Mexico: Chichen Itza

Hacienda Chichen
Originally uploaded by Elizalou.

We are here at the Hacienda Chichen. I'm sitting by the pool after a quick dip. The water was surprisingly chilly considering that while walking around Chichen Itza earlier it felt approximately like one billion degrees outside.

Anyway, the trip here was pretty smooth. We watched Big Love on the plane, and I read a lot of Gilead. We drove two hours or so to the hotel and ate dinner at the hotel restaurant -- I had some shrimp and he had chicken with honey chipotle sauce and I ate three of some of the best rolls ever. We watched a little more Big Love before bed. I slept like bung, partly because that's just who I am and partly because the pillow was apparently constructed from a leftover slab of rock from Chichen Itza and the sheets were so sandpapery that it felt like I was getting brush burn every time I rolled over.

We headed to breakfast -- fruit and more rolls and coffee and kickass orange juice and huevos rancheros. Then it was off to the ruins! Despite the scorching heat and the rivers of sweat pouring down our faces the entire time, it was super cool and fascinating. Sort of hard to process how the temples and other buildings were built and how they're still standing and what they all mean.

Photo by B

The experience probably would have been a bit more magical, mystical, and mysterious if not for the endless rows of vendors, but those people have to earn a living and it's their country after all, hello. Tonight we're going to the light show, and tomorrow we head to Campeche. Oh, and we ate lunch at the crazed Mayaland buffet. The steamed carrots were really, really good.

:::

Okay. After relaxing in the pool and in the room, we headed to the light show at Chichen Itza. It was very windy and cold and B. had to enter into a body-slamming frenzy for chairs in the pitch-dark blackness. The lights were pretty cool; the narration was over-the-top and somewhat comical. We beat the rush and came back to the Hacienda to eat. He had steak, and I had shrimp and fettuccine in tomato sauce and we had chocolate ice cream. Oh, and earlier we made wishes in the old wishing well. We came back to the room and got organized. Tomorrow we head to Campeche.