Yucatán & Mayan Mexico

The BBC reports today that scientists may have punched a hole in the theory that a massive asteroid impact was the cause of the Cretatious-Tertiary Extinction, the event 65 million years ago which wiped out the dinosaurs. New data suggests the Chicxulub crater, supposedly created by the collision, predates the dinosaurs’ demise by about 300,000 years.

The 180-km wide Chicxulub Crater is centered just off the coast in the Caribbean close to the coastal town of Chicxulub, Yucatán – 6 km east of Progreso (pictured left) and home to an increasing number of North American “snowbirds” who have built beach homes or condos along this stretch of shell-strewn Gulf coast.

I rose at 4:15am on the 21st.

Within 15 minutes I was in my car and had joined a convoy of other vehicles heading northeast out of sleeping Merida to witness the Spring Equinox at Dzibilchaltun – one of the most ancient of Mayan settlements.

It didn’t take long to cover the 21km (15 miles) to the site.

A few minutes later, I was treading gingerly in the gloom trying my best not to trip over loose stones – the remnants of a sacbe (ancient road) to get a better view of the Temple of the Seven Dolls (or Temple of the Sun) – a deceptively simple quadrangular structure dating back to around AD 700.

Twice a year, on the Equinox, the rising sun shines through the east-west portal, a stunning example of how the Maya incorporated their advanced understanding of astronomy into their architecture.

On Friday the heavy dew made the going somewhat treacherous underfoot, but I eventually settled on a spot to watch and wait.

I’d estimate that between 2,000-5,000 people (mostly Mexicans), many clothed in all white (“to be ‘clean’ in both body and spirit”) squinted in the direction of the rising sun. It was rising… but then so was the mist – swirling mischieviously to shroud the temple and disappoint me and the rest of the gathered multitude.

It cheekily appeared above the mist – and the temple – as I was leaving. Posters around town – and the photo here show what I hoped to see.

I’m a little late posting this; got distracted by Martin Bashir’s Michael Jackson interview, which Televisa aired tonight.

Nevertheless, still buzzing from our visit Friday afternoon to the majestic late Classic Mayan site at Uxmal in the Puuc hills.

We left Mérida at 2:45pm and reached the site little more than an hour later, passing many tour buses travelling in the opposite direction.

For an hour we gawped in awe at the Pyramid of the Magician, circled the House of the Turtles and clambered up & down the Great Pyramid – virtually alone (bar several huge but sociable iguanas).

The setting sun cast a warm glow on the 1,000 year old structures and intensified their elegant sense of geometry.

We re-entered the site at 7:00pm to take our seats under the stars for the moderately good 45-minute ‘Sound & Light’ show.

We reached the Yucatán on Monday night, just in time to catch the last two days of Mérida’s ‘Carnaval’, which has seemingly coincided with the start of the hot weather.

Carnival is as huge an event here as it is in Veracruz and Mazatlán and is one the oldest on the entire continent.

Times have changed since the capitán general of the Peninsula, Luis de Céspedes y Oviedo, introduced the first modest celebration in 1571. This year 350,000 risked fainting in the heat in order to receive freebies from sponsors such as Pepsi, Burger King & Pizza Hut.

The mercury hit 40°C this afternoon and we got held up on our drive back to Mérida from the coast by a nasty bush fire on the Motul road. Luckily, the Mexican Army was on hand to douse the flames.