Barney in Mexico (Yucatan peninsula)

Chichén Itzá

Chichén Itzá, undoubtedly the most famous Maya ruin and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, can be reached in approximately 45 minutes from Valladolid. Make sure to arrive early (8-9 AM) in order to avoid the crowds brought over by innumerable coaches from Cancún. Chichén Itzá is estimated to have been inhabited between the 8th and 11th century AD and has a total size of 8 km². The most important buildings at Chichén Itzá are the world-famous Kukulkán pyramid, the Great Ball Court where the Mayas used to play the Mesoamerican ballgame ‘Juego de Pelota’, the ‘Temple of the Warriors’ with its Group of a Thousand Columns, the ‘Cenote Sagrado’, a perfectly circular waterhole where the gruesome sacrifices where held, and ‘El Caracol’, one of the rare round buildings in Mayan architecture which is theorized to have been an observatory for astronomical events.