The Nomads

My Sweetie gave me a posy for my pocket---







No Travel Day

Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico
Temp: 42+ degrees C
Sunny, some cloud & Hot

Late start with great free coffee ….to the ruins by about ten…..Holy bus tours Batman!!!! Hundreds of touroids everywhere!

What a job trying to frame a shot without it looking like Grand Central Station!

Massive, epic proportions, huge….I walked back about four hundred paces and still could not get the main pyramid completely inside my view frame. Imagine trying to get that large a distance without a horde of tourists crawling all over!

The biggest Mayan ruin in Mesoamerica(Toltec and Itzaes) , the site is exhausting in the heat of the noonday sun, and soooo impressive for it’s size, although for Grandeur, I’d take Palenque any day.

There is no access allowed up the structures and all viewing is done at ground level with almost everything cordoned off.

“Chighen Itza” in mayan means “at the mouth of the large well of the Itza” which refers to the large cenote on site where child sacrifices were made to the rain god Choc for improved fertility and harvest. The water level is 22 meters down.

The great central pyramid is designed astrologically and is an actual mayan solar calendar for a 365 day year. The number of steps up the four sides add up to 364 and the top platform completes the count, The five adornments on the four sides add up to 20, the number of days in the mayan month and the nine levels split by the stairs add up to eighteen, the number of months in a Mayan year.

The pyramid was speciall designed so tha at the vernal equinox the dying sun would cast a shadow that resembles a diamond back serpent writhing down the stairs, also it is designed so that anyone at the top can speak in a normal voice and be heard by everyone at the ground level for some distance around. If you shout at the bottom of the pyramid the sound returns as a piercing shriek. A clap sounds like a bullet ricochet.

They were very much into blood sacrifice and the ball court games would end with the losing team being decapitated in a special ritual to fertilize the soil and nourish the gods. The heads were skewered on long pike poles and displayed on the temple of venus for the eagles to feed on and the bodies piled on the temple of the jaguar and eagle from what I understood.

The mayans believed that, somewhat like the Christians, the gods gave their blood to create and nourish the world. War was not political . but rather an economically and religiously motivated endeavour to obtain captives for sacrifice to the gods and also for fertile harvest.

Enough of that………

We made it back by 3:30 and crashed for about two hours, we were so exhausted and dehydrated.(yes we took litres of lime water with us….)

The plan for tomorrow is to head for Isla Mujeres fifteen minutes north of Cancun.

We’re really looking forward to those beautiful azure beaches!

Kilometers - Daytrip: 6 km total: 7880
Gas: $0.00
Lodging: El Poxil $30

Left Palenque, Chiapas State, Mexico

Temp: 42+ degrees C

Sunny, humid & Hot

Left Campeche around noon, originally heading for Merida but we had good road and decided to make it all the way to Chichen Itza; got there by suppertime and lucked in to a nice moderately priced spot, the hotel Poxil right in the center of the village about a 5 minute drive from the ruins. We showered, swam in the pool, ate a wonderful meal right at the hotel then headed to the ruins for the evening light and sound presentation at the great temple(El Castillo).

Back in the village, Susie and I went strolling about till almost midnight , blessed with a cool evening breeze.

Kilometers - Daytrip: 300 km total: 7874

Gas: $16.00

Lodging: El Poxil $30