 My taxi driver from the previous day picked me up at Ek Balam as we had agreed and sped me back to Valladolid, where I caught a bus to Chichen Itza, the most famous Mayan ruin of all. This picture shows the iconic "Castillo," the ceremonial center of the site. The stairs of the structure represent the calendar year: 91 steps on each of four sides, plus the top platform, make 365. Some of the stairs are flanked by snake-heads representing the plumed serpent (known to most American schoolkids by its Aztec name, Quetzacoatl). I guessed there were roughly 1000 tourists at Chichen when I was there at 3 pm on New Year's Day. I heard Spanish, English (especially Southern U.S.), Italian, German, and at least two East Asian languages.
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