Dzibilchaltun

Saturday March 13

Today was awesome. We went out thinking that we were going to a mall or maybe to a place in Progreso where there are flamingos, and on the way we saw a sign for Dzibilchaltun, and started talking about that. Carolina couldn’t remember what was there, and I said that they were ruins, and that it was fairly closeby, but I didn’t know how close exactly and she said “let’s go!” So we went.

Luckily, it was very closeby. Only about 15 minutes outside of town. And when we got there we realized that these were the ruins with the “casa de las siete muñecas” (the house of the seven dolls). They found 7 dolls in one of the houses there, and the dolls are in the museum at the entrance. They’re actually super tiny, barely recognizable dolls, and not at all what I pictured.

The ruins were excellent. We got to go up the stairs into the house of the seven dolls, which had an amazing view from the top and from the windows. From the window you can see a couple of other monuments too, including a big sundial. We walked around the whole “archeological zone” of Dzibilchaltun, but didn’t get to go to the “ecological zone” because the place was closing and we had to go. We’re definitely going back though!! I loved it. While walking around one of the sites I saw the biggest iguana I have ever seen in my life. So, of course I had to take tons of pictures of it. I even got video of it getting pissed off and shaking its head, which I thought was awesome, of course (not that it seemed mad, but how it moved was super interesting). Then we went to more pyramids that we could walk up, which was also super interesting. Excellent views again, but my camera battery was dying. I didn’t bring a spare because I thought we were going to take a few distant pictures of flamingos or maybe even go to a mall. Luckily, I brought my video camera, just in case.

Then we went to the cenote!! The sinkhole. I got to put my feet in a sinkhole for the first time ever! We didn’t bring bathing suits though (due to the lack of planning, once again), so I had to just find a place where I could reach the water to put my feet in. When I did, dozens of fish came over and starting nibbling/sucking on my feet!!! It was hilarious. Most of them had sucker things for mouths. A couple times it felt like they had teeth, but only tiny ones. The bigger fish in the water would look at my feet, but not get too close. I ended up taking a couple of videos and then a bunch of underwater pictures of the fish on my feet. I absolutely loved it. I can’t wait to go back and see the other half of Dzibilchaltun and swim in the cenote, and get more pictures of the fish.