Chichén Itzá

Yes, we went to the wonderful Chichén Itzá so famous in this part of Mexico. Chichén (as some locals fondly say) was the first stop on our weekend away. We had breakfast at 6:30 Friday morning (June 13) here at the Central House and then loaded up the vans and left. Nelson and Jorge were our drivers for this trip. We arrived at Chichén Itzá shortly before 9 am. Our goal was to beat the crowds and the heat of the day.

Nelson, one of the drivers, led us on an hour-long tour of the archaeological sites, and then we were free until noon to explore on our own or shop the dozens of vendors lining the pathways.

Our first stop was the big ball court. This is similar to the ball court we saw in Uxmal, and the same ball game was played here with the same gory beheading of the winning team's captain.
This ball court is the biggest yet discovered in the Yucatan Peninsula. It is over 400 feet long. The acoustics are so good here that a person speaking in a normal tone of voice at one end can clearly be heard at the other end.
We took a group photo here, but I haven't managed to get a copy yet.

A glimpse of Chichén Itzá's largest building, El Castillo (The Castle), from behind a wall.

El Castillo viewed from the north

This was my first glimpse of the sacrificial cenote, located about a five-minute walk north of El Castillo

I walked over to the side so I could see down into the water better. It is rare to find an open cenote like this, unless you are close to the coastline.

Women and children were thrown into this cenote as sacrifices to the rain god. It is quite a drop to the water, even more than it appears in this picture. Because they were thrown in wearing all their ornamental clothes and jewelry, they inevitably drowned.

Our tour guide, Nelson, is leaning over the fence explaining the process to us. Regan and Sioned (left) are listening closely, but Amii and Stephanie (right) apparently have other things on their minds.

Before being thrown into the cenote, the victims had a purifying steam bath in this stone hut at the edge of the cliff.

A view from another angle. We stayed here talking for quite a while, so I was snapping pictures out of boredom. You know, when the tour guide IS giving useful information but your mind wanders anyway.

Although the picture does not do it justice, the Temple of the Warriors is quite the impressive structure. The number of pillars in front sometimes gives it the name Group of the Thousand Columns.

There are buildings ender the very ground we were walking on, as this partial excavation shows.

What? I like them, ok? And there are three on this picture! How cool is that?

The view from the east.

This is the Observatory. Its Spanish name, El Caracol, means the snail. It was named that for a spiral staircase inside. From the locations of observation points inside and outside, we know that the Mayans watched the autumn and spring equinoxes as well as the summer solstice. They also watched the stars and planets closely.

We ended our tour here. There were some other buildings. It was interesting to see the difference in architectural styles, as this area was developed during a different time period.

Alright, if you think I am crazy about the iguanas, you need to meet Alex. He spent a full three minutes chasing this guy around before settling in to have this fascinating conversation with him.

Jasmin, Kayla, and I went off the beaten path and found another group of ruined buildings.

When we finished exploring, we spent some time looking through the vendor stands. Every morning, dozens of locals roll in their goods on carts and set up their stands for the day. They charge outrageous prices for cheesy trinkets and try to draw in any tourist they can with phrases like "cheaper than Walmart" and "only ten pesos-one dollar!" (We liked stands like that, because most of us only had pesos, and the current exchange rate is $12.2 pesos = $1 USD.) My favorite was when one of them used a whistle-type thingy to make the jaguar call: a harsh, grating sound. Then he called out to us as we were passing by, "Get it for your ex-boyfriend!" It was toooooo funny!

 

 Some of them claimed they gave us better prices because we spoke Spanish, but I am not convinced. In any case, we had fun bargaining when we found things we couldn't live without. Thankfully the pathways were mostly shaded, so the heat was kept to a minimum. We were glad to leave at noon, because the crowds were steadily getting thicker.

 

We ate lunch at a nearby restaurant that served buffet-style. The best dish was the breaded fish; the coating was seasoned perfectly. There were also salads, vegetables, rice, beans, chicken, pork, and desserts including fresh fruit, bread pudding, and Jello. 

 

 I need to interrupt myself for a moment here to talk about the importance of football--soccer, as we know it--here in Mexico. Since we arrived, the World Cup has been the hottest topic. Teams from all over the world are gathering in Brazil for this month-long tournament that only happens every four years. Well, from our table we had the perfect view of the TV, which was showing the final twenty minutes of Mexico's first game in the World Cup. The score was 0-0, until Mexico scored a goal near the end of the game. The whole restaurant let out a cheer, but I am pretty sure our table made the most noise. Just saying, we are twenty students, and we can raise a pretty good shout if we want to. We were finished eating, but we waited the extra five minutes until time ran out and Mexico officially won 1-0. By then the restaurant was filling up with other tourists, and I don't think some of them appreciated the amount of noise we made as we headed for the door. Judging from the looks on the faces and the amount of muttering, you know.

 

Eric and Sioned are our soccer fanatics here in the house, and they keep us updated on what is going on. On Monday, the US won their first match 2-1 against Ghana, for any of you who care. Tuesday Mexico played against Brazil, and neither team scored. When Jasmin and I went out for supper with our language partners Tuesday night, they were horrified to hear that we hadn't watched the game. Their employers had given them the afternoon off so they could watch, along with probably every other citizen in Mexico. So the World Cup is definitely a hot topic here. We even had lunch a half hour early Tuesday because the game started at 1:00, our usual lunch time.

 

Anyway, back to our weekend away. After lunch, we got back into the vans and headed towards Tulum. We stopped partway there at another cenote to swim for an hour. This cenote was much deeper, but a platform was built across one end so we had a place to stand knee-deep in water. The steep wooden spiral staircase had two jumps built in, which proved to be the highlight. We filled the small area with shrieks as we jumped from horrible heights into the clear, cool water. Some people needed a little encouragement before jumping, and we were happy to provide that as well. It doesn't look scary from the bottom! I didn't go off the high jump; the other one was quite high enough for me. Regan has a video of me jumping--think screams all the way down...

 

After I got my fill of watching others jump, I put on my life jacket and floated around the cenote for a while. I could have swam it on a normal day, but I was already exhausted and I didn't want to run out of gas on the far side. It was so peaceful floating around staring up at the ceiling. I had to use a lot of will power to keep from thinking about the fish in the water. Of all the things to fear about swimming, fish have to be the worst. I will wade through seaweed, jump off a high jump, and swim underwater, but when I heard there were fish in the cenote, I almost got out of the water. Even sharks don't scare me as much as little fish (come on, think probability here--what are the chances of me seeing a shark?) But I paddled around the circumference of the cenote without being touched by a fish, much to my relief.

 

 

I didn't take my camera into this cenote, but Regan shared this picture taken from the stairway. This is the left third of the cenote: we jumped into the right third, and the other third was open to swimming/snorkeling. Once again, the water was perfectly clear. I couldn't get my fill of just gazing at the beauty around me!

After leaving the cenote, we drove for another hour before arriving at the hostel that would become home for the next few days. Check it out in my next post!

Do you love iguanas or hate swimming with fish? Leave a comment to stick up for me! :D