Chichen Itza and tour guide mistruths.

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We arrived at Merida at a rather unimpressive hostel, but we're only here to visit Chichen Itza anyway. It turned out to be a bit of a let-down, after the massive temples of Teotihaucan, the jungle ruins of Palenque and lofty Monte Alban, Chichen Itza, which is a 'wonder of the world' had smaller temples, less impressive backdrop and a very 1980s light show at night, which we bothered to stick around for.

Perhaps it's because a lot of the others had to be restored, but I expected Chichen Itza to be the best of all the archaeological sites we visited. I guess it was pretty good, but had been overshadowed by our previous ruin explorations.

Another thing which occurs to me from our ruin exploration is the differing opinions of the tour guides. We've overheard numerous guides giving differing accounts as to how things have happened in history and what different things were used for. So make sure if you get a tour guide, you take their advice with a grain of salt.

I already had my suspicions about tour guide fibs, when the one in Mexico City spoke about the pregnant Virgin of Guadaloupe as if it was historic fact rather than religious nonsense. I've since read that although this story supposedly happened around 1530, there's no record of it until the mid 17th century, and priests kept pretty good records. This kind of folk catholicism which is popular in Latin America can only last for so long until with a little bit more education, the locals figure out the truth.

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