Friday 18 July 2003
Even though it was very tempting to stay over an extra day at the pool, we decided to leave this morning. The city did not offer much more to see and we were eager to reach the sunny Caribbean island “Isla Mujeres”. We booked an alarm call for 6.30am, had a quick shower and bought some breakfast on our way to “Chichén Itza”.
Although we were almost full of pyramids, the “Chichén Itza” makes up the top three sites in Mexico together with “Palenque” and the “Teotihuacan”. It’s a must-see site and “Chichén Itza” is particular well known for the well-kept pyramid “El Castillo”, the grand ball court and the temple of thousand columns “Grupo de las Mil Columnas”. The name “Chichén Itza” means “The good Itza’s mouth”.
The trip from Valladolid was approximately 40 km and we followed a local shop workers recommendation, and went by a collective taxi as they were priced equally as the busses, but were more frequently.
We remembered the advice we got previously to visit tourist attractions early in the morning and we arrived “Chichén Itza” a few minutes past 8am. At this time the temperature was comfortable and the site almost empty. Already at 9am rise the number of tourists dramatically and the temperature as well, and both just kept on rising during the morning.
We decided to climb the large and very well restored pyramid while we still had strength. The pyramid is very impressive and very steep. At the pyramid base the steps ended in a big snakehead on both sides and that construction turned out to be quite spectacular. The steps were shaped exactly to draw the shadow of a sinuous snake at each equinox, with the tail at the pyramid top and ended at the base snakehead. We saw the phenomenon on a postcard and were dumbfounded over the technical knowledge and wisdom of the constructors.
The pyramid kept another secret. The Mayas, who later abandoned the place 900 AD for no known reason, built it originally. The place was then taken over by the Toltec’s who partial worshipped similar gods as the Mayas, but were considerable more bloodthirsty in their sacrifice rituals, which was much the same thing as a spectacular orgy of death. The Toltec’s built the present pyramid on top of the original and extended it with drains along the steps, thus the blood from the human sacrifices could run downhill in cascades.
The secret is, that you still today can walk up the original pyramid under the present. On certain times of the day, a secret passage is open for visitors. Here you can walk upwards to the top of the inner pyramid in a narrow tunnel and end up in the old treasury. Here a 600-year old red Jaguar made of stone, welcomes you. The walk is very hot, humid and claustrophobic, but the experience is an adventure itself.
We continued to see the thousand columns that previously carried a large roof and built in continuation of the warriors’ temple: “Templo de los Guerreros”. This is where the well-known statue of a resting Maya warrior is located. The columns still bears remains of inscriptions and relief, and some placed faint traces of vivid colors on the columns were still visible. It seems like the enthusiasm for vivid colors is passed to present Mexicans from their ancestors. In a small museum at the entrance, replicas from the sight have been re-created with the original colors to give an idea of what incredibly colorful place this has been originally.
The grand ball court “Gran Juego de Pelota” is a large closed court with striking acoustics. In one end of the court one could clearly hear a talk between people in the opposite end, 135 meters away. It one clapped his hands; a fantastic echo gave us an idea of how a grand applause from a full court would sound like. Overwhelming.
At the Anthropological Museum in Mexico City, we saw a replica of the rubber balls that presumably have been used in these games. Build in stone rings is hanging on each side of the court in 5 meters height. Here the rubber ball must pass to get a score. Not an easy task. In the time of the Toltecs it was no uncommon to sacrifice the captain of the loosing team after the game, which probably attracted large crowds to the games. Actually, this was only one of originally eight courts in “Chichén Itza”, which truly indicates that these games were an important part of the Mayas and Toltecs everyday life.
Later we left the main site and walk along an ancient paved road with low dry stonewalls at the sides. The road led to an almost circular open cave. It was an impressive large lake with green water and great fauna. It’s said that in Maya times a lot of young virgins were sacrificed here and the rumors led to that the American Edward Thomson bought the place in 1900 for USD 75, after which he began to salvage gold, gems and human bones from the lake. Most of it was sent to universities in USA, but much has later been returned to Mexico. Later examinations by divers reveal evidence that the Mayas also sacrificed children and elder people by offering them the “eternal swim” here.
When we came back to our hotel in the afternoon, we took a quick decision to continue right away to the island “Isla Mujeres”. Unfortunately no seats were available on a first class bus, so we had to go by with the locals on economy class.
The drive was considerable longer than first class, the seats were worn down and the bus had no air-condition. Although the smell was bad and we got a little dotty sitting next to the open windows all the time, the drive went well. We reach Cancun at 6pm and immediately jumped on to a ferry that brought us to the lovely paradise island.