Tulum

Chichen Itza is doubtless a more important archeological site, with the carvings and ball court and size and everything, but I really recommend getting to Tulum if you get a chance. It is beautiful.

Tulum is unique in being right on the sea. There is a wooden staircase you can take town to the beach. The view of the coast is great, but also turning around and looking away from the sea gives a gorgeous panorama. The Chichen Itza site is pretty flat, whereas Tulum is a bit hillier. I don't remember doing any really steep climbing, so it was not awful in that way, but it was definitely more picturesque because of that.

It was also significantly less crowded, even though we went fairly late in the day. The area we drove through seemed much less populated than either Chichen Itza or Playa Del Carmen, and it had a more peaceful feeling.

Another way it is different is the moisture. The vegetation is more lush, and the air is cooler. One thing Helaman pointed out is that you have many more representations of the rain god, Chaac, at Chichen Itza than at Tulum, because there was always a need for rain, and a real concern that they might not get it. Tulum was well-watered.

And of course, as I had mentioned earlier, Tulum is where you can still see painting. It is not completely without carving, but nothing like Chichen Itza.

Ultimately, I would hate to choose, so I am really glad we were able to do both, and that worked very well with Helaman Tours.

Chichen Itza

One one level I know I simply can't do justice to the sites, so I am not going to try. Nothing is going to match up to getting led around the site by Helaman (or one of his family members), although the Wikipedia site is pretty good. Still, I can't recreate being there.

So, this is more pictures than I usually post. I have really neglected http://harristravel.shutterfly.com/, but there are pictures of the Mexico trip now. Possibly they could be better organized. Otherwise, I am going to just highlight things.

One issue is the immensity of the site. It is large, with many buildings close together, and because they are so big you perhaps do not initially realize how large the site is. There's a lot of walking and a lot to see.

Do not get so overwhelmed by the mammoth that you do not look for the details. There are amazing carvings everywhere. Some jut out, some are more relief style. There are carved pillars and alters. There are flowers, eagles, jaguars, skulls, and gods. There are snakes everywhere.

Another thing to remember is that this is an active site of restoration and excavation. There are a few interesting things with this. One is that even though you cannot climb on the structures, there are pieces of them scattered everywhere, so you can often still get closer views. Also, they are still finding things. One of the pictures shows new digging, where they are finding out what this ruin was built on, because it is possible that it was built on something even older.

The field of Mayan archeology is still relatively new. As many sites as they have identified now, they are still finding new ones. Chichen Itza is an important site because of its size, and that things are relatively well-preserved, but there are a lot of things that the jungle could still be hiding, and a lot of things that the current sites could reveal. I think that lends things a certain amount of excitement.

Going earlier is valuable. This is a very popular site, and will attract a lot of people. It's worth getting up earlier.

Also, I have mentioned in earlier posts about Playa del Carmen how there is a lot of poverty and people really need to hustle. This is even more true in the area around Chichen Itza. At the hacienda where we ate lunch, there were baskets for tips on the tables, in the bathrooms, and held by the dancers. We drove by some dwellings that were the poorest I have ever seen. When you are entering and leaving the site, there are many souvenir vendors clamoring for you.

I can't resent it, because they need it. I tend to ignore it, which doesn't feel great, but seems necessary. It is certainly not possible to buy something from every one of them. I guess the appropriate response is compassion, and to treat them with dignity in their dealings. I am horrible at bargaining anyway, but here I realized that while getting a better deal may be a time-honored tradition, I don't want it enough.

I do not mean in any way to imply that you shouldn't travel because you will be exposed to other people's hardships, or that this exposure is an inevitable hardship that you have to tolerate for travel. Actually, I think it's an important part of the point of travel.

Helaman Tours

One of my regrets from the cruise was having to choose between Xcaret and Tulum, so Tulum was obviously a priority for this trip. However, realizing that Chichen Itza was in the area made that site an obvious priority as well.

We could have devoted two days to Mayan ruins, and considered that, but some sites indicated that you could do both. The other point of consideration was that we had some friends go and they had an LDS guide who explained how the ruins related to the Book of Mormon, and said that it was really good. Based on that, my searches led me to Helaman Tours. That ended up working out really well.

We got an unexpected taste of how it could have been. When we originally booked the tour, we had been open to being combined with another group to save money, but there were none available. Helaman found one the night before, so he called us and asked if that would be all right. That was fine. The only issue is that they were staying in Cancun, and we were in Playa del Carmen. He arranged for a taxi to pick us up (at his expense) and take us to a rendezvous point.

While we were there, there was also a broken down bus of Russian tourists. They were all standing around frowning and smoking, and no one seemed to know what was going on, including the bus driver, though some of that could have been the language barrier. The bus looked pretty worn down, with the replacement that finally came not being much better. We were relieved that this was not our group.

Next our van arrived. It was clean and running well and air conditioned. Our tour guide and driver had smiles for us. They handed us fresh bottles of water at every stop. Everything was clearly and easily communicated. This was already a good start.

Beyond that, there was so much information! We were expecting a combination of scripture and history, and we got that, but there was so much there. He had tide charts and language maps and he could explain things about how some of the traditions carried through with the people today. He not only told us about the history of the buildings, as much as they were known, but he could also explain when the sites were found, and the history of archeological study there, and the concentrations of other sites and how they were run and really, he just knew a lot of stuff.

So that was wonderful. It made the experience informative, but it was also spiritual, and everything was deeper. Obviously, that is of greater interest if you are LDS, but even if not I would recommend him, and he will gear the tour to your interests, and chances are that whatever your interest is he will be able to tell you something about it.

I will write separate posts about Chichen Itza and Tulum, but I will say that seeing them on the same day is good, because it allows you to compare and contrast. They are from different time periods, so Chichen Itza is all about the stone carvings, but Tulum came later, and they had moved more into painting on plaster.

We started at Chichen Itza and we started early. This was good, because it gets very crowded and very hot. You could see it really filling us as we were getting ready to leave. We then went to a lunch buffet at a nearby former hacienda. The food was really good, and we were also entertained by dancers. (Lunch was included in the tour price.)

After lunch, we went to Tulum. This continued to make sense, because although as the day gets later it gets hotter, Tulum has the advantage of being cooled by ocean breezes. Actually, we had some clouds coming in too, though it was still sunny, so that was pretty nice.

Afterwards, he dropped us back at the hotel. We got there around four, after leaving at about seven, so really that was quite a bit covered in the time allotted. I recommend the tour company and the sites. The other site that we did not go see, but which I have heard recommended, is Coba, and Helaman goes there too.

http://www.helamantours.com/
http://helamantours.blogspot.mx/

The night show at Xcaret

Going in to the evening show at Xcaret reminded me a lot of going in for the Hangi in New Zealand. We passed many people in various native costumes, which were fascinating, and gave it atmosphere, and you could take pictures, and none of mine came out. These pictures here are the clearest of the night, and I know they are not great. So, I will try and use my words, and you know, someone who can actually take good pictures has probably posted more.

Many of the performances that you can see at the park during the day are incorporated into the evening show. This doesn't mean that it is not worth seeing them during the day, when you will have better lighting and be closer, but the point is that there is a lot in the evening show, and a lot at Xcaret.

When you enter the arena they give you candles, and later when everyone is seated they take a light at the end of each row, and we light each other's candles. This is a nice sentiment, and it looks good, but my candle fell out of the holder before it was even lit, and then I could not find it. Maria gave me hers, and it got lit, and I lit Julie's. Hers went out almost immediately, so I lit her neighbor's, and then my lit candle fell out of the holder and went out, fortunately not burning or injuring anything on the way down. I'm not sure why we were so incompetent with the candles, but we clearly are.

Birds flew across the arena to start, and then two groups came in from opposite sides dressed as ancient Mayans. They greeted each other in ceremonial fashion and then had a ball game. It started out with just a ball, and later lacrosse sticks were added and they lit the balls on fire.

They then showed the Conquistadors coming, and fighting between the two sides. This was followed by the coming of the friars. Previously they had set up some blocks into pillars, representing the Mayan temples. The Catholic priests knocked these down and put up crosses in their place. Their transition into a sort of peace was that a Spaniard was playing a small stringed instrument, maybe a mandolin, and a Mayan was drawn to it and started to accompany him on the flute. 

Honestly, this was better than the Spaniards deserved, but that whole history would be hard to convey, and it wouldn't be a very feel-good moment. So, bad things happened that we will gloss over and come together with music, which is overly generous, but it leads us into the rest of the show, which will be very musical. 

At this point they started bringing out dancers in different costumes, doing different traditional dancers for the different regions. They brought out horses and riders, and ropers doing rope tricks, and then they showed the Papantla. 

For this, you have a tall pole with a platform on top. Five men are on the platform. One is playing an instrument, and they spin and then the other four cast off and they descend upside down as the rope gets longer. Just before they reach the ground they flip over. (I had initially thought the rope was around their feet, but it is actually around their waist.) When they were all on the ground, they held their ropes to steady the pole, and the last man came down on one of the ropes, but by hand.

Then it went kind of Brazilian Carnivale almost, with floats and dancers with sort of an island influence. I don't know if this represented part of Mexican history or not, but it ended with everyone from all of the numbers and flags from multiple nations, and at one point they released doves. It covered a lot. 

I am not sure if they had native dresses and dances from every Mexican state, but it covered a broad ground, and then thinking about how many people were involved and the jobs it provides made me feel a little better about things, because it is preserving the culture, and Xcaret is not just about preserving nature but also culture, so that was good. (It just might have felt different if I didn't read so much.)

Regardless, Xcaret is strongly recommended, and see as much of it as you can, of which the night show is huge.