Faith, Folklore, and Friends

We had been told there would be lots of vendors at Chichen Itza.  With over a million people coming there every year, the vendors have a large and different crowd every day.  I have no idea if they make a good living selling, but most looked prosperous, and most had cell phones in the hands. Before we got to the entrance door, we were met on the stairs with shouts of   Five Dolla, Five Dolla. It was as hot and humid as Alabama in August, and if you didn't bring a hat, I think five dolla was a bargain. Speaking of hats--you can always pick out cruisers who have enjoyed too many margaritas at the port; they all are wearing huge sombreros when they get back on the ship. Huge sombreros like we saw in the very old westerns, except these have Mexico in red letters across the top. I'm curious about how they get them on the plane when they go home, and what they do with them after they return home.

Ball games were a little different during Mayan times, but I'm sure they were just as exciting as they are today. Chichen Itza has a huge ball court, and history tells us that players came many miles to compete.  It was a game similar to soccer. The teams didn't have a regular season, but played when the stars and planets were in the proper positions. The object of the game was to get the ball through these rings in the wall.  The ball was made from the fruit of Manilkara chicle , the same source of our Chiclets chewing gum. Here's where it gets a little crazy.  The captain of the winning team, because he had proven he was the best in the land, was promptly sacrificed to their gods.  The carvings in the photo above tells the story of these sacrifices.  Wonder if many of them lost the game on purpose? Below, another snake guards the stadium carvings. And we think football is too rough.

For a thousand years, the Mayan people lived and built their civilization from the jungles of Guatemala to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.  Many of their buildings remain, and excavation work is still going on. Chichen Itza was one of the most powerful cities of the Mayan civilization, built in the northern region of the Yucatan Peninsula. We learned so much history of this place that I can't begin to tell it all here.  There are many books available if you want to know more.   Here  is a good place to start. These Mayans were apparently obsessed with snakes; there are multiple snakes in their carvings. An estimated 1.2 million visitors come here every year, making it the most visited site in Mexico. I think about half of them were there the same day we were.

Just before we got to Chichen Itza, the bus stopped for a potty break and to pick up our lunch. Of course, there were many vendors with traditional clothing, art, and Mayan artifacts. It was a clean, well-arranged place.  We had been told that their prices were a little higher than the vendors at Chichen Itza, but that didn't seem to matter. There were many shopping bags carried back on the bus. I rarely buy souvenirs when we travel. I have photos to remember where we have been, and really don't need Mayan calendars or little plastic Mayan gods to sit on my mantle. It was a nice break from the bus, however, and we had a lot of fun talking to the other people on the excursion. More tomorrow.

Unlike Cozumel, Progresso is a fairly new stop for cruise ships, and there is not a lot to see there now.  We were assured that they are working on improving things there, and that is much like Cozumel was twenty years ago. Most of these photos were taken out of a bus window, if you are wondering about the reflections in the photos. Unlike some ports, there is no beach when you get off the ship in Progresso.  Other than a few vendors, there would be no reason to get off unless you were going on an excursion. Over a hundred of us took a long bus ride to Chichen Itza, a Mayan city that was named one of the new seven wonders of the world in 2007. I have wanted to go there since we studied the Mayans in a cultural geography course while I was in college. The bus was as comfortable as a bus can be and the scenery was nice, but it got old before we got there--2 hours and twenty minutes on the bus, each way.  But if you want to see Chichen Itza, that's the o...