El Castillo, the main event and reason why Chichen Itza is so famous. This would have been the main location for all events. El Castillo is well preserved even after suffering the ravages of time. They say that it would only take two years of no graoundskeeping before the jungle completely took over Chichen Itza.
The "Church" - actually, archeologists are not entirely sure what this building was used for, but their best guess is some kind of church-like function. It is small, yet cool inside. The guides like to call it "Mayan Air Conditioning"
The observatory or El Caracol. The Mayans used this building to plot their calendar and gaze at the starsWednesday was a long day. We started out at about 11:00 in the morning after breakfast room service. Once we got on the bus we headed for Chichen Itza. Our first stop however was a small village called Kaua. In Kaua (Kah-Wah) we stopped at a large vendor for souvenirs. The prices were decent, but the vendors were worse than used car salesman. They would literally follow you everywhere and comment on how nice the thing was that you happen to be looking at. I was a bit put off by this attitude, but we prevailed. In Mexico there is a lot of discount silver and trinkets ready to buy. We ended up purchasing a couple of small calendars after haggling the price down from 80 pesos, to 50 pesos ea. for two. After spending about 45 minutes in the shop, we left for Chichen itza. Arriving at Chichen Itza we were given our tickets for the day and evening show. The entrance is a bit remaniscient of a disney land entrance; large, colored and very put-together. Once inside however was a bit different. Again we were confronted by vendors on the side of the walkway at every point. In fact, some of the vendors would literally run up to you from hundreds of yards away and offer to sell whatever it is that they happen to have. Other than that, the ruins were very interesting. The contrast between Chichen Itza and Ek Balam was apparent. The Chichen Ruins are very tourist friendly and very busy. The site is fascinating and I managed to get quite a few photos of different part of the area. The sun was hot and shade from the trees was very welcome. Lindsay started feeling uncomfortable from walking around so we found some shade by the Cenote and rested for a few minutes. After that we headed for the Temple of the warriors and then back by El Castillo for some more pictures and then we left. After the daytime tour of Chichen, we went to a resteraunt for some authentic mexican food, which was delicious. Lindsay thoroughly enjoyed the "Mexican Sauce" which looked to me like the Pico De Gaillo she likes back home so much. After dinner we left again for Chichen to watch the Light and Sound show. The L&S show was interesting and neat to see the ruins lit up in dramatic lighting, but by the time we saw them, it was 9:30 and we were definately tired from being in a bus and walking in the sun all day. Once we got back, we were exhausted and headed straight for bed.
That pretty much sums up our day. I'm writing this quickly so that I can get some lunch and enjoy the sun. We have reservations at a fancy Mexican resteraunt tonight and we set up a couples massage on one of those grass huts pictured earlier for tomorrow. Until tonight, hasta luego!
3 comments:
Wow! Cool stuff broseph!
Those photos look amazing. They must not let anyone on the ruins? I'm sure you'll have tons of stories to tell us later on.
Most of the ruins have been closed off to climbing. The reasons are varied, I've heard that it's because there are too many visitors coming from Cancun, I've also heard that people who are suffering from heat exhaustion climb and then fall on the way up or down. Pretty much the only site we were allowed to climb at Chichen was the Observatory or El Caracol. The other ruins allow more climbing due to the lack of tourism etc.
Great pix! Sounds like you're taking full advantage of fun, resting and relaxing!
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