The hostel was still asleep but we knew from the receptionist (who told us yesterday) where to go to find collectivo (one of these shared Taxi Vans) that would bring us to the site.
It only cost us 30 peso for the 50 km trip and we got there just after 8. Even though it was very early the place already started to get busy.
The ticket offices and amenities around were done up very professionally and certainly catered towards larger tourist crowds.
However, we didn't spend long in the queue, got our tickets and went in. We briskly walked towards the main attraction - El Castillo - to get a few shots without swarms of tourists spoiling the view.
All along the nicely gardened paths many souvenir vendors were already setting up shop, trying to sell little replicas of the Mayan masks or ruins - all made in china.
And there it was the famous big stepped pyramid that is a well known Symbol of Mexico all around the world rose in front of us on a wide jungle clearing, the temple on top towering 24 meters above us. 9 large steps making up the pyramid that was built around a thousand years ago (between the 9th and 12th century).
I remember watching a documentary about this tall pyramid when I was just a kid (maybe 8 years old). I remembered the serpent and it's stone head a the bottom of the stairs that appeared on the day of the summer sun solstice. I remember watching it and thinking... wow this is cool... I never thought I would go there to see it myself (well not quite on the day when the snake appears but still). Now I was standing here looking at this amazing feat of engineering and collection of ancient knowledge... It was a strange but good feeling!
I can certainly recommend getting up early and avoiding the crowds because around 10 am the place started filling up with buses and buses of tourist groups in bright orange and yellow shirts - that not quite matched the serene and peaceful atmosphere we experienced two hours earlier.
We now had a chance to walk around the other parts of the archaeological site, which are also interesting. There are plenty of temples, galleries of columns, smaller pyramids and other buildings to visit.
My thoughts were now with the fact that the Maya civilization had build pretty similar buildings, with similar materials and technologies like many other civilizations around the world around the same time (if taking into account the overall evolutionary time frame of humans)... but apparently they didn't know about each other.
Particularly, these buildings reminded me of Angkor ... maybe it was the jungle, maybe the big overgrown stones...
When we arrived back at the Castillo we found another very impressive site, right behind it. It was the ancient sports pitch of the Maya kings. The size was a little larger than a football pitch and surrounded by massive 8 m high stone walls with a ring up high along them.
This was the place where they played the Mesoamerican ballgame (here is a link to some more information about this football predecessor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_ballgame) .
From here we returned to the center piece of the Site - El Castillo again - and saw some tourist guides showing an interesting phenomen to a group of tourists. He clapped his hands in front of the large steps that lead up to the top (which is now forbidden to visit, because an tourist fell off it some time ago - ruining it for everyone...). The echo reverberated up and down the stairs and it sounded sort of like a very large rattle (here a video of what it sounded like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmfZ9rJe36U )... seriously... how did these people calculate things like that back in the days?
After about 3 hours we had seen all we wanted to see and the place started getting to busy so we took a bus (a proper public one this time) back to Valladolid.
Back in Valladolid I went to get some Tacos in a small shop near the hostel, had an ice cream and then finished the afternoon off with a nice dip into the hostel's own pool.
It was only a little round tank, maybe 5m in diameter but it was nice and cool.
The small hostel even offered it's own ( a little run down) pool table. After a round of pool (the land based version) with one of the guys running the hostel he suggested we should join him after he gets off for a round of beers with his mates.
So a little later we, the three guests (the French Nicolas and Argentinian Agustin) and the receptionist of the hostel, went to two proper Mexican cantinas. Basically the bars were dingy, little, tiled up back yards with very loud music and cheap drinks.
We all know the glass of tequila with salt and lemon, but the beer glass with salt, chilli powder and lime was new to me. We got a big bottle of beer (which arrived with an assortment of little dishes with small snacks) and a few tiny glasses and all joined in the effort to work down the beer bottle.
After the first two pubs our hostel receptionist had to head home but we, the guests, continued...
After another pub, being in very good mood by now, we found a Tequila shop that also offered tasting of many different variates of local tequila. We tasted t least 6 or 7 different tequilas (for free) and then decided we can not buy any of them... :-)
Off to the Hostel it was now (only Agustin and I left) where we finished his bottle of Nicaraguan Rum (Flor de Caña). This eventful and fun evening was finished off with a large meal in a fancy restaurant (at least it appeared fancy to us at this point of the night) that was just across the road from the hostel.
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