You would be Amazed by Chichen Itza!

Chichen Itza, located in the Yucatan province of North Central Mexico, is about a 3 hour drive West from the Cancun, Playa del Carmen, and Tulum area. It is a very long trip as you can imagine, with 6 hours round trip, but we are so glad that we go to experience this incredible experience and history!

We visited Chichen Itza on our trip to Tulum, Mexico (see our last blog post). We booked the tour which incuded a van ride to a meeting point where we got on a comfortable air conditioned Coach bus, a tour of Chichen Itza, a visit to a local cenote, and a tradional Mayan dinner. We left at 7am and did not return until nearly 11pm, but it was worth it!

The Western ride was scenic, and uneventful, but they did give us a lot of information on Mayan culture during the ride. They had English speakers sit in the back, and had a brief up front with Spanish speakers first, and then would interpret for us in the back. When we arrived, it was hot, dusty, and windy, especially for mid-March, but the tour was incredible! We got to see a lot of ruins. Chichen Itza is the largest surviving Temple, and the Mayans believed that the taller they are, the closer they are to the Gods.

The craftmanship and skill that were put into these Temples and buildings hundreds of years ago is incredible! They were built in dense jungle areas, and they had to haul rock down foot paths through the jungle to the site. It must have been a daunting task to say the least!

As you can see by the smaller structure behind us, the workmanship is impressive, even by today's standards! All of this was hand carved, and the carvings tell stories about the Gods and other information, such as the alignment with Constellations. You may know that the Mayans were the ones that devloped one of the first calendars.

Our Tour Guide was very knowledgable, and took extra time to illustrate things for us and explain the ancient beliefs and craftsman techniques used for building.

Halfway through the tour, we finally rounded a corner and saw this enormous Temple in a huge clearing. It was impressive to say the least! They say that the top of the Temple is only 98 feet high, but it seems so much larger in person! If you align yourself perfectly with one of the four openings at the top, and clap your hands together, the reverberating echo that comes back sounds like the call of a bird of prey, such as a hawk. It's the most surreal accoustic experience that we have seen. The Tour Guides don't even fully understand how the echo makes that sound.

We spent about 2 hours at the site, with time at the end to shop amongst the vendors. If you choose to buy something here, do not be afraid to negotiate! I purchased a limestone replica that the man originally wanted $130 US for, and was able to talk him down to $30 US and also throw in an Obsidian ornamental disk as well.

After that dusty, hot tour, it was nice to visit a local Cenote (pronounced sen-note-tay) to cool off. These Cenotes are found all over this area, and are said to be connected underground through a series of natural tunnels. This particular one was 100 feet from the water to the surface, and the water itself is 150 feet deep! It is named the Sacred Cenote, and has been known to humans for Centuries. In past times, they would use these holes in the ground to dispose of trash, and would even thrown human remains into them for burial or sometimes as a sacrifice.

During our traditional Mayan dinner (tacos with tradional meats, served buffet style), we were surprised by some local Mayan Warrior reenactors (sorry for the grainy photo, it is captured from video). The Mayans are very proud of their heritage, and will tell you all that you want to know.

A

fter dinner, we started the journey back to the resort, and stopped halfway to stretch our legs and get some local treats. We chose homemade popsicles made from fresh fruit, which was very refreshing.

We slept great after such a long day, but were very grateful for the experience and highly encourage you to do it as well! Let us know if you have any questions in the comments below, and as always, if we can help you with any travel needs, please contact us at https://www.avoyatravel.com/experts/tina-olson