Chichen Itza

I´m still in Valladolid and I´ve got an hour to kill before it´s a reasonable hour to have a beer, so I´d thought I´d get up-to-date with my visit to Chichen Itza.

The site is considered one of the best preserved Mayan ruins, and is certainly the most visited. The main pyramid - El Castillo - is more than anything else the icon of the civilisation.

I´m not sure where to start describing my feelings about the place, so I´ll start with the positives.

The Mayans were the most devilishly clever bunch when it came to building and astronomy. El Castillo can be considered a temple to time itself. It´s like one of those ´calendar houses´that eccentric Victorians built with 365 windows, 52 doors, 12 chimneys and so on. In the case of the pyramid it has nine levels on each of the four sides divided into two by stairways, making eighteen, the number of 20-day months in their ceremonial calendar. Each of the stairways has 91 steps, which (with the top platform) equals 365, for the days of the solar year. On top of this each face has 52 flat panels, representing the 52 years it takes for the ceremonial year to co-incide with the solar year.

But most cunning of all is the serpent that slithers up the steps on the vernal equinox in March, and slides down on the Autumn equinox in September. It´s hard to picture it with seeing it in action, but it´s an illusion created by the shadow of the stairways moving along an undulating surface. Or something like that, anyway.

The observatory is also impressive. Named El Caracol, or The Snail, by the Spaniards on account of its spiral staircase, in shape and form it is exactly like one of its modern counterparts. Around the walls are holes that align with certain stars on specific dates. The priests would use it to decide when to plant, when to harvest and when to sacrifice . . .

. . . which brings me to the negative. As far as I can see the whole place was nothing more than an obscene factory of death. I don´t think anyone lived there, apart from the priests, and it seems it existed solely to process living souls into dripping hearts.

After the priests had consulted the stars and decided the quota of victims, the unfortunates would (possibly) have been required to fight for survival in the ball court. The version at Chichen Itza must have been impossible. The goals are no wider than buckets and about 30 feet up sheer walls. Considering the hard rubber ball weighed about a stone and could only be propelled with the hips, victory must have been a rare event. So assuming the losers were sacrificed, they would need to cleaned up after their futile efforts to make them nice and tasty for the gods - so off they went to the sweat baths.

Then, all glowing and sweet-smelling, the victims would be taken off to the pyramid, where they were held down, cut open and relieved of their hearts. Apparently it was very important that their blood and gore splattered nicely on the reeking temple walls, which were thick with layer upon layer of scabrous deposits. After this the heads were stored in a special building, and the bones in another.

The above is in part my interpretation of the site, but the role the various buildings played in sacrifice is more or less agreed upon.

Nobody knows how many captives, slaves or even volunteers lost their lives there, but it could have been millions.

With this in mind, I found people´s attitude to the place almost disturbing. I even saw one bearded loon medidating on the spot where severed heads were kept. What would he do if he visited Auchwitz? Practise his yoga in the gas chambers? Spot of pilates in the crematorium? Why not harness the energy of the mass graves for a good old reiki rub down?

Also, on two occasions so far, people have regaled me with their thoughts on the "incredible, like, energy" of the temples. Well, absolutely, makes you want to prise open ribcages and tear out vital organs, what? Actually, I never said this. On both occasions it was quite attractive women saying it, so I just agreed and asked them what their Mayan starsign was.

Having said all this, I loved the place - it´s quite overwhelming in its entirety and rich with fascinating detail.

Still on the subject of death, I watched a bullfight on TV in my room last night. I´d always thought, being a countryman and a contrarian, that I should defend it, but I can´t. I could if it was one matador against one bull, with a fair chance of the beast winning, but it isn´t. All sorts of people on foot and horseback with spears and darts wearing silly hats and trousers dodge in and out weakening the bull before the matador takes it on when it´s almost too weak to walk. I also don´t like the way they have ´hides´ around the edge of the ring for when the going gets tough. Once they´re in, that´s it, they should take their chances. Not pleasant at all really, but I probably would watch more of them, just on the off-chance that a matador gets a horn up his jacksie.

Finally, just I was coming here a few moments ago I poked my head (big, round and very red) round the cathedral door where a service was going on. It seems that if you go to church here you get a free balloon and a bag of blue candyfloss. I really liked the way folks were walking in one door, collecting their goodies and then buggering off through a side entrance without sitting through all the nonsense about virgins and bearded carpenters.

Anyway, it´s now an acceptable time for a beer. So I´m off to a nice little place called 1910, which I guess commemorates the revolution launched by Pancho Villa in that year. Unless it´s a tribute to Edward VII, who died on May 6 after a series of heart attacks. Or maybe a reminder of the first Pathe cinema newsreel shown in Britain in June. See, I´m getting the hang of this interweb, it´s amazing what you can find out.