I went to Chichen-Itza on 13.0.1.0.11 [Mayan calendar], or 7th December 2013 [Gregorian calendar].

El Castillo at Chichen Itza is one of those sites that – even if its name is not as well-known as the Statue of Liberty, the Taj Mahal or Christ the Redeemer – is instantly recognisable from films and photographs to people the world over. I was fortunate enough to be able to tag along with my Dad (an airline pilot) on a three-day trip to Cancún in Mexico over Christmas, and so we had to take the chance to pop on a bus to Chichen Itza.

On the way our bus stopped at a place called Cenote Zaci, which is a combined sinkhole, tequila museum and silver trinket shop, where we got lunch too.

After the sinkhole we were driven on to Chichen Itza, where we were told to expect 50,000 other tourists. The guide was, I think, deliberately trying to lower our expectations for some reason. In the event, the site had been quite well managed, so that it did not feel particularly busy at all once inside the ancient city.

I was a little skeptical about how real all of the stuff is at Chichen Itza. That is not to say that it has been wholly fabricated, but that some of the buildings and carvings look almost new, and I suspect they may have been subject to some ‘interpretive restoration’ (there are parts places with concrete all over them).

Still, it is a wonderfully photogenic place, and some of the facts that sounded too good to be true really did turn out to be true.