Hell’s Half Acre

We’ve been wavering about whether or not we want to drag the kids to Chichen itza. They’ve seen Coba, Palenque and Tulum and I wasn’t sure that they really needed to be dragged from one ruin to the next in 120F heat. Well, the 120 was a bit of an exaggeration, but with the heat index, the last few days have been averaging 110F. Oh My Freaking Gawd it has been hot. I look at weatherunderground.com and the entire penninsula is pink (105+) and the rest of Mexico is simply red, and the US actually has places in the 40’s!!! We need to get OUT of this place!

I decided that if we’re going to take the kids to Chichen Itza it would have to be first thing in the morning. We poked around the Internet a bit yesterday and found that we should be there at
8am. We also found that Sundays have 1/2 price day. So, I got things ready and Jamie and I were up at FOUR THIRTY IN THE MORNING (what is worse is that it was voluntary) to make coffee (because we simply do not even breathe before coffee. Yes, folks, it is actually just that bad) and get on the road. It was a very nice change, to be up before the sun, but though you would think (if you were a Californian) that the morning would be cooler, but you would be wrong. I was AMAZED to be hit by that wave of heat and humidity, much like walking into a solid wall, when leaving the air conditioning of the trailer. We drove through early morning stillness; made more still and serene as it was a Sunday. The kids dozed and listened to books and we talked. It was been an eternity since we talked. We made amazing time and were waiting for the guards to open the parking lot gate by 7:40am.

We managed to spend 2-3 hours wandering about the site. We were the first into the site and there were very few of us at that hour. I was surprised, however, to see the number of cars
lined up behind us waiting for the gates to open. We found that the 1/2 price applied to Mexican nationals only, but were happy to have many more Mexican tourists to share the site with. We talked to many Maya and non-Maya Mexican families but were alone most of the time. It was so incredibly peaceful; we were accompanied by singing birds, ocassional cloud cover (very welcome) and a lovely breeze. The last 1-2 hours turned VERY hot, VERY sunny and the park was slowly filling with tour groups. Ellen decided she couldn’t walk the last 2 hours, so I was carrying her on my back all over the site and was VERY glad to go when we did. I was amazed, when we returned to the car, to find that FOUR hours had passed.

We were SO glad we went. The kids were fresh (first thing in the am) and had a blast running around and looking at the ruins. The ruins were simply stunning! For some reason, the reliefs
and carvings were fresh and very pronounced. In Palenque, some rocks had been roped off and protected, but it was almost impossible to see what had been carved in the rock. At chichen Itza, the carvings were EVERYWHERE. Each small stone block, each temple, each collumn; everywhere you looked there were incredibly preserved carvings. We were even able to find one space where some red, green and blue paint was visible. Chichen Itza was well stuccoed and painted; maybe this is why it is so well preserved.

After leaving the ruins, we headed to an underground cenote that we’d read about. We walked
down a dark rock “stepping” down into the earth. The stairs curved around and crouching down, we passed through a small opening and into a large cavern with a gorgeous, clean cenote at the bottom. Through the roof of the cavern a hole illuminated the water and during the midday, a beam of light shone through to the water. I don’t know if the water was so cold of if it was the immense relief from the heat, but Jamie did get numb fingertips after a long while in the water. It was fresh and sweet and beyond refreshing. It was the perfect end to a wonderful day. Pike and Jesse climbed the stalagtites and rocks in the cavern and jumped off one large rock formation into the water over and over. Unfortunately, the crappy camera we got did not take very good pictures (or maybe it was me?) of the cavern. Fortunately, whilst being besieged by young children to purchase pictures, I took them up on their “offers” and bought 5 pictures of the cenote. I’ll try to scan them in, but here is a site with nice pictures. It is exactly like that. Amazing!

The kids and I really enjoyed this website of Chichen Itza. Again, ignore lack of tildes, accents, typos and spelling errors.