Wednesday, October 13, 2010 Chichen Itza

I woke up when we got to Tulum, and of course the one place I wanted to be sunny, it pulls a Seattle on me and is all overcast. I ate 10 carnitas tacos because I was bored, and the guys at the restaurant were cracking up each time I held up more fingers requesting more tacos. I didn't even go to the ruins; instead, I took a 3 hour bus to Chichen Itza, halfway across the Yucatan peninsula. Talk about Disneyland; there must have been about 20 buses parked outside, as well as an equal number of tourist vans. This is a popular daytrip from the Marriotts and Rius of Cancun. Everyone and their mothers want to come here to check off one of the Seven Wonders of the World. I basically ran through the ticket window to the pyramid so I could avoid a majority of the tour groups in my pictures, and because it was clouding over fast, and I wanted the photogenicy (that's definitely not a word) of the sunny skies. It's sad I think about these things, but they make a big difference. I also know which direction is north in an unfamiliar place due to the position of the sun. Anal retentive, or practical? That should be an HSBC ad you would see on airport walkways. The ruins were pretty sweet, though. Huge pyramids and collonated halls, enormous ballcourts, and observatory, and tons of archways. Cakmul offering stones and serpent heads were everywhere, and all of this is situated deep in the heart of the steamy Yucatan jungle. I think 95% of the visitors had a guide, and so I got fear of missing out, so I hired one for only $20 and it was a completely individual tour where he told me about everything Maya, it was great. I can't believe how good at math and astronomy they were. They knew a year was 365 days and 52 weeks, and everything was divisable into 260, which is a sacred number and happens to be the gestation period of humans. And all this was completely independent of the west. But what makes Chichen Itza really special is that it was constructed for astrological purposes. It was built specially so that on solstices, the sun casts a shadow and makes a serpent shape on the side of the pyramid. And that's why it made it to "Wonder of the World" status. We also saved this old lady who was taking a picture of the cenote (sinkhole) and almost fell into it. The mix of tourists was pretty funny. 1% was independent tourists such as myself who took the public bus there, 25% was European honeymooners, 25% were Mexican families, and 49% was Americans on packaged tours from Cancun. There was of course the requisite shirtless group of meatheads from the University of Texas Sigma Chi Spring Break 2010 trip... except that it's Wednesday, October 13. I could seriously just sit and watch tourists all day long. Luckily, I took my best photos early because it startedt to tropical downpour. I took the bus 4 hours to Playa del Carmen on the Caribbean Sea coast. I just walked around with my bag and got some quesadillas at a busy eatery, and asked the guy where a good hostel was, and the best wasn't even in Lonely Planet, it was this little hole in the wall called Maria Sabina. I cleaned up and then hung out at the lounge and it was me and 15 Israelis all speaking Hebrew. They adopted me as one of their own for the night, which was fun. We walked around down Calle 12, the busy street, where outdoor patios were bumping pop, electronica, and reggaetons for tourists and locals alike. We ended up at the Blue Parrot, a busy and fun bar right on the beach. The floor was sand, and the dance floor was busy, and they had swings around the expensive bar. I stayed out until 4am. Take that, USA.