Mexico - Chichen Itza

After a rather nice relax at the sleepy little airport in Flores - I almost felt sorry for waking up the customs and immigration people to allow the six (including us) to get on the plane and leave sunny Guatemala - we had a bumpy ride through the tropical clouds to Cancun. It reminded me a little too much of flying through the wet season in Africa - everyone was praying as we landed...

Anyway, we picked up a car and hit the road to chichen itza to start our whirl wind road trip around the Yucatan peninsula to check out mayan ruins and eat Tacos!! It was good to get on the toll road as there were absolutely no cars a we knocked the drive down in no time... The only hitch was that the local farmers had taken to clearing the adjacent jungle by fire, which seemed to be everywhere without any visible regulation - driving whilst finger-crossing and praying - not so much fun

Enough of all that, we were on a mission to check out some Mayan stuff on the advice of my sister, George and I had no idea about any of it before we went, so here's an explanation for those who care. This nation geographic article is also really good. -full of great pics and maps etc

Anyway, without going into all the detail - the town was great fun and the ruins absolutely awesome - we had to get there first thing in the morning to avoid getting sun stroke / dehydration again as it was freekin hot, but also empty (tourists seem to be lazy and only get there at lunchtime...) So of all the 400 billion photos we took (seriously..) here's a few snaps

CHICHEN ITZA (27 photos)

The ceynote at Chichen Itza... (where they used to both get their drinking water and sacrifice people - maybe that's why they died out...)

[click on image to enlarge]