11.5.11 CHICHEN-ITZA
We head off at 7.30am to a hotel around the corner to be collected, they were meant to pick us up!!!
Then we our taken to another pickup place and wait half an hour for the big bus to come.
We are told the bus wasn’t going to be full and we could spread out!!
It is full, 50 of us!!
Remind me I will never do a bus tour again, 50 people is 48 people too many.
So we eventually get moving for our 2.5 hour drive to first stop Cenote Maya which is a huge hole in the ground with crystal clear water, half a cave really .
This is were the Mayans all this water and decided that they would settle here in 400AD
We climb down many stairs and it very cool ! Lots of people so we don’t swim. In the water are miniature sharks about 12inches long, they just swim around and don’t bother anyone.
Of course there is the tourist shop with many stall holders, Mayan decendants, so we are encouraged to purchase to help them. I bought 2 bracelets in silver for the girls in the Mayan calendar which is 365 days and 6 hours!!
They weren’t even interested in bargaining, but I thought this was my charity!
Now off to lunch, I want to say f……K as we are herded into a room with I would say about 500 seats , a buffet.
Herded to our table which sat the 50 from our bus Pretty ordinary meal so as you can see we are really enjoying this fabulous tour!!!
Next stop Cichen-Itza or you can call it Chicken Pizza!! Ha ha
By now it is full on sun about 1.30pm
This place is renown for the heat as it very open.
Great !!!
We alight the bus and the searing heat hits you, oh well we just have to put up with it!
We walk along a path with stalls either side calling out one dollar one dollar, how they make a living I don’t know!
So here we are and it amazing.
It is now one of the seven new wonders of the world, Ive now see all except Petra in Jordon and the Great Wall of China!
The Mayans lived here from 400AD to 1250 AD very happily till they ran out of water as they chopped down all the trees.
A common thing all civilizations seem to do!! You would think we would learn wouldn’t you!
Now before they left and Im not sure for how many years, they made human sacrifice’s to the Gods of young virgins, so we were lead to believe but this is incorrect as in 1904 archeologists found human bones of males females of all ages.
The human sacrifices were to the gods to bring them rain. The problem was the first time they did it it rained!
They would take them up to the top of the pyramid and open their chest take out their heart and the jewels they where wearing of turquoise gold abasinium, the rest of the body tossed into a well!!
When they continued this ritual and the rain continued not to come they had to move on around 1250AD.
They wrote in hieroglyphics and 70 percent has been translated still 30 percent to go!
The heat is so intense standing there and hard to concentrate.
The pyramids had houses on the top where the priests lived. Climb 91 steps!! Luckily here we are not allowed to as I probably would have given it a go! Up ok down not so good!!
They would go to work at the observatory each day. They were amazing mathematicians working out the calendar at 365 days and 6 hours. It would change every 52 years unlike ours every 4 years. They had 18mths to their year!
The observatory was round which is amazing as no other civilization did round things till about 17th century and here is was made around 12 century. Highly intelligent race of people
We visited the Observatory, Venus pyramid ,saw the 1000 columns of Los Guerreros where they would have their markets and of course the grand pyramid Kukulcan.
Here we are told to clap in front of the 91 steps and then we hear the answer, the noise of the Mayan bird gertlez, with the stunning red feathers and very long tail! How incredible was that! Believe me they were a clever lot!
We saw the huge grand stands where the priests would play a soccer like game, the winner or looser or the coach would be killed after the match!! We couldn’t quite work out which!!!
We decide to skip the well as it is so so hot and head back to the air-conditioned bus for the long journey home.
My arrival home wasn’t the best as I had a phone call from Kate to tell me that Jean Fraser, her grand mother, Nenes Mum and my dear 2nd Mum had died.
A few days ago I had been warned as when Kate was in Adelaide she and Tony took her to have an xray as she wasn’t well and they discovered cancer throughout all her body and she wasn’t going home. (A couple of months ago she had her breasts removed)
I was extremely upset but kept reminding myself that Jean was 90 and had a wonderful fulfilling life, loved and adored by so many of us.
But you just think like Mum they are going to be around for ever.
How lucky we all our to have had her in our lives, and how she gave so much to each and everyone one of us to cherish for ever.
Jean adored John and John adored her. They use to flirt outrageously together!
Jean passed away on his birthday 12 th May.
Kukulcan Pyramid
So dry and barren Chichen-Itza
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