Chichén Itza

A bit about Chichén Itzá before I start adding photos.  It was named after the cenotes located there, the chichén or “mouth of the wells”, and for the Itzá, the Mayan tribe known as the “water witches”, who lived in the region.  The area was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1988 and voted a World Wonder in 2007.  The earliest buildings here date back to around the 5th or 6th century (I couldn’t get a definitive number!), while the larger, most familiar structure, El Castillo (The Castle) was built several hundred years later.  At its peak around 35,000 people lived at Chichén Itzá but by the 13th century the city had been abandoned.  Unfortunately you can no longer climb the steps of El Castillo but you can see the carving of a plumed serpent at its top which is symbolic of Quetzalcóatal, also known as Kukulcán, or The Feathered Serpent, one of the major deities of the culture.  The pyramid stands 79’ (24 m) in height and was built with 91 steps on each of its four sides which when added to the one step at the top equals the 365 days of the solar year.  This religious, political and commercial center was re-discovered in 1841 and archaeologists have been excavating there ever since.

El Castillo is massive and was built on/over a temple that was 200 years older than the current structure.  The newer buildings on the site are mixed architecture of Mayan, Aztec and Toltec styles.  Interesting thing to note, the Maya had an 18 month calendar with each month lasting 20 days, plus five special days added here and there which were for human sacrifice, rounding out the 365 day year.  

You see the serpent theme throughout Chichén Itza.  During the Spring and Fall equinoxes shadows create a slithering serpent along the stairs of El Castillo.  

Also at the equinoxes the Maya would play a game on a court like you see above using a rubber ball.  It was a team sport and names of it vary from just The Ball Game, to Pitz, to Pok-a-Tok, the latter was the one our guide used.  Speaking of guides, ours was pretty high tech, we each had an earpiece to listen to him share information while we were on site, great for in the crowds. Anyway, back to Pok-a-Tok. 

High up on the walls were stone rings like this one.  The point of the game was to get the ball through the ring, but players could only use a bat, or some body part like a hip, elbow, knee or foot, no hands allowed, to get the ball through that hole.

 Here's some perspective of how high they had to go to make that happen.  That would take some real swivel hips to get a ball up there! Now here's what seems the crazy part, the captain of the winning team was then decapitated at the end of the game, sacrificed to the gods as the best player, because didn't they deserve the best?  My question for you is, what kind of player would you want to have been?

Here's little detail of some of the stone carvings, along with an iguana lounging on the top of a wall.

Just a fun picture that one of the guides asked me if I wanted him to take.  I mean how many people can say they could actually touch the top of a Mayan temple?

This was my favorite picture from Chichén Itza, it made me feel like there could have been a Mayan coming around the corner any moment.  After a too brief visit to the site we boarded buses again to head for a nearby hotel for lunch before heading back to the ship.  While there we were entertained by the dancers below who were accompanied by drums and flutes.

The hotel grounds were lovely and extensive, I'm sure it was a nice place to stay.  We wondered how old this tree near the entrance was.

And I enjoyed this different kind of Christmas tree in the hotel lobby with its colorful decorations.

The beginnings of my world wide Christmas ornament collection began here at Chichén Itza with a replica of El Castillo on a keychain that I'll turn into a decoration.  It was a tired bunch of cruisers who headed back to Serenade at the end of the day.  Thankfully it was a pretty uneventful journey except for on the ferry right before we reached the ship.  We were sitting below deck with friends when all of a sudden we heard a "pop" and all the power went off, everything went black as we were bobbing along in the dark.  The crew started rushing around with flashlights, opening and closing doors and compartments. They had lights back on within a couple of minutes.  Not sure what happened but it was a little disconcerting, especially when we realized how close we were to the dock.  All in all a great day!