The Yucatan, Chichen Itza, and the Temple of Kukulcán
December 17, 2022:
The Cancun customs check was crowded and must have taken at least an hour. The car rental process took at least 45 minutes – we bargained for $100 inclusive of two days, under 25 rights, unlimited mileage, and insurance. About 90 minutes on our way to Chichen Itza, we had to pay a toll. Unfortunately for us, we forgot to convert any of our USD into Pesos. The man at the toll said, “Got to go back to Cancun” with a straight face. That guy was on crack for even suggesting that. We used $20 of spare change I had in my bag and Evan went into the crowd of cars to ask people to trade us pesos.
Evan wanted to play music on the second half of the car ride but the number of bluetooth connections were maxed out. He accidentally disconnected my bluetooth from aux because he didn’t know my phone was called 9VOLT. To his annoyance, I didn’t stop the car for him to connect so we just talked for the rest of the trip with no background music.
GTA-esque driving
We ended up in a town called Voldado which is about 45 minutes away from Chichen Itza. We ate at a Restaurant Conato: salmon tacos, guacamole & chips, lamb ribs. The vibe was great but the food was subpar. We found an AirBnb for $46 and settled ourselves into bed by 9:30. The game plan for tomorrow is to leave by 8 am, spend a few hours in Chichen Itza, and then make our way to Tulum for the next few days. Tulum will be a chill spot.
Evan: “Are you ever worried about a bug crawling in your nose and eating your brain.”
Me: “No”
Evan: “Well you should tonight.”
December 18, 2022:
I woke up at 7:40 AM after falling asleep at 9:45 am. This is probably the most sleep I’ve gotten in a very long time. I took some snaps of our suitcases as we left the door of our hotel. It reminded me of a picture Evan had taken in Monaco.
The day was for Chichen Itza. We stopped at a convenience store halfway there and I decided to order some enchiladas from the restaurant next door (Restaraunte Tio Manolo). Incredibly tasty and probably the best I’ve ever had. I took a picture of a painting inside which reminded me of the 4th Hokage, an ocean by himself. One of the families having breakfast hollered at me and pointed to their daughter, letting me know that she painted it. As I left with four enchiladas in a to-go box, Evan told me that he offered a random dude who lived in Chichen Itza a ride back. His name was Gilberto and he made souvenirs his whole life. He grew up in poverty with his father (a farmer) and a mother who died at 15. He started making wood worked items in his early 20s.
Gilberto
When we got to Chichen Itza he referred us to a tour guide friend of his, Hilario.
Hilario gave us an extended guide of the Temple of Kukulkan and the surrounding areas (the market, the sacrificial area, the observatory, the sport arena, etc). Hilario has three children, the youngest of which is a 7 years old daughter and the oldest is an 18 year old son who loves to study foreign languages and wishes to travel broadly. Hilario was knowledgeable and had a true passion for his craft. He loved reading books about the Mayan culture and would do whatever he could to learn more, including asking Mayan elders about their experiences. One elder told him that he must find a way to go inside the temple to see the sacrificial area – and so he found a way to do that.
Some cool facts off the top of my head:
The numbers of Kukulcán: the seasons and days of the year played a large role in the temple's numbers. 365 days of the year – 91 steps on all four sides and 1 step on the top. There were 52 panels, just like 52 weeks of the year,
On the solstice, the sun is angled in such a way that it looks like a snake is going down the temple… making 6 light triangles and 7 dark triangles to create the snake's body, which meets the giant stone snake head statues attached to the bottom of the pyramid.
The temple was built by both the Toltec and the Mayan civilizations – both cultures layering on top of each other.
The significance of the jaguar in Yucatan cultures
The Mayan ball game, Pitz, was played with interesting rules. The goal was almost impossible to shoot the ball through and each team could not use their hands, legs, or head (only their shoulders, hips, elbows, etc). The captain of the winning team would die.
The Mayan concept of death was different from ours. They would move to a higher plane of existence with an honorable death to join the gods or potentially become one.
Mayans moved away from the areas surrounding the Temple of Kukulcán because of a purported long term drought that ruined their agricultural society… when the Toltecs rebuilt, they did many sacrifices to the rain gods
Mayan elites had elongated heads because of a procedure done at birth. They’d decorate their teeth with obsidian engravings and attach similar jewelry to their eyelids.
Playing catch with stones
PC: Hilario
Hilario drawing the snake on the solstice
Mayan football: a game of death and spiritual ascendance
Evan's a snake
Sacrificial temple
We briefly watched the world cup final for 10 minutes (Argentina won). We headed back to the same restaurant we went to before. Evan had the taco buffet and I had the Poc Chuc, a traditional Mayan dish. As we finished eating, we saw child performers dressed in Mayan garb doing traditional dance on a podium in the restaurant. They reminded me of the Sun Warriors from ATLA.
We stopped for freshly chopped coconut water on the way back. For 14 pesos, it’s a steal.
goes cookoo for coconuts
Something Evan said made the moment for me:
Who’d wanna be a mothafucka wearing a Givenchy t-shirt and black supreme shoes smoking a cigarette in the middle of the Mayan jungle. Man had a mid-shaped head.
On the way back we planned to stop by a famous Cenote (a natural pit of groundwater that was sacred to the Maya’s as a way to the underworld), but it started raining heavily so we went straight to Tulum. We briefly listened to some of Born A Crime by Trevor Noah and struggled to decide on a place to stay in Tulum. Once we arrived, we took a light drive down the busy ocean side road and got to our AirBnb, which we booked 5 minutes before we arrived. For just $25 a day, this AirBnb is magical.
We had dinner at a restaurant called Mayami Burger nearby, ordering the Maya Burger, Maya Meat burgers, and two coconut lemonades.
fresh guac