Chichen Itza, Mexico

From your first glimpse of the giant pyramid at Chichen Itza, you know you're visiting someplace out of the ordinary. The scale of the buildings indicates nothing less than a major urban center of a long-ago civilization. I've made the trek twice from Cancun to Chichen Itza, once in sunshine and once in rain.

Within the jungles of Mexico and Guatemala and extending into the limestone shelf of the Yucatan peninsula lie the mysterious temples and pyramids of the Maya. While Europe was still fumbling around in the Dark Ages, these incredible people had mapped the heavens, evolved the only true writing system native to the Americas and had mastered mathematics.

The Mayans are also noted for their elaborate and highly decorated ceremonial architecture.

Today, the structures of the Maya towering above the jungle-covered terrain hold the same fascination for tourists as they did for the conquistadores more than 400 years ago.

Chichen Itza is an ancient Mayan ruin and probably the best known of all such archeological sites. It's the location of the stunning pyramid so often seen in photos. Called El Castillo de Kukulkan, the name means the Castle of Kukulkan. This odd name, Kukulkan, (pronounced something like: COO-COOL-CAN) is the feathered serpent god whose image is found throughout Chichen Itza.

Due to the extreme steepness, the pyramid is much harder to climb than it looks. I only made it up about 15 steps before I decided it was just too arduous for me. My biggest concern was the return trip down. I saw several people descending very, very slowly on their rear ends and holding on for dear life. That was enough to convince me.

Back on solid ground, I joined a small group preparing to go inside the center of the pyramid. This current pyramid was built on top of an older and smaller temple. There's a doorway leading into an inner chamber where you can see the older temple and continue on to a small room with two altars. The inner room was muggy and seemed to be filled with stagnant air. We didn't stay there long, just long enough to say we did. In truth, there's not much to see.