Chichén Itzá & Tulum


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North America » Mexico » Yucatán » Chichén Itzá
December 20th 2010
Published: December 21st 2010
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The original inspiration for me to travel through Mexico was to visit the ruins of Chichén Itzá, seeing as it was voted in a few years ago as one of the new seven wonders of the world. After wandering through the jaw-droppingly stunning jungle ruins of Palenque two days before, it was always going to be a difficult task for these ruins to better that Mayan experience. Still, Chichén Itzá has some superb buildings that capture your gaze, such as the perfect step pyramid structure of El Castillo which adorns all images of Chichén Itzá that you are likely to see. The most significant aspect of this pyramid is its alignment with the Mayan calendar. By adding together the steps on each face of the pyramid there are a total 364 steps ascending to the apex of the pyramid, which is the 365th level. On each side of these central stairways are 9 terraces, making 18 terraces on each face, which symbolises the 18 months of the calendar (there were 18 months of 20 days in the calendar, with 5 unlucky days making up the total of 365). Added to this, there are 52 flat panels on the pyramid, indicating the 52 year cycle of the calendar which I discussed in my blog on Palenque. If all of that wasn't impressive enough, during the autumn and spring equinox, a shadow is cast by each of the terraces, creating the illusion of the body of a snake descending the steps, finishing at the base of the steps where there is the large carved stone head of a snake, completing the illusion.

One of the structures at the site which appealed to me was the enormous open air rectangular ball court, where a violent and difficult game was played in front of a packed audience. The ball court at Chichén Itzá is the largest one discovered in any of the Mayan sites and it includes diagrams along the wall of what took place during the game, including a sacrificial decapitation of a team member! Historians are not entirely sure which team had to sacrifice a player, but one school of thought is that it was the victorious team. If this was the case, then I think even my competitive spirit may have taken a back seat for once. The other significant site is the crumbling observatory with its off centre windows which are aligned with certain stars and planets, paving the way for the Mayan calendar to be calculated. I should also mention that I saw some of the elevated roads that the Mayans built to link their major centres, sometimes stretching for a hundred kilometres in a dead straight line. By elevating the roads above the natural undulations of the earth, it made for a smooth journey for your weary muscles.

From Chichén Itzá I headed to Playa del Carmen, which turned out to be unlike any other part of Mexico that I had seen prior to this. In fact, it didn't feel like Mexico at all. It was like walking into a congregation of rich North Americans who have little interest in anything outside of spending money, talking loudly and behaving like imbeciles. They certainly exhibited scant interest in learning about the culture of the country they were 'visiting' and I couldn't wait to get out of there.

To escape this maddening scene I caught a bus to nearby Tulum, which was a world apart from its neighbour down the road. Tulum was recommended to me by a friend back in Oz and I can now see why they did so. The location is simply idyllic, perched on the edge of the warm turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea with palm trees swaying gently with the breeze. I certainly enjoyed unwinding here after nearly two months of being on the road. A 45 minute walk away from my wooden hut were the ruins of what was once a trading post for the Mayas, which is a small site surrounded by an imposing wall, housing a step pyramid, an ancient light house and what must have once been residential and storage buildings. The beach at these ruins is where I spent most of my time, dividing my hours between reading, swimming and dozing.

Another highlight from Tulum was spending an hour or so at Grand Cenote, which is a natural formation as the result of a sinkhole in the limestone foundation that forms the earth in this part of Mexico. This has created a sunken oasis where you can swim in clear freshwater - I certainly noticed the lack of salt in terms of my efforts to stay buoyant! There are some expansive caves you can wade through and I even spotted a turtle enjoying a leisurely swim in the pure water. If I wasn't trying to save a few pennies before I land in Spain, I would have been quite keen to go SCUBA diving in the underwater caves of this particular cenote. Alas, I had to return to my accommodation on the beach and watch the sun set as I pondered which drink to consume during happy hour to send me off to a blissful sleep.

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