Chichen Itza in all it's gory

Chichen Itza was on my "definitely have to do"- to-do list for this trip. It's one of the 7 wonders of the world, for goodness sakes. I was pretty excited about it, but not as excited as I was about seeing the pyramids in Egypt, per se. 
The night before, I made sure my camera battery was fully charged, I thought I might want to snap a few pics of the place. 

We stayed in the small town of Piste, where Chichen Itza is located, which was quite pleasant. It was definitely in the heart of the jungle. 

During the evening, Dinh and I would walk down the road from the hotel for a few miles to get a little exercise in. Strange insect and bird sounds filled the air. 
"Where are we?" I thought. 
Guns N' Roses "welcome to the jungle" song popped into my head. "You're in the jungle baby!"
Oh yea, of course I am. 
Dinh joked about tarantulas being in the jungle, trying to scare me. But I knew the creepy crawleys were out there. He knows how deathly afraid I am of big spiders. Before checking into the hotel, I asked the man at the front desk if there were ever any "big spiders" in the rooms. I didn't want any run-ins with the 8 legged monsters. Right before falling asleep that night, Dinh waited until I had almost dozed off to sleep, then ran his wiggling fingers over my leg, imitating a spider. I jumped wildly as my lightening fast reflexes slapped Dinh's hand. 
I didn't find the humor in it as much as Dinh did. 
"Stop it, go to sleep, Dinh. We're going to Chichen Itza tomorrow!" I hissed at him.
The jungle came alive at night. That and the fact that we were sleeping only a few hundred yards from the ruins of one of the largest Mayan cities, made it feel very exotic. 

The famous image of Chichen Itza that most people will recognize is the pyramid, or "El Castillo" (Spanish for castle). This is what seduces hoards of tourists to flock to the Yucatan every year. 1. 2 million to be exact. 
After shelling over about $13 to enter, we walked only about a minute before we came face to face with "El Castillo". It was absolutely stunning and I was shocked by how breathtaking it was in person. 
Standing at only 98 feet, El Castillo cowers under the height of the Great Pyramid of Egypt. However, the shear beauty of the structure demands attention. There are 4 staircases, one on each side, containing 91 steps each. Added together with the temple platform, the steps equal 365, which depicts the number of days in the solar year. Running along the north side staircase is a serpent which casts a shadow only on the spring and autumn equinox, making it appear to have a feathered spine. 
The pyramid was restored in the 1920's. The jungle was starting to swallow up the UNESCO world heritage site. This is what El Castillo used to look like:

photo courtesy of Wikipedia

This is what it looks like today:

Someone did some major landscaping.
We made sure to get there early, to avoid the crowds of visitors. I didn't want any pesky tourists to ruin my pictures :)
It was stifling hot and humid that day . Sweat beads constantly fell down my back as I posed for photos. Dinh, my photographer, was so patient with me as I asked him to take my picture with El Castillo.
Walking on the grounds of the ancient city , I could feel a powerful energy . Almost eerie. 
The city was built around 600 A.D. and was an incredibly important part of the Mayan civilization.

As of 2006, it is forbidden to climb the steps of El Castillo, following the death of an 80-year-old San Diego woman. She slipped on a step about halfway down and fell to her death. It's unfortunate it happened, but it also created the opportunity to stop the destruction from thousands of tourist's feet and hands everyday . Something with this much history should be protected. 

After taking about 200 pictures of the pyramid (that's not sarcasm), we continued on, exploring the Great Ballcourt. Some nasty things happened here. The ballcourt is huge. 2 teams would compete here in a sort of basketball-like game.

The goal was to knock a rubber ball (that weighed up to 9 pounds), into a stone circle, using only your hips. The hole is puny , I find it very impressive that anyone would be able to shoot a ball through it. 

You would hate to lose this game, because there was the possibility that you would be killed. Human sacrifice was very prevalent in Chichen Itza. Human heads were thrown from the top of El Castillo after decapitation, bouncing on the steps on the way down. 
Doong-doong!

Hearts, still beating, were ripped out of the chests of humans. People were thrown into a large pool (called a cenote) with no place to escape, heartlessly left to drown.
Yes, some very gruesome things happened on these grounds. 
I tried to wrap my mind around it all. What made them act so barbaric? How could they be so heartless? 
I tried to imagine the small stature Mayans roaming these lands, going about their daily life and the important events that took place here. I pictured the royalty speaking from the top of El Castillo and the people below listening intently . 
But my mind kept reverting back to all the bad things that went on there. I got the shivers as I pictured all the blood and the rolling heads.
So much gory . It didn't make sense. 
It was time to go.
On the way out, we passed numerous local merchants selling their prized handmade goods. Talking to a few, we discovered that most of them are Mayan. I examined their faces closely , trying to picture what their ancestors looked like hundreds of years ago. They looked like pretty nice people to me. The cruelty in their bloodline had somehow dissipated. 

Walking back to the hotel, I was taken back by how impressed I was with Chichen Itza. I had no idea it would affect me in this way . If only I had a time machine, I could crack the mysteries of this fascinating city .
At the hotel, I did a little research and discovered that humans were sacrificed for the Gods and that it was considered an honor to be sacrificed. They believed in an afterlife, too. 

Ok, that makes me feel a little better....