Mexico - Day Four: Chichén Itzá at sunrise

Daybreak

As with everything, there’s an up-side and a down-side.
       Not having a clock or watch or phone or computer or anything that tells me the time, I’m at the mercy of the staff coming to wake me up in time for the sunrise visit to Chichén Itzá.  Which they said they’d do, but don’t.  Luckily I was half awake and someone did knock on my neighbor’s door.  After about 15 minutes wondering what to do, I throw on my clothes, grab my camera and head for the front desk.
       Good thing too, because the tour is gone already.
       The up-side is that I get to ride on the back of a motorcycle to catch up.

       Jaime, the guide, had just started so I missed nothing, except perhaps the background of this city that became important around 700 A.D.  Our tour begins with the centerpiece of this religious site that flourished until the 14th century:  El Castillo - The Castle - as the Spaniards named it, but really the Temple of Kukulkan.  Jaime explains the structure first:  nine levels on both sides of each staircase, totaling 18 in all, one for each of the Mayan months of 20 days.  The four staircases face the four cardinal points and each has 91 steps, so 91 steps times four equals 364.  Add one for the top temple and you get a year of 365 days.  Each facade has 52 flat panels, one for each of the 52 years in the Maya Calendar Round (i.e. cycle).  (Remember:  the Mayans were astronomers and mathematicians.)  The snake god Kukulkan has his head at the bottom of the staircase and his rattle at the top.  On the equinox, its shadow at sunrise looks like he’s descending to Earth from the heavens.

Sacrificial chac-mool

       But within this pyramid is a smaller one dating from 800 A.D.  Archaeologists accidentally found the door to it at the base of the north staircase.  Inside is a tunnel leading to a room with a red jaguar throne - eyes of jade - and a chac-mool for sacrifices.  Boy, do I wish I could go inside.  But you can’t even climb Chichén Itzá any more, ever since a Canadian woman fell to her death about a decade ago.  Not to mention the wear and tear on the monument itself.
       Jaime demonstrates the site’s echo, clapping his hands and creating multiple echo claps coming from everywhere.  Then he turns on his flashlight and takes a photo of each of our shadows against the stairs.  ITourisme oblige.
       He walks us to the Warrior’s Temple with its almost one thousand columns.  Again there’s the head of a snake, the symbol of life and fertility.  There are also jaguars, symbol of the sun to the Maya, as the eagle was to the Toltecs.  Next to this is the Platform of Venus.
       Although tens of thousands died here, Jaime tells us as we circle the pyramid, the Mayas practiced cremation and used a product (maybe quicklime?) to eat away any remaining bones.  So no skeletons have been found.

Pelota court, with stone hoop at top

The sun already risen, we head to the grand pelota field, the largest in Mexico.  Only the king, priests and political dignitaries attended the games, viewing from on high.  There were two teams of seven players each.  Players used no hands and the captain - the only one allowed to score - used his hip to send a ball through the vertical stone “hoop” far above, formed by two snakes facing each other.  The winner had the honor of being sacrificed to the gods, who deserved only the best, not second best (the loser).  Sounds like a good reason to throw a game to me!  The ball was made from rubber, which doesn’t exist in Yucatán but came from Guatemala, where the Mayans came from.  Proof of trade from afar.

 cenote because cenotes are on my To-Do List.  This one - the sacred cenote, one of two on the site - is a good walk north and not much to look at when I arrive.  So back I go to see whether the south side of the site offers better pickings.

My dog friend in front of the Platform of Venus

     I seem to have made friends with a yellow dog from somewhere; Jaime says he’s really a Maya jaguar.  He follows me for quite a while... until Jaime sends us off on our own.  I head first for the
       It does.  Down the trail, past the observatory (which is just across from my hotel’s entrance) is a major monument that’s off-limits.  But there’s also a building with one column still showing the original red paint.  And at the end of the south trail, a gem of a building the Spaniards named La Iglesia - the Church - because of all its carvings.
       Then it’s back to the pyramid for a quiet moment just sitting and looking and marveling.  It’s almost 8 a.m.; the floodgates of the park will soon open to the general public.  I could probably stay longer but I’ve walked miles, with no breakfast.  Time to go back to my bungalow and eat.  Maybe a quick siesta after.

La Iglesia

Observatory El Caracol  (The Snail)