Chichen Itza

14-07-2016  Chichen Itza

The minivan picked us up at 5:30am to shuttle us to Chichen Itza.  It was mostly dark and quiet in the neighborhood, except for the few that were still out trying to party “just a little bit longer.”  People watching made the ride was entertaining, looking out the window at this madness.  We then arrived at a gas station meeting point to switch over to a larger, comfortable tour bus that took us the rest of the way to the archeological site.

Last night, I spent a bit of time reading about the Mayan complex of Chichen Itza (sounds close to Chicken Pizza.)  What amazes me is how much we don’t know about it.  Our guide Marco (an archeologist) spoke to us a bit on the bus’ microphone along the way.  The “way” is a long highway cut through total flat jungle with nothing on either side except for a wall of green.  Marco has a Master’s Degree in both archeology and anthropology and is married to a Mayan girl.  He was a great guide who spoke in a captivating manner and gave us tons of information.  One thing I took away from him is that he mentioned he liked to “dig” and that there is just so much more to be unearthed in the area. However, having to put food on the table, he would starve doing that every day and must guide tours instead.  

We arrived at the complex around 8am and were the first big bus.  Marco mentioned that later in the day the entire lot would be packed.  He said that in the summer the site gets between 9000 and 11000 visitors every day!  The humidity was off the charts and the main temple seemed to stand alone.  The sun was hitting is just right and people gathered around to take pictures.  On the Fall and Spring equinox, the ledges and staircases cast a special shadow that make a serpent slither down the diagonal of the building from the heavens.  Pretty cool, but we were no where near the right time of year for that to happen.  On those days 80000 visitors show up.  I guess we will have to settle for pictures on the Internet.

Marco was all about numbers!  What we have found out so far from archaeologists, is that the Mayans were obsessed.  Everything lined up in some way or another with numbers, or the stars, or even magnetic North.  That one still gets me, and I will have to read up on it, is how in the world they found magnetic North without and metal around!?!?!?  The Mayans tied things to their calendar, women’s fertility cycles, and constellation.  There are lots of 9’s and 13’s in the architecture.  And, as Marco mentioned more than once, we are still figuring things about about them on a regular basis and have no idea how they did some of the things they did.  

The games:  Wow!  Any of you ever play a sporting game with a ball where the winner’s captain gets beheaded as the result?  Well, they did.  Teams would play in this ball court for the king and royalty for hours and up to a day until someone scored.  The ball used was a giant heap of natural rubber weighing up to 12 pounds!  The captain was the only one that used a stick, no feet or hands or heads, but you could use any other part of your body to fling to the captain who would attempt to bat it through the ring.  First ball through the ring wins!  We met a guy, one of Marco’s friends that plays in a modern Mayan tournament (without the decapitation of course.)

Oh yes, there were decapitations.  The scary wall, as I would call it, was where they would line up their enemies, chop their heads off, put them on a stake, and make the other enemies watch.  How pleasant?!?!  Don’t mess with these guys.

Our tour gave us some time on our own, and I had to get to the Sacred Cenote.  A cenote is a natural sinkhole in the limestone where freshwater pools.  Some you can dive in, and some are (or were) used for sacrificial offerings by the Mayans.  This particular one was dredged in the early 1900’s and they found all sorts of stuff down there:  bones, gold, jade, and weapons.  Today, the area is roped off for good reason.  The walls are vertical, and there is no getting out.

Our Chichen Itza trip came to what seemed like a quick end as we boarded the tour bus back to Playa del Carmen.   Once back in town, we got some more money from a working ATM, got dinner at the restaurant next to the hotel, and chilled.  The sales touts are not that bad around here compared to what you read on other travel blogs and reviews.  Shopkeepers kindly ask you to come in and see their merchandise, but stop after one “no, gracias.”  Turkey… now that’s heavy sales touting.  Those guys never stop.

Tomorrow, we are taking a taxi the 45 minutes North to Secrets Silversands where Chuck and Julie are getting married.  Having a Facebook event made for it, we can see other party members post their room numbers and when they arrived.  Pretty cool.  I am sure it will be a great time.  My goal is to find the little catamaran sailboats pictured in their media, but not mentioned on the “activities list” and take one out for a ride.