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Yucatán
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Getting here is half the fun!      
Monday 1/24                                                            
 
 
We’ve learned that when you are using frequent flyer miles to travel, the routing can be a bit unusual.  Our US Airways flight left San Diego at 9:45 PM for Philadelphia. After a scheduled two-hour layover there we boarded our flight to Cancun at 8:30 AM -- 45 minutes late.  We were delayed by a mechanical problem; one of the tray tables was broken and they had to bring a mechanic in to fix it.  We finally arrived in Cancun nearly 12 hours after leaving home.  Interesting weather too.  It was about 75 degrees in San Diego, 7 degrees in Philadelphia, and 80 degrees in Cancun.
 
Those world famous US Airways baggage handlers are still hard at work. Although we managed to make our flight on time our bags didn’t.  We were afraid they might be vacationing in Aruba or someplace else while we are in Yucatán.  Mike’s bag was delivered late Monday night but Pam’s didn’t make it until the Tuesday morning flight.  We picked up at the airport and were finally on our way to Mérida just before noon.
 
Because of our late start we elected to postpone our visit to Chichén Itzá (which is on the way to Mérida) until later in the week.  The road to Mérida is excellent (a toll road much of the way) and we found our way to the house of our friends Fernando and Gloria without difficulty.  The day was just starting to heat up but we found their pool-side patio the most comfortable place we have been so far.
 
Wednesday 1/26
 
Today was a day for seeing the sights of Mérida.  This is a wonderful old colonial city and we enjoyed seeing the beautiful downtown buildings and beautiful parks.  We made a quick stop at the Palacio de Gobierno to see some of the mural paintings of the historical evolution of Yucatán.
 
Then it was on to the mercado for the indispensable shopping expedition.

Today’s mission was to investigate the traditional Yucatecan clothing designs.
 
The day’s outing ended with a quick stop at Palacio Cantón, a former governor’s mansion that now houses the Regional Anthropology Museum.  It was near closing time so we plan a return visit on Sunday.
 
We returned to Fernando and Gloria’s house where Gloria treated us to a wonderful dinner of nopales (cactus) soup, followed by corvina (fish) in celantro sauce.  Two new dishes for us, of which we both asked for second helpings.  Alas, it appears this will be another trip that we have to follow with a diet.
 
Thursday 1/27
 
We started the day with a lesson on the proper use of the Yucatecan sleeping hammock.  We had wondered what the hooks on the bedroom walls were for, and now we know!  In the summer with the temperature in the hundreds and humidity to match, they are indispensable for sleeping cool.   
 
After breakfast we started toward Progreso.  On the way we stopped at the first of the archaeological sites we plan to visit, Dzibilchaltún (pronounced something like SYBIL-CHAL-TOON).
 
This site was occupied for nearly two thousand years, and at its peak had a population of 40,000.  After the Conquest, the Spanish built a chapel in the center of the main plaza, scavenging building blocks from the Mayan temples. At the edge of this plaza is a cenote, a deep pool in the limestone, which provided water for the city and is still full and fresh. This cenote is about 150 feet deep and is fed by subterranean flow.
 
After an hour or so of climbing rock structures in the sun we were ready for cerveza.  We drove on another 10 km to Progreso, located on the north coast of the Yucatán peninsula.  Pam’s parents had lived here for three or four months back in the 70’s and she wanted to see what had changed since she visited them back then.  The biggest change is the new pier, 7 km in length, which has allowed visits by cruise ships.   
 
We sat at a beachside restaurant for awhile and tried some local delicacies. After the first beer we were emboldened to try the squid in ink with olives (not bad), calimar (squid) ceviche (not as good), mashed pumpkin seeds, and the more familiar guacamole and bean dip, all with tortilla chips.  Pam had another opportunity to do a bit of shopping, courtesy of a young lady from Campeche.
 
 
Tomorrow we will drive to Uxmal, the second archaeological site we will visit. (The other two are Chichén Itzá and Ek’ Balam.)  We plan to stay overnight so that we can attend a light and sound show tomorrow night.
 
Friday 1/28

We were able to call ahead to the hotel in Uxmal (pronounced OOSH-MALL), so we made a leisurely start.  It is an easy hour and a half drive from Mérida over an excellent highway.  We checked in to our hotel, the Misión Uxmal and enjoyed a nice lunch of poc-chuc (grilled pork) and the mandatory cerveza.  We were delighted to find our room had a balcony from which we could see the ruins off in the distance.
 
Later in the afternoon, hoping the weather would be a little cooler, we headed for the archaeological zone.  Our first sight was the temple of the magician (Casa del Adivino).  This is truly a magnificent structure.  Unlike most temples, this has an oval base, rather than square.  This final version covers four earlier temples.  (A lot of urban renewal back then!)

We spent a couple of hours visiting the other buildings.  It was really interesting to me how the reconstruction has been accomplished.  Everything was in the form of piles of rubble.  The picture on the right shows one face of a pyramid.  The other three sides are still rubble.  As we walked around we could see other piles of rubble, with an occasional opening into a walled room.  It kind of gives us another perspective of the countryside.  You can’t help but wonder which of the hills you see might be covering a building.
 
Uxmal was inhabited for about 300 years, from 600 to 900 AD.  Unlike the northern and western part of the Yucatán, which are quite flat, this area is hilly, with elevations up to 100 meters. 
 
In the evening we returned to the ruins for a light and sound show.  It was a well designed production of music and stories about the Mayans and their legends.  The lighted ruins were hauntingly beautiful.

It was a quiet walk back to our car, thinking about the people who lived here so long ago.
The next morning we drove back to Mérida, with a couple of sightseeing stops at Muna and Ticul, two small towns on the way.  As it was Saturday, the streets were full.  In Ticul the downtown was blocked to automobiles, but still had plenty of bicycle and pedal-taxi traffic.
 
We were just in time to see a parade of the primary school soccer teams, each in their uniforms of different colors and each team led by a beautiful lady in traditional dress.
 
Back in Mérida, Pam went with Gloria to get her hair cut prior to going to a birthday party in the afternoon, to be followed with dinner with new friends in the evening.  We’re such social butterflies!
 

Sunday, 1/30
 
Last night we were introduced to Mexican social life.  We went to Rafael and Maria Elena’s house for dinner.  Rafael is an architect friend of Fernando.  From 9 PM to about eleven we had drinks, antojitos and conversation, then sat down to dinner.  This was followed by more drinks and more conversation until 2 AM.  It really was a very nice evening, but not quite the schedule we gringos are accustomed to. 
 
Today Rafael and Maria Elena joined us again and we went downtown to visit the Anthropology Museum again.  Some exhibits had information in English, but most were only in Spanish.  To my delight, I found I was able to translate most of it, without Pam’s help.  Spending a few days with Fernando and Gloria has helped my understanding of the language, even though I am still somewhat hesitant to converse in Spanish.  Just my natural shyness.

By the time we finished touring the museum we were ready for some refreshment, so we headed to an ice cream shop for some sorbet.  They make it with fresh tropical fruit and it was delicious.

After our refreshment we were just in time to see some folkloric dances in the city square, part of the entertainment of Carnival, which starts this week.  Pam and I moved around a bit until we found some shade to stand in while we watched.  We could imagine how hot the dancers must have been.  It is quite comfortable in the shade, but must be approaching 100 degrees in the sun. (Click on the photo to the right to see a short movie clip.)
 
We decided to stop one more time at the market, and found a good deal on a hammock.  Couldn’t resist.  It helped that we had two local ladies with us to help with the bargaining!  Also stopped by a supermarket where they were filming a promotion for a new beer.
 
This afternoon we went to a nearby hacienda, the Hacienda Teya, for dinner.  Another wonderful experience.  We discovered several more Yucatecan dishes and sampled some of each.  After eating we had to walk around the grounds for awhile to let dinner settle before getting back into the car.  Another great day!
 
 
Monday 1/31, Chichén Itzá
 
We left Mérida around 9 AM and were at Chichén Itzá two hours later.  We had hoped to arrive before the day got too hot and we were successful (as long as we remained in the shade).  To our surprise there is plenty of shade at Chichén Itzá.  Except for the plaza areas between the buildings most of the grounds are shaded. With a little breeze it was very pleasant.
 
The first structure you see as you enter the park is the Pyramid of Kukulcán, also called El Castillo (the Castle). We couldn't resist climbing the 91 steps to the top platform.  When we got to the top we were surprised to find a small dog basking in the sun. Coming down was more difficult than going up.  It's very, very steep.
 
From the top you get a great view of the other buildings, including the Gran Juego de Pelota (the great ball court). This ball court is the largest in Mesoamerica but only one of eight in Chichén Itzá. They must have had Little League.  They have never discovered what the rules of the game were but it must have been a tough game. Sometimes the captain or even the players of the losing team were killed.  Kind of gives new meaning to having a "losing season".  The stone ring may or may not gave been the goal. If so, it must have been one heck of a jump shot.
 
We spent some time looking at the hieroglyphics.  The walls of one platform were covered with carved skulls. There were other interesting pictures such as a bird eating a human heart.  Neat place.  Pam found a place to rest on the head of a serpent.
 
This is a very large site, and one of the most visited in the area.  Unlike Uxmal, the tour busses filled the parking lot.  Part of the attraction must be the proximity to Cancun, but the large number of buildings counts for a lot.  There are unusual buildings like the observatory with its round tower as well as the ossuary where they found many skeletons buried.
 
After a couple of hours we decided that we had enough sun, so we drove on to Valladolid where we are spending the night.

We stopped in a pueblo enroute to see a traditional Mayan house, called a huano.  Mayan is still spoken in the small towns and all the signs in the parks are tri-lingual (Spanish, Mayan and English).
 
We checked in to El Mesón del Marqués, a lovely old hotel on the city square in Valladolid. 
 
After lunch and a short nap we were ready to investigate the city market and a cenote located a few blocks from the hotel.  We expected the cenote to look like a pond with water to the surface like the onewe saw at Dzibilchaltún, but we found that the entry was through a shallow cave.  The cenote is open to the surface but the water level is 30 feet or so below surface level.  It was very clear, even though there were some leaves on top, and we could see schools of black fish swimming around.
 
All in all, another of a series of great days.
 
Tuesday 2/1
 
We got an early start in the morning for our drive to San Felipe, a fishing village on the north coast.  A few miles north of Valladolid we stopped at our fourth archaeological site, Ek’ Balam.  This site is different in a couple of ways from the other sites we had visited.  First, it has been under reconstruction only ten years, so it is a little smaller.  There are still a lot of hills that look like piles of rock, and contain unexcavated structures.  The primary structure if the governor’s palace, which is the second-highest pyramid in Yucatán.  There are 125 steps up the front of this structure (we counted them on the way up), but only the front side is reconstructed.  The other three sides are still rubble.  The unique feature of this structure is the sculpture which survived.  A wall had been built in front of the main doorway which protected it from the elements. (A wooden structure now protects it.)  The doorway is in the stylized shape of a serpent’s mouth.  A statue of the governor sits above the snout and two other figures hold the eyes open.  There are other full figure carvings to either side.  It’s fun to imagine what the pyramid must have looked like when it was still occupied.
 
When the reconstruction was begun ten years ago, the archaeologists hired workers from the nearby village, including the children.  Our guide was a 17-year old who had grown up with the site, and was very knowledgeable about the history of Ek’ Balam. 
 
There are three walls surrounding Ek’ Balam, which may have been defensive or just formal definition of the city limits.  There is another structure that is unusual because of the spiral ramp on the exterior.  Our guide said they think there are some 45 structures in all, only a few of which have been reconstructed.  Fascinating!
 
 
 
Our young guide took us to his village where we met his mother and sisters (and some aunts and uncles too, we think).  They were weaving hammocks and showed us the process.  We had already bought a hammock in Merida, so we disappointed them a little.

The village of Ek’Balam has constructed lodges for tourists or study groups.  They are just finishing up their swimming pool and theatre.  They will offer lessons in hammock making, Yucatecan cooking, the Mayan language and Mayan history.  They are quite organized and operate it for the ejido (sort of socialism).  We looked at the huanos and found them quite nice inside, with concrete floors, bathrooms, ceiling fans and a choice of either bed or hammock.
 
 
Back on the road again, we drove on to San Felipe.  We located our hotel (the only one in town), the Hotel San Felipe de Jesus.  There we met our hosts, Don Jesus and Doña Chely.  We walked around town a bit and saw two or three restaurants, all of which were empty.  This is definitely the shoulder season!  We decided we may as well go back to the hotel for lunch.  Doña Chely suggested a couple of items not on the menu, shrimp and lobster.  I opted for the lobster, and was presented a platter of five lobster tails.  Not a bad lunch!  We (Pam) talked a bit with Don Jesus and he told us we should rent a boat for a tour of the bird sanctuary.  He suggested we drive upstream about 10 Km to the next town, Rio Lagartos (which translates as crocodile river, for reasons we later learned).  He called ahead and set up the tour for us.  We also met a lady from Canada who was travelling alone, so we invited her to join us.

That tour was really a great experience.  The highlight was the flocks of flamingos.  They are much brighter in color in the wild.  When our boat got a little too close, they took flight.  To do so, they walk on the water until they get enough speed to get airborne.  Then they are very graceful.
 
Our guide was excellent at locating birds.  We usually couldn’t see what he was pointing out until the bird moved.  He was also pretty good at imitating their calls.  We saw several hawks, so he stopped a fishing boat and got a few fish from a friend.  Then when we saw a hawk he would call to it to get its attention.  The bird usually returned his calls.  He would throw one of the fish out and the hawk swooped down to pick it out of the water.
 
We also saw blue herons, snowy egrets, storks, cormorants, ospreys and lots of other birds I couldn’t begin to identify.
 
Also saw three small crocodiles.  They feed on the birds.
 
Back at the hotel, Don Jesus told us about the February fiesta that started that night.  This is a three or four day celebration held twice a year (February and August).  It started at 10 PM, with the crowning of the queen of the fair at 11 PM.  Then there would be dancing until three or four AM (no real exact times here) when there would be a Mayan tree planting ceremony.  They stuck this huge tree in the center of the bull ring.
 
We decided to see the start of the festivities, but skip the early morning stuff.  We were really glad we went, as the whole town seemed to be there, including the only three gringos in town, our Canadian friend and us.
 
This was definitely not something put on for the tourists – there were no tourists!  Everyone seemed to be having a great time, the beer was cheap, and we were welcomed.  They really made us feel at home.  I wanted to join the dancing, but Pam didn’t have a flowered dress so we had to pass.

                                              (Click on the photo to the right to see a short movie clip.)
 
For some reason, the town was very quiet the next morning when we left.
 
We drove back to Cancun by the back roads, through dozens of small towns.  Every town has a few topes (speed bumps) so it was not a fast trip.  It really was interesting to see all the little towns though.  We turned the car in the next morning and caught our flight home – Cancun to Philadelphia, then to Denver, then home to San Diego. 
 
Here is a map that shows the route of our travels.  Cancun is located off the right end of the map.  Click on the map for an expanded view.
 
Another great trip -- we decided we want to go back again!