We paced our trip to Cancun perfectly, we mixed in some sight seeing adventures in between lazy days at the hotel and beach. Our first sight seeing adventure was to go see the world famous Chichen Itza. We booked our excursion through the Alltournative tour company, and we absolutely loved it, they picked us up from our hotel, our group was small and personal and our tour guides were phenomenal, so knowledgeable and so fun.
Alltournative makes sure to get their guests to Chichen Itza nice and early to avoid huge crowds as well as extreme heat. We were even a 2.5 hour tour of all the ruins, we learned so much about the Mayan culture and this amazing city they built. We were lucky with the weather as it was overcast and cloudy for most of our time at the ruins, it was still overwhelmingly hot and humid but we at least didn't have the sun beating down on us.
Chichen Itza was one of the largest Mayan cities, with the relatively densely clustered architecture of the site covering an area of at least 1.9 sq mile. The site contains many fine stone buildings in various states of preservation, many of which have been restored. The buildings were connected by a dense network of paved causeways, called sacbeob. Archaeologists have identified over 80 sacbeob criss-crossing throughout the site, and extending in all directions from the city.
Many of these stone buildings were originally painted in red, green, blue and purple colors. Pigments were chosen according to what was most easily available in the area. The site must be imagined as a colorful one, not like it is today. Just like gothic cathedrals in Europe, colors provided a greater sense of completeness and contributed greatly to the symbolic impact of the buildings.
The architecture encompasses a number of styles, including the Puuc and Chenes styles of the northern Yucatán Peninsula. The buildings of Chichen Itza are grouped in a series of architectonic sets, and each set was at one time separated from the other by a series of low walls. The three best known of these complexes are the Great North Platform, which includes the monuments of El Castillo (Temple of Kukulcan), Temple of Warriors and the Great Ball Court; The Osario Group, which includes the pyramid of the same name as well as the Temple of Xtoloc; and the Central Group, which includes the Caracol, Las Monjas, and Akab Dzib.
El Castillo (Spanish for "The Castle") is the most well known structure of the entire city of Chichen Itza, it's by far the largest structure and dominates most of the Great Northern Platform complex.
Built by the pre-Columbian Maya civilization sometime between the 9th and 12th centuries AD, El Castillo served as a temple to the god Kukulkan, the Yucatec Mayan Feathered Serpent deity closely related to the god Quetzalcoatl known to the Aztecs and other central Mexican cultures of the Postclassic period.
The pyramid consists of a series of square terraces with stairways up each of the four sides to the temple on top. Sculptures of plumed serpents run down the sides of the northern balustrade. Around the spring and autumn equinoxes, the late afternoon sun strikes off the northwest corner of the pyramid and casts a series of triangular shadows against the northwest balustrade, creating the illusion of a feathered serpent "crawling" down the pyramid. The event has been very popular and is witnessed by thousands of visitors at the spring equinox,
Each of the pyramid's four sides has around 91 steps which, when added together and including the temple platform on top as the final "step", makes a total of 365 steps, which is equal to the number of days of the solar year. The Mayans were remarkable astronomers and there are several links to astronomy in their buildings.
Chichen Itza and the temple of Kukulkan are classified as one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, and in 1988 were enlisted as a UNESCO world heritage site. The three main reasons they became a world heritage site being:
1.) The monuments of Chichen-Itza, particularly in the northern group, which includes the Great Ball Court, the Temple of Kukulkan and the Temple of the Warriors, are among the undisputed masterpieces of Mesoamerican architecture because of the beauty of their proportions, the refinement of their construction and the splendor of their sculpted decorations.
2.) The monuments of Chichen-Itza exerted an influence throughout the entire Yucatan cultural zone from the 10th to the 15th century.
3.) Chichen-Itza is the most important archaeological vestige of the Maya-Toltec civilization in Yucatan (10th-15th centuries).
This is the Temple of the Warriors complex, which consists of a large stepped pyramid fronted and flanked by rows of carved columns depicting warriors and stands across from the main temple. At the top of the stairway on the pyramid's summit (and leading towards the entrance of the pyramid's temple) is a Chac Mool.
Chacmool is the term used to refer to a particular form of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican sculpture depicting a reclining figure with its head facing 90 degrees from the front, supporting itself on its elbows and supporting a bowl or a disk upon its stomach. These figures possibly symbolised slain warriors carrying offerings to the gods; the bowl upon the chest was used to hold sacrificial offerings, including pulque, tamales, tortillas, tobacco, turkeys, feathers and incense. Chacmools were often associated with sacrificial stones or thrones.
Iguanas are EVERYWHERE in Cancun, I never got tired of seeing them though.
Archaeologists have identified thirteen ballcourts for playing the Mesoamerican ballgame in Chichen Itza, but the Great Ball Court about 490 ft to the north-west of the Castillo is by far the most impressive. It is the largest and best preserved ball court in ancient Mesoamerica, it measures 551 by 230 ft.
The parallel platforms flanking the main playing area are each 312 ft long. The walls of these platforms stand 26 ft high. Set high up in the centre of each of these walls are rings carved with intertwined feathered serpents.
At the base of the high interior walls are slanted benches with sculpted panels of teams of ball players. In one panel, one of the players has been decapitated; the wound emits streams of blood in the form of wriggling snakes.
By the time we finished touring the Great Ball Court, the clouds were beginning to clear and we had plenty of blue sky and LOTS of sunshine and the temperature began to rise, we were excited to move on to the next part of our tour, which included swimming in an underground cenote.
After we had a little free time to explore the ruins and the gift shops, we loaded up in our tour van and drove a little ways to the Cenote Maya Native Park.
This gorgeous park is surrounded by lush jungle and is a quiet, shaded paradise after being in the hot sun and surrounded by crowds.
We were given a brief tour of the gardens, where they grow most of the vegetables they serve for lunch.
Our lunch was prepared by locals living near the park, the food was unbelievably fresh and was so delicious.
After lunch, we were invited to participate in an authentic Mayan ritual led by a Mayan Shaman.
Then it was time to head to the Cenote! A "cenote" is a natural sinkhole created where a cave ceiling has collapsed, this creates a natural pool which is then filled by rain and water flowing from underground rivers. Cenotes were the only source of water in the jungle for the Mayan civilization and are considered sacred by the Mayan people. The Mayans considered cenotes to be an entrance to their "underworld" or "Xibalba" where their gods live and their spirits reside after death.
There are over 6,000 cenotes in Yucatan Peninsula, Cenote Maya is one of the region’s most impressive cenotes being 196 feet in diameter and an almost perfect circular shape. Its crystal-clear waters and geological formations make it a great natural jewel.
There are two ways to enter the cenote, walking down the large wooden staircase or repelling 85 feet from the top of the cavern.
We chose to repel.
It was terrifying, exhilarating, and rewarding all at the same time
The fresh, cool water felt amazing after almost melting away in the hot Mexican sun. We had quite a while to swim around. There was a zip line and tarzan vines, for those who wanted a little extra fun or there were large tubes for those of us that wanted to relax and enjoy the water.
When our time in the Cenote was up, we ascended to the surface via a long, stone tunnel and were shown to the showers before heading back to our lockers to change.
We were given large, frozen complimentary drinks while we waited for our entire group to get changed and for our photos to be developed. There were several photographers documenting our entire cenote adventure. Lex and I only wanted the one of us repelling.
So delicious.
Our awesome tour guides and van driver. We had so much fun with these three!
On our hour long drive back to our hotels, we made one pit stop at a gas station. Lex and I were THRILLED at the opportunity to load up with some room snacks. Having a variety of snacks in our hotel room is a vital part of any good vacation, and since we didn't have our own car to be able to get room snacks whenever we needed, we were so excited we got the chance to stock up. Many of the people in our group had never heard of the idea of room snacks, but when we came back with our many bags and explained the concept to them, they were all a little jealous.
What an amazing day!
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