Ruinas Chichén-Itzá Warnings and Dangers

Running up the side of El Castillo is a silly venture but running down is sheer lunacy. Here the husband found a friend to run down with.

See all those people walking down carefully? That is how you should go down, it is a long way to the bottom should you slip and tumble down.

This tip may be moot in 2004, I heard that they were going to stop letting people walk up El Castillo in 2004 due to wear and tear.

Apparently when I reported that the crowd groaned audibly when he didn't make it all the way the first time, he somehow viewed that as a challenge to do it again, this time up a different side.

But at least he had enough sense not to bite when I said that he should do all four sides :-)

If you are going to run up the side of the El Castillo (like in the Reebok commercial except I think that was at the ruins at Tikal), make sure you make it all the way to the top without stopping or the crowd at the bottom will groan audibly and your loving wife will report it to you so that you think you need to do it again (see next tip)

Don't climb El Castillo if you suffer from vertigo. If you want to do it, be sure to be able to get down! Steps are very narrow and steep. There is a rope on the stairs that can help you. There are many ways to get down, as you can see in the picture: backwards, on your backside, with a zigzag line.

I suppose the stone age Mayans built these steel cover manhole covers, right?

These all hold spare fibreglass bricks that can be quickly added for patch-up jobs at night.