Hola amigas y amigos!

(michal) Thanks again for all of your comments! We are very happy that thanks to our blog some of our family members start to play with computers more frequently and that we have some readers even in Saigon! :) Thanks for all of your compliments about my pictures, indeed they are great, I know, but Sylvie is not bad either and she is learning very fast from me (he he)

(michal) The news of the day: I shaved my head. Partly because of the heat and also because using gel in 35 degrees isn’t to pleasant, on the other hand as Sylvie says I also look more dangerous (but I still think that it is my belly that could make me look like a dangerous gringo muchacho) Today we will flood you with some pictures from ancient places of Uxmal and Chichen Itza – many people consider them as a world wonders, well you see them yourselves:

(michal) But lets start from the beginning: As you were reading in our last entry we went to place called Uxmal (ooshmal)– which apart from the amazing sites is also famous for its countless iguanas!

(michal) Uxmal was only 1,5 hours from Merida and was left almost completely for us, it was really great, as if we were discovering the place ourselves! Such a difference with the Chichen Itza (or Chechen Pizza, I prefer this name actually :)) where there were thousands of tourists brought from Cancun.

(michal) Here is picture of us and the Panorama of Uxmal: View image and one more pic (the highest pyramid is the temple of the wizard) View image Here is also a nice Maya fence that can be seen from the top of the main pyramid of Uxmal: View image

(michal) Almost the entire Uxmal is covered with amazing Maya carvings, here is one of the long-nosed god: View image and the impressive court´s portal, with breathtaking pieces of Maya sculptures, here with Silvy: View image and here a close up of the courts portals: View image

(michal) And last but not least! THE IGUANA, one of the nundreds of these funny and sociable animals that took over Uxmal after Mayas: View image

(michal) After we came back from Uxmal we were pretty much tired but it doesnt mean that the fun finished! So as Silvy wrote we went out and managed to participate in some really cool cultural activities without any invitation, or any clue what they are - simply speaking - my favourite way! :) Here for example together with the local musicians on the market of Merida in a real Panama Hat ! Yeah! View image

(michal) After the concert we invited ourselves to the fancy-shmancy presentation of the Korean dances in the Opera! Here one of my famous good pictures of Silvy: View image and here one of the Korean dances: This rocked! View image

Later on, after the dance performace they were giving free hats (of course I took 2) and in return I expressed my esteemed interest to the blossoming Mexican-Korean friendship, Here is a proof: View image

(michal) And then, as usual, I took my guapa gringa: View image and went home! What a day!

(silvena) Chichen Itza - all the tour guides say that it is one of the most studies and visited Maya sites of the world. And unfortunately, they are absolutely right. It was quite a disppointment when we got there and could could hardly see the actual ruins from all the hundreds of tourists who were EVERYWHERE!!! quite a difference from Uxmal (which probably for this reason remains our favourite). Busses coming from near by Cancun kept spitting crowds and crowds of tourists... So we kind of rushed through the site and tried to get out as soon as possible. The ruins themselves are really great because they have some amazing stonework preserved and we were trying to imagine how all this was when all stones were painted in bright colors. View image

(silvena) Chichen Itza was built some time in the 9th century and then mysteriously abandoned in the 13th century. On the right of the picture is the Castle of Kukulcan, 30m high, and its mesurements relate to the magic maya calendar. In the distance is the 1000 Columns Court. View image And a picture of both of us among the columns that once held beautiful ceilings. View image

(silvena) And a picture of Michal in front of the Castle of Kukulcan View image, and a close up of the 1000 Columns Court View image

(silvena) This interesting stone is situated high on one of the walls of the so called Ball Court, which has almost perfect acoustics and is also famous for the soccer-like ball games held there. The legend goes that the team who managed to put the ball through the hole of the stone was proclaimed a winner and often the losing team captain or the whole team was executed. View image

(silvena) Here Michal is measuring himself against the god Kukulkan (the Feathered serpent), who we revered by the Maya and people in some villaged today still pray to him for rain. View image

(michal) And here a sample of an effort that some folks have to take in order to feel like a Maya! View image It is not a piece of cake ! ha ha

(silvena) Yet again i thought we were privileged to have a hammock in our room in the hotel in Merida but on our way to Chichen Itza yesterday we passed though some villages and i noticed that in fact it seems to be an incredibly wise invention of relatively poor and simple people to save space in their not so big houses and survive the heat. Every single house in the villages along the road seemed to have at least one but more often several hammocks hanging inside and to be honest, i did not see a bed anywhere. View image

(michal) The cenotes: after the Chichen Itza experience, which was quite short - we managed to see everything within 1,5 hours we decided to take a bus to neighbouring small city of Valliadolid (yes, yes, there is a city with the same name in Spain!), apart from a cosy market square, a few streets away we have discovered a CENOTE. What is a cenote? It is a kind of a deep, deep cave with a cristal clear water created by a meteor hit, long before Maya. The Mayas they believed that the cenotes are the entrance points to heaven - that is why they sacrificed many virgins by throwing them inside (they are still there). Tourists can still swim there and I had a great idea too, to have a dive and to pick up a bone of a Maya virgin, that could be a cool souvenir back in Europe, Silvy however didnt think it was a good idea, I still wonder why !?!? Anyway, this is a picture of her in front of the cenote: View image

Hasta luego seniores and senioras!