Sybil’s first stop on her Mexican journey in the Yucatán is Dzibilchaltun, the site of the 1959 National Geographic Society’s Tulane University excavation, she notes, significant because both her husband and her son attended Tulane. The ruins Sybil and Cliff visit were believed to be the largest and oldest pre-Columbian ruins discovered.
Quite possibly one of the strangest instances in all of Sybil’s travels happens here at these ruins. The couple were exploring near dusk, almost alone except for another couple that described themselves to Sybil as “Doctors of Divinity”. “The pair from St. Louis were armed with facts and figures and were equipped with tape measures. Their intention was to measure the dimensions of a certain structure to compare it with dimensions of structures at Stonehenge and in Egypt.” The couple climbed to the top of the Astronomy building and prayed to the sky “O Cosmos, O Cosmos”. When she asked their faith, the pair replied that they were witches. As Sybil is strictly Catholic one might think she would have immediately rejected the pair. Instead, in writing of this experience, she only uses the word “weird” to describe the books the pair has praised. As far as we know from the evidence in her journals she did not try to sway opinions on faith. Despite her own opinions she respected the faith of others and did not try to push her own faith on others, a common characteristic of colonialism.
Moving on to Chichen-Itza, a settlement abandoned in 1200 AD and recovered in the twentieth century. While attempting to climb a Mayan pyramid, a young Mayan girl runs ahead of Sybil, telling her “We’re almost there! Keep going!” After making it to the top, Sybil praises the Mayan art, writing that the payoff of so many stairs is well worth it.
Starting early in the morning, the couple set off with their 19 year old driver in a red Jeep from Merida to Uxmal to Labna to Sayil, a total of 83 miles of driving. Sybil describes the drive as “exciting and unique” despite the lack of a formal road and having to stop every once in a while to cover potholes with debris. In Labna the couple visit a 45 ft. high pyramidal mound. Sybil refers to her travel books, drawing on descriptions of these ruins from archeologists and historians calling this structure the “grandest spectacle seen in the country”. In closing, Sybil points out that their visit to these ruins is most definitely the highlight of this trip.