Chichen Itza is one of the seven wonders of the World, along with the Statue of Christ in Rio, the Colosseum in Rome, the Great Wall of China, Machu Picchu, Petra in Jordan, and the Taj Mahal. (Of the original seven ancient wonders of the world, only the pyramids at Giza remain standing, which was why the new list of Seven Wonders of the World was devised in 2006). So I was quite excited to be visiting Chichen Itza. It turned out to be marvelous weather and fantastic scenery. We had read a lot about the horrible crowds at Chichen Itza, but we had a nice uncrowded experience. Yes, there were busloads of tourists arriving by midmorning, but Chichen Itza is a large city and able to hold many visitors. Look at how few people are in my pictures, and I didn't have to wait long for people to step out of view of my camera lens.

Chichen Itza is fantastic. It has been marvelously restored, and there are many interesting Mayan buildings to see, along with a lot of sculptures and carvings. The Itza worshipped Kukulkan, the Feathered Serpent God (which the Aztecs called Quetzalcoatl), so there are carved representations of feathered rattlesnakes on almost every building.

Although we went a leisurely pace, visited every building, and read all the signs, we still finished with Chichen Itza just a bit after lunch time. Part of the reason is that we got such an early start, but also, since tourist are not allow to climb on, or enter into, any of Chichen Itza's buildings the visit goes quicker. I think we could have combined a visit to Ek Balam with Chichen Itza in a single day. But we returned to the Mayaland Hotel relatively early, and wandered around the beautiful grounds. We ate dinner that evening in the nearby town of Pisté, at the Las Mestizas restaurant.

All the graphic images are my own design, but the textured background is taken from a site, EOS development, that offers non-profit users free use of their graphics. Click below to visit their site.