Chichén Itzá
Pisté, Yucatán, Mexico - Day 2
To get to Chichén Itzá, we had a two hour and some drive which took us through two towns, Playa del Carmen and Pisté. The drive was largely uneventful, highway driving. We did see monkey bridges, though no monkeys, and went through several checkpoints. It was around 8:30am when we arrived at the entrance to Chichén Itzá and I would strongly suggest to anyone else that would like to see the ruins to get there early. When we first entered the main grounds there were maybe 50 people scattered around, but by around noon when our tour was ending, there were several hundred people.After we payed for our entrance tickets, which were cheaper than the posted rate...never figured that out, we were greeted by a fellow who would be our private tour guide for the day, Vincho. Vincho was proud to tell us that he was a descendant of the Mayan people. The culture is still very important to the Mayan, and he told us that he learned to speak Mayan at home with his family. He learned Spanish in school and then learned English so he could work in the tourism industry. Later in the day, he actually spoke some Mayan for us and he discussed the concept of early Mayan people possibly coming from Asia because some physical similarities, ancient Jade used in a statue seemed to have originated in China, and the language shares aspects of Asian languages. Vincho taught us all sorts of facts that we would otherwise never known. For instance, he described how the Yucatán Peninsula got it's name. When Spanish conquistadors made contact with the Mayan, they asked "What is the name of this place?" The Mayan obviously could not speak Spanish and replied "I do not understand"/"I am listening." Those words sound like Yucatán and thus, how the Yucatán Peninsula got its name. We couldn't have asked for a better guide.After we locked down Vincho, and made a short walk through some trees we saw it for the first time, Chichén Itzá. Right in the middle of Chichén Itzá was a temple for the ruling Mayan High Priest at this village. Chichén in Mayan means, "the mouth of the well." The temple itself is built upon an ancient cenote (an underground cave where water pools). The temple was build in a way that sound reverberates through the temple, via air chambers, and echoes on the walls of the village. This would allow the High Priest to speak from the top of the temple and be heard all around the grounds. The Mayan calendar was very important to the people and that is evident in the construction of the temple. There are four sets of stairs leading to the top, each with 91 steps. All totaled equal 365, the amount of days in a year. The temple itself is build with 9 levels, which if you add the 9 layers from each side of the stairs you get the number of months in the Mayan calendar, 18. On these layers are raised and lowered square sections which when counted on each side of the temple equal the weeks in the year, 52. One last bit of magic built into the temple was its alignment to the sun. During March and September equinox, one side of the temple is in complete shadow, except for the shape of a snake running down the side of the stairs. This was a holy moment to the Mayan people, symbolizing the return of Heavenly spirits to the earth realm for knowledge, guidance, and good fortune.Close to the main temple were a couple more ruins, these playing a major role in human sacrifices. Vincho described an interesting cultural dynamic where it was believed that to please the gods, the Mayan needed to send them their smartest and strongest people. Because of this there were instances where after games in the stadium, the winners would be sacrificed. There is an interesting situation with the Mayan calendar where they have 20 days a month and 18 months a year, which leaves five days outside of these months. Any children born in these holy five days would be specifically groomed for sacrifice. That means being well fed and educated until time comes when an offering is needed. Concerning the act of the sacrifices itself, it is thought that the person was first lead into the structure next to the alter, where they were given powerful hallucinogenic drugs before being lead out on to the top of the alter. On top of the alter, in front of the Mayan people, the persons heart would be cut from their chest while they were still alive and offered to the gods.We found all this so amazingly interesting and terrifying. After saying our goodbye to Vincho and Chichén Itzá, we made a short drive over to Yokdzonot and took a dip in their famous cenote.
