Chichen Itza and Tulum

After leaving Merida, we continued on to one of the biggest tourist attractions in Mexico: the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza. This impressive site is considered one of the "New seven wonders of the world!" The most famous and incredible structure is the pyramid in the center of the site that was built to be a representation of the Mayan calender. The number of stairs and levels correspond to the months and years and are also aligned with the pattern of the sun in the sky! On the spring equinox, many people gather to see how the sun creates a shadow on exactly half of the pyramid- its hard to explain but it sounds very cool! You can also clap in from of the pyramid in a specific place and the echo is very loud and unusual sounding. The site also includes a huge ball court, which is for a game that most Mesoamerican civilizations played, a sacrificial platform with hundreds of skulls carved into it and an area with hundreds of stone columns lined. There is also a Cenote, one of the underground open caves nearby which archeologists believe was used as a place to make sacrifices to the gods as well as make offerings of gold and other valuables. Today, there are lots of iguanas who like to hang out in the shade and stare at the tourists! After cooking in the heat for so long, we decided it was time to swim in a cenote! We visited one that was very touristy, but very beautiful- the water is turquoise, clear and cold. There were wines hanging down and little fish swimming around. The water felt so refreshing!
That evening we got on the bus once again to head to the beaches of Tulum. This town is on the caribbean sea a couple hours south of Cancun- so it has the same beautiful beaches but it is less touristy and less developed. We stayed in an another hostel that had little cabañas and an outside kitchen. We actually ran into other travelers we had met in Merida there! The first day, we visited the Mayan Ruins in Tulum which are right on the coast in front of the ocean which is very spectacular. The buildings are less complex; it was a trading city in the past. From there we walked directly to the beach and were surprised and happy to find it practically empty! We were there in the off season, so we settled ourselves under a palm tree and slathered ourselves with sun screen. The sand was soft and white and the water was warm and clear! It was like paradise! We spent most of the day on the beach and Joselo built himself a little fort with palm leaves. When we returned at night, we discovered that despite our attempts to prevent getting sunburnt, we were looking quite red!
The following day, we walked through the heat (the things you do to save money!) to 2 more Cenotes that were more like ponds than caves, but were still very clear and deep. We also cooked a huge feast for ourselves of breaded shrimp and pasta using the open kitchen in the hostel which was lots of fun! My favorite time on the beach was when we went in the evening and got to see the sun set behind the palm trees (unfortunately the sun doesn't set over the ocean there.) The last day, we went to the beach one last time before getting on the bus- for 24 hours! Somehow we survived that grueling journey back to Puebla, although our backs and necks were quite unhappy with us. When I reached my host family's house, I slept all day and night to recover!
I'm so glad that we seized the day and had this adventure to the Yucatan- it was a grand finale to finish an awesome semester!