Izamal and the Balankanche Caves

This morning after breakfast, I said goodbye to the Hacienda Xcanatun, my home in Merida, and made my way towards the Chichen Itza. On the way, we stopped at a delightful little town called Izamal. It was described to me as a "magical city" and the cute little town certainly lived up to that description. Izamal was named after the Mayan sun god, and as a result all of the houses and shops along the cobblestone streets of the historic downtown area were painted yellow with white trim.






Horse-drawn carriages and people on bikes were commonly seem in the downtown area. One of the main features in town was the plaza grande, in the center of town, which was dominated by a cathedral. It was unfortunate that the Spanish decided to completely desecrate one of the seven Mayan temples located in town in order to make it. As the Spaniards/Catholics often did in the "new world", they completely destroyed the local religious center to create their own. The resulting cathedral and monastery is truly beautiful, but the dark history behind it tainted its beauty for me a bit...










After visiting the cathedral, we made our way to one of the Mayan ruins that the Catholics didn't completely demolish, and from the top of it, there were incredible views all around the town.










After I had made my way back down the precarious "path" to the top of the pyramid, Tere drove us to the Balankanche Caves. These sets of underground caverns were used for thousands of years by the Mayans. Where stalactites a stalagmites met, they formed columns, and the ancient Mayans believed these were tears from their rain god, and so they made offerings at these places. After walking for what seemed an eternity (the lack of oxygen at the further reaches of the cave didn't help matters), we came to several of these natural columns and saw offerings, some of which were replicas of objects over a thousand years old.










After making our way out of the cave and gulping down much needed oxygen, we made our way to my hotel for the night, the Lodge at Chichen Itza. It is the closest hotel to the site, and I can't wait for our early morning excursion to Chichen tomorrow. Since we are right here, we should be the first ones into the site in the morning. When I say we are "right here", how close do I mean? Well, here is a picture from the lobby of the hotel:



Yes, that is the observatory of Chichen Itza you see in the background... Tomorrow is looking like it's going to be an amazing day!


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