I'm up and ready at 6:50 for my tour of Chichen Itza at 7:00. The shuttle didn't arrive until 7:30. Mexican time. Half an hour early or late, either way.
The shuttle arrived and off we go! I took a tour of Chichen Itza from the hostel for about $45. I went with a German name Peter, a Pole named Kata, a Japanese turned North Californian named Youyu, and a Kiwi named Rob.
The tour was mainly in Spanish. Fortunately our guide spoke Spanish, Potuguese, and English. So after his hour intro in Spanish, he repeated the entire thing in English. Yay!
So here is what I learned. Mayans do still exist. They are very short, no taller than 5 foot. They are also a suppressed people and very poor. The guide was saying they live off the land, have 12 or so children who all live in the same hut with no beds. From what I saw, I don't quite believe that.
Our first stop was a Mayan village.
Lots of carvings and paper weights and masks. Then we walked through a shop that was giving us tequila samples.
More of a tequila liquor than actual tequila.
We walked through a village and a Mayan woman was making tacos and giving then to us tourists.
Mmmm fresh made tortillas. The best.
Then we ate a classic Mayan lunch (I think). Basically a Sol Food style meal but not as good.
Then it was back to the bus and off to a cenote (sinkhole).
This is some Indian Jones shit!
The cenote was awesome. Simple awesome. My pictures do it no justice.
Out of the water, more tequila tasting with Rob and then off to Chichen Itza!
Chichen Itza was...well it would have been awe inspiring but hundreds of peddlers and fake panther calls took a lot away from the experience.
The engineering that went into Chichen Itza is amazing. If you stand in front of the stairs and clap the sound travels up the stairs and it sounds like a quetzal.
In the hip ball court standing in the center, if you clap you can hear 7 echos. The Nayans were obsessed with the number 7. They also invented 0 and I heard a lot of nothing at times. Also in the ball court, the emperor and his guest sat 200 meters across from each other but could speak normally and still hear. Same concept as the exhibit on the Exploratorium or I think a parabolic satellite dish. It directs the sounds waves in one direction.
After the tour I travelled around.
Then the park closed. WTF?! Only give minutes to see the other half of the place?
Chichen Itza is a great place with lots of history and interesting things to see. Lots of peddlers really take from the experience. All in all it was a good tour, I just wish I had more time to explore.
Back at the hostel I taught more people the glorious game that is Mao. And they loved it! We played some 10 games with 7 or 8 people. Hopefully they bring the game back to their home countries.
Part way through the game, a hostel worker named Daniel brought out some Cubanas. My first taste of Cuba was smokey and light. Not bad. But also not something I would do regularly.
Off to bed. Tomorrow I have no plans.
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