Chichen Itza

  Chichen Itza, Mexico
Sunday, November 5, 2006

Chichen Itza

We joined up with two Belgians, Joris and Zoe, for this part of the trip.

Got the bus from Merida to the carpark of the Chichen Itza ruins.
From the moment we stepped off the bus we knew that this was not going to be like any other of the ruins we´ve seen. The place was mobbed by the busloads of day tourists coming from the likes of Merida and especially Cancun. There were Americans EVERYWHERE!!!! You couldn´t get a pic of anything without another tourist getting there heads in there. The hawkers were also on patrol... and strangely enough... they all seemed to have American accents... "hi guys, wanna buy a donkey?". It seemed that these tourists were there as a token gesture to saw that they have seen the Mexican Ruins and seen the culture.

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As for the ruins... they were not much compared to the likes of Teotihuacan and Palenque. The big pyramid was cool enough, but you were not allowed to walk up it.. BOOOOORRRRRINGGG! There was a temple dedicated to Mike... "the Temple of the Bearded Man".. HA ! There was also an alter where they used to make the human sacrifices, this was usually done to the losing team of the games that they played, you can see the skulls carved into the stones.

The day was spent wandering and talking to Joris and Zoe. The bus going to Cancun picked us up at 1630 and away we went to the tourist capital of Mexico.