Hello heat! Finally back to the sunshine and about time too! Cancun was like a transplanted America in the middle of Mexico with all of the familiar American brands to make the US holiday makers feel at home. But hey we were only there for a few days and the heat was awesome plus our hostel provided free Margaritas!

Our main aim in staying a few days in Cancun was to visit Chichen Itza, the Mayan ruins just 2 hours outside Cancun which were recently named one of the New 7 Wonders of the World. We weren´t disappointed when we arrived at the site and got our first view of the main plaza with the main pyramid, Temple of Kukulkan, is a pyramid made of 91 steps on each of the 4 sides and one step on the top making up 365 days to correspond with the calendar that the Mayan´s following. It´s an awesome sight and sound even, when you clap your hands in front of the temple the echo sounds like a bring cawing, pretty impressive. During the equinox the way the sunsets and rises causes a shadow to fall which looks like featured snake - Kukulcan - to be seen making its way down and back up the temple.

The Maya name "Chich'en Itza" means "mouth of the well of the Itza." It´s called this because there is a sinkhole nearby which the Mayan´s considered sacred. It´s really beautiful surrounded by marble and sinking deep into the earth and filled with water at the bottom. Apparently there are thousands of these types of sinkholes in the area, the Yucatan peninsula, because of the formation of the earth in the area, but no overland rivers whatsoever. We got to swim in one of the other sinkholes in the afternoon and it was absolutely beautiful. The water flows directly from the sea and when you´re in the sinkhole and you look up all your can see if the sky and then the vines and small waterfalls coming down from the surface. Gorgeous!

An ancient ball game was also played in Chichen Itza with tiny hoops located about 12 metres up up on massive walls. The game was played for days and days with hundreds of spectators and almost as many players as when the players tired they were changed with an endless supply of people waiting to take the field. The game ended when one of the teams finally managed to get the ball through the hoop (they couldn´t use their hands at all and these hoops were really high!) and then the person who scored was beheaded as it was seen that the Gods had chosen them to enter the kingdom of Paradise! Very strange!

Chichen Itza was really beautiful but unfortunately its very hard to get a real feel for the atmosphere of the place as not only are there hordes of people in the site but there are also market stalls everywhere trying to flog their wares.

After yet more free cocktails in the hostel that night we headed out with some of the other gringos (and a token Mexican, Sergio) to a local bar where we wore sombreros, watched old local women down shots of tequila and enjoyed Mexican music including Vera Cruz and Mariachi bands.