The ancient civilisation of the Mayans were second best at just about everything. There isn’t really anything they were good at until the Spanish arrived and then they truly came into their own. Take, for example, the pyramid at Chichen Itza. One of the new seven wonders of the world, but not good enough to be one of the original seven wonders (the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt is the only original one to survive).
Unlike the Egyptians, who used their pyramids for burial/religious reasons, the Mayans used their pyramids for recreation. Chichen Itza was basically one of the resorts of the rich – the pyramid itself was used as the honeymoon suite for the hotel. The stone ruins around the pyramid were from other buildings – they had a gym/sports hall, stone cabanas and a kids area where parents could leave the kids while they went for a night out at one of the many bars around the resort. The ruins below show an ancient game of noughts and crosses that was probably played by kids waiting for their drunken parents to pick them up.
Another game that was popular back in the day, was Poc-a-toc, so called because it was a game where a team of seven would verse another team at bouncing a ball between two walls and the sound of the ball and the echo would make a sound like poc-a-toc. A tournament would be played and once the winner was decided, the winners would elect a member of their own team (usually the captain) to be sacrificed to the gods. Makes no sense to me – I would tank the first game and then spend the rest of the day in one of the bars. What it does highlight though, is where the culture of being second best comes from.
A couple of hours down the road is a town called Tulum. This was the Mayan Gold Coast and the only seaside Mayan town ever. Below is a picture of an ancient Mayan beach house.
If you look closely, the ancient buildings were built facing the wrong way. There are no windows or doors facing the sea.
There are a few different theories about what happened to the Mayans. They still exist, most of the Mexicans in this area still look like Mayans, but the ancient culture is gone. Some people think that they ran out of natural resources and others think they killed each other off. I like to think that the Spanish came and showed them how to do things better. For example, winners of sporting events were signed by Barcelona FC for millions of Euros rather than being sacrificed and they built buildings by the sea that faced the sea. Who wouldn’t want to move next door and get ocean views?