April 26, Piste to Felipe Carrillo - 175 Miles

The big attraction for the day was Chichen Itza'.  This was the second great Maya city, along with Uxmal, which we visited yesterday.  Here is the spectacular largest pyramid of Chichen Itza'

And upon climbing to the top of the pyramid, here is what Alex and Jim look like from there - it is pretty high!  Also seen is another large stone building in the complex.

Below is a view of the "building with 1000 columns", from the top of the largest pyramid.

Numerous other buildings abound in this very large complex.  While there are more and larger buildings in Chichen Itza', we thought Uxmal had by far the highest level of art and carvings.

We also visited the Maya site of "Tulum".  It was in a beautiful Gulf seaside setting, with the sea view today being incomparable.  It was sort of anticlimactic however, because the stone buildings were both small and nowhere as well built or decorated as in either Uxmal or Chichen Itza'.  We had already seen the highest of the Classic periods in those sites.

The riding wasn't bad today, although with visiting the two sites, we only rode about 160 miles.  It was only about 92^o F , but VERY humid!  We just sweated and drank water and sweated and drank water.  All told, though, what a fun day!

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