The husband and I decided to go to Mexico for vacation this year during my December break. I/we stayed there for a week and then Matt stayed by himself for another week for more rest and relaxation. We flew into Cancun and right away I noticed how verdant everything was. It took some time to get through immigration, customs, picking up our car, and getting pesos. Then we drove 2 long hours, west on route 180 to Chichen Itza and finally reached our hotel: Hacienda Chichen, which had back yard access to the Chichen Itza ruins. We made it through the interesting village of Piste and arrived at 8 pm at our hotel. Matt and I reserved our tickets to the ruins and a guide at 6 am for the next morning. It was a long, stressful travel day! The day before we woke at at 5:30 am to travel to Mexico, and day 2 we also woke up at the same time to see the ruins. We didn't want any people invading our photos and wanted a quiet experience. The sun was slowly coming up and the ruins were coming into the light. Since we were coming from another entrance, we saw this first. It is called the Nunnery or Iglesia (Church). The façades are decorated with geometric patterns and animals that we learned about. The Mayans worshipped snakes, eagles, and jaguars. Below is called the Temple de los Tableros. Our guide was nice, funny, and knowledgable regarding the site, giving us a lot of information. We proceeded to the Caracol, thought to be an observatory, where priests determined the date. The next thing we saw was called Tomb of the High Priest or Tumba del Gran Sacerdote. This pyramid had tombs inside. Finally as the sun and clouds were in the sky, we reached El Castillo or Pyramid of Kukulkán. I learned there are 365 steps, 9 platforms, and is 98 feet high, The Mayans were into astronomical and astrological ideas and incorporated this into the pyramid. They also worshipped snakes, eagles, and jaguars. Apparently during the equinoxes, the sun will hit the 9 square terraces forming a snake like body shadow running down the pyramid with a carved head of a serpent at the bottom of the temple. I couldn't believe it until I took a picture from the side. This was such a magical experience for me since I always wanted to go to Mexico and visit the ruins. The husband made all my dreams come true! I also found out there are 2 smaller pyramids inside El Castillo and a cenote. Our guide said this is symbolic to the Mayan religion of people's souls entering down towards the underworld. She also said if you clap (which she did) between El Castillo and the Temple of Venus (which I did not take a picture of) you can hear a chirping duck/bird sound! Next up was the Temple of the Warriors, where the statue Chacmool sits at the top. I learned that Chacmool is a statue where human sacrifice were performed. It is like a table or sacrificial vessel where it receives gifts of food like tamales or blood and human hearts. We couldn't climb us to see the Chacmool statue on top of the temple (you can see the silhouette in my photo), but our guide showed us a close up picture of it. Another statue of Chacmool was found inside the El Castillo pyramid, along with jade and a statue of a jaguar. Adjoining the Temple of the Warriors, is the Hall of a Thousand Columns. The columns also go around the back of the temple. We continued on to the House of the Eagles. Here our guide explained the carvings: a chief/warrior wearing a headdress, holding a head and heart of his sacrifice and the blood returning to the top and the bottom of a snake. Right next to the House of the Eagles is the Wall of the Skulls. Apparently, this is a base for the stakes on which the decapitated heads of were impaled. This platform was used to memorialize past victims, heads of sacrificial prisoners, enemies that had died in battle or players who lost the Mayan ball game. Speaking of the ball game, we entered the Great Ball Court and it was huge! Plus no people were in our photos! 545 feet in length, 225 feet in width, and 39 feet high walls with rings in the center, I wondered how the Mayans played ball here. The players were not allowed to use their hands or feet to get the rubber ball into the stone rings. The losers got decapitated as shown on the panels on the sides of the walls. What a gruesome game, but Matt and I are still smiling nevertheless. The Temple of the Bearded Man is behind us in the picture below. The Temple of the Jaguars is built on one of the walls of the Great Ball Court and unfortunately that was the last temple we saw because we had to leave at 8 am, before the crowds arrived. But I think we saw everything, except the sacred cenote. That was closed and that is where the sacrificial victims were thrown in!
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