Just before 8 a.m. on Tuesday morning, Jeff, Carol and I (Charlie didn’t want to slow us down) headed to the Mayaland Hotel private entrance to the archaeological site. Our plan was to thoroughly examine the national park before the hordes of tourists began arriving at 10 a.m.
Just to let us know that we were not still in America, the Mexican bureaucracy held up its hands and said, “Not so quick, hombres!” At the park gate, there was a very small thatched hut. Inside the cramped space was a counter with a guy selling admission tickets. It cost 70 pesos (about $4). No problema.
But, there was another spot next to him, three feet away, currently vacant, where the OTHER ticket seller was supposed to be. Say what?! Believe it or not, you had to buy two admission tickets: one State (his) and one Federal, to enter the park. The Federal seller hadn’t shown up yet, so everyone had to wait until she and her watcher (nobody trusts nobody down here?) showed up. A highly annoyed crowd had formed by now, and we were all exasperated until she finally arrived, and then proceeded to take another five minutes setting up her ticket machine and getting her cash drawer ready. Finally, we got to the front of the line and paid for our Federal admission ticket (172 pesos, about $10).
Triumphantly clutching our tickets, we walked out of the hut toward the gate, only to be greeted by…you guessed it…a State and a Federal ticket taker, who each had to validate our ducats! The Mexican full employment program in action…
I guess the moral of this story is that the State and Federal government folks don’t trust each other very much down here in Ol’ Mexico! Ay, Chihuahua!!
The archaeological park contain about 15 square kilometers. Within it are the remains/ruins of a Mayan culture that thrived between 600 and 1500 A.D. (when the Spanish conquistadors arrived). At that time, most of the indigenous population was shipped north to work in the silver mines, and the city of Chichen Itza was reclaimed by the tropical rainforest. It was not “discovered” again until about 1842, when another bunch of white folks came to the area with picks, shovels and machetes and began the task of uncovering the Mayan structures.
Our group headed into the middle of the park to see the centerpiece structure, the Pyramid of Kukulcan. It is 24 meters tall, each side is 55 meters, and there are stairs on each side (very steep) with 91 steps to the top (representing the number of days between the four seasonal solstices).
“Kukulcan” means feathered serpent. At the bottom of the steps, there are snake heads, so that the entire staircase looks like a snake, with its tail at the top of the pyramid.
Unlike the 82 meter Temple of the Sun in Teotihuacan (near Mexico City) which I’ve climbed, this pyramid is cordoned off…no climbers allowed! It’s probably best, though, because the staircase is extremely steep, and a clumsy hiker could easily fall and break his neck.
From there, we trooped over to the massive Ball Court, the largest one in Mesoamerica. Evidently, long before soccer, and before James Naismith invented basketball, the Mayans played “ball”. In their version, the competing players attempted to bounce a ball off of their hip through a stone ring (imbedded in a stone wall) about 24 feet off of the ground. That would be quite a feat for players who averaged about five feet tall without their Air Jordans. They must have been using a ball made of Flubber.
The ball court is half again the size of a football field, with huge walls on the sides and important-looking stone structures on the ends. I’m guessing that’s where the officials observed the game. No bleachers or viewing stands for the fans, though.
Here’s the “hoop” that was the target for the players. It consists of entertwined serpents carved into a ring.
I read once (although it might have been bogus?) that the “winner” of the ball game had the honor of being sacrificed to the Mayan gods. I’m guessing that this resulted in quite a few blown lay ups…
The walls are made of large, closely-fitted, irregular blocks of limestone. Each one was custom-carved to fit its location in the structure! No Home Depot for these stonemasons!
At various locations within the Ball Court complex, there are carvings of players or local bigwigs (?), wearing what appear to be wireless headsets (so that they could listen to music and talk to their family while playing the game?)
Leaving the main Ball Court (note: archaeologists have located 13 of them at Chichen Itza!), we wandered around the grounds, observing less-defined structures/ruins. What was striking about all of it was the ornate detail which decorated the stone buildings. Lots of serpents, eagles, gargoyles, etc. festooned the limestone walls.
It appears that Tic Tac Toe may have been invented here and memorialized in stone. Who knew?
The House of the Nuns was interesting. Lots of carved men in anguish; what was going on within these walls?
We then cruised by the Natural Observatory, one of the signature structures at Chichen Itza. It was a focal point of the community back in the day. The Mayans were more advanced than any of the peoples of the world at that time with regard to astronomy; they had the most accurate calendar in the world, among other things.
It has been estimated that approximately 30,000 people lived in Chichen Itza before the Spaniards destroyed the civilization. They most likely lived in thatched huts like this, made of tree branches, leather, and mud-coated walls. This one-room house measured about 6′ x 12′. The landscaping is dirt, with the ubiquitous Mother In Law’s Tongue plant, which is everywhere here at Chichen Itza.
This archaeological park is the Yucatan’s equivalent of Disneyland; it’s the most visited tourist attraction in Mexico. And, every family within 100 miles has a relative on the grounds, with a table, selling trinkets. It reminds me of walking through the abominable African vendor guantlet (selling Chinese knock-off goods) at the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy. At least here the entrepreneurs are locals selling local crafts. Kudos to Mexico.
We exited the grounds at almost precisely 10 a.m., just before the tour busses arrived and disgorged their passengers…who then had to run the vendor gauntlet. “Almost free today, Amigo!”
