Chichen Itza

-          Today, we left for an overnight trip to various Mayan sites.  Today we visited Chichen Itza.  Last year, it was declared as one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

-          Chichen Itza was a beautiful site.  Upon entering, you first see the great Castillo.  (insert picture)  This pyramid is very tall and is truly a wonder.  Each of the four sides of the Castillo faces the 4 corners of the universe, according to the Maya.  There are 365 steps, which corresponds to the days of the year and the solar calendar of the Maya.  Within this temple is the temple of the moon, which has 260 steps and corresponds to the lunar calendar.  On the sides of the steps of the pyramid is the feathered serpent.  A truly spectacular wonder of Mayan architecture is that during the equinox, the feathered serpent looks as if it is moving down the steps of the pyramid.  This temple is truly a magnificent work of art.

-          The next structure that we visited was the Temple of the Jaguar, which is next to the ball court.  (insert picture)  This temple had very well preserved Mayan stone carvings.  Within the temple, the creation story is depicted.  On the support columns of the temple, midwives (women) are depicted on the right column, while ballplayers (men) are depicted on the left column.  According to the Maya, women symbolize death, while men symbolize life.  It was interesting to hear this because I would have thought that women would symbolize life seeing as how they give life to the earth and that men would symbolize death because it is men that have wars and kill one another.  I found this way of thinking a bit strange, but I guess it makes sense because the Hero Twins in the Creation story were men.

-          The next structure that we visited was the ball court, which was next to the Temple of the Jaguar. (insert picture)  The ball court was a fairly decent sized court.  It was believed to have been played by two teams of seven.  On the edges of the court were carvings depicting seven men on each side.  The ball court and the ball game is such a fascinating topic.  The game is so much like basketball.  Two teams are given a rubber ball in which they must put it through a hoop using only their hips, elbows, and knees.  The ball game was also for ritualistic purposes and I find it interesting that the Mayans have incorporate a sport into their creation myth and make it part of their civilization.  At the very north end of the ball game was the north temple.  Within the temple are carvings and paintings that depict the procession of a ball game.

-          Afterwards, we went to the Tzompantli, or skull rack. (insert picture)  It is a platform with skulls carved on the sides of the platform.  Long ago, poles with the heads of decapitated men would be placed along the edges of the platform. 

-          The next thing that we saw was the Venus Platform. (insert picture)  This platform was believed to be used for ritualistic performances or dances.  The edges of the platform had very intricate carvings.  The steps of the platform also had carving so the feathered serpent.  Near the statue I did spot a ctenosaur. (insert picture)  It was lying on the hot stones of the platform and basking in the sun.

-          We then headed over to the sacred cenote.  (insert picture)  This cenote was very large.  When it was discovered, archeologist found various Mayan artifacts, included jade, at the bottom of the cenote.  It was different from the ones that we swam in during our previous trips.  This one was like the one at Oxkintok.  It was a giant hole in the ground filled with water, except for this one was ten times bigger than the one at Oxkintok and it was very deep.

-          We took a break here before heading out.  Everyone drank some water and had something to eat.  Chichen Itza is a very big place.  It would take a while to explore the whole site.  Though Chichen Itza was an amazing place, I did not like the hundreds of people that soon poured into the site.  The place was overrun by tourist.  I understand that tourists bring in money and some of the money goes into repairing Chichen Itza, but I just did not like the crowds.  I liked how our previous expeditions were to less crowded areas and how the site was more for us.  I also did not like the lines of local vendors lined up along the various paths at Chichen Itza.  That took away from the beauty of Chichen Itza.  The tourism and the vendors just made the place seem claustrophobic, even though the site is very big.  However, if you want to keep the place intact, you need to bring in money.  Another thing that I didn’t like was that because of the tourism, the monuments were closed and people were no longer able to scale them because Chichen Itza was just declared a new Wonder of the World and people have started to pour in to come and see it.  This is understandable because large crowds of people constantly coming everyday and wanting to scale the monuments would really take its toll on the stone and make cause even more damage.  I would have been nice to have been able to scale the Castillo.

-          After our break, we made our way to the Temple of the Warriors. (insert picture) This place was really cool.  There were columns called the Group of a Thousand Columns that surrounds this monument.  At the top were stone monkeys and of course the feathered serpent.  Each column had either a warrior or a prisoner carved on it.  At the temple, we spotted some warblers perched on a tree.  There were black and white warblers, yellow throated warblers, and northern and tropical perula. 

-          We then made our way towards the old site of Chichen Itza.  The site that we saw that contained the great Castillo is the new site, which is oriented north to south.  The old site is oriented east to west.  Along the way we saw a great example of a corbel vault.  (insert picture)  We also stopped by to see an example of a Mayan house.  (insert picture)

-          Upon arriving to the old site, we saw the plantform of the tombs. (insert picture) It was believed that this was the connection between the two worlds, this one and the supernatural.

-          We then saw the High Priest’s Grave. (insert picture)  The pyramid had 7 platforms and the stairs were also lined with the feathered serpent.  The monument was believed to be a portal to the underworld.  It was build over a cave/cenote.  The pyramid contained 7 sarcophagi but only 6 skeletons were found.  Within the building was the high lord, Kahkupakal.

-          We then made our way towards the ball court.  It was much smaller than the one at the new site.  It was probably played by two teams of two.  On the other side of the ball court was a structure called Casa Colorada.  It is believed that fire drilling ceremonies were performed to conjure vision serpents.

-          Afterwards we went to the Nunnery.  The structure was remodeled 5 times.  The nunnery had corbel vaults in it and towards the left side were Puuk style expansions.  The expansion had a witz doorway (or mouth of the mountain according to the Maya).  The doorway had a face like carvings and teeth that made it look like the entrance into the mouth of a beast.  (insert picture) 

-          Next to the Nunnery was a structure called the Iglesia.  (insert picture)  the structure had stone carved masks of the rain god Chaak.  There were carving of various animals on the structure also. 

-          The final structure that we saw at the old site was the Observatory.  (insert picture)  The observatory was used to track the movements of the sun, moon, and Venus.  These celestial bodies were very important to the Ancient Maya.  The Mayans were great astronomers and through their observations of these celestial bodies were able to come up with their various calendars and track the equinoxes and solstices that occur during the year.

-          After our excursion through Chichen Itza, we went to this very nice restaurant that was built next to a cenote.  I did not like this cenote because it was very touristy.  The cenote had been completely redone to have a stone staircase that went down to it and stone platforms for people to jump off of.  Though the swim was nice, it was very different from the other ones that we had gone to, which were untouched (with the exception of a wooden staircase being built to go down to it) and completely natural.  This cenote was too perfect and just did not have the beauty that the other ones had.  It was unnatural and had become manmade.

-          Towards the late afternoon, we made our way to Valladolid, a quaint town that was near Chichen Itza.  The place was really beautiful.  The center was set up just like Merida with a church and a government building built at the center.  After settling into our hotel, everyone decided to go and explore the central area.  A couple of people from the group and I went to the government building to go see the murals. (insert picture)   The building was just like the Palacio de Gobierno, with murals on the second floor.  Though these murals were much different from the ones in El Palacio de Gobierno, the concept was still the same.  The murals depict the struggle of the Mayan people.  I found it strange to see that these murals are being painted and yet nothing is being about the Mayan people who are still struggling and being oppressed.  There is still inequality between the Mayan people and the Mexican people today.