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Published: December 1st 2008
After a quick breakfast we were on our way to Chichen Itza. Our transport for the rest of the trip in Mexico was a 18-seater van. Including the driver Pascual we were at capacity. Lucky for me I don’t suffer from motion sickness so I was quite happy taking any of the seats, including riding atop the van with our bags.
Chichen Itza is one of the more visited ruins given its relative proximity to Cancun. I think it’s well worth spending some money to hire a good local guide for at least one of the ruins you are going to visit because you’ll get so much more out of it. Our guide, Fellipe, was outstanding, giving us a quick lesson on Mayan history and explaining the significance of major structures at the site. The first structure you see is the El Castillo (the Castle) and it basically represents the Mayan calendar in stone. It has 91 steps on all 4 sides and if you count the roof comb on top you get the number 365, the number of days in a year. There are other combinations and permutations, adding up to other significant numbers in the Mayan calendar. What’s
Chichen Itza
91 steps on each sideneat about this structure is the moving serpent illusion along its northern corner at spring and autumn equinoxes. The feather serpent is a combination of creatures: eagle = heaven, serpent = earth and jaguar = underworld. It has the head of a serpent, teeth of a jaguar and feathers of an eagle. This is only slightly different from the Incas: condor, serpent and puma. The El Castillo was unfortunately closed to climbing after a woman fell to her death in 2006.
The ball court is also interesting. It’s a rectangular field with two ring-like structures high on the wall on either side where teams of seven players try to get a ball through without using their hands. Fellipe said that the captain of the winning team would be sacrificed. Anyone to be sacrificed apparently got his spine cracked so as to paralyze the person, then the heart was removed and placed on the Mayan Sacrificial Stone Chac Mool on top of Templo de los Guerreros. The Mayans were advanced in their astronomy knowledge and had observatories similar to the Incas. There were other structures including Gran Jeugo de Pelota, Gropo de las Mil Columnas and Edificio de las Monjas
but I don’t remember much about them.
It was already mid-afternoon when we went for buffet lunch at the Ik Kil Eco-archaeological Park where there is also a cenote by the same name. Cenotes are underground water holes formed in the Yucatan peninsula due to its soft limestone bedrock. Some say there are around 3000, give or take 1000. It was amazingly beautiful, but it was too bad the owner felt necessary to put in fake stalactites and maybe fake tree roots too. I didn’t go in because of my rational fear of deep water but everyone had a good time, including several spectacular dives!
We arrived in Merida in the evening. I didn’t think I would be hungry after the huge lunch buffet but I was ready to eat again! We walked to the main plaza and found a restaurant next to the cathedral. Catedral de San Ildefonso was Mesoamerica’s oldest, built in 1598. On weekends adjacent streets are closed off to traffic and we were able to dine right on the street. I had pastor tacos for 12 peso each. One of our tour leader trainees bought a bottle of high quality Don Julio Tequila. I
Chichen Itza
Feather serpent am not a tequila connoisseur but it smelled like rubbing alcohol to me. The Big E said it was smooth; I’ll take his word for it. :-) Various bands were playing on the street and many people were dancing to the Latin beats, some of them quite good. Many local men hung around to ask women to dance with them. Our female tour leader trainee was dancing with an older gentleman in suspenders. Believe it or not he was actually quite entertaining to watch! I busted a few moves myself before calling it a night.
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