Here we are having dinner in the plaza with our tourguides, Brent and Marsha Fieldsted. The guy at the Cucina Economica that we ordered from had no clue what we were saying, and Dave and Shirlene ended up eating Brent's tacos, because they weren't sure what they had ordered.
We tried the panuchos, which are Marsha's favorite and are a local dish. They have lime soaked red onions on them. Allen inadvertently tried some habanero salsa and it about made him cry!
On Sunday we toured Ek Balam, which had few tourists, but was crawling with iguanas! Here is a picture of the view from the tallest ruin. This area is covered with limestone and there are no hills, rivers, or lakes. They get their water from holes in the limestone called cenotes. All the hills that you can see are ruins overtaken by the jungle (see top right). There are so many, and it is so labor/archaeology red tape intensive that most are not uncovered. I thought it would be fun to dig one up ourselves, but it would probably be against the rules!
Here are some carvings on the pyramid that I am standing on in the picture above. They build thatch roofs over them to protect them from the elements. Back in the day, all the ruins were covered with smooth white cement and painted bright colors like red and blue. Our next stop was at Chichen Itza, a popular tourist site. On our way we stopped for a break in a typical town called Temuzon.
Allen and Brent buy some tacos off of the street. They were good!
All of the towns seemed to have a church, a cement soccer field, and a p.a. system to blast music into the square. I found it interesting that they did not play soccer on the grass, I'm still not sure why.This field had a roof, so it kept the kids out of the sun, but others did not.
Dave and Shirlene at the Kulkulcan pyramid at Chichen Itza. Kulkulcan is the feathered serpent, and you can see his head on both sides of the bottom of the stairs. Every vernal equinox the sun and the corner of the pyramid form a shadow that makes it look like the snake's body going up the stairs. Every year 40,000 people come to watch, and the shadow tells them it is time to plant their crops.Last year they quit letting people climb it. Also, you used to be able to go inside of it. Most of the structures were built over smaller pre-existing structures. "My pyramid is bigger than yours!"
Dave in front of the observatory. I think the Mayans studied the stars because they had nothing else to read at night!
Dave, Shirlene and I make a pyramid in front of the Temple of the Warriors which has over 1,000 adjacent columns. We sort of got bored taking pictures of ruins, so we thought the poses might spice it up a bit! Every April 6, in the morning, the sun will appear in the middle of the two columns in the center of the temple. Our guide had a picture of it, and it looked spectacular.
Here you can see a lot of the adjacent columns, plus I thought it was a cute picture!
This is the ball court where a game was played between two teams of seven with a 5 lb. rubber ball. The object was to get the ball through the hoops that you can see at the top center of the walls. Players could not use their hands or feet and mostly used their hips
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The winning team's captain had the honor of being beheaded. It is portrayed here in a carving on the base of the ball court. In the center you can see the decapitated captain with snakes coming out of his neck. Our guide, Abel, was pretty adamant that human sacrifices were not literal, but after listening to other guides who seemed knowledgeable, I think they were. I will have to read up on it. The Mayans had written records, but the Spaniards thought they were evil and burned almost all of the books. Scholars can read Mayan, and many of the people in the Yucatan still speak Mayan. If the Spaniards conquered me, I'd refuse to speak Spanish too! I guess the Mayans put up quite a fight against the Spaniards.
This is a small part of the wall of skulls, which they just finished unearthing last year. They say that the Mayans put their skulls on top of the wall to intimidate enemies.
Shirlene prices out some turtles.
A nice bus shot...for the first three days we had the best seats in the front, which is very advantageous when you have to get in line for things when you get off. I thought we'd staked our claim just like our pew at church, but some Fieldsted relatives sniped our seats on the fourth day! I noticed no one dared to take Don and Joan's seats though, I guess there is still some respect for the elderly!
Well, I never thought I'd say it, but I'm tired of blogging, so stay tuned for the rest of day 2!
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