One of the coolest things at Chichen Itza was the arena that they played a crude form of basketball and soccer combined. The walls were acoustically perfect to determine whether the ball was in play or out of bounds simply hearing the echoes.


So finally we make our way to Chichen Itza. I'm pumped because it's something I've wanted to go there all week long. I wouldn't call myself a history buff, but I'm really interested in most of it. Stephanie's been fed so she's calmed down and I'm just admiring all the small villages we've been going through. They're pretty awesome.

We finally make our way into the city. One of the coolest things I notice on the way in is a worn out baseball field off to our right in a school yard. Something about made me feel nostalgic. I could almost imagine that it was a ball field that some latino player got his big start on. Chances are not because of the condition of the field, but I like to imagine it that way.

We finally arrive. It's a fairly typical tourist trap. Gates, tickets and vendors. We wind our way through the turnstiles and find our way to our English speaking tour guide. His English is maso menos (s0-so).

As we said before Stephanie and I didn't really plan too well for this trip so when we got there we realized we forgot sunscreen for the two of us. Not too bad for me, but not so good for Steph. I'm wearing a thin white shirt and she has on a strapless top exposing her shoulders and back.

We start the tour and of course everything is in the open sun. Barely any trees. Our guide doesn't make a ton of sense so Steph decides she's just going hang out under a tree to minimize the sun.

The most disappointing thing though is that I find out I won't get to climb to the top of the most famous ruin there. They closed it down two years ago after two people died from falling down the steps. Probably a good thing.

The guide knows his information really well he just doesn't do a good job of conveying it. He tried to explain way too much symbolism that didn't make any sense. After awhile I just kind of quit listening to him and looking at things on my own.

Between every new stop inside the park we're approached by more vendors. "One dollar. Almost free. One-dollar, Mayan souvenir."

It was brutal. Finally they just release us on our own. We get to climb on one of the ruins and look around. They called it the observatory, but no one's for sure if it really was an observatory. Few records were left by the Mayans here because the Spanish explorers never found it until 200 years after it had already been abandoned. It starts to get a little cloudy and begins to rain so we take cover under shelter and wait for it to subside. On the way back I find a silver bracelet I really like so I barter with the vendor for a bit and end up paying about $20 for it.

After we go out front Steph gets bling envy because now I have a ring and a bracelet so we find her a neat little ring for her thumb that has the Mayan symbol for the God of Rain on it.

The bus loads up about 10 minutes later and we head back home. We relax and enjoy the drive back. It's all I can do from keeping to look out the window constantly. I think it's the photographer/journalist in me. Always looking, never wanting to miss anything.

After we get back to the hotel, we eat dinner and make our way back to our hotel. Make it an early night because of how early we got up in the morning.

Ik Kil

I wish I could have spent a couple of days running around Mexican villages to photograph the old architecture.


Friday started early. We had to be up at 6 a.m. in order to be ready for the bus that was going to pick us up by 7 a.m.

We decided Friday would be our tourist day where we went and saw some of the countryside and some of the villages.

We bought an all-day trip to Chichen Itza, which is the Mayan ruins located southwest of Cancun in Yucatan.

Unfortunately breakfast didn't start until 7:30 so we didn't have anything to eat. As we hadn't asked too many questions about the trip we weren't sure about breakfast. Nor did we pack our books for a long bus trip. We thought the trip might only be a half hour, but it ended up being several hours.

So with no food and no entertainment we set off for a long bus trip with few people who speak English. If anyone knows Steph, they know the 'no food' part is a recipe for disaster.

Luckily she's trying to be as cheery as possible. Luckily the guide on the bus tells us about all the interesting facts about Mexico.
It was really interesting to hear him say everything in Spanish and
English. I actually picked up on many of the things he was saying in Spanish.

On the way he tells us we will be stopping by a little place called Ik Kil. It's a natural cenote before you get to Chichen Itza. The drop from the top is about 60 meters and the water depth is about 40 meters once you get to the bottom. There's a cool stairwell that leads to the bottom where you can take a dip if you like. I was all about it. I actually took a leap off the top stairwell that is about 20 feet up.

It was kind of scary, but really no higher than a high dive. It was really thrilling to jump into a pool and know there was nothing below you to keep your body up. The closes thing to the bottom was 120 feet.

Steph did get a blurry photo of me jumping in.

I climbed up out, dried off and got Steph a small snack to tide her over until lunch.
After a quick stop here we all loaded back up and headed to our lunch destination in a small village between.

Lunch was a pretty nice spread and everything except drinks were paid for already. It was cool that they actually had dancers/entertainers during the dessert of our lunch.
I snapped a few shots within the block we were in, but I would have loved to been able to spend a whole day in the villages. Stuff like that is really interesting to me. It was absolutely nuts to see people in huts made of sticks watching televisions and on computers. Another thing I noticed was a multitude of internet cafes. I guess if not many people in town had computers this would make sense to have a common place for them to be used.

Everything was loaded backup and we headed for Chichen Itza. More to come tomorrow.