Chichen Itza and Ik Kil cenote

In order to be at the opening of Chichen Itza, we have to leave at 6am. We stop en route at a convenience store for take away coffee and some industrial bakery. And we make it just in time at the archeological site.

Chichen Itza is considered one of the new 7 wonders of the world. We visit from the earliest to the oldest complex.

We start with the famous pyramid. There is a lot going on at this one. From specific alignments to various equinoxes, cenotes to special numbers representing the maya cosmos. It's a giant sun dial. To better understand this structure, you really need a guide. It was fascinating the amount of thinking behind the position of the monument and every angles. It's a masterpiece of mathematic and architecture. It is, however, not that much decorated.

We continue to the larger ball court discovered to date. And few things stand out. First the frescos, there are well preserved remains and snake shaped guardrails all around. Then the echo. At the center your voice echoes 7 times and on the extremity 3 times. The walls are not exactly straight, they are slightly concave and convex to carry the sound. Because there wasn't a lot of people, Max delivered some explanations while walking away from us and we could hear him clearly. Impressive.

The adjacent temples are beautifully decorated, and a lot of carvings and masks are still perfectly visible. Chichen Itza was an important religious center but also a military city. This wasn't the case with the other cities we visited. We can see it with the depictions of the eagles, a war symbol, on a few buildings. We explore the newer part of the complex for almost an hour. Then we have more free time to look closer at the various structures.

Once this part is done, we have two more complex to check out. The older agora has also a ball court much smaller and less decorated. But around it is an alignment small structures starting with a smaller pyramid similar to the big pyramid of the sun. I guess an ancient version of it. But this one has kept more of its carvings and stone decorations.

In front of it are aligned smaller altars, and the last one on this line is an ossuary. They found bones and tombs of priests under the platform.

We continue towards a crumbling pyramid. One side has a gaping hole. Max explains that the firsts who found the site were explorers in search of treasures, not archeologists. They used dynamite to see if they could find treasures inside. Obviously, this is not good, but by doing so they shed a lot of light on how these were built. And the fact that they often were built on top of a more ancient structure. Many of the pyramids are like Russian dolls with inaccessible empty rooms inside.

Near this is an odd-looking building. It's round shaped: an observatory. It's rare in the maya world and again every alignment, windows, stones and decoration had a purpose. We can assume that thanks to this building, they were able to determine all the calculations and alignment for the construction of the pyramid of the sun.

The last two buildings are for residential purpose and are distinctly different from all the decorations we have seen so far. They are older and in Puc style, which is the same style as we saw in Uxmal. Heavy decorations on the top, lintels and crossed panels. It's in great shape and beautiful.

A lot is still under excavation in Chichen Itza, and a new part is being opened to public, but under booking only. If we had known I would have asked to have that included in the tour.

The government is also changing the entrance to the site. Now there are souvenirs stalls everywhere and solicitors, which is not pleasant. The new entrance will have a market, and all these vendors will be moved there, and also a brand-new museum. All of this connected to the new Train Maya station.

I really found this site fascinating. It's full of meaning, has huge structures with a lot of decorations remaining. The archeological complex is big and it takes a solid 2h30 to 3h to explore.

This being said, every site we have visited on these last 5 days left a lasting impression.

Tulum by the sea was by far the most photogenic. To know about the wind temple and all the alarm systems and ancient hurricane forecast methods was fascinating.

Becan, lost in the jungle, with its pyramid and 360 views of the forest was exceptional. I left like tomb raider while visiting this one.

The most beautiful and complete façade of the Underworld entrance in Chicana was beautiful.

Palenque had the most carvings, scriptures and nice views. It's built on a hill slope. The type of temple style, with a crest was new.

Edzna is the one that for me gave me a genuine wow moment. The grandeur of the perspective as you enter the ceremonial plaza from the official entrance of the city was awe inspiring. The pictures really do not give it justice.

Oxkintok was deserted and we could get really close to the scriptures and steles. The labyrinth and unique buildings there gave us an additional outlook into the maya religion. We saw none similar structures as these ones in the other sites.

Uxmal was simply gorgeous. The Puc style is the most ornate and there were so many details and stone structures in this site. Along with Chichen Itza, certainly one that shouldn't be missed. It's also incredible to see that they built an entire artificial hill from scratch for their religious structure. In Uxmal it's tall and offer good views.

There are three sites that I think I would have wanted to see: Calakmul, Coba and Ichkabal.

We finish our visit a little after 10 am and we have a few hours more. Max asks us what we want to do. I heard the other famous stop around the site is a Cenotes called Ik Kil. But there are a lot of mixed reviews about it. Many commented online that it was too crowded and a tourist attraction that had become unpleasant.

I relay this to Max and also asked for suggestions. He confirmed that before the pandemic, Ik Kil was quite bad with the crowd, but because of it, many other cenotes around have opened and companies bring their clients there now. Today the complex had less visitors and we are in low season, so he says that it should be fine to go.

We agree. The entrance ticket includes locker, changing room, a drink and a buffet lunch. Along with access to the cenote.

It's beautiful. There are vined hanging around and you really feel in another world. We are lucky that only 30-40 people max were inside at the same time. Most time even less than that. The water is a deep blue, black small catfish are swimming around. The water is not cold, just the right temperature to be refreshing after these hot ruins visit where the shade is rare.

We swim, or more accurately, float around with our mandatory life jacket, for a good 45min before going out. Lunch is barely worth mentioning, it's decent food but nothing to rave about.
The rest of the day is fairly boring. There is another 2h drive back to Playa Del Carmen, where we bid our guide and driver goodbye. After a short while in the apartment, we get out for groceries, eat in our temporary home and call it a day.