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

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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.

Well got up this morning bright and early, headed to the gym in town after a swim. The gym was a quaint old thing, with lots of weights, but all rusty and what not – a real man’s gym, without the acoutrements of the modern gym and all. It was nice and I hit the workout hard… after grabbing some empanadas in town, got back to the hotel for about 11am and then it was off to the waterfalls.

Just like Trinidad, everything here operates on Mexican time but the thing is that my time here is of the essence, so I was getting a little antsy about the whole thing. Eventually the bus came for us and we were off to the falls. Getting from Palenque to Misol-Ha was about 20km.. but it took about 15 mins with the crazy driving these guys do around the bends and everything and I must say that when I got to the falls, the drop and the power in the DRY season was astounding. It is a gorgeous sunny day, so of course it causes all sorts of problems with flaring on your camera…

Now once you hike the 15 mins to the falls, there is a huge area to swim within the pool, but of course, since I’m travelling alone here, there wont be any of that. I’m a little disappointed not to be swimming in the pool but hey what can you do?? The nice thing is that within Misol-Ha, there is a clear path behind the falls and there are some caves at the top of the falls area, where there are even more falls through some caves, but as I have clearly learnt in Mexico…. I am claustrophobic!!!

The hike behind the falls offers some stunning drops of the water in front of you, but I am thankful I invested in the Merill hydro sandals before I came, since the footing was treacherous and everyone was slipping in front me, one dumbass girl tried walking in platforms and sprained her ankle quite badly… note to anyone, falls climbing isn’t a fashionable activity and nature doesn’t like being mocked.

Once you traverse behind the falls, there is a steep climb to caves at the top, where there is another waterfalls within the caves, but the view of the falls from this side is amazing

Once you’re behind the falls and going up the climb

You get to the caves and once ur inside you can take another little tour, but for me, this was enough caves for me this trip, so I chose to look from the inside out…

Then it was back down, past the view and to the bus to head over to Agua Azul

Well getting into Villahermosa from Mexico City was kind of a trek, especially when these little airports are out of thw ay. This was a painless trek though, and my luggage came on time, unlike the episode in mexico city. So once I got my lugagge, I then had the task of finding a taxi to Palenque from Villahermosa, not getting ripped off in the process. The hotel has quoted 1200 pesos for the transfer… to which i polited told them on the phone to F@@$ themselves. When I got to the taxi depot, I saw that the price to Palenque was 1000 Pesos.. i resolved not to pay more than 800 pesos, and even then I knew this was too much, but not speaking Spanish, in a Spanish speaking country leaves you with slightly less bargaining power – after walking outside, I indeed found a taxi, with the help of his calculator and me going yes/no to his typing on the calculator, we met me my price after walking away twice.

The ride to Palenque was non eventful, but this was a 170 km ride though… for 800 pesos… man.. in Toronto, I would have needed a second mortgage to afford that ride. Lots of great jungle to pass through but eventually I got the hotel here in Palenque : Maya Tulipanes . This is looks like a decent enough hotel with a pool, no gym but thankfully very very reliable FREE Wi-Fi service. Hell the internet at the Sheraton in Mexico City cost me about 25% of the room there. Speaking of that, lemme go check how many SPG points they deducted for that 5 night stay there. Ok, so no real extra points gathered and no stays credited Anyway so the program for the next three days is as follows

So after getting here to the hotel now at about 6pm or so… dinner was passable. The food definitely isn’t 5 star but the mexican stuff is pretty decent. So now off the to the pool for a swim and then some sleep, it’s been a long day getting here to the jungle, but the air is clean, the weather is warm and I’m ready for some waterfalls…..

Well this is another small but quaint town. The streets however are a nightmare to navigate… and there is no way, someone who is accustomed to regular roads would be able to drive here – of course seeing that I don’t drive right now is a great thing!

Upon arrival, we proceeded to the usual tour of a store, I lasted about 6.2837 mins in this store, since there was nothing I wanted to buy here, but we did get a little presentation of how the silver is mined and some drinks! Oh yes! The drinks, every store you go to, you can drink. Hell you could go window shopping in all of Mexico and get drunk I think. Since every store I went to I got drinks… and not like crappy shit tequila, but decent tequilas. This trip has definitely taught me that my principles of alcohol stand…you buy shit alcohol, you get sick… the good stuff is the good stuff for a reason! Don Julio and Herradura have become very good friends of mine, but only if they are Resposado or Extra Anejo!

The town square is nice and small… with everyone milling about. One can see that this is somewhere where the clock hits 7 and eveything closes up, however everyone is so friendly and willing to show you around.

The Church here which is the San Sebastien Cathedral. The church is decorated by Miguel Cabrera….. lovely it is!! Si!!!