Chichen Itza, Cancun, and another close catastrophe

While my parents were going to take a direct bus back to Cancun from Merida, on Friday, I boarded a bus that was going to stop at the famous Mayan ruin site at Chichen Itza. The city was founded around 300 A.D. and reached its peak around 800-900 A.D.

This is the Gran Piramide (Castillo de Kukulcan), which is constructed mathematically according to the Mayan calendar.

This is the Templo de los Guerreros with a Chac-mool figure that you can see on the top (sculpture on the stomach of which offerings were placed as sacrifices) .

Grupo de las mil columnas

The grounds also had a Gran Juego de Pelotas (the largest ball-court in Mesoamerica) with the 'rings' I saw before, at Uxmal. I learned that the losing captain was generally decapitated. Yikes. There was also the Cenote Sagrado, a natural well which the Mayans thought sacred and into which they threw offerings as well as people for sacrifice!

I was dropped of at my Cancun hotel by the tour bus to find some rather disgruntled parents. They were actually quite displeased with the travel company overall. Although we did meet very 'nice' people and had good luck with transfers/pick ups, we definitely had some issues with getting other things done accurately and in a timely manner (some things were definitely done on "Mexican time")! My parents and sister were actually flying standby on the way to Mexico-- no seats had actually been assigned to them! They then seemed to have changed our one-day Thursday itinerary without telling us (having us going on the Puuc Road ruins tour instead of to the bird sanctuary). Only 2/7 days went, for them, as planned! And, once in Cancun, my family had to change hotels because of a lack of rooms at the Flamingo we were supposed to be at (it was an upgrade, though:)). Additionally, when my Dad called to confirm our airline seats for our trip back (after being reassured all was in order), it seemed that U.S. Airways, in changing my incoming itinerary, had somehow deleted my return flight so I did not have a seat.... Oof. What a catastrophe. My Mom said, "Boy, there have been a lot of ups and downs, haven't there?" to which my sister replied, "what have been the ups?!". My Dad said, "I need a few drinks to calm down."

We had my godmother's sister (godaunt?) back in McLean calling the airline to fix this issue... and, luckily, it was resolved. While, again, there are far worse places to be stuck than Cancun, I really did want to get home, spend some time just 'chilling' in a house rather than a foreign bed/couch. I needed to do some research stuff, take care of errands, as well as see some friends that I missed because I had to come straight here from Denver.

But, I really have "learned to be in all things content" (Phil 4:11). Whatever happened, I would have dealt.

We ate out at Vips, a place hear our hotel in Cancun. There is an impressive strip (I think, as a driver was telling me, 29 km) of hotels along the beach!. It reminds me a bit of Miami beach, where I passed a weekend back in March bumming off the nice hotel that Sam, Sean, and Natasha were at for their Allergy conference, while I was supposed to be working hard on my surgery rotation in Jacksonville.

Anyway, here's Dad, "calming down" with a margarita.

Here's some yummy tortilla soup, a favorite dish from the trip.

It would have been a real shame to leave Cancun without seeing the beaches, which I was told were beautiful with very, very clear and blue-turquoise water. So Vanessa and I went for an early morning stroll out there. It was really lovely. We did have some drunk people offer to take our picture (it was 7 a.m.!). However, I think drinking is quite a common thing to do to pass away the time down there! The light wasn't that great for pictures, but here are a few.


We made it safely back to Virginia this evening! Phew!