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.
Keyword - traveling invitation -
Friday 14 November 2008
in front of the great pyramid of Chichen Itza
By dorian on Friday 14 November 2008, 13:50 - RTW2-Mexico
Tuesday 11 November 2008
Into the turquoise blue waters of the Caribbean Sea
By dorian on Tuesday 11 November 2008, 13:39 - RTW2-Mexico
As I take my plane towards Los Angeles where I stop over in, I turn over one of the most beautiful leaf of my round-the-world trip which will have lasted almost 2 months from Fiji to Vanuatu and Hawaii. An entirely blue leaf smudged with a cluster of intoxicating ink stains like all these islands, archipelagos and atolls of the Pacific Ocean. But, unlike the blackish medallions which splashed over my leaf, these bits of lands have their history, their people, their traditions often blending exhilaration and laid-back atmosphere. Before leaving for my long trip, all these islands seemed unreachable and hard to pinpoint on a map, my view evolved and I filled up my pouch of memories for a whole life. From now on, I change scenery as I land in the tumultuous city of Cancun where I meet again Armelle after eleven weeks of separation.
During the 70's, property developers and government were seeking a place on the Caribbean coast to create the counterpart of Acapulco (seaside town on the Pacific). They set their heart on a long strip of white sand, they built roads and infrastructures, buried pipes to bring drinkable water and established Cancun. Today, despite the regular cyclones causing terrible damages, the touristic success is considerable and widely goes beyond the of-that-time property developers' forecasts. The disfigured coastline by the hideous concrete-made parallelepipeds doesn't take away the main thing in any way : a plaster-like sand watered by a turquoise-blue water.
Since we arrived, the Mexicans are really nice and very far from the caricature of the nasty Latino who haunts the Hollywood movies. However, despite the hospitality of the people, a seaside resort remains a seaside resort. That's fortunately possible to escape these horrible palaces by taking a shuttle which drops us off on the soothing isla mujeres, half an hour from mainland. On the spot, the ambiance is relaxed and to be in fashion, we must drive a golf cart. No risk to exceed the speed limit but we drive at a pleasing pace to discover all the corners of the island. At the south point, dinosaur-like iguanas warm themselves up on the sun-kissed stones. Down below, this turquoise, which printed into our retinas, invites to swim. Not the last bath for sure into an about 28°C water.
Thursday 6 November 2008
night dive with the manta rays
By dorian on Thursday 6 November 2008, 17:38 - RTW2-Hawaii
For these last 2 days on the large Hawaiian land, I rented a car, a Chrysler PT Cruiser. I drive to the west coast where, close to the airport, during the air waltz of the jumbo jets, a handful of boats agglutinate in a little bay where they thrived a peculiar activity, the manta rays night dive. It's precisely where I will be tonight. On the way, I make a detour by the black sand beach the turtles lay down on. They are only 3 today, but my joy to approach them is as great as yesterday. I can't linger because the road is still long up to Kailua. 1H30 later, I arrive at the diving center where I comply with the formalities. The price is exorbitant, it adds up to 170$ for 2 dives. I get to the boat at 3PM where the staff welcome the divers of the day. As we navigate to the bay, a dolphins' family offers us a aerobatics show. A savoury starter preceding our immersion.
After the briefing, we go into the water for the first dive. A tasteless immersion, far from the marvels of the Indian Ocean. However, the interest focuses on the second dive. The dusk motivates us to put on our equipment again and equipped with a torchlight, we jump into the water. A several-torch-kitted box was established at 10m deep underwater and light the surface. Different series of divers come and kneel down around this luminous seamark and put their lamps upwards. This cluster of light attracts swarms of plankton which manta rays are very fond of. After a 20-minute vain waiting, the dive master decides to move on to the spare plan with a normal night dive when one of the divers shakes his torchlight and all our eyes turn back. The sea devil flies to the light shaft. Our breathing cuts themselves off, the time of this mind-blowing dance. The creature will make two other rides before vanishing into the dark blue. We will wait for its or one of its fellow member's come back but in vain. We get on the boat, glad of this brief appearance when another ray comes by the hull. Each one of us is delighted with this double encounter while we go back to the pier in a starry sky.
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