LETTER #6– FALL WEATHER? 9/26/21

Lo Siento Amigos—it has been such a long time since I have written a letter!  Well let’s get started!!

It has gotten a little cooler here!  The mornings are in the mid 70’s.  The high’s are around 88 degrees.  The humidity is usually 80% or higher….but there have been some nice cool breezes which makes being outside so much nicer!  I have even seen Grammie Tammie turning down the air in the car because she is feeling cold!!  I never thought I would see that happen!!


I am going to tell you about a trip they took before the weather got cooler.  They went with the mission President and his family and another older couple who is serving a mission here and a man by the name of Taylor to Chichen Itza on Saturday September 25, 2021.   It is an amazing place with lots of Mayan ruins.  It was a very hot day and they walked all over  the place.  After about 2 1/2 hours Papa Ben and Grammie Tammie were ready to go but the man named Taylor saw them heading out of the road toward the exit and stopped them and “Oh no- we aren’t done!”  And he urged them to follow him to see some other amazing ruins.  When all was said and done they were glad they followed him.  It was really interesting to hear all of his knowledge about these ruins.  When they headed to their cars after 4 1/2 hours of walking their shirts were sopping wet!  They went to eat at this little restaurant.  Grammie Tammie is always scared to eat at places that are in small towns.  She worries that they might not clean the fresh veggies etc.  She got sick a couple of times when they first got here!  It was a buffet and so Grammie avoided the salad area.  Papa Ben doesn’t really worry!  The food was a little “sketchy” as I heard Grammie say—but they had a lady making these small corn tortillas by hand.  Grammie Tammie thought they were the best part of the meal!



Linda Marin and her daughter Natalie as we were entering the park!



Grammie Tammie and Papa Ben in front of a huge Mayan Pyramid

The observatory!

Another view of the big pyramid.  There were lots of people there that day!

Here is a snake swallowing a Mayan King.  In their culture the snake represents Christ and so seeing someone being swallowed is kind of like baptism




They had a million of these pillars in this one area.  Back in the day they had palm palapas over them to provide shade. Grammie Tammie said she wished they would put the Palm Palapas up again!





This is a big field where they would play some kind of tournament. Royalty sat way up top to watch the game.  The thing about this tournament is you didn’t want to lose because if you did your heads would be cut off and displayed for everyone to



This block of stones on this wall represented every person who had their heads cut off.  It was a VERY long wall and the outside was just one layer.  It was many layers deep.  Back in the day there were poles where they displayed the heads and they could be seen by the spectators watching the tournament….tournament of death!!

Here are some well preserved carvings on one of the walls!


Papa Ben and Grammie Tammie were really glad they got to go there. It is about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Cancun— but worth the drive!!



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