Today I woke up naturally at 6:30 before the sun even got up, so I decided to be productive and go get attempt to find a cash machine that wouldn’t charge me to take out money, but unfortunately, after looking at 4 or 5 I gave up and decided ill just get snacks to make me feel better about having to spend one pound on taking out cash. I then still had some time to burn before my bus departed at 8 am so I walked to the beach and chilled there whilst eating my snacks and watching the end of the sunrise.
The bus to Chichen Itza took about 3 hours, during which they played some American movies in Spanish, so I could practice a little bit listening to the language again. We arrived 11:30 at the visitor centre for Chichen Itza, and I got my ticket before going into the compound. As you walk into the ancient Mayan city, you walk through lots of souvenirs stand before we arrived onto a large square with the ancient Mayan temple in the centre, surrounded by hundreds of tourists all in groups, clapping at the pyramid after the instructions of their guide. The reason everyone claps is the acoustics of the pyramid mean that if you are located in a certain spot, the sound coming back to you will echo louder and with a slight different echo and pitch.
During my time in Chichen Itza, I walked around and visited the various ancient buildings, whilst sneakily listening to the other tour guides since I hadn’t gotten one myself this time. I also visited two ancient cenotes, that the Mayan people of the city used to get water and be able to survive so far away from a traditional river. After my visit was over, I headed out and as I was doing so, one of the souvenir stand holders yelled out “moins cher que Leclerc” which I found funny so he tried to get me to buy stuff from him when he saw me laugh at that bad joke. I then got lunch in the form of an al Pastor burrito which was delicious and quite filling with orange juice.
After enjoying my lunch I headed back to the bus and waited under a tree for a bit until it arrived. The journey back was supposed to only take 3 hours but due to traffic we ended up being on the road for 5 hours and arrived back at 9 pm at the bus station.