We first visited Chichen Itza on our honeymoon in January 1994. It took us about 3 hours by bus to reach the ruins from Cancun. Back then we were able to climb to the top of this pyramid, El Castillo (Temple of Kukulcan). The structure is 24 m (79 ft) high, plus an additional 6 m (20 ft) for the temple. It dominates the center of the Chichen Itza archaeological site.
The stairs were incredibly steep and coming back down required us to pretty much crawl on our butts to get down safely (and we were young back then!).
The stairs to the top of El Castillo
Definitely not up to today’s safety codes.
Here is Joel looking very happy that we made it to the top.
Yes, this was the trip that hooked us.
In November, 2010, we took a family vacation to Playa Del Carmen to enjoy some beach time. While there, several of us joined a tour group to go back to Chichen Itza.
This time many of the ruins were blocked off to keep people from climbing on them.
On this trip we took more time exploring the buildings.
We were amazed to discover that even more buildings were in the process of being excavated. We learned that archeologists believe there is another whole city yet to be unearthed.
Someday in the not to distant future we’d like to travel back to see this amazing archeological site again. And find out what else they’ve discovered.
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