We planned to stay overnight at the Hotel Dolores Alba near Chichen Itza so we could hit the park first thing in the morning. The hotel was clean and comfortable with a great swimming pool. The kids loved it! The pool had under water caves and tunnels they could swim through. Since it was just a few minutes from Chichen Itza, we checked in, swam and then went over to see the Chichen Itza night show. It seems like the night show was included in the price of our admission ticket for the next day.
We got to the the park again early the next morning before it got too hot, and before the tour buses arrived. This was 2004 and at that time they still let you climb up the pyramid. It was an amazing experience. The kids scampered up and down, no problem. The stairs were very narrow and steep. They had one rope with knots in it to hold onto. I was OK on the way up, but very slow and nervous going down. I sat on my bottom, taking one step at a time. I remember telling our kids to savor the experience because I thought someday it would be closed to climbing. Even if you were steady and doing fine someone could lose there balance above you, and every one in the way on the way down would fall like dominoes.
We especially enjoyed the ball court. It was huge and the acoustics were amazing. It seemed next to impossible that they could get a ball through the cement hoop, high up on the side, without using their arms. The viewing area was very small and they were often playing for their lives.
As it started getting more crowded, we wrapped up our visit to Chichen Itza and headed back on the toll road Southeast to Tulum. The Tulum site is breathtaking and the beach is gorgeous. The ruins are nice and I'm sure we would have been even more impressed if we hadn't just been to Chichen Itza.
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