Chicken Pizza?

A rather poor title, being a play on words with the name of the latest ruins I visited; namely Chichen Itza. Chichen was one of the last great Mayan cities and its claim to fame lies in its grand pyramid (Palacio Grande), which, in actual fact, is a building version of the Mayan calendar. It is also so designed, that at every equinox the shadowy outline of a snake is cast upon one of its staircases (an event that attracts upwards of 80,000 spectators each time). The ruins, probably due to their younger age (only around 1,000 years) are very well preserved with particularly clear and complete murals. The backpackers' grapevine helped me out whilst visiting Chichen: in Creel I had met a Singaporean couple who told me of a section of ruins that were off limits to visitors but could be reached without much difficulty. So with their makeshift map I sneaked down an innocuous little path with a no entry sign and after a mile or so of dense jungle I came across a group of buildings that were still being excavated and reconstructed. Although not as complete as the main ruins, the absence of busloads of Yanks and Italians bawling at each other made it that much better. Whilst there one of the workers came up to me, and I thought I was in big trouble, but instead he offered to show me some more ruins hidden deep in the jungle. So i was pretty chuffed, and it also made me realise how much bigger these ancient cities were than the few paltry ruins that are put on show to the public.

Well, my time here in Mexico's drawing to a close, and I'll be sad to leave but I'm excited that in a week I'll be in Peru and, for the first time in my life, in a country where the water goes down the plughole the wrong way.