One of the New Seven Wonders

We recently went for a week's holiday in Cancun, Mexico. Cancun is not the first place I would have chosen to go, especially from London, but I was pleasantly surprised. The hotel was very nice, the service superb and we had some really good meals as well.

We spent most of our days lounging on the beach, but we did get a couple of adventures in, one in particular to Chichen Itza, famous Mayan ruins a bit more than two hours' bus journey from Cancun. A lot of people I know have made the trip out there and it was highly recommended so we found ourselves a tour and signed up, even though we had to leave our hotel at 7:30 a.m.

The place is quite a surprise as I imagine it must have been when it was originally discovered. It is in the middle of nowhere in a tropical, humid forest and I guess at first the big pyramid was completely covered in vegetation. Our guide has been doing these tours for 35 years and it was impossible not to be as captivated as he was about the whole place. After seeing famous ruins in Greece and Italy it was also pretty neat to see a very active archelogical community around the place. It sounds like they are studying it and making new discoveries all the time, and tour guides like ours need to do 100 hours of coursework a year to keep their guide certification and to keep up with all the latest theories.

One thing that was like Greece and Rome (and perhaps more obnoxious) was the amount of junk for sale at Chichen Itza. People are lined up along the entrance so you have to walk a gauntlet of people trying to sell you t-shirts, fake mayan gods, embrodiered hankerchiefs, etc. A few even follow you on your tour but our guide warned us right away not to encourage them or we would be hounded for the entire time.

We couldn't climb the big pyramid for some reason, evidently it will open again in July after the Seven Wonders competition is over. That was fine with me since it was unbelievably hot and muggy and we were lucky to be there on an overcast day.

On the way back we stopped at a cenote or sinkhole, which was a cool cavern underground where you could take a dip in very pure water that flows eventually from the ocean. We didn't go in but were glad for the respite from the heat. A couple of days later we got to swim in another one anyway. I guess there are thousands all over the area.

After visiting Chichen Itza I would like to learn more about Mayan culture and history - seems a shame I spent so much of my life so close to it but never really learned anything about it.

You can vote for Chichen Itza and other of the 'new seven wonders' at this website. Not sure what the point is, but they will announce the winners in on the 7th of July in Lisbon. I was happy to have visited 7 of the 21 finalists - and interestingly enough, two in the last month.

Pictures are posted here.