He slowed as we neared it, and I was able to get a couple good pictures of it.
We had just rolled a few feet past it when suddenly three or four large vultures took flight from right next to the road. A few more followed, and it was obvious there was something there attracting them. Then we spotted some sort of dump right on the edge of the road and I could see all kinds of bones strewn about. Mostly fish skeletons - though pretty good sized fish - and at least one animal skull, possibly from a dog or goat.
Then further back off the road I could see a large tree that was absolutely full of vultures.
We stopped once to get gas at a little gas station with a small convenience store. It was "full service" and the attendant filled the tank for us. There were only a couple of cars ahead of us, but when we left there was a good line waiting for gas. It had only one two sided pump which I thought kind of small for a station on a highway that was well traveled.
We passed by several military and police check points but they always waved us through. At one, the armed guard was intently watching a young man scrub down his car, almost as if he was inspecting the work. He didn't notice we had stopped at first, but when he did he motioned for us to keep going. We decided he must have thought our car was clean enough to travel on his stretch of highway.
There were numerous speed bumps, usually upon entering and in small towns along the way.
(These signs indicate a speed bump is ahead.)
Again, some of these had people stationed next to them selling things. One little boy even held out two turtles as we drove by.
For awhile we were behind a pick-up truck with a load of good sized pigs, probably five or six crammed in pretty tightly. Whenever the driver would hit a speed bump or a pothole, all the pigs would bounce around and get pretty jostled. After one bump, one of the pigs ended up wedged in between a couple others and couldn't extricate himself. He was quite unhappy about his plight and started squealing loudly. I imagine he cried wee wee wee all the way home . . . or where
ever it was thosepigs was headed . . .
The Doctor's GPS did a pretty good job of getting us to our destination, though we did have to consult my phone a couple times, and we always had Alejandra's hand drawn map as a back up. The Doctor commented that in the states his GPS map screen always showed other things along the root we were traveling, such as towns, other roads, the names of rivers or lakes etc. But here our route was often just a road of purple against a field of gray, indicating that there was nothing worth mentioning anywhere nearby.
In one small city that we went through, his GPS told us to take a right, which we soon realized had us going the wrong way down a one way street. He slowed to pull over and turn around, and an oncoming car flashed his lights at us and gestured wildly. We turned around and tried again, but the GPS kept telling us to go down that street. We ended up traveling on a parallel road for awhile, but it seemed to keep trying to get us back to that one street, often telling us again to go the wrong way on one way roads to get there.
In the end we arrived at our destination. Though we hadn't gotten lost to speak of, it did take us close to four hours, so apparently Alejandra is something of a speed demon, as she said it would take only two.
Our accommodations in Chichen Itza was a hotel called Villas Arqueologicas Chichen Itza. When we pulled in, the place looked deserted, almost abandoned. There were only a three or four cars in the parking lot, and no one outside.
(Entrance to Villas Arqueologicas Chichen Itza)
Once we were registered she went into a litany about Chichen Itza, giving us all kinds of information about admission fees, hiring tour guides, hours of operation, etc. I was kind of tired, and it was a lot to process. Finally she called a young man, who led us to our room and we got settled.
(Our room at Villas Arqueologicas Chichen Itza)
Though the hotel still seemed almost eerily empty, it was actually quite nice. There is a restaurant, a very nice pool, even a library with a pool table and a very small collection of books, and a small boutique.
(The Library)
Our room was just steps from the pool. The restaurant has outdoor seating along one side of the pool, including a small pavilion type structure with a thatched roof with several tables in it.
There are two floors of rooms which surround the pool area, but of course the pool itself is open air and out under the sky. The hotel is built around a few very large trees that are incorporated into the buildings design, growing right up out of the hotel.
The Doctor ordered a green salad that had avocado in it, and was supposed to have cactus as well, though it didn't appear to when it arrived. He ordered a pesto fettuccine and I got macaroni with an Arrabbiati sauce. For being in Mexico, we seem to be eating a fair share of Italian food! We were also served bread in a cute little basket with sombrero cover.
(The Doctor's Pesto Fettuccine)
WiFi was available, but only in the restaurant and pool areas, so after we ate we sat out there for a couple of hours. The birds had mostly gone to bed, but there was still something making quite a racket. We had heard it earlier and thought it was a bird, but now I wasn't so sure. It was very loud and sounded like a goose honking, but with faster and shorter blasts. It seemed to be coming from a corner of the pool, on the ground which led me to believe it was not a bird. I went in search of it, but whenever I got close it would go silent. Finally I determined it was coming from under a grating next to the pool. I can only guess it was some kind of frog.
Tuesday morning we awoke and got ready for our day at Chichen Itza. While I was outside waiting for The Doctor, I happened to notice a streak of red dots running up the top of my left thigh. They looked like little bite marks. Later in the day The Doctor noticed he had some on his legs as well. We had no idea what had caused them, but were concerned we may have encountered some bed bugs.
In the outside courtyard of the hotel there are a couple of those S-shaped chairs designed so that two people sit side by side but facing each other. A little girl was out there with her mother waiting for their father to load up the car, and she noticed something on one of these chairs and called out to her mother excitedly. They both seemed quite intrigued by whatever they were looking at. I went over after they had moved away and saw a hole in the chair with some very long black hairy legs sticking out of it. I showed The Doctor when he came out and he said it was a tarantula. It freaked him out a little. Turns out the man who has no problem swimming with Whale Sharks and Devil Rays is a bit of an arachnophobe
From our hotel Chichen Itza was just a ten minute walk up a road that took us in through a back entrance. We bought our tickets though there was no gate, and no one ever asked to see them, so it would have been quite easy to just walk right in. There were some guides hanging around offering their services but we declined.
Chichen Itza pre-dates Machu Picchu by roughly 800 - 1,000years. Whereas Machu Picchu's ruins are in a heavily concentrated area, the remaining structures at Chichen Itza appear to be spread out over a larger area. We spent good parts of two days at Machu Picchu and didn't see everything; we could have easily spent another day or two there, but we saw pretty much everything at Chinchen Itza in a single day. This is not to say Chichen Itza is not impressive, but it is certainly not impressive in the way Machu Picchu is. Machu Picchu's location and design are both beautiful and breath taking, whereas it is the sheer size of Chichen Itza's structures that are awe inspiring.
Coming in through the rear entrance, the first thing we saw was the Temple of Xtoloc, named after the nearby Cenote Xtoloc. Cenotes are large limestone sinkholes popular for swimming, but the two sinkholes in Chichen Itza were of course not available for that purpose. But it was the first one we had seen so it was kind of cool.
(Temple of Xtoloc)
We next came upon the remains of a funerary structure, a sort of crypt used for storing human remains. Across from that was a small pyramid that the sign said had been built over a deep chasm. I was a little disappointed when I had read in my guidebook that tourists were not allowed to climb or enter any of the structures at Chichen Itza. This is one I would have been curious to see the inside of.
We were both surprised to see men working around the pyramid, mowing the lawn and raking. I guess I thought this was the sort of thing that should be done after hours.
Across from this pyramid was the "House of the Grinding Stone" and the "House of the Mestizas" which the sign said had most likely been the residences of those in charge of the upkeep and maintenance of the Ostuary complex. So maybe the men mowing the lawn were the ghosts of the original grounds keepers. . . ?
The next thing we saw was the Observatory, which was one of the more impressive structures at Chichen Itza, and again one I would have loved to have explored. Part of the roof has been destroyed, but it is still a massive building.
The Doctor needed to find a bathroom, so we walked back past the pyramid and found a little guest shop with facilities. I looked in the gift shop, and was happy to see they sold sunglasses, should I need to buy another pair that day. The Doctor came out, and we sat at one of the tables outside and drank some water. I noticed a pretty little yellow inch worm or caterpillar crawling along the table. I picked it up and helped it over to the leaf of a nearby tree.
Continuing our exploration we next saw a temple where some sort of fire rituals are believed to have been performed, and then a small one chamber church, adjacent a very large building described as the "convent of the nunnery".
(The Church)
The nunnery was another enormous building. Toward one end was a gaping hole that looked like it might have formed around a window or a doorway. I would have loved to climb up and peer into the darkness, or better still go inside it.
(The Nunnery. I was very intrigued with the cavernous opening to the left of the trees)
We had seen several iguanas already, and there was one near the convent that had a tail that had a long tail that looked very different from the rest of his body. The Doctor, who at one time had worked at a pet store, told me he believed this was due to the iguana having lost his tail at some point. They grow back, but will look different and don't "match" the rest of the iguana.
Finally we headed over to the centerpiece of Chichen Itza, the great pyramid known as the Temple of Kukulkan.
Kukulkan was a Mayan snake god, and he is depicted as a long serpent running down on either side of the steps at the front of the pyramid, with his great head at the base.
Each side has 91 steps, for a total of 364 steps, but adding the final step at the top which joins all four sides gives a total of 365 steps. The pyramid is certainly a magnificent and awe-inspiring sight.
I was a little put off at first by the numerous workers who were busy restoring the pyramid. They were a distraction and spoiled the view of the spectacular image before me. But as I watched them, it became easy to imagine the workers who had built it 1,000 years ago. Some of them even kind of looked the part, and I thought it would have been cool if, since the work needs to be done, to at least have them dressed as the ancient workers would have dressed. Give the site a little more flavor.
We studied the great pyramid for awhile, and then walked around looking at the various ruins around it. Eventually we ended up at the ruins of the Northern Colonnade. This vast structure had once had a roof supported by a multitude of pillars and columns, and those are now all that remain. I set up my camera with a timer on of the broken columns and was able to take a couple pictures of The Doctor and I sitting on another column.
Along the many pathways that connected one section of Chichen Itza to another were tables and tables of locals selling souvenirs. Here the people were VERY aggressive when it came to making a sale. There was a continually chorus of voices calling out to the tourists things like "English or Espanol? Come look amigo, I give you best price. Which one you like? OK to touch. Only one dollar." And my favorite line, which was "Almost free!" I am pretty sure that at one point one of them had called me "Hey, Mr. Clean", and another had referred to The Doctor as "Muscle Man". In addition to these vendors - and there most have been literally hundreds of them - there were also children and adults walking around among the ruins carrying handfuls of wares which they were trying to sell. Walking along the vendor lined paths was akin to running the gauntlet, and the roaming vendors could at time be annoying. There was nothing like this going on at Machu Picchu!
While the Doctor and I were posing for our self portrait with my camera two young Mexican boys, both "roaming vendors" came along. We had encountered them just a few minutes before when one of them called out to us. Trying to determine with which language he should address us, he said, as most of the vendors did "Espanol? English?", but then added with a grin "Mayan?". We both got a kick out of that.
Now the two boys came over to where I had set my camera up, and the one who had spoken to us earlier - he was the older of the two - leaned down with his hands on his knees and watched through the viewing screen as it snapped the two pictures. I was a little wary that he might try to run off with it, but he just smiled as if approving of the picture. When we went over he started in again with his sales pitch. He had a hand full of little stone carvings. Vendors were usually announcing these as one or two for just a dollar (American). When it didn't look like we were interested, the boy pointed at my head, and said "Sunglasses for this?" I said "You want my sunglasses?" And he said "yes", and held up one of the carvings to offer in trade".
Considering my history with sunglasses, The Doctor and I both laughed, but somehow it seemed like the right thing to do. The carvings were worth a dollar, I had paid $15.00 for my sunglasses (just two days before) so the little con artist was definitely getting the better end of the deal. But I couldn't resist, so I gave them to him and selected a miniature replica of the great pyramid in return. Maybe offering up my sunglasses as a sacrifice to a young descendant of the ancient Mayans would break the curse that seemed to be connected to my sunglasses.
The boy seemed quite pleased with the transaction and put my sunglasses right on. I asked if I could take his picture and he said yes, and I got a great shot. The boy really knew how to work those glasses!
(Did trading my sunglasses for this replica of the Temple of Kukulkan break my sunglasses curse? Only time will tell . . . ).
A little later we saw a portion of a facade that had come from the Palace Of The Sculptured Facade. A couple of the panels looked like Tic Tac Toe games, a square box with smaller boxes inside filled with x's and o's. O appeared to have won both games . . .
The only ruin that we were allowed to do any sort of "climbing" on was that of the Market. A wide staircase of a dozen or so very narrow steps led up into the area that had been the market, and those we could climb. Going up them wasn't much of a problem, but they were so narrow that going down proved to be a bit treacherous. You practically had to put your feet sideways in order to prevent a spill. If all the stairways were like that, I can understand why they were off limits, especially the Kukulkan pyramid.
One building, the Temple of the Warriors, had a small section of panels where I could see traces of blue and red paint. It appeared to have maybe been the original coloring, but I am not sure.
Shortly after it had started to ran we found the Ball Court. It is a long stadium, flanked by two walls on either side.
At the top of each wall near the center of the court is stone ring. Apparently the object of this ancient sport was to get a ball through the ring.
Some evidence suggests this had to be done without the use of your hands, although some illustrations show a bat type object being used. Some art work even suggests the game was played by bouncing the ball off your hips and into the ring, but that seems almost impossible, especially after seeing the height and relatively small diameter of the ring. I am not much of a sports enthusiast, but I did find this game interesting. On either end of the court are two elevated temples. I heard one guide explaining that the reddish color on the back wall of one of the temples, was in fact the original paint from when the building was constructed.
Running up the ends of each side of the sloping outer wall of the ball court is another stone snake, and I heard another guide (or maybe the same one) point out that it was a rattle snake as evidenced by the rattles that can be seen on its tail.
We followed the "White Path", an ancient man-made avenue, now lined with vendors and their wares.
This road led to Cenote Sagrado, a beautiful limestone sinkhole. Legend had it that it had been used to offer human sacrifices to the rain god. In the early 1900's it was dredged and many artifacts were discovered, including human bones belonging to both men and women of all ages.
Across from this Cenote was a gift shop. They sold sunglasses . . . so I bought my third pair since arriving in Mexico. I also bought a t-shirt, and some post cards and magnets.
After this we went out to the main entrance. We had come in through the back entrance which was very small by comparison. The front entrance had a large gift shop and some smaller stores, and a restaurant, which we stopped at for lunch. The menu included a dish called "Chichen Itza Chicken" which we both found funny, as we had called Chichen Itza "It's a Chicken", as a way of remembering the name before we came. I ordered a dish consisting of hard boiled eggs wrapped in soft tortillas and covered with a pumpkin seed sauce. The Doctor just got a virgin Margarita.
After we ate The Doctor used the bathroom, and when he returned he took me back in to the men's room to show me the sink. It was one long solid counter top surface, with only a narrow slit running along it for the water to drain into, no sink bowl at all. Neither of us had seen one like that before.
(The Doctor washing his hands at this unique sink)
Outside the bathrooms was the old machine used to dredge Cenote Sagrada.
We went back to the great pyramid and walked around it some more, and than found a place to just sit and contemplate it. We were comparing the red streaks on both our legs which we were concerned might be bed bug bites. I took out my cell phone to look up info about bed bugs, and discovered there was a message on my phone from The Doctor's phone. He had left it with someone at his office, as it is their emergency phone line. We listened to it, and it was from one of his staff who was calling due to an urgent problem about not being able to process the payroll without one of the Doctor's passwords. The Doctor tried to call back, then sent a text. Unfortunately, due to being in a different country and without having a roaming plan, my phone couldn't make or receive calls to or from the US, though it would save incoming messages. But by texting, he was able to learn that the problem had been resolved since the message that had been left earlier in the day.
We spent the rest of our time at Chichen Itza making the locals happy by buying some of their merchandise. I bought a beautiful blanket with a scene on it of a muscular Mayan Warrior shooting an arrow at eagle. The young man I bought it from was absolutely giddy with glee over the sale, and was even singing when he ran off to find me a bag to put it in.
Earlier in the day, we had heard these creepy ferocious growls that sounded like a wild animal. We soon discovered they were actually sounds being made from a whistles shaped like a Jaguar, and the sound is supposed to resemble a Jaguar's scream. It must be a subtle marketing ploy, because after listening to them all day, I finally caved in and bought one of those as well. I also bought a nice phallus made from obsidian, a black rock that produces a gold sheen when left in the sun. I have to say though, that of all my purchases, I think I am most fond of the little replica of the great pyramid I traded my sunglasses for.
The vendors were always calling out their great deals, "Two for one dollar", "Everything just five dollars", "Almost free!" At one table there were some lovely wood carvings painted a beautiful blue with gold highlights. The vendor was calling out "Just five dollars", and as I had been admiring them all day, I decided to buy one. When I got to his table of course his five dollar bargain was for some other smaller items on the table. The carvings were $30.00. As I started walking away, the price began dropping until he called out "I give you two for ten dollars!" So I went back again. He asked me which two I wanted, and when I picked them out the price suddenly went up to two for $30.00. I reminded him he had said two for ten, but he claimed the two I had picked out were larger (there was no noticeable difference that I could see) and had more detailing than some of the others. I was a little angry that he was trying to jerk me around so I walked away again. He began calling after me "OK, OK my amigo, two for ten! Two for ten!" and then "OK, I give you three for ten". Even the vendor next to him, told me "Go back, he'll give you three for ten." But I kept walking.
So many vendors had calle me "amigo" during the day I told The Doctor that I had so many friends in my whole life!
On the way out of Chichen Itza we stopped at another gift shop near the rear entrance, where I bought some more postcards. Than we sat outside and got some ice cream. I got mango and coconut.
Back at the hotel we checked on the tarantula. He had come out of the hole in the seat and was resting at the base of the chair.
We sat by the pool for awhile, and I wrote out some postcards, and then the doctor went for a swim in the pool.
We went back to Chichen Itza that night for the evening laser light show that is projected onto the great pyramid. It was in Spanish, but you could rent a listening device with an English translation to the narrative.
They had chairs set up, and we sat and looked at the pyramid as it got darker until the show began. I have to say I was a little underwhelmed by the whole thing. Considering the technology available today, the effects were not that great, and for the most part the designs cast on the pyramid had little to do with the narrative. Lighting that was supposed to create the effect that Kulkukan is crawling down the pyramid (something that happens naturally at sunrise on the spring and vernal equinox) didn't really seem to work. Some real lightning in the background, and even a few lightening bugs flying around were more interesting to watch. The narrative was fairly informative, however. One thing that I found interesting was that the Mayan painted the young children blue before throwing them into the Cenote Sagrada as sacrifices, and that the captain of the loosing team in the game played in the ball court was sometimes beheaded . . .
On the way out after the show, we noticed a couple watching something intently on the sidewalk. It was pretty dark, but with the light from my cell phone we were able to see long procession of ants marching across the sidewalk, each carrying a piece of leaf about the size of a finger nail. There were thousands of them, all working very industriously.
The Doctor followed the path back to the tree where they were getting the leaves, and we could see the line of them coming down the trunk. Later I discovered a second contingent marching up the trunk on their way to gather leaves. We watched them for quite awhile, and they were far more interesting than the laser show we had just watched. I couple of them crawled onto my sandals and bit my foot. They have quite a bit, and they dig right in and don't let go, I had to pull them off. Before we left them, I took a piece of leaf from one of them. He didn't want to let go of that either, and it was a tug of war between the two of us, but in the end me being bigger and slightly stronger gave me the advantage.
We took a wrong path on our way back to our hotel, and ended up at another one called The Maya Land Hotel. Our hotel was certainly nice, but this one was far more elegant. I checked the menu out of curiosity, and they had a dish made with Squash Flower, although I prefer the sound of Squash Blossom. We sat in their lobby relaxing for a few minutes before heading back to our hotel and going to bed.
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