Day Six - Valladolid, Chichen Itza, Izamal, and Merida!

Today was a busy day and involved much traveling and a lot of humidity. I woke up around 7 o’clock and took a few pictures out on my private balcony overlooking the hotel’s interior garden. Then I walked around the Plaza Principal (Town Square) and enjoyed the nice weather.

We got on the bus at 9am to drive a few blocks to Cenote Zaci. In Mexico, a cenote is a sinkhole. From what I have learned, the Yucatan is not known for having rivers that run through the land, as we see much of in the United States. Instead, most rivers in this part of Mexico run underneath the land. A sinkhole is a place where the land has collapsed and has led to a small cave filled with water from one of these underground rivers. Although it was empty today, many people come to Cenote Zaci for a refreshing dip in the water, which is home to various fish (and other underwater creatures, I’m sure).

After walking around the cenote for about a half hour, we took an hour bus ride to the ancient Maya city of Chichen Itza. We had a very knowledgeable tour guide who explained the details of the city for about two hours. First he explained the meaning of the name Chichen Itza. The part “Chi” means “mouth” and chen means “well”, so “Chichen” means “Mouth of the Well” (apparently, there are various cenotes in and near the site). Then for Itza, “Itz” means sorcerer or magician and “a” means “water”, so “Itza” means “Water Sorcerer”. So all in all, the name “Chichen Itza” means “Water Sorcerer at the mouth of the well.”

It was really cool to walk around the site. When you first come through the gate, you walk along a dirt path and then, there it is….a great Mayan pyramid! I took a lot of photos of the great pyramid, along with many others around the site. The cool part about the great pyramid is that there are four stairways that lead to the top (unfortunately, visitors are not allowed to walk them anymore). But, there are 91 steps making up each of the four stairways, and there is a one step base…making a total of 365 steps. What else has the number 365??? (Hmm….our calendar! Wow, the Mayans were smart!) As we walked around some more, I found out that there was an older part of the city, now called Old Chichen, and the buildings there were used to plan the newer ones (the new ones, by the way, are still about 1,000 years old!).

After leaving the 104 degree weather of Chichen Itza, we headed back to the bus for an hour ride to the city of Izamal. Izamal became famous almost two decades ago when it was visited by Pope John Paul II in 1993. A cool fact about Izamal is that all of the buildings, which had been painted a variety of colors, were re-painted for the Pope’s visit…and they were all painted yellow! Por que? No se…pero, es muy interesante!

Now we are in the city of Merida. Merida is the capital city of the state of Yucatan. To start off our visit to this city, our group went to a performance of Folkloric Ballet, where we listened to some fantastic music and enjoyed a beautiful dance show! I was told by Jacques to be on the lookout for some famous Merida specialties: Traditional shirts – Guayaberas (linen shirts), Mestizo dresses (white with embroidered collars), and products made of sisal (tablecloths, sponges, hammocks). I might try to get a shirt and a tablecloth for my classroom next year…we’ll see! Hasta luego!