Split Pathways: Mexican Trip

Because I am thinking about getting into photo journalism I am going to be doing a couple posts to try it out. So anyways, here we go! Note: Click pictures to enlarge

During spring break last year my family and I went on a trip to Cancun, Mexico. I went with my Nana and Papa, my Aunty Tammie, my sisters and my mom. This was the first trip that we went on as a family after my dad walked out on us. It was kinda strange not having him with us, but we were going to enjoy it anyways. It was a long flight, we had to drive to the states and get on the plane in Seattle and fly to Huston, then from Huston to Mexico. After that long on a flight I was tired and couldn't wait to get there. I did see some pretty amazing things on that plane though, I sat in the window seat and got to watch us fly over the top of mountains, and watch the sun set over the clouds.

When we got there we had to sit on another bus that took us to our hotel. Once we checked in, I was so amazed by the view and couldn't wait to see the view from out our hotel window. As soon as I walked in, this is the view I was greeted with.

I had never seen water so blue! Finally, we were in Mexico. It was the most beautiful place I had seen. It was so freaking hot though, breathing in that air was like standing in front of a fire and breathing in the smoke. I honestly felt like I was suffocating. Thankfully the hotel room was super air conditions and as long as I could sit there and look out at the water, I would survive. My grandparents had the whole trip planned out. We would have the rest of the day to settle in and sit by the water and swim in the pool. Then we had a couple of adventures planned too. First we took a boat across the ocean and to another island where we rented a couple of carts and drove around, shopping as we drove around.

I took this out of the window out of the boat. It was a bumpy ride!

My mom and aunty Tammie driving one of the carts

View from the street

We weren't there for that long, and soon we got back on the boat and returned to our hotel where my sisters and I played volleyball on the beach in front of our hotel.

Faith hitting the ball over the net

Hailey's return

Emily's serve

The next day trip we went on was an adventurer to Chichén Itzá. There are amazing ruins there from the Mayan culture. They were an amazing group of people with advanced looks at science and math. The main temple, called El Castillo, is set in just the right position that in the spring and fall equinox, a picture of a snake appears crawling down the side of the step pyramid. No one knows if the Mayan's did this on purpose, but the angles on the pyramid are so precise. El Castillo stands 29 meters high and is made up of platforms that are 2.3 meters tall with a 6 meter temple at the very top. Each side of the pyramid is 55.3 meters at the base and they rise at an angel of 53 degrees. Each side of the pyramid has a series of raised stairs that rise at a 45 degree angel. We were there during the Autumn equinox but we were a day late to see the snake on the pyramid. I missed such a great opportunity, but I was able to get some great pictures of it in the daylight.

There is another large place set out for the Mayan's to play Mesoamerican ballgame, or Tlatchtil. This is the biggest ball court, aptly named the Great Ball Court. If any of you have seen Road to El Dorado, it is the same game that Tulio and Miguel have to play. It is quite a fascinating game, they can use their hips, forearms, rackets, bats, or handstones to try to hit a ball into a stone ring at the top of the gaming wall. The stone ring shows a picture of two snakes biting each other's tail. The snake was used in many structures as this group of Mayan's worshiped a feathered serpent god named Kukulcan. It was also a sign of fertility.

This game held a more dangerous note, the winner of the game would be sacrificed to Kukulcan. It was a high honour to be sacrificed to the gods, which is why the winner of the game got their head chopped off. The runner up got to do the honours. After the winner is determined they take them up to a near-by temple and chop of the man's head, still in his playing gear. There are carvings along the side of the ball court depicting the event. In these carvings the mans blood bursts out in seven streams. The six on the sides turn into snakes and the middle one becomes a tree. It is said that this is because the Mayan's believed that the winners blood would flow into the ground, becoming the 'snakes of fertility' and bring new life to the lands.

The winner's head with the blood-turned-snakes

The second player, holding the winner's head

The temple where they brought the winner up to

The ring

Full view of the court

Just outside of the Great Ball Court was a stone wall full of carvings of skulls. This low wall is called the Tzompantli, and if you look closely you can see that some of the skulls are flat and straight looking. We found out that some mothers placed a contraption on baby's heads that would flatten their skull. I don't know why this was desirable, but it was.

One of my favorite buildings was the one called the Temple of a Thousand Warriors. It has a large step pyramid that is surrounded with a thousand pillars. At one point it held up a large and extensive roof system. There are three distinct sections and the pillars are in a straight line, perfectly straight.

The Temple of a Thousand Warriors

Pillars! Yay :)

A piece fell off! :(

After a long trek down a dirt path lead us to a limestone plain which had no rivers or streams, and was the Mayan's main water source. It was called Cenote Sagrado. Cenote Sagrado is sixty meters in diameter and has sheer cliffs that drop to the water table over twenty-seven feet below. The region has several sinkholes, called Cenotes, that expose the water table below. There was more than one, but Cenote Sagrado is the largest. Not only was it used for a water source, but used for sacrifices during a drought. There has been bones of men and children found at the bottom, as well as gold, jade, obsidian (volcanic glass), shells, wood statutes, and cloth.

Don't fall!

Close up on the holes in the limestone.

So that is my trip to Mexico! My favorite part was seeing and hearing about the Mayan culture. I will never forget my experience there. Now, here are some random pictures of the Mexican wildlife!