Of course we did!
So we set up a day of adventure with him for our last full day in Mexico. We woke up at 7am so that we could be ready to leave at 8. I know, you are all thinking, "Why aren't you guys just sitting on the beaches drinking virgin strawberry daiquiris?" To which I respond, "BORING!"
The 31st, we headed out to Chichen Itza with our amazing tour guide Mosiah. At first, I thought that it would be awkward being in a car for two hours headed toward the site, with only the 3 of us...but then I remembered that I have the ability to talk the entire time! Which I did. It was great getting to know Mosiah. He has a son right now serving a mission in Mexico City. We talked about all of the similarities that Mexico has with Thailand....including drinking soda out of bags.
Waking up early paid off. We got to the site so early that the place was pretty much deserted. I immediately got out my camera. I had missed the chance at Tulum since I forgot my camera's SD card but I would not miss it this time.
If you want to see a TON of photos of Mexico, head on over here!
This could be a picture of when Mosiah was teaching us about the three doors at the top of the temple. Or maybe when he was telling us about the shadows that form a snake in early March till early April. Let me tell you about the snake on the main temple. This is a picture that I took of the snake head and the bumps that form the body starting on March 5th.
You might want to click to enlarge this.
When the sun sets on March 5th, the snake appears for the first time and it has 6 bumps. On the 6th of April, it has 9 bumps, which is the highest number. Some believe that the 6th of April is Jesus Christ's birthday. Between when the snake first appears till it's largest form, there are 33 days. Maybe one for every year of his life?
I think that that is pretty cool.
There were tons of other church related this to see at this site. Even without that, it is amazing too look at. It is amazing to know that you are in a place that people once called home hundreds and thousands of years ago. The fact that it lasted? Just incredible.
We've gotten to stand in so many cool places.
This is the observatory at Chichen Itza. It was the first part to be built so that a person can climb up and survey the land and decide what is going to go where. It is also one of the only round structures that the Mayans ever built.
This was the back of one of the temples. It had collapsed a couple years ago....which is amazing since it is probably about eight hundred years old.
Wouldn't you give anything to get into these buildings? Only archaeologists get to go inside and our guide used to do that for a living. How amazing would have job be? He says the main temple is really really humid and awful to work in. But there are others that are really cool and wonderful to be inside during the day.
There were tons of people selling things all around the "city". It was pretty cool seeing all of the crafts that the artisans were working on.
Our tour guide even said that artisans probably did the same things while the city was thriving. It is INSANE to think that if we could go back in time and be in the same space, things would be pretty much the same.
One place that everyone was ignoring since it was in an out of the way area with ruins that hadn't been restored yet, was the house of the 3 brothers.
This house was apparently for 3 men who would go from city to city. Houses were built for them in many different cities throughout the Mayan world....but was funny was that they were built in different centuries.
After we saw everything there was to see, and gotten pretty cooked by the sun, we headed to Ek Balam. Follow us there for the last chapter of our Mexican adventure.
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