Our second wonder of the world was the incredible ruins of the ancient Chichén Itzá. Chichén Itzá was a powerful community of an estimated 50 thousand Mayan people and was at its strongest around 600AD. It is believed that it took power from surrounding communities like Coba through its dominance of trade and politics. What draws most people to visit Chichén Itzá is the famous pyramid El Castillo which was named the seventh wonder of the world.

We can see why, as it is a highly intricate and well designed structure that looks quite different when looked at from different angles. As always, we arrived 10 minutes before opening and were one of the first ones in the grounds. Getting up early and arriving first makes such a difference in regards to crowds and makes the whole experience much more relaxing, it also means we could explore before the sun got too hot. We also got a few shots without anyone in them (except for a sleeping pupper), not bad for a wonder of the world!

We also looked around the rest of the grounds which had similarities to Coba with temples and ball courts. We headed out at 10:30am when the tour buses from Cancun started to arrive 😬🤑.

No visit to ancient Mayan ruins is complete without a magical cenote cool down so after we visited one of the most incredible cenotes, Ik Kil. This is a very deep cenote with lovely vines and tree roots that hang down from the top.

The next post will be about us heading back to the coastline of Playa del Carmen and Isla Cozumel.