part 2, mayan yucatan

Skramly and I couldn't get over the patronizing tone of our Lonely Planet guide: "Those Mayans sure were some bee's-knees architects!" I wish I was making that up. The remnants speak to the sophistication. (When the Spaniards came to Mexico, the local calenders were precise to the minute; the Europeans were off by eleven days.)

Chichén-Itzá

Edzná

Chicanná

Some of the sites are totally restored, others still half-claimed by jungle. In places you can see the original stucco and some of the coloring.

Mysteries persist.

Were these kernels left by tourists? By believers? The compounds and villages in the surrounding countryside are inhabited by the same people, give or take, who built these cities. The hundreds of souvenir vendors that line the pathways of Chichén-Itzá are clear descendants. The arrangements of their temples and the alignments of the solstices still hold true. How much of this, if any, remains alive?

I guess we'll all find out in 2012.