Blogs from Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, Mexico, North America - page 4

I had an amazing weekend! I will start with Friday. I think its time I gave some of the volunteering work I do here a bit of a mention, since it is one of the main reasons I have come here. I usually skim over it as it is slightly mundane compared to seeing some of the wonders of the world but it is still incredibly enjoyable and I have learnt loads about the Mexican way of life by doing it. So. Adam and I caught the bus to Kanasin. Originally everyone thought there would be loads of us, but when the word got out that more than enough people were timetabled to go, the numbers starting dropping until there were just 5 of us, and not a single spanish speaker amongst us. We managed to ... read more

So ive been to mexico many times, but through-out my travels to the eastern and western shores of the country; nothing compaires to the ancient temple deep in the Yucatan Peninsula. Chichen Itza, which has been around since ancient times as a Mayan temple used for worhsip, sacrifice and a place of mass gathering. While walking up the roadside into the lost temple, i was surprised to see how beautiful all the carvings in the walls of the material made to build such a beautiful monument. as I walked up to the botton of the stone steps, i heard a strange sound that resembled a bird calling out to the wild, yet i saw no animals around. Later on in my tour the guide told us to stand at the base of the step pyramid; he ... read more

We arrive at The Mayan ruin (this is the one you see in all the advertisements, postcards, history books, etc.) promptly at 8:05 AM. And good thing too, the humidity is ramping up. The site is not directly adjacent to any village anymore but the place is already moving with vendors, ticket-sellers, guides, and a handful of tourists. We are immediately approached by an older, squat guide who calls himself Willy and speaks English with a discernible but indistinct accent. Though it is a solid chunk of change (about $40US) to hire a guide, we go for it since this is our first ruins site and it is the biggest. And we are uncertain how good the interpretative signage will be (we gambled correctly, the signs were almost humorously uninformative). Willy talks almost constantly but in ... read more

Mexico! By Rachael We realise we are very behind in our blog given that we have been in the States for the past month and a half so memory of events may be a little hazy... For the majority of our time in Mexico we were lying on a beach, living the dream. We both turned 23 during our time here so I think for both of us it was a special time on our trip. Anyway, we began our Mexican experience by flying in Mexico City which was no easy feat. We were flying from Havana. At 3am in the queue for check in for our flight Jo commented 'I can't believe none of our flights have been delayed so far'. Big mistake. We got to the front desk and were told 'so you are ... read more

An early morning start. At 7:30 am we were getting into a shuttle and we would not be back until 8 pm. The drive to Chichen Itza from Cancun is about 2 1/2 hours if you go straight there which we did not. We headed first to the cenote. Our guide was Santos. Our drive was Ricardo Martinez....I think. Our driver was laughing so it was hard to tell if it was just Ricardo or Martinez or both because he said like Ricky Martin which is what made him laugh. Santos was of Mayan descent so he was short with the round Mayan face. When he was young his father thought that there would be a future for him if he learned English so he went to school and learned both Spanish and English. He is ... read more