Then it was off to Chichen Itza - a mayan temple/city/pyramid. It took us 3hrs on a freezing air-conditioned bus to get there and it was a relief to get into the warm sunshine for 10 minutes. We put all our luggage into storage and had our crisp sandwich lunch and then it was off into the grounds.
Julien was our guide for the next 2hrs and he told us alot about the history of the Mayan people and about how the city and temple came about. If you´ve watched the film Apocalypto - its alot like that, although apparently Mel Gibson blended the practices of both the Mayans and the Aztecs.
It was incredibly hot, with very little shade, so my multi-coloured hat came out after a while to protect me from the sun. But I still managed to get dehydrated and started to feel very dizzy and ill. Alan bought me a litre of cold water and after I drank all of it, I felt much better. Alan´s only comment to that was "and your supposed to be the nurse?"
Chichen Itza was pretty amazing and the ruins are well preserved and restored in places. Unfortunately for Alan and fortunatley for me, you no longer allowed to climb the main pyramid due to safety reasons - 7 people broke limbs and 1 person died all in one year.
At 5pm we got on the bus to Merida ( the capital of the Yucatan), another 2hr freezing cold journey - the mexicans love their air-conditioning. We arrived at the hotel quite late so Allison gave us a quick orientation around the plaza (where we saw Santa Claus) and the cathedral. Then we ate pizza and drank beer on the hotel rooftop - an awesome end to Christmas eve.
No comments:
Post a Comment