Mexico: Tulum

El Castello

There are three Tulums: the town (pueblo), the beach hotels where are staying and the Mayan ruins. This post is of course about the latter. Tulum is interesting in that it is the only Mayan city by the coast and the only one with walls around it. It was also one of the last to be built, albeit in a style which is more rough and ready than in the classic period.

You enter the site through a narrow passage way and emerge next to the Casa del Cenote: a building built on top of a cenote (a sinkhole-cum-well).

Over to the left, the coastal side, is an attractive round building, the Temple to the Wind god.

Looking inland it suddenly becomes clear that Tulum is quite a large site.

Next up on the same side is the imposing Palace of the Great Lord.

And the seaward side comes a small building which has an unusual carving over the doorway: a statue of the Descending God. A careful look reveals that his feet are over his head.

We pass round the back of the Castello and come round to look at its imposing seaward side. The Spaniards named it as a castle, but it seems that it was primarily a watch tower. Did the Maya know the Spanish were on their way? There is a nice view out to sea for the modern tourist.

And here is a view looking back towards the Castello.

Heading inland we admired the Temple of of the Paintings. This may have been the last Mayan building to be built before the Spanish conquest. It has carvings as well as paintings

As we ended this lovely walk we had a couple of nice nature encounters: a fine iguana (actually they were all over the site) ...

... and a pair of brown Coatis (we saw black ones in Costa Rica a few years back).

Conditions: hot

Rating: four and half stars. I was surprised by how big the site was. The sense of surprise is increased by the very narrow entrance way.

Mexico: Coba

The Great Pyramid

We are stopping at Coba en route for our final destination of this wonderful holiday - Tulum. It is a sprawling site where you car hire bicycles or ride on pedal cars to get about. Naturally we are walking.

Like Ek Balam it is located deep in the jungle and far from fully excavated.  It was at its peak in 800-100 AD is thought by archaeologists to have covered 70 sq miles and had a population of perhaps 40,000. We begin our walk noting several ruined structures in the trees. It is hard to imagine what they might be. Our guide thinks that Coba may turn out to eclipse Chichen-Itza in 20 or 30 years time.

After a while however we come to what is by now a readily identifiable structure: a ball court. One thisn which has now become apparent is that although all ball courts have a similar structure, the dimensions/proportions of the various components are not at all consistent. Was the game played in the same way? Or did each city have its own rules? Who can say?

One advantage of walking was that we were able to follow quieter trails (and not be at risk of being run over all the time). The picture below shows a road (or sacbe), now totally overgrown, but which reminds us that Mayan cities were linked by a network of roads.

As ever, there are a few reminders of the more barbaric side of Mayan civilisation.

We emerged from the paths through the jungle to pass the bike park and encounter this rather fine structure, presumably a temple.

Our guide immediately leads us off piste through the jungle on a narrow path to a rather overgrown lake. Is it a centote? I am not sure, but it has a wonderfully mysterious feel to it.

Returning to the main path, we head to the Great Pyramid. It is Nohoch Mul in Maya, which means Big Mound - Great Pyramid may be less accurate, but sounds more impressive. We climb carefully up the rather battered steps and reach the summit at 42m, the highest we have climbed. This is the view: basically 100% jungle in all directions.

We had a nice chat at the top with a Dutch couple who had come here by bus from Tulum. Astonishingly, to us anyway, they hadn't even heard of Chichen-Itza.

Getting down was a bit more challenging and a fixed rope had helpfully been provided running up the centre of the pyramid. We observed a few people climbing down backwards clinging to the rope.

The other advantage of walking was that it was possible to spot a certin number of butterlies, generally perched on a sunny leaf in the otherwise shady path edges.

Conditions: hot and pretty clear.

Rating: five stars. I have to say that climbing the pyramids, especially this one was one of the great highlights of our trip.

Mexico: Ek Balam

The Acropolis

We are on an outing from Valladolid to see the ruins of Ek Balam, a Mayan city which reached its peak in the 8th century AD and was then abandoned.

We walk along a track from the main car park, passing a couple of half naked young men with their skins painted, presumably in the style of a Mayan warrior. On the way back we realised that their game was posing for photos with tourists.

The entrance to the archaeological site involves passing through three massively thick walls to a small gateway.

The gate is an attractive structure, with, unusually, entrances on four sides.

We emerge between buildings into a wide grassy space with buildings on three sides. To the left are twin temples (known officially as Structure 17 or The Twins).

We climb a similar structure (the Oval Palace) at right-angles to the twin temples and are rewarded by a fine view over the site as whole. The Acropolis can be seen above the trees.

A grassy knoll to the right has this small building on top.

We head through the trees and climb the Acropolis, an impressive 32m high (7m more than El Castillo at Chichen-Itza, but not as much as Coba [42m] or Calakmul [45m]).

About two thirds of the way up, hidden under palm frond covers is this fantastic structure, only recently uncovered. It is believed to be the tomb of an important king named Ukit Kan Le'k Tok. There is remarkable stone carving and the analogy of a mouth is carried to extreme lengths with the monstrous lower teeth projecting forwards.

There is even some rather Egyptian-looking wall painting on the side of the door.

At the top we look back towards the Twins and the Oval Palace and all we can see is a sea of forest. It is the same for as far as the eye can see in all directions.

It is a bit more challenging coming down than it was going up.

Returning to the entrance, we pass the inevitable ball court.

Conditions: hot and sunny.

Rating: Five stars. A quiet and very interesting site. The tomb of the king was a fantastic highlight.

Mexico: Chichen-Itza

El Castillo by night

I have wanted to see Chichen-Itza ever since I read about the Seven New Wonders of the World (click here to see what they are) - and today that dream came true. We had a little taster the night before with a son-et-lumiere show, the highlight of which was the great pyramid known as El Castillo being illuminated in various colours. I thought red was the most dramatic.

We are staying in the Hacienda Chitchen-Itza and so  it was possible to simply walk into sight by the back entrance. We started earlyish to avoid the crowds which are apparently enormous. Our route meant that the first thing we saw was the Group of a Thousand Columns. This seems to be literally true, not just a poetic notion. The columns would once have had wooden beams across the top covered with palm fronds and were part of a large market area.

We followed them round for some distance to reach the Temple of the Warriors.

Just across from this, in a vast open area, was the 25m high El Castillo, seen here from the rear, which gives an impression of what would have all looked like before restoration. It is an imposing and magnificent structure. It is also known as the Temple of Kukulcan, the feathered snake, known as Quetzalcoatl by the Aztecs. Inside the pyramid is a second older one which apparently has a red jaguar throne.

Here is the view from the next side, with a more finished look. The other fascinating thing is the pyramid is carefully constructed to replicate the Maya calendar: there are 9 levels divided in two making 18 terraces which reflect the 18 20 day months into which the Mayans divided the year. The four staircases and the top platform have altogether 365 steps, representing of course the days in the year.

Sadly, you can't climb the steps. In view of the number of visitors this is surely a wide decision to protect the fabric from wear and tear - and also for safety reasons, as someone fell to their death in 2006.

Next we passed the Temple of Jaguars and Shields ...

... quickly followed by the Platform of Skulls. This was one used to display the skulls of sacrificial victims and numerous skulls are sculpted on every surface.

Now we headed away from the main site along what is in effect a shopping street where vendors were busy setting up trestle tables to display their wares to tourist groups arriving by coach from Cancun. We passed the double wall which marked the boundary of the city centre ...

... and reached the Sacred Cenote. It looks pretty much like any other cenote, other which there are lots across the Yucuatan. It is 60m in circumference and 35m deep.

Returning to the main site, our next port of call was the astonishing Ball Court. We know by now that all Mayan cities had a ball court. We saw our first one at Uxmal. Sometimes there were apparently as many as six or seven. This one is absolutely huge, longer than a football pitch, although a little narrower, and is the largest in Mexico. It also has wonderful acoustics and echoes.

The ball game was played between teams of between two and seven players and involved trying to score by propelling a hard rubber ball through hoops in the side walls (just visible high up in the middle of the two sides). It is generally held that the captain of the winning team would be sacrificed after the game with a guarantee of entry to the after life.

There are temples at either end of the ball court and a substantial structure towards the left end.

I heard this described as a viewing point for the elite, but if so it is a rather odd position - on the edge of the penalty area at one end of the pitch, to use a football analogy. You would expect it to be where there is the best vantage point - the half-way line.

We now made our way to one of the most astonishing buildings of all: El Caracol (The Observatory), built in 981 AD. The Mayan name means "the snail", a reference to its interior spiral staircase. The windows are aligned with the appearance of the planet Venus and with other solstices, equinoxes etc).

The final building was one of the most obscure, the Akab-Dzib. The central chambers date from the 2nd century, and some archaeologists think it is the most ancient structure at Chichen-Itza.

Conditions: cooler and cloudier than of late.

Rating: 5 stars. Astonishing. Memorable. So glad to have finally seen it.

Mexico: Uxmal

The Pyramid of the Magician

Uxmal (pronounced oosh-marl) is the site of a Mayan city which lies about 70 km south of Mérida, where we are staying. It is the first of several such sites we are going to visit on this holiday.

The first thing you see as you enter the site is the back of the astonishing Pyramid of the Magician. Below is what it looks like from the front.

A closer look at the entrance which lies at the top of the extremely steep steps (sadly you can't climb them) has been deliberately designed to resemble a mouth, with a nose and eyes above. In this reading the steps are a giant tongue ...

From here we entered a massive enclosure with ranges of buildings (palaces) along all four sides, but gaps in the corners for air circulation. Its construction dates from 900-1000 AD. The Spaniards named it The quadrangle of the nuns as they thought it resembled a monastery cloister.

The left hand range has a fine sculpture of a snake.

This is the view looking back to the small entrance (Mayan building techniques didn't allow arches or wide spans for entrances). In the background on the right is the Great Pyramid, which we will soon climb. On the left is the Palace of the Governor.

But first we see our first example of a Ball Court, a feature of all Mayan cities. Nobody really knows how the game was played, but it seems to have involved two teams of between 1 and 7 players who manoeuvred a heavy ball without using their hands with the aim of getting it through a hoop along the side of one wall. So far so good, but the distinctive Mayan twist was that the captain of the winning team was then sacrificed to the gods with a promise of going straight to heaven.

Now we climbed the steep steps of the 30m high Great Pyramid, This is the view back from the top.

Returning to ground level we headed round past the so-called Governor's House ...

... which had opposite an eerie statue of a double-headed Jaguar.

And at last I saw a few butterflies, notably Montezuma's Cattleheart ...

 ... and the Tailed Orange

Rating: Five stars