Sun 23 Oct - Chichen Itza

Feeling very sorry to have to leave Izamal behind so quickly, we did linger a little for breakfast and a stroll through the biggest pyramid in town.  Breakfast was lovely, huevos con jamon for the Ben and Sam, Quesadillas for Andy, bowl of fruit and some sweet bread for me (and Sam!) and a local huevos dish for Justin that I can't remember the name of -  a tortilla topped with frijoles and eggs and salsa.


The pyramid was lovely, but a little overrun with scouts eager to reach the summit.  We climbed up - the view was more jungle thatn Izamal city as I'd hoped, but beautiful.  But it was time to drive on to Chichen Itza.


Arrivingat Chichen Itza, we found the opposite experience to Uxmal's laid back, natural beauty and spirituality.  Chichen is now an incredibly commercial place, filled with tour buses and geared up to be the Disneyland of ruins.  If this is what being named a World Heritage site does to the area, they should give back the title.


The ruins themselves were interesting.  We did not choose a guide as we were harassed ridiculously by ever kind of vendor on our arrival:   did we want an english/swiss/japanese/german guide?   would we like a t-shirt? perhaps a mayan mask?  a massage?  some popsicles?   a scarf?   a chess set?  it's cheaper, better, more authentic than everywhere else, I promise, lady ... and so on, you get the picture. 


Justin felt so harassed that we veered from the path on the way out.   Headed straight on to Playa, skipping any other spots.  Oh well.