Chitchen Itza
Trip Start
Oct 04, 2006
1
12
53
Trip End
Oct 06, 2007
Thank god we wre away from Cancun. Today we bussed to Chitzen Itza, one of the most well known Central American Ruins. Our guide Julian or Lalo in his language was awesome. He really painted a picture and was thorough with all his explanations. These ruins have been excavated and restored where possible with original materials. When originally dicovered these ancient village were overgrown. The guide explained they were originally covered with stucco and painted in bright glittering shades of blue, red, green and yellow. It seems wrong looking at them now but this was a magical place of the gods. Where there is grass was originally polished concrete and torches from the floor lit up the plaza. The villages would come here to worship, provide sacrifice and here the gods speak. The acoustics were set up so well that when the priests spoke from the room at the top of the temple it was projected throughout the site and the people believed it was there god speaking. The priests lived at this site and also the warriors. Villages all tried to concieve a baby to be born on a specific day. Babies born of this day were to be sacrificed between the age of 4 and twelve. They were taken to the priests who would prepare them for sacrifice. This was the highest honour. hen the time came their bodies were dressed and adorned with jewels then thrown into the ceynote. The ceynotes were a large pools of water which were adjoined by underground rivers. If the body rose back to the surface it was considered rejection by the Gods. Our guide proposed the end of this race may be due to water contamination. The people drank and bathed in other ceynotes not realising they were linked underground. The decaying bodies may have contaminated the other water sources. We also learnt of the ball game named pu cu puc which is the sound the ball made when bouncing from the massive stone walls. Two teams each had a captain. The ball was to be thrown through stone rings on the walls. Only the strongest played. The captain of the winning team was then sacrificed. His head was cut off. Think I would rather loose but this was an honour they strove for. All in all an amazing ritual and culture that was brainwashed by the high priests.
