Sorry for bagging out your weather, I learnt my lesson today. It is fricking hot here and the clouds are a blessing in disguise.
Kind Regards Livia
Dear G-or-gina,
As you know, I went to Chichen Itza today.
"No chicken pizza, Chichen Itza!" - "City at the mouth of of the well of Itza." A Mayan city on the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. Fascinating yet creepy at the same time.
On the way we tried some fruit from ladies on the side of the road and of course Tequila! It burned all the way down.
Our guide Enrique, was just one happy little Mayan.
"Mi pais es su pais
Mi casa es su casa
pero me esposa es mi esposa"
What people come to see at Chichen Itza is El Castillo, (Kukulkan's pyramid). A star based pyramid built for astronomical purposes. Each side has 91 steps to represent 364 days of the year and the top to represent the 365th day. This is interesting but what draws the crowd is the serpent.
Thousands of people fill Chichen Itza during the vernal equinox, or the 20th March and the autumnal equinox aka the 21 Septemeber. (obviously I am here at the wrong time) At around 3pm the sunlight shines on the western stairs to project the shadow of a serpent that slithers down to meet the head of the serpent at the bottom of the stairway and then creeps its way back up.
What caught my attention/creeped me out the most was the Great Ball Court and the story that goes with it. It is massive by the way. (225 feet by 545 feet)
So basically there were two teams, a ball and two rings.
Each team elected a captain, and the rules stated that only the captain could score. Your thinking yes OK that's fine. Kind of like netball. Yes. Except in this game the captain of the winning team is beheaded by the losing team captain. Sounds fair??!
To the Mayans it was an honor to be sacrificed. It was like winning a free ticket to heaven.
I am not sure if you can see this clearly but it is a carving of one player beheading the other. There are serpents coming out of the beheaded body to represent blood and also fertility.
This is the wall that the head was placed and later buried.
One more thing I would like to add, but didn't get a photo of, is that there is a sacred cenote in Chichen Itza, Cenote Sagrado. It is where women and children were drugged and thrown in as sacrifices to the Gods. I think the guide said the rain God. Many bones and treasures have been found at the bottom.
I will never speak poorly of the rain again.
I can't imagine how many people were sacrificed here.
Lastly, I leave you with an annoying fact. That is, the Spanish tourists are always late, it was irritating. The tour guide was expecting it.
"The Mexican say time and the Spanish they always come 10 - 20 minute late."
There were 4 people that could speak English out of 21 today. I did enjoy listening to all that Spanish, even though I didn't understand a word of it.
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