Nothing like a reminder of lovely places and sunrises as a pick me up in the morning.

Well long day getting from Cancun to Miami… almost missed the plane in typical style and all…. but of course in the end I got the plane but I lost a 100$ bottle of tequila because the flight attendants from Cancun didnt remind me to check the bottles in the luggage. Anyway now I am here in the plane and of course we’re completely delayed and all. So I guess I have time to refresh the last couple days of travel since I dont know how long I will actually be in this plane stopped here.

However, walking around Le Meredien was really nice and the moonlight made for some great pics

With the wind blowly strongly,  it made for some great photo effects

…..

Well got in this morning quite early, right after midnight into Le Meridien. Nice hotel and lots of pools. It has been about 8 years since I was last in Cancun and I will say that it has changed a lot since then. Very very developed and chains and franchises everywhere to be seen. The hotels themselves were rebuilt after Hurricane wilma and you can definitely tell. Most of the hotels are completely new or newly renovated.

Le Meridien is one of those hotels, with a number of pools and very good facilities. So of course, when i checked in Got the usual Platinum room for 50$ but the concierge desk was closed (?)… since the concierge should always be up and all. Anyway they arranged a tour with Cancun Tours. Quite pricy though for the tour, about 1000 pesos, so about 100 USD.

7.30am:
Well the tour came on time and there was breakfast and juice on board as well as a waitress on board to serve everyone. I was most impressed by this…

The trip from Cancun to Chichen Itza was about 3 hours with the mandatory stop at the tourist trap to buy stuff. I did find a great machine made Mexican rug, and I had to barter the price down from 900 pesos to 325 pesos. Man must these guys make some money when I could hit them down that low for the rug.

11.00
Once we got to Chichen Itza, it was everything that I read about i.e. it being a tourist trap since everyone from Merida, Cozumel and Cancun do day trips to this place, so it was like a tourist bomb has exploded there.

I do recognize the irony of me talking about this, since I myself was doing the tourist thing and all, but I was backpacking my way through and I have seen all the temples, so I am allowed to get on my high horse for a little bit. The structure and the complex itself is impressive but in my mind, it really wasn’t as impressive as Tikal at all. Tikal is the largest pyramid of all the Mayan temples, but yet since Chichen Itza has all the tourists, it was voted on the new 7 wonders. I dont completely agree with the choice but in the end, what do the little tourists really know.

It was scorching hot and reminded me of angkor Way in the way that the heat radiated of the rocks and structures. There was also one long structure that had a snake end like the apsara heads in Angkor Wat.

Kukulcán pyramid

The massive Kukulcán pyramid called “El Castillo” (the castle) is roughly at the center of the site. Climbing it is quite a challenge and those who make it are rewarded with a spectacular view of the city and surrounding country side.

From the other angle

The construction of the Kukulcán Pyramid at Chichén Itzá was planned so that each Vernal Equinox the dying sun would cast a shadow of a serpent writhing down the steps of the pyramid. Every year over 40,000 people make the trek to the great pyramid to watch in awe as the snakes diamond backed body slowly appears.  

If you stand facing the foot of the temple and shout the echo comes back as a piercing shriek.

Also, a person standing on the top step can speak in a normal voice and be heard by those at ground level for some distance. This quality is also shared by another Mayan pyramid at Tikal.

The Temple of the Warriors 

The Temple of the Warriors and its adjacent Temple of the Jaguar are the most awe inspiring ruins on the complex. A massive temple structure, surrounded by hundreds of columns is carved with reliefs. I wandered into the rows of columns with the sun just coming up and hard.

The columns continue on into the jungle, that part of the temple still has not been restored. It’s an unsettling sight to see how easily the forest has reclaimed the area. What unanswered questions lay under the canopy of leaves and beneath the twisted roots.

The Observatory

The intense interest of the Maya in the annual travels of the sun across the sky is evident in many structures at Chichén Itzá and other Mayan Sites. South of the Castillo is a strange round building known as the Carocal. Several of its windows point towards the equinox sunset and the southernmost and northernmost points on the horizon where Venus rises.

One of the nice things about Chichén Itzá is that you can go in almost all of the ruins. Many have the musty smell of the past, still present after over 1000 years. Dark portals await those that dare walk through. After walking into one pitch black room a startled meter long iguana charged through my shaking legs and out into the jungle. It felt like a seen from “Indiana Jones” It’s nice that despite all the reconstruction and tourists, the place can still grab hold of you like that.

The great Ball Court at Chichen Itza

The Mayans were great sportsmen and build huge ballcourts to play their games. The Great Ballcourt of Chichén Itzá is 545 feet long and 225 feet wide overall. It has no vault, no discontinuity between the walls and is totally open to the sky. 

Each end has a raised “temple” area. A whisper from end can be heard clearly at the other end 500 feet away and through the length and breath of the court. The sound waves are unaffected by wind direction or time of day/night. Archaeologists engaged in the reconstruction noted that the sound transmission became stronger and clearer as they proceeded. In 1931 Leopold Stokowski spent 4 days at the site to determine the acoustic principals that could be applied to an open-air concert theater he was designing. Stokowski failed to learn the secret. To this day it has not been explained.

The more of these temples and structures across the world that I see, I realize that there is a certain similarity about all these structures and really does make me question the revisionist Catholic history that we have been subjected though time. When you go to Palenque and you see the carving from Hindu, Hebrew, and Egyptian cultures, and you look at the relative timelines of what they say the new world was discovered, I think there are some really huge holes in the history of what has been told.

Anyway touring the structures in Chichen Itza was complete, again nothing really profound to think about, got the usual good pics and all. Then it was off to the
Cenoté which  deep water filled sinkholes formed by water percolating through the soft limestone above. Since the porous soil held little water, these underground bodies were extremely important to the city.

It’s about 9.45am here at the Water Taxi terminal.. just getting ready to head back to Caye Caulker, thought the water taxi was at 10am, but of course, it is going instead at 10.30, so I have about 45 mins to blog and type so far.

Belize City is by far one of the dirtiest cities I have seen on my travels anywhere. The infrastructure is poor, there is a run down element to the whole city which is typified by the complete desolation at night. Once the clock turns to about 8pm or so, the roads are quiet, the people are gone and nothing really stirs at night. It is kinda like downtown POS at night, now of course the last time I was actually downtown POS was maybe 15 years ago, I can’t really give a realistic description of POS at night right now. But I am sure it is similar to Belize City. The Cayes are completely different.

The people are like from Trinidad, not just like from Trinidad, but actually like from Edinburgh Village growing up, where everyone knew everyone, people would lime and chill and not really have to worry about things like murders and crimes in general. The food is phenomenal, hell yesterday I met the guys from Monday night again, got the best haircut I have had in the last 2 years for 10 BZD, the barber took me to his favorite place to eat, since he just basically closed the shop to take me around. Name of the place : Mom’s Kitchen and I swear it was the closest things to my own mom’s kitchen anywhere in the world I’ve gone….I had this spanish dish with chicken, tons of gravy, rice, and a good good “mother-in-law”……I was in my glee. When I finished the rice on my plate, I wanted some more, so the barber signals “mom” and she brings the rice pot which had a bit more rice and basically scraped the pot for me. I tell you, it was just the best…. and at that moment right there, I felt like I was kinda home and pissed that I had to come back to stink ole Belize city for the night.

Too bad Dave and Angelica left earlier on yesterday, it was nice of them to show me such a great time and Dave is the consummate gringo… stories and jokes to kill, a senorita on his right hand and a drink in the other… my kinda guy, no wonder we hit it off so well…..I guess I have to go Wisconsin for a drink and maybe some bear hunting!!!

Definitely though Caye Caulker has been a highlight of this trip, I’ll rank it right there with all the temples I came to see… well the people of Caye Caulker. The english they speak is so similar to Trini english to except for the spanish that is obviously infused with the proximity to the rest of Spanish speaking Central America. The food in Central America though, funny enough is rather devoid of the spice and pepper Trinis seem to cook lots with. However, the Salsa picante and the raw salsas definitely add the flavour that one would need. The meats also are not seasoned as well as we do in Trinidad, so I have to try and figure out how come we season our meats so much in Trinidad for cooking. Good research question for someone in ethno-gastronomy.

There is also a huge population of Chinese people here, like HUGE!!! So there is a very selection of good chinese food, with all the spice and pepper one expects of chinese-caribbean food. The chinese do spread wide and far, but like anything else, something don’t change and the Chinese I have met here who speak ridiculously poor english is just like anywhere else…. but after a couple generation, they will fix that for sure. It is just all the mainland Chinese people who don’t want to learn english…. sorry rant on one of my pet peeves.

Tomorrow, I take the noon boat from Caye Caulker and start my journey towards Cancun, I should be touring Chichen Itza on the 25th all day, staying in a nice Sheraton ending my Central American journey, the way I started it, in a Sheraton relaxing and not worrying about nothing. But on this trip so far, I have met some great people, had one good night of drinking (!), seen some amazing temples, found a place here in Caye Caulker that I would come back to again and again and bring back people to….and then top it off with time in Trinidad. How excellent are things!!!!!!

One thing… Toronto made the sign…but what about Port-of-Spain eh??

So after a couple of days here travelling.. i was supposed to come to Caye Caulker for a couple hours… well lemme tell you.. the first thing was that I rented a golf cart here and was driving around the island. Holy shit… i have to get my license now… this driving thing is totally not overrated and im loving myself here… met a couple Canadian girls here… and a girl who was engaged to a Trini… well I tell you.. good times and all.. good people

So as follows : Linda, Type A (Lorri) and Kristin

Me after 9 beers diving into the Split!

Me with no rear delts!

After a couple drinks ..Lorri (the one engaged to a Trini) and Lorri Type A, then ribs and jerk chicken at Sandbox!

anyway going to drink and have a good time.. be back in a while!!!