Chichen Itza

Everything we have heard and read about Chichen Itza warns of the crowds that start around 10 am with the arrival of the coach tours. We chose to stay at the Mayaland Hotel, so that we could walk into the site at 8am when it opens, and hopefully avoid the crowds. However we have arrived earlier than planned and decide to see what it is like in the late afternoon. We are glad we did, because the coaches have left, it is busy but not crowded and we can enjoy the site at our leisure.
The scale of Chichen Itza is staggering. It was built in the 9th century and was capital of the Maya Empire. In its heyday it covered 25 square kilometers, but for reasons that are still not fully understood it was abandoned 200 years later. The religious, cultural and administrative center covered 6 square kilometers and was located close to the areas where the elite had their carefully decorated and brightly painted palaces. Outside of the central area up to 100,000 citizens lived in their thatched cottages. The city is still so important to the Mayan people that it is the site of a peregrination to this day.
We can sense that power as we walk round the grounds and view the imposing castle of Kukulcan (the pyramid shaped building that we all recognize from photos).

It is amazing to think that all of this was built without the use of metal tools.

Chichen Itza is also famous for its huge ball court. Here the hoop must be thirty feet up a vertical wall, and is quite small. It must have been very difficult to get the ball through it. This ball court is actually carved with the depictions of the captain of the losing team being beheaded and clearly shows their belief that blood from the beheaded fed the ground and allowed for good crops.

In the evening there is a Festival of Light which is very disappointing. The lighting is amateur and vulgar in its bright purples and reds, more befitting a Las Vegas Hotel that one of the “New Seven Wonders of the World”

The Mayaland Hotel at Chichen Itza

There is a toll road to Chichen Itza, but we take the old road passing through several towns and villages. The drive takes a couple of hours and we arrive at the Hotel around 3pm. There is a town a couple of miles away full of inexpensive hotels and restaurants, but we have booked the more expensive Mayaland Hotel, which is right next to the Archeological site and affords access through the back entrance, allowing you to beat the crowds in the morning
The Mayaland Hotel bills itself as a 5 star hotel, which proves that there is no Trades Description Act in Mexico. It is set in the most beautiful grounds of over 100 acres of tropical gardens, and from a distance the hotel looks enchanting. But up close and personal it is anything but. Our experience starts at check in when the front desk tries to get us to upgrade our room to a more expensive one. When we decline, he tells us that they are sold out of our rooms and we have been automatically upgraded!
The only nice thing we can say about the room is that it has a lovely balcony overlooking the gardens. As far as the 5 Star experience is concerned, here are some of the things we found:
Paint peeling on the corridor walls
No lights in the corridors or outside our room after 9.00 pm.
No phone in the room
No internet in the room
The yellow bedspreads are filthy
The white towels are thin and grey
The bathroom boasts only one soap, which is the smallest piece of soap known to man – and has to be carried from the shower to the washbasin
No free water provided, despite the fact the water supply is unfit to drink
If you get to breakfast after 9.30 you are turned away.