July 3rd Big Day in the Yucatan at Chichen Itza

Man is it hot. It must be 100 in the shade and so humid. I sweat so much and seldom go to the bathroom. I am drinking lots of water and I hope that helps me avoid heat stroke. The day began with breakfast and a walk along the beach in Cancun. At the end of breakfast, we were handed a cookie by our waiter. Gail called it a "Get outta here cookie", or a new technique to tell you to leave now! Then the bill was delivered and ironically the waiter did not ask any of the older ladies to sign for it, but instead went directly for young looking, Lori, our administrator! Her natural leadership oozed forth!

We learned a lot about the Mayan kingdom and the different periods of history of Mexico. The pre classic period was from 2500 B.C. to 0. That was the time of the origins of the country and the people were primarily Olmec. These are the people that produced very large stone heads. Then the next period was called classic period from 0 to 800 A.D.. During this time the people were Toltec or Zapotec or Maya. The Post classic period went from 800 to 1519 and that was the time of Maya and Aztec in Mexico. This went into the colonial period when Spain dominated Mexico until 1850 and the modern times of the country.

We rode the bus a long time through the peninsula on the road from Cancun to Merida we stopped at Chichen Itza (It means Sacred Well of the tribe of Itza). This site was just recently named one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was truly amazing and Rene proved to be an excellent guide. He was explaining the significance of the different temples. The one for the Sun God is the largest. It told the Maya when to plant and when to harvest their crops. It had to do with the Sun and the shadows that were cast by the temple. The Temple of War was the place where the human sacrifices took place. It was actually an honor to be sacrificed because the Maya believed in reincarnation and that type of death was a sure way to gain heaven.

The temples were originally covered with stucco and painted red , beige, and other wonderful colors. There was some evidence even here. Kukulcan was the feathered serpent, God of the Maya. In Aztec, it is Quetzalcoatl. There were many remarkable images of this god all over the temples. It was a rattlesnake with a feathered tail!

Maya wanted to flatten their heads as a sign of nobility. So the moms would put boards on the heads of their infants and gradually screw them tighter and tighter to make the top of the head flatten out creating an oblong head shape. They also drilled pieces of jade into their teeth. They found these skulls in the well where they would toss the bones of nobles when they died. Our guide suggested that perhaps this practice contaminated the water which poisoned the drinking water and that led to the abandonment of the site. They really do not know why the Maya abandoned the cities in favor of the countryside and smaller family groupings.

The Maya played a ball game that went back to their pre classic period. The game required the players to hit the ball into a hole in a vertical wheel using only their elbows, shoulders, or knees. The rubber ball represented the sun, and was very heavy. Because it was representative of the sun to touch it with hands, head or feet would be wrong. The game could go on for days and the one who scored had to die and that ended the game.

Skulls represented power and the skulls would have been placed on sticks and pounded into the ground on a field surrounded by a wall of skulls. Some people who died there were nobles because of the shape of the head. Others were slaves without mishapen head stuctures.

There was so much to remember....Let me see, seven...it is a special number. In the game of ball, seven players take the field. The snake god, has seven tongues, the head has seven openings in it. and finally when you clap your hands in the ball court, it echoes seven times.

At night we settled into our hotel, dressed for dinner at the American Consulate and went in waving our little flags. The food served was from Fridays. The drinks ran freely, I selected Corona with lime. The bugs started to bite, Diane, from Richmond, VA provided many people with tiny citronella pins that eliminated the biting bugs almost immediately. I had a great time circulating the room and meeting the French Consulate, some businessmen, the secretary for the Governor of Yucatan and a professor from the university in San Francisco who is here to help children get ahead and go on to college. She was very interesting.

I got lost tonight after working on the blog. I walked the wrong way out of the Internet Cafe, wandered around alone for a while and then realized I needed to come back and start over to find my way. Only one problem - I did not know the name of the street, hotel or even the plaza. A policeman helped me when I explained that it was somewhere nearby, and on the same street as the Hyatt! Learn from this, always get the name of the hotel, and make sure you can speak some Spanish!

Maryann