We thought that after Chichen Itza, the other Mayan cities would be tasteless, passed over in silence. That was without counting on the elegant city of Uxmal. Admittedly, the game ball doesn't reach the proportions of its elder sister and the main pyramid impresses less but the interest is elsewhere. We find again the gorgeous blend of a nature which embellishes this kind of archaeological remains. Not too much intertwined roots to let the stone breathe which the sun gently ricochet off. But enough foliage to clear away the impression of a theme park creating from nothing. The iguanas run onto the unstable white bricks. We can go round a wall and triumphantly come out through the main gate which looks over the main square. At the bottom of the park, a long staircase drives us to the top. We look back and the previous buildings we just stepped on settle down below. The greatest ones tear the greenish ceiling wallpapered by the foliage of the canopy. A fabulous view Chichen Itza didn't offer to us. That's the way that Uxmal wins the elegance contest beyond dispute.
And to complete our Mayan collection, a scenic road made of curves cut in the forest links other small undervalued sites which are worth the trip. Kabah, Sayil, Labna or more south, Edzna sound like the elementary particles of one of the most glorious civilizations of the humanity.
We leave the north of the Yucatan peninsula to head for a third land of Mayan remnants nestled into the Chiapas state, Palenque. The hostel which welcomes us for the night belongs to the coast town of Champoton; nothing exciting but heavy pelicans which have a go at an elegance exercise, perched on wooden blocks.
RTW2-Mexico
Sunday 16 November 2008
the Mayan city of Uxmal and the ruta Puuc
By dorian on Sunday 16 November 2008, 14:03
Friday 14 November 2008
in front of the great pyramid of Chichen Itza
By dorian on Friday 14 November 2008, 13:50
the New Seven Wonders Foundation, created in order to elect the 7 new wonders of the world, announced the verdict. A nice way to give an inheritance to the 7 glorious wonders of the Antiquity whose Egypt pyramids are the only one standing among them. Despite the entire subjectivity of the final list and the criticism dealing with the reliability of the Internet voting, the 7 new candidates were made public the 7 of July 2007 (7/7/7) and Chichen Itza hanged its name in the ranking. Without waiting for this kind of operation, the Yucatan state had already dressed up one of the spearheads of its Mayan collection to get it as attractive as possible to the tourists from all over the world.
As we pass through the entrance, everything is well presented, neatly-cut grass, pruned trees and well-marked-out path which opens out on El Castillo. This several-storey perfectly-preserved pyramid represents the Mayan calendar. On each one of its 4 sides, a staircase rises like the 4 seasons or the 4 directions. Each staircase is equipped with 91 steps, if moreover we take into account the top slab, the number of steps adds up to 365, like the number of days in a calendar year. Mayan people were clever astronomers and made coincide the orientation of El Castillo with the position of the sun in the sky. So much so that for the spring and autumn equinoxes, the tourists mass on the lawns of the park to observe an optical illusion. That day, the suns draws a snake which seems to crawl up the steps. To us, it's not the good day but the architectural harmony is enough to delight us. We walk around the pyramid and each new meter offers a different and splendid view of the building. Our eyes follow the geometrical lines shaped by the stone. We live this kind of feelings which is worth the trip only to see it. Me move away to visit the other ruins that scatter around with the warriors temple, the observatory, the thousand-column group and the gigantic ball game where according to the legend, the captain of the losing team offered his life into a human sacrifice the Mayan deities claimed.
To get over the feelings of Chichen Itza, we go to discover the colonial city of Merida. A place not necessarily restful but that has the merit or the inconvenient to be located between 2 Mayan sites. And without staying for ages downtown, we leave Merida the next day to the radiant city of Uxmal.
Thursday 13 November 2008
bathing into the northern cenotes
By dorian on Thursday 13 November 2008, 13:44
We leave Cancun for a several-day loop when in each stop Mayan ruins stand. But on the way and to cut down the stifling heat of the day, a network of water-filled sinkholes fed by subterranean rivers offers a bath of salutary coolness. The area around the town of Valladolid gathers three of the most beautiful cenotes, the cenote Zaci in the heart of the city, the cenote Dzitnup Xkeken where the stalactites are reflected in the calm and pure waters of the grottoe and the cenote Samula where a light shaft gushes out from the ceiling and a poplar, settled at the edge of this hole, lets its roots gliding over several meters down to the sapphire-tinted water.
On the road to Chichen Itza, we divert from this aquatic pleasures once for the Balankanche grottoes. This long dimly-lit cavity seeps under the ground in a overheated atmosphere. We end this subterranean stroll by diving again into another cenote, the Ik Kil one, a genuine natural swimming pool where the surrounding wall doesn't array itself in blue mosaics but a smooth rock inlaid with moss and thin hanging roots.
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