On Monday we headed to the Mayas Temple Ruins at Chichen Itza. It’s really old…. like 600 BC old. But I’m on vacation, so can’t think straight to educate. Oh okay, I’ll tell you a little. The temple is sitting at a 70 degree angle to the east, west, south, and north. It is at the perfect spot to line up with the summer solstice and winter solstice. On those days, the sun lines up on the stairs and makes the shape of a serpent body lining up with the serpent head at the bottom.
As pictured here.
There are 9 tiers because the Mayan Calendar has 18 months: 9 months up and 9 months down. There is a whole way they kept track of when to harvest and when to plant and when the years changed over and leap years.
It is fascinating to learn all the facts and how this civilization hundreds of years ago were thinkers who knew the movement of the sun and stars enough to create an accurate calendar.
This is some other temple thing that when the sun rose it lined up in between those two columns at the top. Honestly I spaced out a little here because the girls were playing under the trees and I was watching them. But it was another very accurate nature thing.
Then there was the ball court. There was a religious ritual where they would play a game with a rubber ball. The object was to get the ball through a little ring high up on the wall.
As pictured here.
Archeologists believe the captain of the winning team was the honored by being sacrificed to the gods. Some honor.
Of her parents…
The butterflies come to drink the water they use to irrigate the grass. They look like leaves blowing in the wind. Natalie and Uncle Clayton stand in the middle of them.
We took the girls’ nature journals so they sat and sketched the temple while the others in the group visited the vendor stalls that line the compound.
I am very glad we saw Chichen Itza, but I will warn you it is very hot and there isn’t much shade. Take sunscreen, lots of water, and hats.
On the way back to our hotel, we went to a cenote – a sink hole that is filled with water. Many of them are in caves. The water is amazingly clear because of it’s purity… it is a beautiful blue even though it’s dark in the caves. I think they told us it’s from the minerals. Natalie was excited to get in and swim with her aunts, uncles and daddy. Ainsley took one look at the swim hole and said, “Are there crocodiles in there?” I assured her there was only little fish, but she said, “I want to stay dry.” So we sat and watched the others.
If you are ever in these parts and have a large group of people, I highly recommend renting a van and paying a local guide to go with you. It was much cheaper than paying the per person rate with a tour company. And we had the flexibility to stop at the cenote and anywhere else we would’ve chosen to go. Looking back we may not have needed the local guide to Chichen Itza (the road is well marked) , but it was nice to have the peace of mind that he knew exactly where we were going, knew the language in case we got lost, and could show us good restaurants and places like the cenote. He also gave us a Mexican history lesson on the way there and back. Our agreed rate was $30 USD for the whole day.
We found him by taking a taxi ride the day before and realizing he spoke excellent English. When he found out we were thinking of going to Chichen Itza he offered to drive us for a fee. It ended up his car was too small for 10 people so we rented a van and he rode along. It was a long day, but we had a great time.
(c) 2016 Leighann Marquiss
Comments (4)
wow! what a fun day!!!
sounds great!
looks like you guys had lots of fun! cute self portrait of natalie and i love how the girls are sketching in their nature journals. they are precious. glad you’re having a great vacation. love you and miss you!
katie
Very cool. The first photo reminded me immediately of the Backyardigan episode “Chichen Itza Pizza”.