Day 51 : Chichen Itza

There had been a lot of mixed reviews about Chichen Itza, some say to go, others say to skip because there are too many tourists and you can't climb onto any of the monuments. 

Having travelled such a long distance and maybe never getting another chance to be in Mexico again, I figured that I should just do it and make my own decision whether I like it or not. After all it had made it onto the list of the New 7 Wonders of the World, so it shouldn't be that bad. I'll just leave early in the morning as I usually had done with the other Archaeological Sites, to avoid the crowds, especially since many had said the tourists usually only reach at about 10am.

I only managed to reach the site at about 8.30am, due to some delay at the hostel with a slightly later breakfast service and waiting for the Collectivo to fill up before it would leave.  Upon arriving at Chichen Itza grounds, the Collectivo driver announced "Chicken Pizza". Everyone laughed.

There was already a couple of tour buses at the carpark ... "Damn! Aren't they suppose to only arrive after 10?" 

I quickly made my way to the ticket counters and waited for my turn. Then I saw the cost of the tickets... MXP237?!?

This is ridiculously expensive – the cost of the entrance was the usual MXP65, but apparently that's just the Federal fee. The State had decided to slap a State fee of MXP167 on top of that, just to rip off the tourists (Mexicans pay a slightly lesser State fee).

I was starting to have 2nd thoughts on going in, and then I thought, "What the heck, I am already here. It's expensive, but a small fraction of the cost of my Airticket to get to Mexico".  

The queue was super slow as I had to pay the 2 different fees at 2 different counters. This is a stupid system and a time waster. No wonder there was a long queue waiting to go in. 

I walked into the entrance and followed the path, with make-shift store vendors starting to put up their wares along the path. Soon I got to a clearing and right in front of me was the iconic monument seen on most pictures and postcards on Chichen Itza – El Castillo.

There was already some crowd in front of the building and getting a picture with the monument totally empty was a challenge.

I had to wait for some moments, for different tour groups to move on to the next spot, but still there were the occasion strays in the background.

This was the best I could do... And that was probably around 9am.

Standing in front of El Castillo was impressive.

The Mayans included a step for each day of the year; each side of the Pyramid has 91 steps, and the temple perched like a crown on the top, counts as the 365th. 

On one side of the Pyramid, the stairway is flanked by a pair of serpent heads at the bottom of the steps. 

A couple tour groups surrounding El Castillo started clapping, and you could hear a strange sound coming from the top of the temple chamber at El Castillo that sounded like a bird calling. 

As I pondered on some of the other Archaeological Sites where I had been before, there were also instances where guides had also clapped at specific venues within those sites, with different acoustics being produced.  It was amazing to think that the Mayans were so advanced that they were able to create acoustics using natural elements.

Surrounding El Castillo, there were a couple of impressive looking monuments visible at immediate sight too.  On one side was a monument with numerous pillars lined along it, called Temple of the Warriors and Group of the 1000 columns.

On another side was the Jaguar Temple and the Skull Wall, and on the far side was the Great Ball Court.

As I entered the Great Ball Court, I was in awe...

Ball Courts are characteristic in Mayan culture and every ruin I had been to had at least one. However I had never seen such a huge one!

The 2 parallel platforms of the Ball Court were each 95m long, and were towering high above me (8m).

Set high up in the middle of each platform was a big ring, beautifully carved with feathered serpents.

On the wall of one of the platforms, faint carvings could still be seen of the supposedly players of the game – each team comprises 6 players plus one captain. The depiction showed one of the "captain" holding a decapitated head in his hand, while the "captain" of the other team had a missing head, representing the team which had lost. Imagining the sight of these decapitations at the end of each game was gruesome.

2 other structures which looked like stands to me, each on one end of the parallel platforms, was what I assumed were where the royalty sat when watching the games.

As I walked out of the Great Ball Court, a vendor selling wood souvenirs had a mock up of the ball court with a 3D of the ring, displayed, which I felt was a good depiction and carved very well.

The vendor said it took him 1 month to carve it from scratch.

Wow! I didn't dare to ask him how much it would cost.

The vendors were completely set up by then, and I always have a chuckle when they said their wares are "almost free". 

I continued exploring the ground of the Ruins and walked into smaller paths leading further away from El Castillo.

One of them brought me to another clearing which housed the "Caracol"  (functioned as an Observatory) and a very decorated building with elaborate carvings of masks with big noses called "The Church", while another route brought me towards Cenote Sagrado, a place for pilgrimage for Mayans, where human sacrifices to the gods were made. 

I spent close to 4 hours at the grounds, with maybe an hour used for waiting for the right moment to capture pictures without the crowds.  When I left, the car park was filled with loads of tour buses.

Chichen Itza is so much bigger than I expected, and there are still more monuments than the ones I had mentioned above.  This is likely the only site I had seen in Mexico where excavation and preservation works were done really well with each monument being impressive in its own right, and so many of them in just 1 location.

Some other archaeological sites I had been to had just 1 dominant structure, with the rest looking really like ruins / rubble of stones scattered across a smaller sized ground.

Sure, it would had been amazing to climb the structures at Chichen Itza, but that would mean I would need really the whole day here!

I really liked Chichen Itza and would recommend anyone who plans to be in Yucatan to visit it.  Just wish that it wasn't that expensive.