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: Two haciendas

Entrance to Hacienda Yaxcopoil

This post compares two haciendas that we saw in Yucutan. The first, en route to Mérida, was Hacienda Yaxcopoil (pronounced Yash-copo-il) and according to my Lonely Planet guidebook there is a trail of lost haciendas in the area around Celestún, which I am sure would make an interesting project.

Hacienda Yaxcopoil had specialised in henequen a product of Agave fourcroydes which was used to make rope and twine - and also a licqueur. It was a major export in the 19th century, via the port of Sisal, and led to many hacienda owners becoming wealthy. This wealth was a factor in the creation of the Paseo de Montejo in Mérida at the end of the century. The bottom only dropped out of this market after the Second World War.

The hacienda is now quite run down, but if the main gate is anything to go by, must once have been very prosperous. It has apparently been bought by a German family who plan to do it up. It is in two parts: the residential building, seen here from the front ...

... and here from the right hand side.

Perhaps the most surprising thing was the enormous scale of the works which process the agave into hennequen.

Rather different, is the Hacienda Chichen Itza. It was built by the Spanish in the 1540s, i.e.very soon after the conquest. For centuries, its main business was cattle raising, more like a South American hacienda. In the 20th century it became a hotel. This is the main facade.

Here is the original entrance gate.

And this well-head is the opening of a cenote, once providing the all-important water.

The grounds are extensive and beautifully landscaped. In the rougher areas around the edges I managed to spot a few butterflies, notably this Mexican Blue Satyr (Cepheuptychia glaucina).

There was also this wonderful turtle.

And on a most enjoyable birding walk in the late afternoon my attention was directed to this lovely, but shy, Woodpecker.

There were lost of other birds too, but poor light and inept photography prevented any worthwhile pictures. The birding guide was a lovely Mayan, who surprised me later in the evening by turning up as a a mariachi with two mates and serenading us while we ate our dinner.

Rating: four stars.

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

Mexico: Kabah

Kabah

We went on the Kabah from our wonderful visit to Uxmal. It is a much smaller and very quiet site some miles to the south. A straight road once linked the two. Kabah was inhabited from the mid 3rd century BC. Most of the architecture now visible was built between the 7th century and 11th centuries AD.

Directly in front across a grassy are is The Palace, with a series of separate doorways. These are characteristic of the Puuc style which predominated in the southern part of Yucutan.

Over to the right is the substantial Palace of the Masks, seen below from the rear.

We walked round to the rear to see two splendid carved figures, known technically as atlantes (plural of atlas, a carved male figure used as a supporting column). There were once more (I think, eight) and they are rather unusual on Mayan buildings

On the corner are the first of innumerable masks of Chaac, the rain god. The intact beak at the top is quite unusual - most are broken off.

This is the main facade has around 300 masks of Chaac. Why? Chaac's importance seems to stem from the importance of rain to provide water to drink. Mayan cities are normally located close to a Cenotes (usually translated as a sinkhole), exposed pools of ground water revealed by the collapse of limestone bedrock. Some however, including Kabah and Uxmal, depended on cisterns to cathc rainwater.

There were also a few nice nature sightings: this large iguana on the very top of the Palace of Masks ...

... this Little Yellow (Eurema lisa) ...

... and later, when we stopped for lunch, this beautiful Zebra Heleconian (Heliconius charithonia) ...

... and Orange-barred Sulphur (Phoebius philea)

Conditions: hot and humid.

Rating: four stars.

Mexico: Mérida (Plaza Grande to Paseo de Montejo)

The facade of the Cathedral

In the first stage of our walk around the centre of Mérida we walked along Calle 62 to the Plaza Grande. This post continues the walk along the west side and then up Calle 60 to Paseo Montejo. The west side is dominated by the Cathedral of St Ildefonso (named for a 7th century bishop of Toledo).  It is said to be the oldest cathedral in the Americas - it was founded in 1561, 19 years after the city itself. It is hard to get a good shot of it as there is a row of trees in front. I was intrigued by the right tower which seems to have a small pulpit and the remains of an ancient clock.

The interior is pleasingly simple  - although this was not always the case, rich decoration having been stripped away by angry peasants at the height of anticlerical fervor during the Mexican Revolution of 1910-20. There is a nave of plain round columns and a cupola over the crossing. You enter through an area with smaller columns and a lower ceiling. A pronaus maybe?

 As you come out of the Cathedral there is lovely view across the leafy square to the tower of the tower of the Town Hall.

On the North side of the square is the final grand building: the Governor's Palace. It dates from 1892 and is now a museum.

The pediment includes Mexico's eagle emblem and, more surprisingly, a bell.

 Leaving the square we noticed an intriguing church gable over to the right.

It turned out to be the Temple of St Juan de Dios. It was finished in 1562 and initially served as Mérida's Cathedral, so it is Mérida's oldest church. The main doorway, in a sort of Romanesque style, is very attractive.

The policeman clearly wasn't about to leave, so I had to include him. This probably appropriate as the police have quite a high profile in Mexico: we have seen state police, national police, military police, tourist police ... and any number of speed traps and check points on the roads.

We headed along Calle 60 and paused for a drink in a charming small square on the right, home to several attractive hotels and with a nice view across to the church of Jesus.

Next up was a rather nice art deco building on a corner. A friendly local, noticing my interest, told that it was imminently going to be done up.

A little further on was fabulous building belonging to the University. It was built in 1618 for the Jesuits who occupied it until they were expelled from all Spanish dominions in 1767. It now houses the University library.

Now we headed further along Calle 60 until, after turning right and left, we found ourselves in Paseo de Montejo. This grand avenue was laid out at the end of the 19th century with the intention of imitating the Champs Elysees in Paris. The funding came from the boom in Henequen (Sisal fibre). The first house on the left, one of a pair (known, reasonably enough, as the Twins) was quite remarkably grand.

 Soon there was a small but charming structure ...

... and a monster mansion, totally over the top, including this fabulously fierce gargoyle.

Finally, on the other side of the road, we spotted a house, now offices, with wonderful figures over the windows. I took them to be Mayan chiefs.

There may have been other worthwhile sights further along the Paseo, but by now we were tired and decided to call it a day.

Conditions: hot and sunny

Distance: a couple of miles

Rating: four and a half stars.