Two Adventurers

21 November 2009 Merida, Mexico

On a recommendation from a young travel agent at our hotel, we booked a coach tour to the very historic site of the ancient Mayan civilisation. Located in the eastern section of the State of Yucatan and just 120 km. from the City of Merida, Chichen Itza is one of the most controversial, studied and visited ruins of the mayan world. Its history and chronology are the subject of debates and the fate of its people a puzzle that archaeologists continue to theorise about as excavations continue.

When our small group of 4 Venezuelans, 2  Colombians, 2 New Zealanders, 2 Americans and 3 Mexicans entered the ruins that are Chichen Itza we were all totally spellbound by its size, grandeur and nature.

Our driver/guide, did an excellent job of informing us in both Spanish and English, alternately, and made sure of answering all of our questions about this majestic site.

One can scarcely begin to describe the enormity of the place which in its golden era covered an area of over 25 square kilometres.

Without spending too long in explanation, the most impressive building by far is the Castle of Kukulcan, also known as the pyramid, rising 30 metres from the earth. Its

age is roughly calculated as being between 650 and 800 A.D.  The numbers of its different measurements relate to digits in the maya solar calendar, e.g. 91 steps on 4 sides, or 364; plus the platform, 365, the number of days in a year. The five adornments on each side of the temple are 5 x 4, or 20, the number of days in a maya month. This structure is simply unbelievable! I hope our photographs do justice to its enormity and beauty!

There were a large number of ruins to see including five temples, the Steam bath,

the Ball court, the sacrificial well and the Platform of Eagles and Jaguars and it would

take far too long to explain them all, but trust me, try to make a visit at some time of your life to this very special place. We are so very glad that we did.

Our group returned to the bus at 2.30pm, very hot and very hungry, and were being driven to lunch (we thought). However, our driver mentioned he wanted to show us one other amazing place before we could eat, that of the Sacred Blue Cenote (or sink-hole) located at the Eco-archaeological Park Ik-Kil. At 60 metres wide and about 40 metres deep, it is an open well-type cenote with exuberant vegetation and waterfalls! As we looked down inside from our position in the sun it was a sight to see,

with several people swimming in the water way below on this very hot day. A long internal stairway leads to the water and we made the trek down so that we could take photographs from the swimming hole. Here are some of our group smiling happily, albeit with growling tummies as it was by now 3.30pm!

We certainly enjoyed our buffet style ‘lunch’ when we finally had it, which was All-You-Can-Eat. It was teeming with rain at 6pm when we were eventually dropped off at our hotel so we just stayed in and wrote some of our blogs.