A modern wonder of the world

I woke up my first morning in Valladolid with two things on my mind, coffee and Chichen Itza. When looking outside my window and finding it was greyer than a typical London winter morning I felt slightly discouraged. If the weather on the previous days, with the raging tropical storms, was any indication of what was to come - I feared that wandering though ruins a whole day would be a muddy and wet experience indeed!

 After the first cup of coffee, my mood changed for the better, as is the case most mornings... So, I decided to take a chance, worst case scenario I would get wet and see some spectacular views.  I went to the bus station and caught one of the local buses. They take a bit longer than a tour bus but are cheaper, and usually run though more local areas on their way to a destination, letting you see more.  Another plus is you don’t have to socialize with all the tourists.

On the way there, the grey clouds started to dissipate a little bit for every kilometre that passed outside my window. Flashing by were Mayan villages, with houses that had dried out leaves on their roofs, stray dogs and villagers sometimes in beautiful and colourful traditional clothing. Once I had reached the ruins there was even a glimmer of sun and partly blue skies.

Swarms of tourists heading towards the ruins

Swarms of tourists, following their guide and others with the same badges or shirts as themselves, headed with confidence towards the entrance. A horde of independent guides approached me in French, English, Spanish and Russian. They are Mayans themselves and have a close connection and profound understanding to the Mayan culture and heritage. According to my budget though I was unable to pay the full price, and decided to see if I could find some other travellers and get them to join forces and hire a guide together. After approaching a few people I spotted an couple, who had the same slightly bewildered look that I did at the sight of the sheer amount of people surrounding them, all the different counters offering tickets, numerous guides, refreshment and information booths.  And after some gentle persuasion, they were eager to join in. Hezreel, our fantastic guide, helped us get the tickets. As a foreigner you need to pay more than nationals to get in, fair enough when you consider taxpayers money goes towards conservation of the place. You also need to get two tickets one for state of Yucatán which cost 125 pesos,  and another one for the National Institute of Anthropology and history at 57 pesos.

 Once we finally got in, seeing the site with Hez, as he preferred to be called, was incredible. He explained with pride how the Mayans have always been a peaceful people who value nature and knowledge, how they created incredible structures, calendars and numeric systems as well as have a rich spiritual belief system connected to these. As we strolled through the grounds, where he illustrated the incredible acoustics found in the ball court as well as other structures. He also explained the ritual and sacrificial elements that this had to the Mayan culture at the time.

The Great Ballcourt with the bandstand at the end

The high priest's seat at the other end of the Great Ballcourt

An iguana basking in the glory of one of the feathered serpents on the Kukulcán pyramid

The main attraction, El Castillo, also known as Kukulcán pyramid

Chichen Itza is believed to be one of the most important Mayan cities of its time and I was both told about and shown evidence of extensive road networks and city walls. I left the site, feeling highly enlightened, but can not remember half of the information I was actually given during my tour. If you want to learn more about this wondrous site or culture I provided some links at the end.

More information can be found here for those interested:
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/483
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/world-heritage/chichen-itza/