Chichen Itza

Our trip to Chichen Itza was a full day excursion.  Cal had been before, but I had not.  I've been to Tikal in Guatemala (more Mayan ruins) and loved it so I was glad we could go.  We took a comfy tour bus there and saw some interesting things along the way.  I snapped a couple of pictures of little wooden huts, but this was the only shot from the bus that worked...  A little town we went through.

(sorry this is a long post...)

This is the main "step temple," the one that is most famous, Kukulkan's Pyramid.  It is a new "wonder of the world."  It is pretty impressive.  When Cal was there before you could climb onto and into a lot of the ruins, but almost everything was blocked off now.  Many people have fallen and they were being vandalized.  I was a little bummed to not get to climb around, but it was still fascinating.  Our tour guide had some good information, but was really slow on the delivery.  We stuck out the hour with him, then cruised around trying to see everything else before our bus left.

I loved all the intricate carvings everywhere!  These skulls were apparently to try to scare off invaders?  Or something like that.  It is appropriately called the skull platform.

Notice the head in the warriors hand.  Not exactly a peaceful people!

I actually liked some of the less restored ruins a lot.

This is supposed to be the biggest Mayan ball court.  I'm still not sure how they got a big ball through that hole.  The losing team was sacrificed.

I loved the little old Mayan ladies and kids.  This little lady was way shorter than me.  And that's saying something.  :)  She was adorable.

This is the sacred cenote (sink hole) that Chichen Itza was built around and named after.  They found jewels and pottery and lots and lots of bones from human sacrifices to the water god.  

The temple of the warriors.

It was hot and humid and sunny most of the time we were there.

A sweet little girl.

The thousand columns.  I believe this area was said to be a marketplace.

There were people selling trinkety things everywhere.  They would all make noise to try to get your attention.  That was the only negative about the place, they were rather obnoxious.  It would be much better if they had one marketplace for all of them.  I respect them for trying, but it is unfortunate how it is set up.

Another side of the temple of the warriors.

The storm clouds beginning to threaten.

Can you see the iguana climbing up?  There were quite a few around.

The dark clouds made for some cool pictures, at least.

We think this was a residential area.

The observatory.  The Mayans were very good astrologists and mathematicians and it was reflected in their archetecture.  Very impressive!

I loved this one.  Not sure why, but it was just beautiful and interesting.  I have no idea what it is.  They would build new structures over old ones, and it seems like you can see the rounded corner of an inner wall.  

A small temple near the governmental palace.  It was about here that the rain started!  We were glad we had our umbrella from the tour company.

A cool doorway with the Mayan "fake arch." 

 We were supposed to get lunch from a restaurant there, but the food looked pretty questionable and we only had time to grab a few pieces of bread.  We were glad we had packed a couple of snacks!

It was so fun to see and I wish we had had more time there.  There was so much to see!  Maybe some day we'll take the boys...