Chichen Itza As A Shore Excursion

The Most Famous Mayan Ruins

I am not the biggest fans of taking cruises to Mexico.  I've just always found the activity options on land less than fantastic.  I was however super excited when I found out that cruise lines started offering shore excursions out of Cozumel to the Granddaddy of Mayan ruins: Chichen Itza.  Within a year I was cruising to Mexico anxiously awaiting my excursion to Chichen Itza.

Standing in front of El Castillo, which resembles as much Aztec as Mayan architecture.

Just because Chichen Itza is offered as a shore excursion doesn't mean it is right for everyone.  It was the first excursion to leave the ship and the last to return, with a total time of nine hours, four to get to Chichen Itza, four to return, and one hour to enjoy the site.  While it may not be a shore excursion for everyone I enjoyed it and felt I got my money's worth (over one hundred dollars and a rare instance in which I went through the ship instead of doing it on my own).  I simply packed my kindle for the travel time.  Considering I am exceptionally good at getting lost in a book for hours on end, I had no problem occupying the eight hour combined travel time.  

David poses in front of one of the many many structures of the several square mile site.

Once at the site we were equipped with headphones and a wireless receiver to hear our tour guide.  While I rolled my eyes at the get up at first, the receiver turned out to be extremely useful for keeping an eye on the guide as David and I roamed the site.  If a bunch of static claimed the line, I knew I had wandered too far and needed to wander around until the signal got stronger.  The receiver also let me listen to my guide while David and I wandered looking for the perfect angle for a photo.  

Racks of skulls once adorned this platform.  Hundreds, if not thousands could fit.

Using this strategy of always keeping in distance to hear our guide over the receiver allowed us to see a lot more of the ruins than our counterparts.  For example they did not get to see the skull table in detail on which racks of skulls were mounted by the mighty Mayan.  Overall, it was an efficient way to make the most of out one hour at the site.

The famous ball court and El Castillo in the same panoramic photo.

Skull tables aside, Chichen Itza has two major draws for me: the pyramid and the ball court.  The pyramid (El Castillo) intrigued me not because it is the epitome of Mayan architecture, but because it more so resembled something the Aztec might build, making it unlike any of the other Mayan sites I've visited.  

Much like the basketball of today, players of the Mayan ball game had to get a ball through their opponent's hoop high on a wall.

While the Aztecy pyramid and skull platform were interesting, the number one reason I wanted to visit Chichen Itza was the Mayan ball court, which is by far the largest of its kind, and one of the few where human sacrifices are known to have taken place.  The only other Mayan ball courts, and most of the others known to exist were pretty small, much smaller than a basket ball court.  The one at Chichen Itza is the size of a few basketball courts put together.  The game itself was somewhat like basketball too, with the objective to get a leather basket ball shaped and sized ball through the opposing team's hoop high up on the court wall.  The rest of the rules have been lost to time.  The only reason we know people were sacrificed in coordination with the game is that there are etchings into the walls of the court depicting the losers (or winners, we don't know which) being decapitated.  These sacrifices, like all other Mayan sacrifices, were meant to keep the sun rising and the rain falling.  Lack of rain fall is what eventually did in the vast Mayan empires, leading to the smaller mayan tribes of today, along with vast decimation of Mayan populations due to disease from Europeans of course.  

In this etching in the Mayan ball court at Chichen Itza, a player is decapitated bringing life to the world.

In the sand we only saw a few of the structures in the main area of Chichen Itza.  We didn't get to see the famous astronomical observatory about a mile away (the entire site is huge).  I feel like I got enough of a gist, especially since I've been to other Mayan sites.  The pyramid at Chichen itza (El Castillo) is one of the new seven wonders of the world.  Ironically, with six months prior I had seen two other wonders of the modern world (the coliseum in Rome and Petra in Jordan) and the sites of two of the ancient world (the colossus of Rhodes in Greece and Temple of Artemis in Turkey).  Prior to last July I hadn't seen any wonders sites modern or ancient, just a coincidence so many happened in such a short time frame.  

Visitors exit Chichcn Itza.  The site is a popular attraction and buzzing with tourists.

In the end getting to Chichen Itza took a long time, we only saw a fraction of the site, and it was one hundred percent worth it.  What we saw was enough for me, and it was a fraction of the cost of flying to the area and spending money on hotels and tours.  For a kid, I think this excursion would be a stretch, but for a patient adult it is totally worth it.