Post #77841 by kctiki on Wed, Feb 25, 2004 8:30 AM

I visited Xcaret about 10 years ago. I liked the fact that although some of the Mayan ruins in the park are recreations, many of them are real and were discovered quite by accident when the park was built.

From reading the brochure I could tell that in the right frame of mind, and left to my own devises, Xcaret had some real potential (for an ecological theme park, that is). Upon entering the park I soon became “accidentally” separated from my group of coworkers who were hell bent on swimming with the dolphins.

First I visited the Butterfly Garden. It was early and no one else was in there, just me and the butterflies - heavenly.

A troupe of dancers from Mexico City performed in the open air theatre that day. They recreated an Aztec pageant with much attention to historical detail in costuming and choreography which I found enthralling.

In the gift shop I found a cassette tape entitled “Xcaret – New Age Mexicano” which I bought to commemorate the day. It’s one of those musical compilations that’s so bad it’s good. I still listen to it from time to time.

For anyone visiting the Yucatan who likes old ruins, Chichen Itza is a must. There’s an old hotel built in the 1920’s at the site. Our tour bus had lunch there before seeing the ruins. I’d like to go back and stay at the hotel someday. As I understand it has been left much in it’s original state.

After climbing to the top of the main pyramid at Chichen Itza, I saw the sacrificial benches – stone slabs held up by carvings of little dwarflike creatures. On those very slabs countless human hearts still beating were carved from the chests of victims and held high overhead by priests in appeasement to the gods. Truly creepy.