My first visit to the archeological site at Chichen Itza was with Susan in 1987. We were traveling in the Yucatan and we stayed at The Piramide Inn in Piste, on the main road between the east coast of the Yucatan and Merida. We entered the site at the opposite end of the ruins from the main row of tourist motels. The walk from the motel to the entrance was about 2 kilometers. Additionally, the motel had a nice little restaurant with good food.
A year later when I had started leading tours to the Yucatan our group was staying at the same motel. One evening while I was relaxing at the pool the owner came over, introduced himself and sat with me. He was an ex-pat from the Philadelphia area and wanted to express his thanks for staying at his motel rather than at the more convenient tourist motels. He got us snacks and tequila and started telling me stories about his place and Piste,
He bought the motel years earlier because it had an unreconstructed pyramid (thus the name of the motel) which resulted in him owning his own pyramid. Which was an interesting concept.
As we sat talking and drinking I asked him why the motel didn’t have a telephone, which made making reservations time consuming (it required mail and trust in the days before the Internet) with mail service to Mexico being rather slow. So, he told me one of several interesting stories. Mexico had an interesting way of billing for telephone charges. The telephones were technically owned by the Federal government. One business had the local telephone exchange with all of the lines in Piste leading to the building, then on to the telephone wires. Well, after months of not paying on the profits to the government the feds showed up closed the business, collected all of the telephones and wires (a total of 5 or 6 in the small town). When telephones were reinstalled in Piste the motel owner figured that he didn’t need a telephone since his place was on the main road through Piste and business wasn’t affected.
What a crazy story, and a nice way to spend a spring evening.
One site within the ancient city that I had always wanted to see was “El Castillo” also known as the Pyramid of Kulkulkan (the feather-headed serpent god of the Mayans, which later became Quetzalcoatl to the Aztecs). This pyramid is both tall and steep. I was fortunate that in the 1980s and 90s you could still climb to the top of the pyramid, which I have heard is no longer possible.
The Caracol Observatory is another site in the ancient city that I really wanted to visit. It is a spectacular ruin which begs the questions as to why this round and domed building existed.
Thats all for Chichen Itza for now, perhaps more in the future.
A final piece of ancient humor to enjoy, although it would have been fun to see it with Mayans and Mayan glyphs.
More tomorrow…
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