Today we went to Chichen Itza which was the Mayan capital for about 600 years.
My overall impression was that it was amazing because all the temples, buildings and statues were made out of beautifully carved stone. I went there with my mom, dad and cousins Kyle and Brian. We hired a guide named Ray to tell us what we were seeing. The most memorable places were the first photo below, the pyramid to honor the sun, called El Castillo; the ball court, in the third and fourth photos below; and all the vendors selling Mayan trinkets surrounding the whole area.
The rules of the game played in the ball court are: 7 players on each team, they are all prisoners. There is one captain on each team who stays on a ledge under the hoop. The goal of the game is to get the ball in your team's hoop. The team who does that wins the game. But, the captain of the winning team gets executed by the captain of the losing team. It is an honor to die because you have the best blood. That blood will fertilize the land. And if you die, you get reincarnated after just three days, and you don't have to do all the slave work that you would have had to do.
Below are some of my favorite photos.
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| My family at El Castillo, also known as Pyramid of Kukulcan, the main Mayan god. |
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| Statue of Mayan Jaguar |
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| Hoop in Mayan ballcourt |
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| Where the winning captain was executed |
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| Skull carvings to remember those who died in the ballgames and traditional leaders. |
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| Astronomy building |
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| Mayan dancers |
