Blogs from Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, Mexico, North America - page 8

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 ... read more

FELIZ NAVIDAD i stua! Hei alle sammen, her kommer en liten oppdatering siden sist! De siste dagene har vaert fulle av inntrykk! Vi har lyttet, foelt, luktet smakt og speidet vaar vei fra vaar elskede lille Isla Mujeres, via downtown Cancuns skitne gater og Chichen Itzas slaaende og mektige mayaruiner, til Meridas hektigste storbyliv hvor vi naa sitter paa vaare smaa lille rumper og oppdaterer blogg :) Siste dag paa Isla Mujeres startet paa 0yas skilpaddefarm, hvor Hanne lykkelig fikk holde en skilpaddebaby som en gang i fremtiden vil vokse seg st0rre enn henne selv, amazing. Etter tortuganja fikk vi haik av et rart dansk par som kom fresende i en liten golfbil (!) endelig fikk vi testet amerikanernes foretrukkede transportmiddel paa 0ya, artig med fart i! Vi fikk bl.a med oss snorkling paa en nydelig ... read more

This was supposed to be our beach day. Woke up a bit sore after the accident, debated for a while but finally decided to go to Chichen Itza. Round two was successful. We walked around for about 5 hrs marvelling at one of the new seven Wonders of the World. Significant ruins are the 'El Castillo' or main pyramid, the Ball Court, The Temple of Warriors, The Temple of a Thousand Columns, the Market place, La Iglesia (the Church), El Caracol (the Observatory). El Castillo is huge and very impressive. You can stand at the bottom at a certain spot and clap and you hear a loud return echo. At the foot of the stairs on either side, there is a serpent head. Apparently, on the equinox, the pyramid casts a shadow so that it ... read more

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 ... read more

My adventure started at Heathrow on 16th of September where it took 5 Check In staff to check me in because they hadn't come across anybody who was planning to spend the night at JFK airport before! The plane journey on Kuwait Airways was uneventful and it was a little strange to be a completely 'dry' plane. The night at JFK was OK - I found a quiet area of the terminal to lie down and managed to get a few hours sleep, I guess the jet lag helped with that. The next morning I flew with Jet Blue down to Cancun and immediately got a bus down to Playa del Carmen. The resort seemed quiet but I hooked up with a couple of guys from my dorm room and went out with them for a ... read more