Chichen Itza, Ik Kil, and Ek Balaam

Wednesday morning began with meeting our tour guide, Lemuel Petlacalco (Alma's brother) outside the lobby of the hotel at 8 am for our next big ruins tour day. We went on to pick up a couple other LDS couples who were staying nearby and then we were off to the ruins at Chichen Itza. There's so much to tell here as well, that once again, I won't be doing it justice. When we first arrived, Lemuel took us through their enormous ball court. This must've been where their equivalent to the "World Cup" of Poke to Poke took place! It's about the size of a modern day football field. Then we went on to the main ruin that is a temple. Lemuel explained to us that the temple we could see was of "Toltec" influence, meaning somewhere around 800 AD. He also told us that there is another temple inside of Mayan influence, which the Toltecs built over. He also continued to explain how when the Lunar Calendar and the Solar Calendar line up, this was considered a sacred time, and was when the cultures would build onto their temples. So, where you see different layers, it was added ever 52 years, when these calendars would align. We also learned that the serpent that's covered in feathers throughout the ruins, represents who we believe to be Christ. Non-mormons correlate the solstice with when shadows fully light the ruins to form the image of a serpent traveling down the temple, but he pointed out that the shadows are fully displayed on April 6; which Joseph Smith revealed is Christ's birthday. We found that very interesting too! There's so much more to tell, but honestly, I don't have the discipline to sit down and get it all out. I've gotten so behind in my blogging that I'm trying to put together all these entries a month and a half later! Life comes at you fast, I guess!!!

So after our tour of Chichen Itza, we went over to another authentic mexican restaurant that was on the same grounds as Ik Kil; probably the coolest cenote we saw while we were there. I can't remember if I explained cenotes earlier, but they are underground caves with water flowing into them. This particular one was absolutely breath taking. The whole area is covered in beautiful tropical landscape and then vines are hanging along the outside. If you look in, there's about a 75 foot drop and Lemuel told us the water is probably around 100 feet deep. It was very cool. Typically, Lemuel would end his tour here and have you swim in the cenote, but we asked him to take us on, to Ek Balaam.


Our last stop that day was Ek Balaam. These ruins were also very cool. Again, there were evidences that these people knew some of the things we are taught about the gospel today, among their ruins. Some of the statue work is still covered in its original plaster. It's absolutely amazing; the quality is just like what we might make today. It was amazing. I couldn't have been happier with our tours of all those ruins! I am absolutely fascinated by art history and thoroughly enjoyed this part of our trip!