Chichen Itza

CHICHEN ITZA!!!

In an attempt to let the pictures speak for themselves, I will try to keep my comments brief in order to have more room to share pictures of this amazing, historical place.

Autumn at the Temple of Kukulcan
(Site of one of the 7 New Wonders of the World!)

Mike & Autumn beside the Temple of Kukulcan (Note: the large serpentine head just over Michael's shoulder at the base of the temple. This is where the shadow "body" of the snake is revealed once a year. See photo immediately below.)

This plaque hangs along the walls of entrance.

We were amazed to note the intricate carvings on almost every stone everywhere we went.

Here is Michael standing at the Base of the Astronomy Tower which was used to create the Mayan Calendaring system in accordance with the stars.

Note the faces carved on the corner of this structure. Aren't they neat?

These little figures in the boxes above appear to be animals. Mike & I thought that the one on the right was a turtle. What do you think?

Can I tell you how much we wanted to go exploring in this interesting looking place? Don't those holes and doorways just beg to be investigated?
I don't know what it is, but I liked it.

Leap Froggin' some ruins.
(Just kidding, I would never do that.)

A Mayan Archway.


Mike discovered these ancient wooden beams sticking out of the ruins.


We passed the Temple of Kukulcan several times
as it is centrally located amongst the ruins.


The now forbidden doorway we had so hoped to pass through. Alas, visitors are no longer allowed on or in the temples. It's a long (political/greed)story and so will not be included here.


This is the view of the temple on the way to the Ball Court.

Upon entering the Ball Court you become immediately engulfed in it's utter size.

Michael is on the left headed toward our tour group to view some of the wall carvings. If you look at the upper right hand wall you will see a little circle. This circle was where the players would try to get the ball to go through for their ball games.This picture only shows one HALF of the court. There are large throne-like structures located at each end for the royalty to sit and watch. Ancient box office seating, no?

Here is the other side of the court.

My favorite carving on the Ball Court walls.

Halfway between the Ball Court and the Temple of Kukulcan there is a sacraficial altar.





This unnerving walled structure was included in the sacraficial site. There is a legend that there are actual skulls encased in each of the bricks, but no one confirmed this for sure.


Legend or not, it was pretty creepy and a little fascinating.


Here are a few more engravings along the sacraficial altar areas.
In a few areas the original paint is still evident, as you will see.

Not sure why I am standing thus,
but the Temple of Kukulcan is just behind me (again) through those trees!
Excavating more temples from the ravages of the jungle.

There was a small structure covered in carvings of Jaguars.

From the looks of it, it was painted red originally.

This temple was very beautiful just because of the various colors of greys. There was also several spectacular trees on its grounds whose roots were literally growing through the stones of the ruined temples.

Next door to el Temple de los Grandes Mesas (Temple of the Large Tables), was el Templo de los Guerreros (The Temple of the Warriors, I think). This stunning place caused me to stop is awe. Hundreds and hundreds of pillars were erected in honor of the most valiant of the Mayan warriors; each pillar unique to its warrior. Due to the vast amount of pillars, we never got to see even half of them, but they--and the temple-- were beautiful to behold.
"Fallen Warrior"

This is the view as we turned to leave el Templo de los Guerreros.
Only two of the four sides of the Temple of Kukulcan have been restored. These last views are of the unrestored sides. Please also note that the stairs have been numbered in white paint. There was particular signifigance to the number of stairs in relation to the Mayan calendar.

This door leads into the hidden inner pyramid.

Hurricane clouds lent themselves nicely to the architecture.

Thank you for taking the time to look at and read about our wonderful trip. What a blessing to be able to share so much with so many family members and friends. Your interest and excitement over everything have meant a lot to us, thank you!

Special thank you's to John & Michelle LoRe and their family(Michael's little sister's family) and also to our Papa Pete and Mama Rosa whose generosity made this entire trip not only a possibilty, but a reality. Thank you again and again. We love you very much and will not soon forget how much you sacrificed to give us this gift. Love you guys!!

The Blue Cenote

Before I get started on what was my absolute favorite part of our trip, I want to first talk about this picture of Michael and what I think of when I see it. Obviously he is quite the ham, which not everyone has been able to observe for themselves yet. Everywhere we went he would try to pick out the very largest and loudest colored sombreros and would then wander up to me wherever I was to see how long it would take for me to notice the hilarity. So funny! This is the only time I caught him in the act, and it was on the way to the Blue Cenote. I had stopped to buy a small rock turtle for my baby brother Dante, so this is what I saw when I looked up. The other thing about this picture has more to do with how wonderful Michael is in all things. I know all wives think that about their husbands, but let me tell you what was really happening in this picture. Michael was sunburned. Michael had a very high fever. Michael had the flu and was miserable. It was about 100 degrees outside with a like numbered humidity count. Did he complain? No. He made the best of the time we had and made sure I still got to buy Dante's turtle and take a swim in the famous Blue Cenote before we had lunch and headed out to the ruins of Chichen Itza. He slept almost the entire time we were on the bus so he would be able to keep up with our tour group. Yes, this is the same guy who went out of his way to make ME smile and laugh when he by all rights should have been resting the whole day at the hotel.

Reason 1 million and 14 why I love this man of mine.

Here's a little background on the Blue Cenote: First of all, a cenote is first and foremost: a sink hole or natural well. At 82 feet below the surface and 150 feet deep, the Blue Cenote (or Cenote Ik-Kil) is the largest in the Yucatan Penisula. Our guide also referred to it once as the bath of the Princesses, but I have not been able to find that title anywhere else since. This whole area is another eco archeological park, so once again you will not find me wearing any makeup, as that is not permitted. I don't think I mentioned that in my last post about Xcaret, but they are not joking around about chemicals and even insist upon you using biodegradeable sunscreens in most places.

At the entrance to the cenote, there is a small white post:

This is a neat wooden post near the stairs down to the cenote that reads

"May Peace Reign on Earth"in many different languages. I thought that was a particularly nice touch since in our group alone we had 4 or 5 different nationalities represented.

Here I am making my way around the cenote.

(I am the one in the back swimming away from the camera.)

There were lots of little black catfish swimming around in there! So cool! I kept tickling their little tails and they'd scurry away. Also, as you can see, the roots of the plants at the surface hang all the way down to the water.

Not the best picture(okay, not even remotely good), but it does hazily show the people on the balcony overlooking the sink hole.



A view from the middle balcony. Some of what you see coming from above is actually running water. It was truly stunning to behold, and the dropping water created a lauging, playful noise
as it joined with the water below. When I finally got down inside the water I had fun swimming through the falling water and around all the vines. There were so many different colors of green and textures of rock and plant in there.

Looking down the wall from our view on the upper balcony.

The water really was that blue.

It looked like Hawaii, and the water was as cold as a lake. So welcome!

Here is another shot from above that shows you where everyone clusters together at the bottom to swim and take pictures. The leaves on the right obscure the wooden steps I used to climb down into the chilly water.

This shot shows the falling water pretty well adjacent to the vines.

Anywhere you see a little light grey spot in the water there is water falling.



This is me, sunburned and totally exhilerated by my dip into the cenote.

(Please pardon my near nakedness!)

Our video is too long to load, so: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c59DwL8TFtQ is a cool little video that shows the tunnel down to the cenote.