{"id":545,"date":"2008-01-06T23:59:59","date_gmt":"2008-01-06T22:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.caliban.org\/wp\/2008\/01\/06\/chichn-itz\/"},"modified":"2010-01-29T18:40:34","modified_gmt":"2010-01-29T17:40:34","slug":"chichn-itz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/caliban.org\/wp\/2008\/01\/chichn-itz\/","title":{"rendered":"Chichén Itzá"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eloïse had us up and about around 07:00 this morning. We took\nadvantage of the early hour to enjoy a leisurely breakfast, after which we\nfetched the buggy and walked the fifteen or so minutes to Chichén Itzá<\/a>. We\nmust have purchased tickets and been on the grounds around 08:15.<\/p>\n\n

This is the time to come, as you beat the madd(en)ing crowds and pretty much\nhave the place to yourself, save for a few other disciplined early birds.<\/p>\n\n

The main pyramid is now closed to the public for climbing, as a careless\ntourist slipped and fell a couple of years ago. As is so often the case with\nsuch things, the powers that be subsequently legislated on behalf of the\nstatistically insignificant minority, at the expense of the surefooted majority.<\/p>\n\n

\nWhatever happened to the concept of ‘at your own risk’? I’m not claiming\nthat ascending the steps is safe. Indeed, they are steep, shallow and uneven,\nand a fall from near the top would almost certainly kill or cripple you, but\nI still say one should be able to make up one’s own mind about such things.\n<\/SOAPBOX><\/p>\n\n

Anyway, I took solace in the assumption that the pyramid will doubtless last longer if\ntrodden by fewer feet, so in that sense it’s surprising that tourists were recently allowed to climb it at all.<\/p>\n\n

Today was another sweltering day, perhaps the hottest so far. It took several\nhours to make our way around all of the sights, by which time the site had become besieged by\nbusloads of tourists. It’s a big place, though, so I didn’t find that the\nexperience was marred. The only time it’s irritating to have so many people there is when a large tour\ngroup stands in front of and obscures a building of interest to listen to their\ntour guide. This makes taking a photo a tedious affair, as you wait for the crowd to disperse.<\/p>\n\n

Lunch at the site was a decidedly mediocre affair. This is to be expected at such\nplaces where one restaurant has exclusive catering rights, but we had<\/p>\n\n

Eloïse in tow, so our options were limited. We therefore took a calculated\nrisk and paid the price.<\/p>\n\n

The cheese on the nachos I ordered turned out not to be real cheese at all, but a\nghastly emulsified substance I grew up in England calling processed cheese<\/a>. In the US, they euphemistically call\nit American cheese. Basically, it’s the plasticine-like stuff they put on hamburgers in places like\nMcDonalds.<\/p>\n\n

After leaving most of my lunch on the plate (the juice drinks were tasty, though), we went back inside to see the remaining buildings. We then left and went back to the hotel to relax for a while.<\/p>\n\n

Later, we drove into the nearby town of Piste and had dinner at a local restaurant before driving\nback to Chichén Itzá for the evening light show. For forty-five minutes,\nlights are shone onto and across the buildings, while a Spanish-speaking narrator\ndramatically brings the place to life.<\/p>\n\n

Some may find such an obviously artificial event cheesy, but I enjoyed myself, even though I\ncouldn’t glean much from the soundtrack.<\/p>\n\n

Given my abysmal understanding of Spanish, it was hard not to be distracted by the unearthly clear sky, whose stars burned so brightly that I found myself yearning for a better understanding of all\nthat I was beholding. This would clearly be a great place to practise astronomy and it’s not hard to imagine why the night sky played such a dominant role in Mayan society.<\/p>\n\n

I think I saw a satellite, which I had first mistaken for a star, but it was moving\nacross the firmament; too slowly to be an aeroplane and too slow to be much else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eloïse had us up and about around 07:00 this morning. We took advantage of the early hour to enjoy a leisurely breakfast, after which we fetched the buggy and walked the fifteen or so minutes to Chichén Itzá. We must … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caliban.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/caliban.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/caliban.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caliban.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caliban.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/caliban.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":828,"href":"https:\/\/caliban.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions\/828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caliban.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caliban.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caliban.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}