Chichen Itza

On our travels this year we’ve seen many wonderful things… most of which we’ve tried to show with photos on this webpage. Sorry – the photographs are always tantalising disappointments compared to the real things, but it’s the best we can do. Actually we have (completely unintentionally) managed to visit four sites that in a survey conducted a few years ago were voted the ‘New’ Seven Wonders of the World… the Taj Mahal, Great Wall of China, Machu Picchu, and as of today, Chichen Itza. We even managed to see the ‘honorary’ ancient member on the list – the Pyramids at Giza last December! Not bad if we were trying to keep a tally, but in reality we only looked up the list of ‘New’ Wonders a few weeks ago!

Anyway, we’ve discussed all the others in detail in past blog entries – so what about Chichen Itza? Well, it’s nice, but I’ll get the bad news over first – it doesn’t compare to the other ‘Wonders’ we’ve visited. Worse still, it really doesn’t come close to being in the same league as the amazing Angkor Wat that somehow isn’t on the list yet remains by far the most impressive ancient structure we’ve ever seen. I think the real reason Chichen Itza is included is it’s proximity to the incredibly popular resort of Cancun… it is far easier to visit than any of the others Wonders we have visited, so more people come here… which equals more votes in a survey. This demonstrates how useless constructing ‘ranked lists’ can be – if you expect Chichen Itza to have the stunning location of Machu Picchu, the immense majesty of the Taj Mahal, the grandeur of the Great Wall, or the utterly massive solidness of the Egyptian Pyramids you’ll be disappointed. Which is really unfair – it’s still a truly lovely Maya site with a beautiful central pyramid-temple that’s definitely well worth visiting. It’s just that the label ‘Wonder’ and grand comparisons end up devaluing what is nonetheless a very impressive and extensive complex.

The site of Chichen Itza is arranged more or less in the shape of a cross, with the beautiful Kukulcan Pyramid squarely in the centre. As you enter the complex and walk down the first limb of the cross you pass first rows of souvenir vendors that line the whole site (and primarily target the tour groups from Cancun) to gradually see the pyramid emerge behind the trees ahead. Kukulcan is situated in the middle of a large grassy clearing in the dry-jungle, with surrounding temples, smaller pyramids, ball courts and other ruins all sited a fair distance away. It is an impressive structure – a beautifully preserved and carefully restored ‘stepped’ pyramid about 25 meters high, covered in pale white stone. Apparently the number of steps up each side, the flights of stairs, carvings, etc all represent different aspects of the Maya calendar – and best of all, at the spring and autumn equinoxes shadows playing on the sides of the pyramid mimic a serpent sliding up or down! Actually the spring equinox is in a few weeks time, so in the early afternoon sunshine we got a lop-sided impression of what the effect looks like – have a look at the photos below…

The other areas of the extensive complex are also fascinating. As in Uxmal and Palenque there were lots of temples, pyramids, stone staircases, sacrificial alters...We particularly liked a huge building on the far side of Kukulcan which consisted of hundreds and hundreds of pillars on a stone base stretching in various directions from a central temple structure with impressive staircases. Unfortunately the roof that the pillars previously supported crumbled centuries ago, but they remain impressive. We haven’t seen anything like this since ancient Egypt – it’s very different from the usual ruins in Latin America. Another curious feature is that many of the temples, pyramids and pillars scattered through the complex were very carefully carved to show complex patterns or basreliefs. Gary’s favourite was a wall which seemed to show a game of noughts and crosses (crosses cheated and added a few extra symbols though!), but I preferred a temple with walls constructed from hundreds of ornamented stone slabs – each slab had a very friendly-looking skull engraved on its surface! Apparently the heads of defeated tribe leaders were kept in this building in ancient times…

One drawback to visiting Chichen Itza is it’s proximity to Cancun. This unfortunately means that you will not get to explore the lovely ruins in solitude, but instead have to dodge lots and lots of huge tour groups. Really big ones – each with 30 to 40 people, mostly from the USA. Actually watching some groups them wander by in the distance as we sat in the shade of a tree near Kukulcan Pyramid we thought they looked like migrating herds of wildebeast! It is just as well the central plaza around Kukulcan is so large… it accommodates vast numbers of (mostly overweight) tourists remarkably well! Considering the site is so easy to reach independently it is a great shame that most people seem to opt for a package – hop on one of the nice comfortable first class buses instead for more freedom and to save a few pesos!

Chichen Itza Pictures

Our first view of the fantastic Kukulcan pyramid at Chichen Itza - emerging prettily from the trees that line the massive grassy space around the pyramid. As you can see, it´s a stepped structure, with geometric patterns decorating each level, and a simple temple on top. In front of it is a very diminutive Vicki!

This building with the columns was probably my favourite on the site - there were hundreds of them streaching for hundreds of meters around a central temple. Not all the columns were reconstructed however... circular slabs littered the area, making a comfy seat for Gary. Below you can see another favourite feature - a wall of skulls!

More pillars... this time all reconstructed. So no seats for me to have a rest...

This was an observatory, nicknamed ´the snail´ in Spanish, perhaps due to the domed roof. It was in yet another region of the extensive complex, surrounded by more temples an pyramids - the Mayas didn´t do things by half when they constructed cities.

Finally, this is the Kukulcan Pyramid in the late afternoon sun, with Gary. On the left side you can see some steps with two serpent´s head carved at the bottom of the banisters. Just to the right of the closer step edge a strange light-shadow boundry makes it look as if the snake is running up the pyramid! This is a bit lop-sided - perhaps a boa constricter that has reacently had lunch? Apparently the effect is best during the Spring Equinox.

Merida

The Yucatan Peninsula is the most easterly portion of Mexico – the bit of land above Guatemala and Belize that separates the Gulf of Mexico from the Atlantic Ocean. The most well known city in Yucatan is of course Cancun, the famous international beach resort with miles of pristine sands and hotels… package holiday paradise. Actually Cancun is the final destination of this trip as it has a handy international airport – it’s on the north east corner of the peninsula. But we have a few stops planned en route for our last two weeks travelling, allowing us to see impressive Maya cities, crocodiles, and perhaps to scuba dive in some of the clearest tropical waters on earth. Or at least that is the plan!

Anyway, our first stop in our tour of the Yucatan Peninsula is the Spanish colonial town of Merida, situated near the coast on the northwest corner of land. It was a painful 8 hour bus journey from Palenque, through loads of pointlessly bureaucratically time consuming yet completely superficial police checkpoints (aimed we assume to give the impression of tackling local terrorist groups and drug cartels… but in reality the police were more interested half-baked searches of foreign visitors’ luggage than locals bags – making it completely pointless?).

Eventually we arrived in Merida to discover it is another pretty little Spanish-style town, with a lovely leafy central plaza, nice cathedral, pink churches… and lots of vendors trying to sell souvenirs to the herds of tourists from the USA. The touts really don’t pester us anywhere near as much as all the other travellers here – perhaps in the course of the year we’ve learnt to project an aura of disinterest! A very handy skill!

One of the reasons we were keen to visit Merida is that it is close to lots of ancient Maya ruins – after all we really liked Palenque and the other ancient Mexican cities we visited a few weeks ago. So we spent one day on a very handy local bus service visiting a number of sites in the region. One very hectic day. You see, the second class bus company ATS runs a service that leaves Merida terminal at 8.00 am each morning, loops around an impressive cluster of Maya sites on the Puuc Route, and then returns to Merida in the late afternoon. This trip is a cheap, handy way of seeing the most impressive temples and cities in the area while avoiding tours completely! No irritating guides, no herding around, lecturing – perfect. The only drawback is that the bus stops at each Maya site for a relatively short time: 20 – 30 minutes at the smaller complexes, and 1.5 hours at the large city of Uxmal. So you really do have to get your skates on to see each set or ruins… this is not a trip for the unfit!

The day we selected for our whirlwind tour of the temples was absolutely beautiful – clear blue skies, roasting sunshine. We’ve left the chilly altitudes well behind now and are firmly in the tropics again. The roasting temperatures didn’t exactly make the rapid trot around the Maya pyramids particularly comfortable… but the brilliant blue of the sky certainly made the photos we took pretty! Luckily the bus was well air-conditioned and offered a good respite on the short trips between ancient complexes.

First we visited Labna – a small but interesting site with its long El Palacio decorated with lots of columns and serpent’s heads. Labna also had a few temples, a rubbly pyramid, and a beautifully proportioned arch complete with decorative swirls. Then it was a quick 5 minute bus trip on to Xlapak which consisted of little more than a few isolated buildings in the middle of a reasonably dense forest. Afterwards we moved on to Sayil with its really impressive 3 storey El Palacio nestled in a pretty forest clearing. Actually there are plenty of temples and small structures scattered in the woods around the Palace… we went in search of a few and ended up running out of time horribly and having to run back to the bus! We did manage to find the well preserved and oddly roofed temple El Mirador, and a stone carving depicting a very well-endowed fertility God though! And then we travelled to the last of the minor complexes – the very wonderful Kabah. This was particularly worth seeing as it has a huge El Palacio, extensive and curiously decorated temple compounds, carved figurines, large pyramids… and for the really big lizards scampering through the undergrowth!

Our last stop of the day was at the extensive Maya city of Uxmal. By this time we were feeling more than a bit hot and bothered with our 30 minute-dash-stops at all the small sites, so we were glad to have a leisurely one and a half hours to see Uxmal. But Uxmal turned out to be so extensive that our one and a half hours turned into a bit of a lightning tour again! It’s just as well we normally walk fast! Anyway, this place is really worth seeing. It was clearly an important Maya city in ancient times, and the beautifully restored remnants remain impressive today. Huge palaces, governor’s houses, temples, bell courts, pyramids… and all blissfully quiet. During our visit we didn’t encounter a single large tour group (until we passed an irritating bunch of 30 odd overweight US teenagers on the way out) – perhaps most visit in the morning, which would make the afternoon arrival of the ATS bus trip a particularly good option for exploring in peace and quiet. We particularly liked the huge 39 meter high curved-pyramid-like temple Casa Del Adivino that looms over the entrance to the complex – if you clap your hands at the base of the rear of the temple you are rewarded by a really odd squeaky echo! Or there’s the Grand Pyramid with its impressive flight of steps to climb, the intricate serpentine heads decorating the Palacio Del Gobernador, or even the giant-lizard-infested rubble of the Cementerio pyramids with their skull and cross-bones engraved walls! Uxmal is lovely to wander around, and still nice to race through at break-neck speed in scorching temperatures like we did!

Well, we don’t have much time to catch our breath – tomorrow we visit Chichen Itza on the way to the coastal town of Tulum where we can catch our breath slightly for two nights before moving north towards scuba-diving heaven!

Merida Photographs

Merida is a pretty little place with elegant churches and cathedrals - particularly nice in the evening light as you see below. But the highlight of our visit was the chance to explore the Maya ruins nearby. This is Kabah, where you can see Gary near the base of the steps up to a temple of the Rain God (represented by hundreds of masks with long curly noses for some reason).

The elegant Maya arch at Labna - with me standing underneath (hoping to escape a bit of the midday heat).

El Palacio at Sayil - another impressive site! And only half an hour to explore its miles of woodland paths with scattered ruins before our bus whisked us onwards...

This is the sight that greets you as you walk through the entrance to Uxmal. An impressive oval pyramid tempal with soaring stairs (that unfortunately you are not allowed to climb). But if you stand where Gary is and clap sharply you will hear a wonderfully squeeky echo - it´s really odd!

This is one of the gorgeous lizards we found wandering around the ruins. We think it´s an iguana. He was lurking at the base of a crumbling pyramid in Uxmal, and swifty climbed up to the apex of the structure to avoid me and my camera!

Gary in front of the Palaces and pyramid temple at Uxmal - an impressively big site don´t you think?

And finally the front of the Casa Del Adivino - more steps, and a small Vicki to add a bit of scale to the photo!

Palenque

After the icy evenings of San Cristobal, we were relieved to discover that the small town of Palenque was in the middle of the jungle – a return to tropical temperatures to thaw off a little! OK, the jungle environment does have some disadvantages, say the odd mosquito or two… or maybe two hundred. I think Gary preferred the icy altitudes as he spent most of our first night in Palenque trying to track down the mossies in our room and squish them with the huge Mexican Lonely Planet Guide! I had a much more restful night – I must be less tasty!

Anyway, the main reason to visit Palenque isn’t to see the town itself but the spectacular Maya ruins nearby (also called Palenque). This is just as well as the town seems to consist of an extensive network of road works as far as we could see – although if you could scramble through the trenches and mud that replaced the streets you could find the odd plaza or park. But the adjacent ancient Maya city is beautiful.

Situated on the edge of the jungle, Palenque Maya city consists of numerous impressively complicated and beautifully preserved buildings in stunning surroundings. As you enter the site you climb a short flight of stairs through the undergrowth to emerge on a grassy expanse in front of a series of elegant stone temples – and from here it’s only a short walk to numerous palaces, pyramids, and tombs, all carefully restored and maintained. The Templo de las Inscriptions is a beautifully proportioned pyramid tomb just a stone’s throw from the huge El Palacio with its soaring tower and labyrinthine tunnels. Or move slightly further along to the Templo del Sol with its weird roof comb, and then climb the Templo de la Cruz for breathtaking views down over the complex. This is simply a very intricate collection of numerous intriguing buildings, all at the edge of a beautiful jungle. Definitely worth visiting!

Unfortunately lots of people have realised this… we didn’t exactly have the place to ourselves. The vast majority of visitors to Palenque were in huge tour groups – each had 30 to 40 overheated, middle aged people dutifully following a yapping guide around. From our point of view the groups were really annoying to be caught behind, but on the other hand if you successfully dodged them you could explore the ruins in relative peace! We really felt sorry for the poor sods in the groups – some of them looked so bored! Which is tragic in such a beautiful and interesting place. What’s more, none of the groups strayed from the first collection of buildings, even though there was so much more to see. After exploring the upper cluster of temples you could walk downhill through the jungle to explore other groups of buildings, all isolated and some completely immersed in the undergrowth. Ducking under palm trees and clambering over Maya stonework alongside elegant waterfall cascades while howler monkeys shrieked eerily in the trees above… wandering through these ruined complexes felt like exploring an Indiana Jones set.

Anyway, our stop in Palenque was necessarily brief as we have a tight schedule to keep to if we are to make it to Cancun in time for our flight home! Next we move on to Merida, a colonial town on the northwest corner of the Yucatan Peninsula – and within striking distance of a few more Maya playgrounds!

Palenque Pictures

The wonderful line of temples that greet you as you step through the jungle into Palenque! Closest is the wonderful Templo De Les Inscriptions, and as you move further away you see a tomb containing a red-sarcophagus (which used to house a red-dyed queen), and a smaller temple decorated with carvings of rabbit sculls. Wierd place!

Here you can see a very small Vicki on the steps of the rabbit-skull temple. Bearing in mind this is one of the smaller structures in the complex, you can start to get an impression of the size of the place.

And this photo of Gary on the grassy lawn in front of the wonderful Temple of Inscriptions also helps give an idea of scale! This tomb is possibly the most impressive we've seen since the pyramids in Cairo - a really beautiful tiered white pyramid with a simple temple structure on top. Very elegant.

If you climb to the top of one of the tallest pyramids in Palenque this photo to the left with Gary shows the view that greets you. It is a stunning view - a good reward for the hot, tiring climb up the never-ending steps (see the photograph below showing Gary half way up...). On the left of the view you can see the wierd Temple Del Sol, with its very odd roof, and to the right are the wonderful structures shown in the first picture of this blog entry.

More wonderful views! This time on the right of the picture you can see the lovely 'Palace' - complete with soaring tower and labyrhythine tunnels riddling the stone base. Really impressive.

This is a quiet green part of the complex we wandered through as we descended into the jungle. Again, by the size of the tiny Vicki in the corner you can see how vast Palenque is! From here we started to hear the cries of the howler monkeys - really loud and scarily eerie shrieks! We wondered at first if someone was being tortured in the jungle undergrowth! It certainly added some atmosphere to the place...

San Cristobal De Las Casas

After spending a turbulent night on the coach from Oaxaca, we hoped that San Cristobal would be a pleasant place to recuperate. Or San Cristobal De Las Casas to give the town’s full name – what a mouthful! Unfortunately, San Cristobal maybe a pretty town with brightly colour buildings, lively plazas and twisting streets, but it’s also FREEZING! We thought we’d left the high-altitude iciness back in Peru and Bolivia, but apparently not. In the 5 minutes it took to walk from the bus terminal to our hotel my poor toes turned to 10 lumps of ice… typically Gary thought the icy temperature was ‘refreshing’! Grrr.

Anyway, if you get over the temperature with lots of vigorous walking by day, having hot Mexican food for dinner and huddling under blankets at night, San Cristobal isn’t such a bad place to relax. It’s a small town, but it really is a pleasure to explore the cobbled streets, or to wander up one of the surrounding hills to peer into one of the little colonial churches that perch on top. We even browsed some of the shops selling locally-mined amber – Gary was a little taken aback when I explained that the translucent yellow ‘rock’ was effectively hardened resin, and could even feature trapped insects…

Well, we will now descend into jungle territory, where hopefully it will be a bit warmer! Over the next few days we’ll travel north into the Yucatan peninsula towards the sunny beaches of Cancun, Playa Del Carman and Isla Cozumel – so we’re pretty hopeful that the weather will warm up.