11 MAY 2007
Today we got up early for a 4 hour mini van ride to Chichen Itza, arguably the best Mayan Ruins in the world. I slept most of the way there and was surprised at how hot it was inland. I think it was about around 35 degrees with a relative humidity of 80%. Anyway we got a guided tour of the ruins and learnt alot, I´m not going to give you a history lesson about Chichen Itza but if your interested here is a link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chichen_Itza . But I do want to tell you about the sacrifices, according to our guide the Toltecs used to play a ball game on a massive stone court (possibly an early version of basketball) and the losers were sacrificed. Sacrifice involved decapitation then splitting the body down the chest and removing the heart, kinda like Indiana Jones and the temple of Doom. I gotta tell you, it´s hard to believe this sort of stuff actually happened in such a peaceful place. Around the ruins were hundreds of the Mayans decendants selling jewellery and wooden carvings. The carvings were extremely intricate and were being sold for the ridiculous price of $1 USD.
After that, we had all worked up a massive sweat so on the way home we were taken to a Cenote or underground river system for a swim to cool off. The Cenote we visited was stunning, we entered via a small cave which opened into a massive cavern with a hole in the top where a trees roots had dropped from the roof all the way to the water. The cool fresh water of the underground Cenote was just what the doctor ordered, I highly recommend a visit to the Cenotes if you get a chance when you are in the Yucatan.
On the way back we also visited a Mexican Catholic Church. Kinda reminded me of something out of a Quentin Tarantino movie for some reason.
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