Cancun Recap: Day 4

Happy Hizzle Hump Day hotties (see what I did there hah!).

Today is EXCURSION day RECAP! Warning: This post is VERY picture heavy so if you wanna skip to the bottom be my welcome guest. I wanted to include a ton of pictures so I can look back and go OH YEAH I remember that time/place/moment.

Day 4: Excursion trip to Chichen Itza!

When I mentioned I was going to Cancun, one of my coworkers told me about Chichen Itza and that it was pretty close to Cancun. Since I don't know the next time I will be in Cancun, I really wanted to go and see a historical site, that's just part of my charm ya'll. I'm a huge huge huge HISTORY nerd buff and love learning about history, especially HISTORY that is much older than America's. Don't get me wrong, AMERICA is the best country in the WORLD, but being able to see something that was built BEFORE CHRIST walked the earth is pretty amazing.

I told C that the trip to Chichen Itza was the one I wanted to do while in Cancun and since he's the awesome guy he is he said "What ever you want honey!" That's why I love him!

***The kicker....HIS COMPANY said they would PAY for 1 Excursion...HOLLA***

Anyway, remember how I was sick the night before?!?! Luckily that did not affect me the next day and I was up and raring to go bright an early. Yup, up at 6am so we could get breakfast, get everything packed and be ready to meet the bus at 730 outside the hotel. We jumped aboard, got settled and then we were off in the big bus to pick up the rest of the group. Our bus manager was awesome, they provided drinks, coffee, muffins, croissants and water during the drive. The pick ups took a long time, including picking up people on the side of the road from a van...yeah weird...and then we were driving to Chichen Itza. During the drive, which was probably 2 hours, our tour guide Berto gave us a history lesson, told us the rules of the trip and answered questions people had. This guy was amazing! Great English and wonderful sense of humour.

We stopped before Chichen Itza to a 'gift shop' of PURE MAYAN artifacts. Apparently the vendors on site offer gifts and fake artifacts, so the tour guides bring tourist to this authentic shop to buy souvenirs before getting to Chichen Itza. There were some amazing things to buy and the haggling was fun. I found a gorgeous pink opal and .925 silver bracelet and immediately loved it but didn't have enough cash to buy it. This was my one big issue with the travel agency and tour, they didn't TELL us to bring a lot of money to make purchases. Since we were off the resort I only brought about $40 US and 60 pesos, not planning to find anything expensive. Luckily my amazing boyfriend was there to save the day and bought it for me. He did a little haggling and got the price dropped and I was one happy girl. I'll take a picture tomorrow and share it with ya'll.

Chichen Itza Gift Store

Yay shopping

Fun artifacts

Another bus on tour too

Back from shopping! Love my new bracelet honey!

After shopping it was FINALLY time to head to the ancient lands of Chichen Itza. Beto gave us ALL a guided tour for the first part of the trip, then there was a break for lunch and our own exploring. The tour was very informative, I learned a ton and now have much more appreciation for the Mayan culture. I must admit the whole human sacrifice thing still wigs me out, but Beto explained that 'blood' was considered the 'most valuable resource' so a sacrifice was an honor. It still gives me the willies, not gonna lie.

Warning again, there are a ton of pictures starting now. I pretty much took a picture of everything because, well I wanted to remember everything. The first group of pictures is from the guided tour with Beto. He is one of the smartest people and honestly I am very humbled by him. I did not notice until later in the guided tour, but he has NO USE OF HIS LEFT ARM! Whenever he pointed or spoke he only used his right arm. He would show us pictures in a flip book and used his chin to hold the page when he wanted to point to a certain object. He never complained or acted frustrated when the book took a little longer to flip. Amazing amazing man.

Mayan Hut

Beto teaching us about the high priests and the people revolting

Hello Temple

Wish we could walk up the steps

Beto explaining the hieroglyphics

After the game, tradition was the captain of the winning team got to cut off the captain of the losing team's head. Ewwwww that's kind of gross!

The point of the game is to hit a ball with your hip or elbow through the hoop. Oh, did I mention this was as high as a basketball hoop?

More hieroglyphics

The walls were covered in soot and ash to help with sound. Apparently, someone on one end of the field could speak in a normal voice and a person on the other end of the field could hear him. Mind you, this is just a bit longer than a football field. These guys were pretty smart!

Oh so artsy

I got the whooooooooole pyramid in my hand...

When you stand in front of the steps and clap the sound that reverberates off the steps is smiliar to a bird call. I know it sounds weird but TRUST ME, it is the coolest sound.

I'd lose weight walking that everyday, don't you think?

After walking most of the morning, without much of a snack once the guided tour was over we headed to lunch. Looking back we should have packed some snacks, looked around more then gone to eat since everyone had the same idea. The food was part of the package and was pretty good. I was a little nervous about eating anything too crazy because of my stomach so I stuck to the basics....rice, mac&cheese, chips and some chicken. There were dancers throughout the meal and they were very cute. The atmosphere was fun, but I did have beef with the waiters and dancers constanly asking for tips. YES, I know this is there livelyhood and their job, but there is NO WHERE ELSE to get food so they jacked up the prices like whoa. C wanted a coke which cost $4 US....say what?!?!!? 

Lunch Buffet

Home made corn tortillas

Full and rested we headed back to tour around the grounds. It was fun to be able to walk around and take silly touristy pictures. C and I are constantly making fun of tourists in DC when we see them taking tons of pictures so we decided to be like them in Mexico.

Me Man...Me SO STRONG!

Darn tourist shot didn't work!

Hi, my new name is Blossom...what the heck!?!?

Sacred pool....they found over 600 bodies at the bottom of the water...yuck!

Don't jump Pinky, don't jump!

A little Yoga never hurt anyone

Box jumps by the sacred pool....why not!

Take a knee Brah!

On the count of jump...JUMP!

Lean with it, rock with it

Annnnnnd we're back to the box jumps

Phshaw who need crossfit...I just lift!

One of the bonuses when booking this trip was we were able to go to a cool spring 'water park' per say. We saw a sign advertising the Red Bull Cliff Diving series, which is pretty legit. We brought along our bathing suits so we quickly changed and walked carefully down the slippery stone steps. Sidenote, they were the ANNOYING steps that are juuuuuuust to big for lil Pinky to take with one step. Yes, I was like a two year old learning to go up and down the stairs. And yes, C made fun of me....Sheeesh that guy. 

People swimming below

The cliff you are looking at....yeah we jumped off of it

Looking from above the ledge/cliff doesn't look that steep, but when you're down there, jeezypeezy not so fresh and squeezy. However, there was no way in the world I was going to miss this opportunity so UP we climbed to jump together (youjumpijumpjackhahaha). I counted to three and off we went. WOW that water was C-H-I-L-L-Y COLD, but in a strange way refreshing. When we came up from underwater both C and I looked at each other and said "again!". Sadly since we were jumping we didn't bring down our camera and I don't have any pictures. Luckily, a lady on our bus was snapping pictures and she took a few of us. I gave her my email address so hopefully she will send them to me soooon!!!

After swimming.

Soon after our third jump it was time to change and get back on the bus. We were the last ones and pretty much had to RUN to get there before they left. YEAH, I was a lil nervous about being left in Mexico. BUT in our defense NO ONE ELSE WENT SWIMMING!!! (losers)

Tired on the bus home....it's naptime

The drive back to Cancun was about 2-ish or so and everyone was so tired. I finished one of my Kindle books and got a lil shut eye. Before it got too dark though, the bus guides put on a really interesting Mayan History Channelesque video which was about 30 minutes long. Again, I must say I am very impressed with the Mayan culture and ingenuity, I just wished they didn't kill as much. 

The trip to Chichen Itza was amazing and truly an experience I will never forget. I wish that we had been allowed to walk up the ruins, I really had my heart set on climbing one of the pyramids. Sadly humans are ruining the pyramids just by touching them and some jerkalerks are tagging them too (SO RUDE!). I am very happy with MY culture, but thoroughly enjoy learning about others, especially those long gone. If you EVER get the chance to get down to the Cancun or Mexican area and ancient ruins are semi-close, do yourself a favor and GO! You won't regret it, I promise!

Happy Weds loves!!!!