Chichén Itzá & Tulum

Another instalment of my travels in Mexico this summer…

We rented a car from Playa del Carmen and decided to be classic tourists and visit Chichén Itzá – the classic Mayan pyramid, one of the seven ancient wonders of the world and the most visited site on the Yucatan peninsula.

Pretty impressive right?!

However it wasn’t straight forward getting there – first off we couldn’t find the (new) highway, getting lost in a housing estate after taking directions literally! Then we had to turn around and head back to fill the car up with petrol – lucky we did that as it was 180km before the next gas station!!

New highway – with animal rope bridges across the top for the climbing ones (there were bridges/tunnels for non climbing animals)

We eventually made it there for 10.30am – only an hour after we planned! What a sight – definitely worth the drive:

You can’t walk up the main pyramid ‘El Castillo’ anymore – too much damage was occurring to the stones, Chichén Itzá is a UNESCO site – so everything has to follow UNESCO guidelines.

Our Mayan guide explained that the site dates from 460 BC and was rediscovered by an archeologist in the 1800’s having previously been a cattle ranch under the Spanish Conquistadors.

Here’s a copy of the archeologist’s drawings – you can see the jungle encroached and invaded the monuments, which are in a state of disrepair.

The U.S. consul Edward Thompson owned and explored the site from 1894 and dredged artefacts out of the sacred cenote – including gold and rare samples of Mayan cloth.

Our guide was very disapproving of this, but he acknowledged that the Mexican government and locals haven’t been great at preserving the site either – there used to be a highway through it!!

What remains is impressive though. The site stretches over a 12 mile area and our guide was quick to state that it was not a city but a purely ceremonial site. People didn’t live here, but they used it for ceremonies and there are several processional ways through the outer walls to the main structures.

The Mayan’s worshipped the sun and the main pyramid El Castillo is the highest point nearest the sun, with the top open sided to the wind elements.

Open mouthed snakes protect the pyramid – snakes also represent motion and energy. At the equinoxes the way the sun hits the steps and moves across them looks like it’s snaking down them, or like water flowing down.

Quick selfie 🙂

The sacred cenote – although while I was in Mexico they found that there is one directly under El Castillo, Lluis as a cave diver was very excited about that!

Comparing from the 1800’s to present day, many more pink umbrellas today (but to be fair it’s a good trick given the lack of shade!)

All the carvings would have been painted originally – here you can compare the rock carvings as they stand to a coloured in version. It’s not made up – when they found internal rooms in one of the structures it had the painting preserved inside.

Skull decoration – the Mayans did practise head flattening – attempting to bring the two hemispheres of the brain closer together, combined with meditation to receive energy through the ‘3rd eye’ created.

Final picture before we saunter the refreshment of slushies! It was so hot!

We got lunch in Valladolid – a nearby city with a Spanish colonial centre.

The cathedral in the main square with moody skies above – we waited out the storm in the restaurant!

Tacos – nom!

After the exertions of the day (the heat really takes it out of you!) we drove back to the concrete jungle of Playa. However we had the car for two days to make full use of our driving potential, so we used it to escape to beautiful Tulum the next day.

Gorgeous! The sea here was less seaweed and the beach less crowded than in Playa del Carmen. This view was from the terrace of the La Zebra restaurant and hotel where we stopped to get drinks and lunch.

Look at that long stretch of beach! You can still see the seaweed line – but not as bad as Playa! (For some reason this July August there was a higher than normal amount of seaweed in the area). The waves were great to play in!

Tulum is a laid back place with a hippy vibe – all the buildings are wood with open sides and thatched roofs, not concrete high rise like Playa! It has a very chilled out vibe – goes down well with a cold beer and some ceviche or sushi!

A lovely place for a spot of lunch, some cocktails etc…

As recommended by Suze, I tried the mojito

Ceviche Classico – Tulum has great food options, but nothing that’s cheap! There are no street stands for locals here at least not along the beach, these are all inland by the highway.

Quirky touches – all the tables were decorated like the fortune telling cards.

We had to leave Tulum at 5pm to get the car back that evening, I didn’t want to leave – it was a different pace of life to city life in Playa, perfect for holidays!