TravellingStrom

Sunday – Chichen Itza, Mexico

I was up early again, the earliest breakfast was 7.30 so I was at the door when they opened. They were doing a traditional ‘welcome to the sun’ ritual around the pool with incense and conch shell blowing, although I caught out the chap with the shell, he could not make a sound, some other chap out of sight was supplying the horn type noise 🙂

I then headed down to the Uxmal site to beat the heat and the crowds and in that I was lucky 🙂 Although I had seen the pyramid last night during the show, it is still impressive today in the daylight and it is totally different to a normal square sided pyramid, this one does not have 9 steps, it is oblong in shape and has rounded sides, very unusual. The whole thing has been blocked off from climbing it and they are doing major repairs and other excavations around the site.

This site is covered in different carvings and such which showed up during last night’s show very clearly, but even in the daylight, they are still impressive 🙂

While wondering around I keep seeing things moving and some big long tails, it turned out to be iguanas sunning themselves 🙂 Most were quite wary, but one big fella stayed his ground 🙂

The small out buildings were nesting grounds for flocks of small birds as well, quite rich in guano smell in here!

Some more carvings which show the snake motif very well.

Up through the ball court where they played a game using a ball and their hips only, they needed to get the ball through the hoops on the side walls, the losers usually died!!

The normal 9 step pyramid, although different in other ways from the norm.

I had great views from up here and needed a rest, my legs are worn out, they are very steep steps!

I had finished seeing the site just as people started to arrive in droves, the tour buses, so that was good timing 🙂 I now had some free time to get some blogging done as it was only a short ride today, a few hour’s worth. So, I got back on the road around midday, after lunch, which was included in my bill and headed north, basically there was only one way to Chichen Itza, all I had to do was follow the signs to Cancun and I would go past it, sort of 🙂 There were some nice corners, but not many and lots of small towns with topes, nothing unusual there then 🙂

I see the cross motive everywhere in the ruins, even in the sky;)

After skirting the large town of Merida, the capitol of the state, I headed east along the back roads, the non toll road, this just meant more small towns and speed bumps but also some nice interesting views of the streets and buildings of rural Mexico! 🙂

Eventually at 2.30 I arrived in the small town of Piste where I proceeded to look around for a motel, the town was not large but it was off season so the choices were limited. I was still looking when Vincent turned up behind me, he had stayed in Campeche last night and was looking for the same thing. In the end we chose this hotel, we were given a discount, but still, it was a basic place. The internet was weak and there was no water to drink according to the signs and they had no open bar, but there was a shop next door!!

There was a light and sound show at the temple tonight so we had an earlyish dinner, sort of, across the road from the hotel, a couple of nice sculptures across there too, one old one new 🙂

We grabbed a cab and headed to the show, check out the dude in front, the biggest tripod on the planet and the smallest camera!!! 😆

The light show was a bit boring actually, just different colours sprayed on the pyramid “El Castille” , I used a small tripod for some night shots, a few sort of turned out 🙂 In the first one, the yellow light to the left is supposed to represent the suns shadow that on the spring and autumn equinoxes winds its way down like an undulating snake, at the bottom are some big stone snakes heads.

We headed back after the show and had a few drinks where we had eaten, Monday not being a big night on the evening activities calandar. Back at the hotel, I saw these little critters, just like what we have back home, these gheckos have invaded Australia from the north and are now nearly everywhere!

I was planning on another early start to beat the heat and people, so it was an early night again 🙂

Day – 129 miles and 208 km
Trip – 40,906 miles and 65,832 km

Salud
TravellingStrom

USACanadaMexico

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