Christmas in the Yucatan

Well, this entry dates us...yes, we are currently posting about our travels about 2 months behind "real" time:  We spent Christmas in the Yucatan Peninsula, but it is actually late February and we are in Costa Rica as I post this. We have had trouble keeping up with the blog due to limited internet access and having too much fun to sit down and write blog entries :).  We are dedicated to recording everything though, so it'll be coming...there's lots more to tell!  Better late than never, right?

On our way into the Yucatan Peninsula, we realized that we would be spending Christmas somewhere on the peninsula.  That meant that Sarah and Matt's time to travel with us was running low (they had to return to New York in January).  We came up with a list of the most important places we wanted to visit and came up with a plan that would allow Sarah and Matt to get to spend some time in Belize before they had to leave. 

After hobnobbing with the elite in Mayapan (they were incredibly hospitable and so sweet, by the way, again many thanks to them for receiving us) we headed to ruins of Chichen Itza.  Out of all the ruins in the Yucatan, we knew we would only have time for one, and we chose the most famous, Chichen Itza.  We went on Christmas Eve day, December 24th.  It was a huge site with many interesting things to see:

 The Skull Rack (called Tzompantli) is where skulls of war captives or sacrificial victims were displayed:

Tzompantli

The Sacred Cenote seems to be a special place for the ancient Maya, where many offerings were made.  Archeologists have found offerings such as gold, jade, pottery, and even human skeletons at the bottom of this natural sinkhole. 

Cenote Sagrado

The main temple in Chichen Itza, called "El Castillo", was dedicated to the god Kukulkan (feathered serpent).  We didn't get to see it, but it is said that on the Spring and Fall equinoxes, a shadow falls on the staircases that resembles a serpent.  People are not allowed to climb to the top of this pyramid anymore - boo.



El Castillo

Some other cool pictures from Chichen Itza:



Sauna house that was blocked off but we snuck back for a peek anyway

Look at the architectural designs on these buildings!

El Caracol observatory

sunbather

We left Chichen Itza with enough time left in the day to visit one of the popular cenotes nearby.  There are thousands of these sinkholes in the Yucatan (we had already visited one in Mayapan and also saw two in Chichen Itza), as well as many caves and caverns. The Mayans considered them to be sacred places, and possibly even portals to the underworld.  We went to one called "Cenote Samula" near Valladolid, to go for a quick underground swim.



The steep passage down into the cave...

led to this beautiful swimming spot!

The water was refreshing.  The cave was lit up with lights that kept the color constantly changing (notice the purple color in the photo below) - a cool effect though we were wondering how safe it was to be swimming with so many electrical cords hanging around the cave.  But we had a great time, it was my first time swimming in a cenote, and also my first Christmas Eve swim, I think. 



Those are tree roots growing down into the cave

After the swim, we drove straight to Cancun, and arrived after dark.  We luckily found an empty parking area almost right away.  We had Christmas Eve dinner in a nearby restaurant, then returned to Cubby to celebrate by polishing off the bottle nuez-flavored mezcal we had bought at the distillery in Oaxaca.

The next day, in between Christmas phone calls and Skyping with our families, we did manage to get to the beach for a bit.  The beaches were nice, but very crowded and of course, being Cancun, very resort-oriented, not really our style. 

Lots of people on the beach on Christmas

We enjoyed a little time in the sun and then went to one of the few non-exclusive bars on the beach (for most you had to be staying in their hotel to order a drink) and had a couple cold (but expensive) beers.



Having a drink in Cancun

The next day we got down to business replacing the tire that had gone flat on us on the way to Mayapan (we had been driving around on the spare since then).  Ricardo spent a whole day driving around Cancun looking for the correct tire and also replacing the trailer brakes, which ended up being a real pain to do.  Sarah, Matt, and I spent a lot of time holding down the fort in the parking lot with Cubby playing cards (what hard work!).  The parking lot was empty, except for this cool truck, that we just had to take a picture of:



"No Monsanto" truck

With our newly replaced tire on Cubby, we left Cancun but before we got even 10 miles away, the other tire on Cubby went flat!  Again??!! we thought, this has to be a joke!  But it turned out to be for the best - both tires had gotten punctured with palm frond spikes on our way to the Rainbow gathering in Palenque (see previous post) and it was better to replace them at the same time.  And luckily the 2nd tire waited to burst until we had already replaced the first - if they had gone at the same time, we would have been in quite a predicament, with only one spare tire!

Ricardo and Matt putting the spare tire on the side of the highway

With two new tires plus new brakes on Cubby, we finally got out of Cancun.  On our way south toward Belize, we made a stop at Reserva de la Biosfera Sian Ka'an.  It was a beautiful beach setting, a good place to relax for a bit after all the car trouble.  The ocean was filled with seaweed, not the best for swimming, but as it turns out having a seaweed fight in the water is almost as good as a good old-fashioned snowball fight :)

It was a nice way to end our time in beautiful Mexico - we had spent almost 2 months in this country and were feeling mixed emotions about leaving, excited about going to Belize for the new year but at the same time sad to depart Mexico.  Two months was not nearly long enough - we could easily have spent a year!  And despite everyone's worst fears about the danger here, we experienced nothing but friendly people, spectacular landscapes, and positive experiences.  Mexico, one day we will be back, you really are an amazing country, full of culture, richness, suffering, joys, and wonderful people!