Chitzen Itza

Highlights:

• The biggest Mayan ruin site and one of the most famous with one of the biggest pyramids (no climbing anymore). We spent most of the day here with hundreds (thousands?) of other tourists. 

Below: Mayans performed a lot of human sacrifices and this platform (huge!) is thought to be where they displayed the bodies (or just the skulls).

Bad hair day when the wind is at your back and your hair is in a French twist....

They loved serpents... and although we missed the spring equinox, this is how the sun and shadows work together. Do you see the serpent coming down the pyramid? Amazing what the Mayans could do, and all without iron tools!

An above ground cenote! Explorers found jade, obsidian and skulls!

 On the left: Spanish writing. On the right: modern Mayan writing. They liked their apostrophes!

 Palace: 

 On the sides of buildings, they often carved gods with prominent noses. Can you see the face?

Lowlights:

• Hot, hot, HOT!! Inland is so much hotter than the coast. Whew!
• Vendors along every. single. path. They called out at you non. stop. "Amigo! 1 dollar! Ok, 2 for 1  dollar! Ok, 2 for 50 cents!" "Amiga! It's free to look!" They all sold the same things: magnets, ponchos, blankets, embroidered dresses & handkerchiefs, bowls, masks, mayan calendars, miniature pyramids and dozens of other trinkets. It was so hard to say no because they were everywhere. This site was really big too: it took hours to walk around and vendors were on every path, on either side of paths...