Uxmal

Friday morning we loaded up the vans and left at 7:30 for Uxmal, one of the many Mayan ruins sites in the Yucatan.

Arturo, one of the van drivers, was also our tour guide. He showed us around for almost an hour. Some of the kids were shocked when Val asked him to do the tour in English. They had been struggling to ask him something in Spanish, and they felt cheated that he knew English all along!

Again, I will let the pictures tell the story of our few hours in Uxmal.

This was our first glimpse of Uxmal.

This temple was one of the few structures we were NOT allowed to climb on. Btw, Arturo is in the foreground of this picture, wearing the hat.

The Mayan rain god. This image adorned each corner of one of the buildings.

Walking on one of the buildings, on our way to another building.

The entrance to one of the gathering areas.

This is one of the acoustic marvels of Mayan architecture. Standing in the middle of the open area, you can clap your hands and hear an immediate echo from all sides. This allowed people to speak to a large assembly without needing a microphone.

More buildings

This was where we were when the tour was finished. Everyone headed straight for the stairs! I was still dealing with my new diagnosis of mono, so I thought twice about climbing. As one of the conditions of being allowed to go along on the trip, I had promised Val I would not push myself climbing around at Uxmal. But I couldn't resist.

So I started climbing! Jasmin was happy to stay behind with me, but I talked us into climbing. Doesn't it just look so fun?



As we were climbing, I had to stop for a moment, because this sign gave me a fit of the giggles. "Climbing is dangerous." No, really? What part of these stairs is dangerous? On the way down I started giggling all over again, and I stopped and took this picture.



Oh yes, it was worth it! The view was incredible.

Arturo told us some people start going down, but then they freeze. They can't see the stairs anymore; it looks like a giant slide. In this picture, I captured that perception. His advice? Go down sideways.

Looking out over the site.

I zoomed in on this building, which we had just finished exploring.

From the far corner of this building, I took a picture of a few others on the top.

One of the most gripping things about this place is the solitude. I turned around from taking the last picture, which had several of my friends on it, and took this picture. I got the eerie feeling I was completely alone, seeing these ruins for the first time since the Mayans had left. The structure here is the façade of a building, all that is left. Jasmin took a picture of the other side, which is two pictures down from here.

Trees, as far as the eye can see.

Jasmin walked over and took this picture of that façade. I got sidetracked talking to a lady who was vacationing here with her husband. They are elementary school teachers in Santa Fe, so we chatted about the education world for twenty minutes.

Check out this guy! As we walked past rock walls or rock heaps, we saw numerous iguanas sunning themselves. This one was daring me to come any closer. I do keep a respectful distance from iguanas, if at all possible.

This is the view from another high point of the ruins. In the lower left of this photo is the ball field, which appears in the next couple pictures as well.

This is the ball field. The ball game was not a game; it was more of a ritual. The two teams had to use their elbows, knees, and hips to hit the hard rubber ball through a ring located on the far wall (close-up below). The captain of the winning team was killed as a sacrifice.

This is the ring the ball had to go through. It looked pretty interesting!

Aunt Lea, this picture is for you. Can you identify this bird? It has the strangest call! We heard it first, and then it nicely posed for us on this sign.

The other side of the temple we first saw as we entered the site.

I stood at the bottom of the stairs and took this picture looking up. I was trying to figure out how many steps there were and how tall they were so I could figure out the "grade" of the staircase, but I couldn't do that much math in my head! Trust me; it is as steep as it looks on this picture! And those steps are tall! Jasmin and I wondered why the Mayans, being such short people, would build such tall steps in their buildings!

The foundation of a home.

This part is off to the side a little bit, and we almost missed it. Some of the architecture here is noticeably different, and a sign informed us that these buildings are older than the rest of the site.



This was one of the ways of capturing rain water to preserve it for the dry season.

 

 We were quiet as we walked out of the site, thinking about the people who lived and worked here. Uxmal has been my favorite part of the trip so far. It's hard to explain, but it gave me such a feeling of awe and wonder. So much to absorb in the three short hours we were there. At the risk of sounding like a tourist guide or an advertisement, I am going to insert the following sentence: if you are ever in Yucatán, Uxmal is a must-see!