From the border crossing from Belize into Mexico, we only had a couple days to make our way to Tulum to pick up Nick Walker...a friend living in Denver now who jumped in the van for a month. After a quick overnight in Tulum (since it felt like an extension of Cancun craziness) we moved inland through the Yucutan. We stopped at a wonderfully refreshing cenote (swimming hole), especially so since it was over 110 degrees in the Mexican jungle. This cenote was a little built up and more commercial than some of the others we stopped in, but no less beautiful. Set a few hundred feet down in a cave with vines hanging down and through the opening...
The water itself was amazingly clear and filled with hundreds of black catfish. They also had a diving platform that we couldn't get enough of.
From there we saw our first set of Mexican Mayan ruins...CHICHEN ITZA. Saw a light show the night before recreating how this temple was made in accordance with the calendar the Maya are so famous for. With exactly 365 steps and a light and shadow event that takes place on the spring and fall equinox showing a snake coming up and down the stairs. The ancients really did their research before building anything.
This was in the ball court, where evidently the Mayan taste for blood even extended to their sports. They were known to slaughter the captain of the losing team and sometimes the entire team at the end of a game. That had to bring on some friendly competition.
This is believed to be one of the sacrificial platforms. Hard to tell why! If you didn't lose your head here, you might have been pushed into the cenote of death a short distance from the main plaza, where among bones of the poor souls pushed in they have also found countless amounts of gold, silver and jewels given up as offerings to the gods.
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