Chichen Itza.

After the ‘ incident in the night’ yesterday we felt rather jaded when we were awoken by our alarms ( yes plural in case one failed!) at just after 4:00am. However we were full of anticipation at the thought of this trip. I love history and ancient ruins  of any kind so this was my kind of day! We caught our tour bus at 4:50 and we were off!

We had a two and a half  hour journey through what was pretty boring roads. No views as the trees are right up to the road side and the land is totally flat.

We arrived at 8:30 and headed for the ruins in the relative cool of the morning (24c) . Our guide was of Mayan decent called José, and was fantastic. He was tri  lingual , Mayan, Spanish and English. He guided us through the various area of this extraordinary place which took about three hours with no stops! We were quite tired by the time we boarded the bus again, and beginning to get rather hot! Then it was off to visit a traditional Mayan village which was very interesting. Totally un commercial and unspoilt  and a real insight into the lives of these people in modern day terms. Life is still simple with little in the way of luxuries that we take for granted but they seem to be happy, and their way of life is slower and an some ways less complicated than our never ending commercialised lives!

The women of the village do make souvenirs to sell, and a neat row of half a dozen stalls were there for us to look at. This money goes directly to them so we did buy a few bits and bobs which make a huge difference to their incomes. I did resist buying the hammocks they make!

Then we were once agin off on the bus heading for a Mexican lunch followed by a swim in a scared Cenote.   Lunch was chicken with fried beans, with tortillas and dips . Then off to the Cenote! An experience to say the least! We descended in the bowels of the huge cave , with a  vast number of massive stalagmites and stalactites and in then bottom was a mystically lit pool of clear still water. The cave had a usual musty  smell of these places and a constant dripping of water! Once we had descended to the bottom there was a Mayan priest who gave a traditional blessing to the newly married amongst the party , of which there were several. He did however give us the long version I am sure as he seemed to chant his way through a pretty extensive blessing!  Then we did the final decent into the mysterious pool. And yes it was pretty chilly too! I did have a good wander around it up to waist high but didn’t fully immerse myself. They we were out and clambering our way to the surface again! A shower a change of clothes and off we went on our way home again! 

A terrific day followed by the resolution of our problems with the manager and then a delicious meal at Klay Tay , the Asian restaurant.