Chichen Itza & Merida

Me looking rather fetching in a sombrero!
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Our first stop of the trip was at Chichen Itza - Mayan ruins from the 'modest-late-classic' period (whatever that means!). We were taken on a guided tour of the main complex, starting off at the main pyramid temple called El Castillo (The Castle). Until just 3 weeks prior to our visit, this was the one temple in the complex that visitors were allowed to climb, but due to one 70-something granny attempting to do so & falling down, it's now closed to all. Pah!

We were given a lengthy explanation about the design of the temples i.e. why they have X numbers of levels & X numbers of steps etc. I know it had something to do with the Mayan calendar, but since they seemed to use 2 or 3 different calendars at the same time (different numbers of months, days, plus cycles of 52 years?!) I found it all rather confusing :o)  Moreover, they also designed their buildings according to certain natural phenomenon - including the annual solstices - so that the sun would light up certain parts of the buildings on certain days of the year. It sounded like they spent pretty much all their time designing & then building their temples - especially since they had to leave each site every 52 years before being allowed to return after a sign from God. Even then they didn't stop building, but started to build new temples over the older ones, so hiding them deep inside. No rest for the wicked!

El Castillo
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Whilst in the complex we also saw a sacred cenote (a limestone sinkhole) in which hundreds of precious artefacts & children's bones were found - probably all sacrifices to God. In Mayan times they carried out lots & lots of sacrifices - it was in fact a great honour to be sacrificed. Our guide told us that he'd spent years trying to convince his mother-in-law what a great honour it would be for her to be sacrificed!

After our tour had ended we had an hour or so to potter around by ourselves & then we were back on the bus & headed for Merida - that capital of the Yucatan state. The following day we had a 'free' day. Rod & I spent the morning exploring the city. We wandered up a boulevard recommended to us by an elderly couple who believed it was as beautiful as the Champs Elysee in Paris. They obviously haven't ever been to Paris as the boulevard in Merida was dull & ugly with the exception of just one building! After that we had a quick look around the market before heading to Progreso for the afternoon - a wee fishing town on the Northern coast of the Yucatan peninsular. The place was pratically deserted which was a bit strange, considering it's supposed to be the tourist season right now. As such we pretty much had the whole beach to ourselves, so I wasn't complaining :o)

El Castillo at dusk
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In the evening we went out to watch a folk dance performance taking place in the main square. This mostly consisted of couples dancing around with various vessels of food & drink balanced on their heads, whilst standing on small wooden boxes. Quite a skill, but not very graceful! Fun to watch, though.