Cancun Day 4: Wednesday; Part 1

Up and at 'em bright and early Wednesday. Not that Nicole and I were sleeping in at all. We had a hot date with a tour bus that would take us to Chichen Itza, the Mayan Ruins closest to Cancun. After a quick breakfast we went to wait for the bus. Soon enough they rolled up and we hopped on. The first thing you really need to know about the bus is that Nicole and I are not small girls...so the two of us crunched into tiny seats was crazy! But thankfully it wasn't a full bus so she moved up a few seats and we were both able to spread out. The second thing you need to understand is that this bus was FREEEEEEZING. Not just cold, just just freezing, but FREEEEEEZING. The air was as cold as possible and the blower was as high as possible....apparently that was the only speed the blower worked on. I was wrapped in both Nicole and I's towels for the whole trip there. It was teeth chattering cold.
I enjoyed the scenery for awhile, but the bus was so cold and cold makes me so very sleepy. Especially all snuggled under big fluffy beach towels. So I napped. I probably slept about an hour. One of the best things that came out of my trips to Europe in high school was learning to sleep under any conditions, whenever you can.
Finally, we arrived! The Mayan Ruins were the ONLY thing that I really requested we do while in Mexico and I was so stoked.

Roberto was our Apple Vacation tour guide and he was so passionate and knowledgeable about the Mayan history. (It's like it was his job or something). I'll let you look up info through the link above mostly...this post will be long enough as it is.
To set up the next post I have to tell you there were people lining the pathways selling all sorts of hand carved items, jewelry and clothing. They were everywhere, and they were shouting out that their locations were "cheaper than Walmart". But I had a substantial soapbox moment..which is of course a post within itself.
But I digress.
Roberto took us around and showed us the main temples, he also showed us the "football" field. Where the Mayans would have 7 players, 6 on the field and 1 on a raised runway trying to throw a ball through these tiny rock holes all the way down the field to score a point.


See the terribly off center ring at the bottom right of the picture. That's what they would have to throw the ball through. It was sort of like football, but they had clubs and spears. The Mayans would build all of this out of limestone they mined and they also carved intricate designs and pictures into the limestone. All of this was like 3000 years ago or something. Isn't that amazing?
Here are some of their carvings:This is one of the players in the aforementioned games. Notice the club and the heavy armor.



This was some sort of location, platform maybe, that the warriors would congregate on before battle. There were 4 stairs for the 4 groups of warriors. They were represented by the Eagle, Jaguar, Snake, and something else that I can never remember. These are snakes.



You'll see that these carvings are of a Jaguar (on the left) and an Eagle (on the right). Locked in the talons/paws is a carving of the human heart. Roberto also said that the Mayans would paint all of these structures in vibrant blues, oranges, red. That, is just just insane to think about.

Well, I'm sleepy and I think this is going to be a 3 part post...not including the soap box post. SO you'll just have to stay tuned!