One of the reasons we chose Cancun over Bermuda was we felt there was more to see and do.
If you do any research on Cancun the number one tourist thing to do is a trip to Chichen Itza. So with Bermuda hats in hand Zuimei and I went to find a tour company to book the trip. This part for me was a little uncomfortable. I have been in situations where I got screwed over by tour guides before. In China I once took a boat trip on the Yaghtze River which, to my dismay did not include the return trip! Which of course cost extra.
I had visions of some shitty van driving down a red mud road in the jungle, stopping and us becoming “guests” of come local cartel. Turns out I was worried for nothing. You can book the trip at your hotel or though one of the many travel agencies which little the various malls. We went into one intending to just get some information but ended up booking with them. I believe it was $109 but it included everything (except tips of course, this is Mexico after all), the bus, lunch, entrance fees to the various sites etc.
The trip started with a two hour drive to visit to a Mayan village. While we were there I saw a woman in a brightly colored dress weaving what I assume was a hammock. The weaving wasn’t very fine and the thread looked to be nylon. The guide told us that the colors of the dress mean she is in a good mood and approachable. If a woman is wearing muted colors it means she wishes to be left alone.
While there a priest gives a blessing as you enter the village and then they give you a sales pitch about getting your name in Mayan characters and how the money goes to help build schools, blah, blah, blah. It didn’t really matter we would have donated the money anyway. Still I was disappointed to see that even in this “authentic” Mayan village they still sold the same plastic crap made in China. What I really wanted to see was Mayan pottery.
After that we went to the ruins proper. There we joined an English speaking tour which was also provided. At one point our guide ran into trouble with the tour manager of the place, presumably because he didn’t provide a kickback or something but after about 10 minutes it all got worked out.
The pyramid of Kukulcan is the most prominent ruin on the site but unfortunately you cannot climb it. Previous tourists ruined it for everyone after them by carving their names into it’s walls, or pissing in the corners. Honestly how would they feel if someone went and took a shit in their church?
You can get a sense of how impressive it is and our guide showed us a picture of the crowds that gathered on December 21, 2012. There was some 80,000 people!
Now the Mayans were bloody people. You can see some of the remaining paint on the outside of the temples of deep red ochres which represented blood. They really liked sacrifices and often depicted these in their artwork. One of the temple platforms had skulls all over it and was aptly named, the temple of skulls or something wonderful like that. In the image below is the ball court where the bravest warriors would compete to put a hard rubber ball through one of two hoops. There were platforms all around where the royalty, priests and common folk would sit and watch.
What is messed up is they would sacrifice the guy who scored. On the edge, around where the guy in the striped shirt is, is the scene below.
It is not very easy to see so I coloured in the figures below. What you see is the warrior on the left holding a knife in his right hand and the head of the sacrifice in his left. There is blood pouring as serpents from the neck. You will notice the victim is kneeling but not bound. He was a willing sacrifice.
I really liked Chichen Itza. Next time we go I will not go on a tour, I will just rent a car and go because we did not have enough time there to see everything. There were touts scattered around the grounds, but again much as of the same cheap trinkets.
Afterwards we went to one of the sink holes. Chichen Itza means “the mouth of the well of Itza”. Below is one of these wells. Naturally formed in the limestone they are around 30 meters deep and we took a nice break swimming. It would get a little creepy when you thought of the various victims, and sacrifices thrown into the wells over the centuries.
All in all it was an excellent day.
On the last night we went to see Joya, the latest Cirque de Soleil show which was wonderful! They allowed photos but asked that no video be taken. So here is the official clip from Youtube.
On the last day the sun finally came out. It was a little disappointing that it was just as we were leaving but it made it very difficult to leave. Next time we go, I think we will make it for longer…or maybe just buy a time-share.