Cancun

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We have landed in sunny Cancun for a week of R&R before we tackle South America and the final months left of our journey. After going through immigration and then pressing the magic button to see if you are to have a customs check or not we headed to the land of all inclusive food and alcohol we share 7 days with loud, obnoxious, self absorbed Americans.

Our first morning we were taken to one of the sister properties for breakfast but as well all know there is no such thing as a free meal. Once fed we were taken on a fast talking, this is the way of future travelling buy x amount of points and you can redeem them anywhere in the world at one of the sister resorts, blah, blah, blah.... we managed to escape about an hour later but not after watching videos on how good their program was. We are but two poor backpackers and buying into this program is not viable was the only way we could get thru to them we were not interested.

We walked back to our hotel from our breakfast. A walk that took nearly an hour and we experienced the tropical hot heat of Mexico and we are in for a week of cooking in the sun. In 45 minutes I had managed to get a tan and figured I had had more than my fair share of sun for the day and opted for shade by the pool to recover the afternoon.

Most of our days were the same, wake up, breakfast and then laze by the pool, go have lunch back to the pool and then work out which restaurant we will have dinner. What a way to chill out. The free cocktails went down smoothly and one had to practice restraint at the buffet tables when eating or more than a few inches would have been added to one’s waistline.

We did the opportunity to go to one of the New Ancient Wonder’s of the world, Chich’en Itza and on the way a swim in an old waterhole. Jay jumped off the ledge into the water but I will admit to being to chicken to do so as without my glasses on and looking down into a dark waterhole the distance seemed to have doubled and I talked myself out of it. I opted for the gentle dive in from the edge of the waterhole. We also found that our cameras wouldn’t focus down here as the light was so bad so my great photos of Jay jumping into the water are all blurry which is disappointing but never mind. From the waterhole we went to our lunch location, had some locally prepared pork that just melted in your mouth and after lunch was time to visit Chich’en Itza.

Once we arrived on location at and our guide gave us the history lesson to go with it as we walked around in the humid heat. Chich’en Itza is an ancient Mayan ruin that is rumoured to have been built around 600AD and the name means “the mouth of the well of the Itza”. El Castillo is the main pyramid that you see and during the equinox (March and November) thousands gather to see the shape of a serpent emerge on the side of the pyramid. Apparently there are several smaller pyramids built within this outer exterior as well. There are 4 sides to this pyramid and each side has 9 terraces that have 92 steps leading to the top and including a step to an alter or platform at the very top make up the 365 days in the year through the middle. The 9 terraces that go around the pyramid that represent the 18 months that comprised the Mayan year (it’s easier to look at the photo than try to explain it).

Further along we visited the “Great Ball Court” if ever I needed an incentive not to succeed in a sport, this place would be it. The court is about 150m long and there are big doughnut like “goals”, bits of stone along the sides of the wall that have a slope on them about 5m up. There are several temple like structures that were like viewing points for the esteemed above the playing field. The lower section of the walls have carvings of the games that were played here. We were told that the game was made 0f 2 teams and a stone “ball” had to be hit through the goals placed evenly along the pitch. The walls seem to be on a slight sloping angle and have got carvings of the game on them. Near the goals you can see where the stone ball has missed the goals over many years. The winner of this game (not quite sure on how he was picked) was then sacrificed to the gods. Yay.

There are many temples and sacrificial areas of Chich’en Itza and I am not going into depth about them all, however two other areas that caught my attention were the sacrificial well; a murky green pit of water that virgins were sacrificed by throwing them into it complete with white robes, jade face masks and other items of value to appease the gods for good harvests.

The other was the observatory. From here the Mayans set out their own calendar, studied the stars and astronomical changes that assisted them with their crops and also probably founded some of their beliefs through their study of Venus. Overall Chich’en Itza is a fascinating place that requires a little longer than the 3 hours we had to enjoy and see everything.

Finally our last day by the pool arrived and we were off again and heading to Mexico City.

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