes. Honestly, it tastes nicer than it looks. It is indeed choux pastry with an apple filling. I have no idea why it is fluorescent pink though!

Our bus takes two hours to make the return journey to Valladolid. It’s not the same company as the one we arrived here with so we have no idea where we will land. As it happens, the station is only one block from our hotel, very handy!

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