Bright and early this morning, Tere whisked me away to the Chichen Itza. On the short walk to the site, I was informed that "it" in Mayan means "sorcerer" and "za" means "water", so Itza means "sorcerer of water". Leaving as early as we did, I was one of the first guests of the day. I even beat all the workers who were soon busy restoring various ruins and cleaning the grounds and the vendors who were soon peddling their wares upon all of the tourists. Upon entering the site, the first thing you see is the magnificent Pyramid of Kukulcan. Words really can't describe it. It was easy to see why this has been named one of the new seven wonders of the world:
The unrestored side of the Pyramid of Kukulcan.
Me in front of the Pyramid of Kukulcan.
The Mayans really had it together. This pyramid has four sides. There are 91 stairs on each side, for a total of 364 stairs. The top platform makes 365, the number of days in the year. There are acoustic tricks that the holes in the top of the pyramid play on those on the ground level. If you make a loud noise, like clapping your hands, you hear the echo of your clap, but with it comes another explosion of sound, that to me sounds almost like a cat's yell. It's impossible to describe, but impressive nonetheless. Another amazing point of interest is that the pyramid itself is not exactly lined up north-south-east-west. It is slightly askew so that precisely on the summer solstice, as the sun sets, the sun hits the side of the pyramid and little triangles of light hit the snake banister. These triangles make the snake look exactly like a diamondback rattlesnake. I wasn't able to see this firsthand, since I wasn't here on the solstice, but a picture of the event was truly remarkable.
The rest of the site is just as impressive. The further I walked and the more I saw, the more impressed I was and the happier I became that the Spaniards/Catholics never found this place back in the day, because surely they would have razed it to the ground and used the stones for roads or yet another church... Here are a few more pictures of the site:
Me on the ball court. You can see the small, circular stones they had to pass the ball through on either side.
The observatory.
Another smaller pyramid. Here you can really see the snake head staircase.
There are over 700 columns at the site. This is the warrior temple and the columns in front represent Mayan warriors.
After the visit to Chichen Itza, I had to pack my things and head to Tulum, where I will be staying for two nights. On the way, we stopped in Valladolid, which was the third city founded in Mexico, way back in 1554. The historic downtown area is covered with cobblestone and the buildings here are painted in pastels. The main square has (surprise, surprise) a cathedral, and also an amazing park where people can congregate and enjoy time together.
It was not as charming a town as Izamal, but I did enjoy an amazing lunch here and ate what is now my favorite Mexican food. It's called cochinita pibil and it is amazing! It is slow-roasted pork which is covered in banana leaves and then buried as it cooks. It is well-seasoned and adorned with limes and sour oranges as it cooks. I could have eaten the entire pig, I swear. After I was rolled out of the restaurant, we made our way to my seaside bungalow for the next two nights. Here's the view from the hammock on my patio:
Tomorrow we are visiting the seaside Mayan ruins of Tulum and then the UNESCO listed Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve. Should be another amazing day!
The rest of the site is just as impressive. The further I walked and the more I saw, the more impressed I was and the happier I became that the Spaniards/Catholics never found this place back in the day, because surely they would have razed it to the ground and used the stones for roads or yet another church... Here are a few more pictures of the site:
After the visit to Chichen Itza, I had to pack my things and head to Tulum, where I will be staying for two nights. On the way, we stopped in Valladolid, which was the third city founded in Mexico, way back in 1554. The historic downtown area is covered with cobblestone and the buildings here are painted in pastels. The main square has (surprise, surprise) a cathedral, and also an amazing park where people can congregate and enjoy time together.
It was not as charming a town as Izamal, but I did enjoy an amazing lunch here and ate what is now my favorite Mexican food. It's called cochinita pibil and it is amazing! It is slow-roasted pork which is covered in banana leaves and then buried as it cooks. It is well-seasoned and adorned with limes and sour oranges as it cooks. I could have eaten the entire pig, I swear. After I was rolled out of the restaurant, we made our way to my seaside bungalow for the next two nights. Here's the view from the hammock on my patio:
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