Chichen Itza - Mayan Ruins

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Trip Start Aug 16, 2003 Previous
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  Chichen Itza, Mexico
Thursday, February 19, 2004

We had some hanging around at the bus stations along the way, but by late afternoon we were dropped off in the tiny town of Piste - the nearest settlement to the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza. We struggled with our packs as we walked the length of the main street (and in fact, whole town) as we tried to establish our accommodation for the next couple of nights. We eventually settled into a hotel that laid claim to being the nearest to the ruins, and enjoyed a meal at the adjoined restaurant with a view of the pool area (not to mention the menagerie of cats, dogs, birds and insects that called the grounds home!).

There was no pressing need to rise early the next day, as we were visiting the ruins in the afternoon in order to incorporate the light and sound show that was to be performed at 7 o'clock that evening.

Carved Serpent's Heads

After a reasonable kilometre or so walk to the western entrance, we joined the hundreds of tourists (most of whom had come down from Cancun by coach) and entered the ancient site. As we wandered from building to building, we noticed similarities and differences to the other sites we had visited, but we were impressed with how much better preserved and decorative Chichen Itza appeared. Each of the buildings had a plaque nearby, detailing its usage, and often having a pictoral representation of it in its former glory.

One of the highlights of the day was once we had scaled the steps to reach the summit of El Castillo (the Pyramid of Kulkulcan) and had a panoramic view of the surrounding structures and amazingly flat landscape for miles around. After walking around all four faces we descended the steps as we would do with those at home. To our amusement, this brought gasps of terror and disbelief from the American holiday makers we passed who were inching down step by step on their behinds. A particular favourite comment we heard was "Oh my God, look at those people - they're going STRAIGHT DOWN!". We did chuckle, and then even more heartily once at the bottom as we saw that EVERYONE else made their way excruciatingly slowly both up and down in all manner of comedy ways - from the 'bum-shuffle' (as mentioned), a crawling using all fours, to a reverse descent, clinging desperately to a thick rope laid down the centre. The weird thing was, that the stairs were no steeper or narrower than those in a conventional house (maybe they all lived in bungalows, I don't know).

We then spent quite a while looking at the semi-ruins of the Templo de los Guerreros and attached Grupo de las Mil Columnas which we found interesting, bearing in mind the original use of the structures and how well preserved they were

El Castillo

. From there we joined a long queue to actually enter El Castillo, and just made it inside before the exhibit was closed for the day. It was fascinating to be climbing up inside the pyramid, but once at the top we were slightly disappointed by the barred view of a jaguar-shaped throne and weird green 'chac-mool' figure.

More interesting, was the Platform of Skulls where the Ancient Mayans exhibited the heads of their defeated enemies; the structure displaying hundreds of carved skulls around its perimeter. Nearby was what was left of a huge ball court, the Gran Juego de Pelota - where the inhabitants of the city watched a number of variations of a ball game played out. The walls even depicted losing captains being decapitated, which also seemed to draw a crowd!

We had to hang around for 45 minutes after closing to be re-admitted for the light and sound show, which turned out to be more worthwhile than we had anticipated. The main structures of the complex were lit up in numerous colours and the story of the Mayan settlement was told via headphone translators. The show actually served as an excellent introduction to the site, and in fact, as tickets were then valid for the following day - in hindsight we could have attended the show before investigating the ruins. You live and learn.

Dan and Andrea

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Looking Down At The Templo de los Guerreros

Sitting By The Observatory

The Platform of Skulls

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