From Cancun, it was about 2-3 hours coach bus ride. Before we got to Chichén Itzá, we had a quick comfort stop in Valladolid. Valladolid (pronounced "bah-yah-doh-leed") was a very charming colonial city halfway between Mérida and Cancún, ~99 miles SW of Cancún. The bus did a quick round around the town square of this quiet town. Immediately catching my sight was this beautiful Colonial era cathedral, the Convent of San Bernardino, a 16th-century Spanish monastery (picture below). I wished I had more time or came on our transportation for more in depth exploration.
Chichén Itzá was still amazing, but much more commercialized now. It seemed different. Visitors could no longer climb the temples or any part of the remaining ruins, everything were section off limit. I supposed it had to be done this way to protect the remains. I climbed the step pyramid, Pyramid of Kukulkan, then and be rewarded with a spectacular view. Now I could only admire from far away.
The tour started at El Castillo. Our guide did a decent job of describing the details of the structure. It was a long drive from the hotel, so by the time we got to the park, the sun was high up and there were tons of people there. There were hardly any shades around the Pyramid of Kukulkan, and the kids started to bore even though Tom seemed to be very interested in the description. The Pyramid of Kukulkan is about 79 feet high. Two of its sides have been completely restored, the other two were left to show the condition before work commenced. Each side originally had 91 steps, adding the platform at the top as a final step to a total of 365, as the total number of days in a year.
From the El Castillo, the group moved onto the Ball Court. The Mayans were great sportsmen and build huge ball court to play their games. The Great Ball Court of Chichén Itzá is huge and has no vault, no discontinuity between the walls and is totally open to the sky.
This part of the story is most memorable to me, even from all those years ago. Legends say that the winning captain would present his head to the losing captain, who then decapitates him. The Mayans believed this to be the ultimate honor, as the winning captain getting a direct ticket to heaven instead of going through the 13 steps that the Mayan's believed they had to go through in order to reach heaven.
By now, the kids were really bored, but they were still in good spirit. The sun was high and very hot, hardly much breeze. Mom brought extra towels so we used one to create a bit of canopy for the two kids. I was starting to concern they might end up in heat stroke!!! Any shade is better than no shade. Then they took the queue and played Chinese dragon dance with the towel. Well, at least it distracted them from boredom.
The official tour ended after the Ball Court. From this point forward, we were given free time to visit on our own. We headed to The Observatory. The unique round structure reflected the Mayan’s intense interest in the annual travels of the sun across the sky. Here we took our break and had a quick snacks. Then it was time to head back through the lines of souvenirs stalls, very colorful, but not inexpensive as one would expect, too many tourists.
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