I stayed overnight at the Mayaland Resort, right next to the archeological site of Chichen Itza. This gives you the advantage to start exploring it from 8 a.m., well before the busloads of tourists arrive from the coast. The resort actually uses another entrance to the site than the main entrance, another bonus to beat the crowds. A handful of other hotel guests and I made it in at around 8.10 a.m., as we had to wait for the ticket guy to unpack, prepare for the day and wait for his counterpart from the Yucatan state. The entrance fee of 188 pesos (ca. 10 EUR) is split over two authorities, so you have to pay twice when you get in and this means two jobs for ticket sellers too. The process is a bit cumbersome for a site that is as highly visited as this one, as is the use of odd numbers for the entrance fee (it’s actually 49 + 129, so you pay 50 and get 1 back, and then pay 130/150 and get change from that too).

Then follows just a short stroll to the main “plaza” of Chichen Itza. Fortunately, the slow start at the gate did not mean I had to photoshop the people out of my pictures – maybe a dozen tourists or so were walking around this large area. It felt quiet for the whole first hour or so, and that’s enough to see the central zone. Around 8.30/9.00 the first hawkers were coming in, and they are allowed to set up shop along the paths (not next to the monuments). Groups (lots of Germans) were arriving from around 9.30.

The Pyramid of Kukulkan (or El Castillo in Spanish) lies in the center of this former city. It’s an iconic building, very perfect in shape. Nowadays you can’t get on or in it anymore. As with all other buildings at Chichen Itza it’s completely fenced off by a rope. No touching is allowed here, what a difference with Calakmul! Probably due to that, or to the fact that some buildings look overly restored or cleaned up, the place felt very sterile to me. It’s a bit like visiting a museum with important and wonderful objects, but without any context. Explanations at the site are very limited, and I needed the map and explanations of my Michelin Green Guide Mexico to find my way around. Michelin does not sponsor me by the way, but I just like their guides and the Mexico copy is excellent in detail yet not too heavy to carry around.

What did I see? Well, in 3 hours I managed to visit all buildings at the site. The Great Ball Court is indeed large and makes you wonder how that ball game really worked (the hole in the ring is very small, maybe they used tennis balls?). I also visited the Sacred Cenote, my first cenote in Yucatan. It used to be a Mayan pilgrimage site. And I enjoyed the many fine sculptured decorations at for example the Temple of the Jaguar, the Skull Platform and mostly those at the little Iglesia.