Izamal 7/2

Izamal is a small Spanish Colonial town. In the early 1990’s the Pope came and visited this town to ask for forgiveness for the past transgressions of the Catholic Church here in Mexico. In preparation for that visit the whole town was painted ocher yellow. It is now known as the yellow town. While we where there we were treated to an impromptu concert at the convent put on by a visiting group of Spanish youth.

This is the restaurant where we ate lunch.

Statue of Pope John Paul who visited Izamal and ask forgiveness for the churches past transgressions to the native Mexican people.

You can take a horse and buggy ride around the town.

The group of Spanish youth that are traveling trough Mexico. They put on a concert in the plaza of the church.

The hill in the background of this photo is an ancient Mayan Pyramid that was to big for the Spanish to totally destroy.

Chichen Itza 7/2

Chichen Itza is one of the largest Mayan ruin sites in Mexico. In the last couple of years it has become listed as one of the 7 wonders of the world. This designation has been a double-edged sword for the site. It now is very receiving lots of recognition which brings much needed money for continued archeological excavation and restoration but also is bring bus loads of tourists. Our guide Jacques referred to it as the “Mayan Disneyland”. The day that we visited it was not busy when we got there but it was swarming with people by the time we left. It is truly an architectural marvel. The Mayans had a very deep understanding of astronomy and used that knowledge to construct the whole site. Every structure was built to exacting astronomical standards. Amazing and beautiful. It is truly unfortunate that when the Spanish arrived they saw the culture as evil and destroyed most of the Mayan cultural knowledge. Only a very few Mayan texts still exist.

The snake was a symbol of royality

Chichen Itza ball court. One of the largest ever found. The players had to hit a small rubber ball through that little ring not using there hands at all. The winner was honored by a sacrificial (quick) death and the rest died a slow death having their hands and feet cut off.