10-Marzo-2020, Martes. Cancun, Yucatán to Florida, USA.
It’s been bien. But all good things must come to an end.
While packing an interloper planned to stow away. Dale flicked it across the room where it landed on it’s back and proceeded to sing the ‘La Cucaracha’ until we left our room.
Last I looked la cucaracha was still stuck on his back. Apparently they can’t roll over. Adios.
To the airport
Guy Fieri’s Namaste. Breakfast or more correctly lunch. We are definitely back in the land of supersized American food.
First place for most unusual use of a neck pillow
Woo Woo! We are back in the USA. Thanks Perky and Bruce for picking us up!
Buenas noches
I think I’m going on a hiatus for a while, maybe posting every couple of weeks. Just don’t know…
Hechos Graciosos (Fun facts)
Cancun’s airport is the second busiest in Mexico (only
Mexico City’s airport is busier) and it has the most international traffic of
any airport in Latin America. Each year, hundreds of thousands of travelers
visit Cancun. Cancun alone generates 1/3 of Mexico’s tourism revenue. The
country’s total tourism revenue was $22.51 billion USD in 2018.
>> We didn’t see one leave blower the entire time we were in Mexico.
After a breakfast of 2 arthritis strength aspirin we were off for coffee. The bus driver ‘Monday-Friday’ regulars are a calmer lot. It wasn’t the wild ride of the weekend drivers. However, there was a pronto stop full slamming me into Dale. Good thing he was braced for it or we’d have both been laying in the aisle.
Starbuck’s it is. First one in over a year.
Starbuck’s employee.
I had to look at the above woman quite close before I could discern her injuries were due to makeup, not a battering.
A Day without Women Strike. Women in Mexico were urged to disappear for today in protest with escalating gender-based attacks and murders. This follows yesterday’s International Women’s Day women protesting gender violence and inequality inveighing against the “virus of the patriarchy.” Some stores were forced to close. Stay at home women were encouraged not to cook or clean. Women who needed to go to work supported the cause in other ways, like the face makeup above. At a Hilton Hotel, male employees wore purple ribbons on their suit jackets in support of the strike.
Unfortunately, things may get worse for women before it get better as there is some fear of retaliation by men. But, there is hope through awareness and education.
Mexico has a long history of inequality bias between men and women. A native Cozumel friend told us quite bluntly (although he personally didn’t feel this way) many restaurants do not like to hire women for the below reasons: – Women always getting pregnant. If you hire men you don’t need to pay maternity leave; – Women are simply not capable of working for 10 12 hours; and lastly – There is a simply class different between men and women.
Out and about
Spring breakers have arrived
This is the only rock on the eastern Cancun beach. We happen to know that because we walked it’s full length.
After our siesta were were out and about once again to complete our beach walk of the entire east side.
My camera was left at home so we could play at the waters edge for our final 2 mile walk down to the south tip and the 2 mile walk back. It was another red flag day. Enormous waves were crashing on to the shore. Whisper soft sea foam was blowing off the tops of the waves and landing on our skin. Life guards were on full alert trying to keep future Darwin Award winners from swimming.
Buenas noches
Just because, I needed to get the Cancun sign.
Ugh. After a couple minutes of thought I went back to get it from the other side.
Hechos Graciosos (Fun facts)
Overlooking the buzzing Hotel Zone, there’s usually a gran bandera Mexicana (enormous Mexican flag) made out of the same material used to make parachutes. It measures approximately 184 x 94 feet, weighs about 500 lbs and takes 40 soldiers to raise it up a 344 ft flag pole. It’s currently down for washing. Wonder how big that washing machine is?
Cancun’s gran bandera Mexicana picture courtesy of Wiki
Mexico’s flag is made up three vertical stripes. The left green stripe stands for hope, the middle white stripe represents purity, and the right red stripe represents the blood of those who died fighting for Mexico’s independence. The picture of an eagle eating a snake is based on an Aztec legend. In the fourteenth century, a group of Chichmecas (warrior nomads) called the Aztecs (or Mexicas) settled in Mexico when they saw an eagle (representing the sun) standing on a cactus (a symbol of the heart) clutching a snake (a symbol of the earth or Quetzalcoatl)—an image which is now depicted on the Mexican flag.
Luckily Spring Break in Cancun has not yet started. For 12 pesos each we took a bus to the center of the Hotel Zone. I’m certain our bus was attempting to set the land speed limit for a bus in a residential zone. At times all 4 wheels were of the ground.
We have arrived
Breakfast condiments including maple flavored Karo syrup and chocolate Karo syrup plus 10 creamers.
cool sideburns
A quick walk through the flea market
husband waiting section
11AM we were off to walk the beach back to our hotel.
Look to the north
Our hotels is way down there to the south
It’s windy today! LOL. This was the only section of the beach that had yellow flags.
prettiest hotel along the beach
Mayan ruin archaeological site of El Rey
finding shade when you can
the problem with taking beach photos
kiting
Whoa! Is he up high!
A brief rest
At this point I was thinking about the piña colada I saw at breakfast
Modest thong and daring granny panty
A lot of diversity in swim suits from tiny, tiny, tiny thongs to true granny panties.
Sand sitting. There were a fair amount of people doing this.
Playa Delfines (Dolphin Beach). Playa Delfines public beach has it all from wedding photo shoots, vendors, drones, sea gulls and the Cancun sign. It is one of three beaches in Cancun that have a Blue Flag distinction for the quality of the water.
The Blue Flag is a certification by the Foundation for Environmental Education that a beach, marina, or sustainable boating tourism operator meets its stringent standards.
Playa Delfines
Line to have picture taken with Cancun sign
Cocoa cola anyone?
Three hours after we started …. we arrived. Over 6 miles walking on sand is a serious walk. We had to really lean into it to at the end in order to keep going. One thing I know for sure is that I’m never going to walk in a desert or 6 mile miles on a beach again.
Solymar Beach Condos
Looking north to where we started.
Home sweet home. View from our room
After our siesta we headed out for supper.
Our second bus ride was not any slower than our first. Heavy on the brakes. A couple of near face plants.
Supper was at a great little restaurant Dale found on the internet. They are open round the clock, 24 hours a day.
Times Square Cancun
No one plays Santana anymore.
Now that’s a seriously bent tree
Buenas noches
Do you think????
Hechos Graciosos (Fun facts)
Cancun has 14 miles of shimmering white sands made of crushed coral, meaning it will naturally feel cool underneath bare feet – despite however hot the weather!
Aquí vamos de nuevo. (Here we go again). Bus ride to Cancun
Bus station ticketed passenger area.
Our bus
Our bus driver Thomas
Thomas invited Dale to sit in the jump seat.
Dale completely exhausted his conversational Spanish in the first 90 seconds.
Supper at Pescadillas el Galeón. Rumor is that one of our Minnesota friends got hammered here 10 years ago.
#TobinInternationalSignal4MoreBeer
Now this is chips and guacamole
Sous chef is cleaning fish with a machete
doing dishes at the kitchen sink (plastic pails)
the cooks
Hechos Graciosos (Fun facts)
Before the city became known as “Cancun,” it was called “Ekab,” meaning “Black Earth.” Cancun is actually also a Mayan word that means “nest of serpents.”
In January 1970 there were only three people living in Cancun, and they were the caretakers of a coconut plantation. Today, this all-round resort hosts over a whopping 700,000 residents due to its rapid development.
Vamonos. (Let’s go) We took a taxi for an all day joy ride. (1,500 pesos approx. $75 USD). We had met Cesar, our taxi driver, on our taxi ride to the Gran Museo Del Mundo Maya two days ago. We told him we wanted to see Uxmal and the Museo del chocolate plus any suggestions he had. He had a couple of great suggestions. Cesar email: comegatosgil@gmail.com Ph: +52 9992 69 84 87
Hacienda Yaxcopoil
The Hacienda Yaxcopoil can be dated back to the 17th century. Yaxcopoil in the Mayan language means ‘place of the green alamo trees’. Alamo trees??? At its time it was 22,000 acres of land and considered one of the most magnificent in the Yucatán due to both its size and grandeur, among both the cattle and the henequén plantations. This hacienda has been used as a backdrop for a lot of movies.
Moorish style double arch front gates
La Casa de Yaxcopoil
front steps
Down the right corridor from the front entry
The walls are not wall papered. They are painted. The design is first drawn on the walls then hand painted.
back courtyard
one of the gardens
Alamo trees and horse corrals. I never knew Alamo was a tree!
Henequén shredding and manufacturing plant
Here, the raw fibers from the henequén cactus was shredded, pulled, wound together made into rope that varied in size from fine strands used for making hammocks, twine for baling hay, to hawsers the size of a man’s torso that tie ocean freighters to docks around the world. Individual strands could sewn together to make burlap bags.
Back courtd yarof the henequén shredding plant
Workshops, warehouses, school, hospital and offices. Cisterns for the steam engine and the smoke stack used to power the steam engines.
The German diesel 100 HP engine Dale is looking below at was built in 1913 by Korting (Hannover).It was used til 1984 when the henequén shredding plant closed down after over 100 years of existence.
steam engine and diesel engine
steam operated machinery
pulley system
Uxmal
The name Uxmal comes from the Mayan Óoxmáal and means “three times built” or “three harvests”. It is considered one of the most important archaeological sites in the Mayan Peninsula. It is built in the Puk architecture style. Uxmal flourished between the 6th and 10th centuries AD.
Uxmal is unique among Mayan cities as it depended on rain and chultunes(cisterns) for water, not cenotes (fresh water source). Chac was the Mayan god of rain, and the honored god at Uxmal due to the lack of natural water supplies in the city.
Pyramid of the Magician
There’s a legend that says that the main building in Uxmal, the Pyramid of the Magician, was originally built in a single night by a dwarf that was born in an egg. It has been modified 4 times over a period of 400 years and now has four layer of 4 substructures
East side of the Pyramid of the Magician
Clapping your hands about 100 feet from the Pyramid of the Magician echos back an eeking sound. clap clap clap eek eek eek
building ruins
Governor’s Palace
The mosaic façade on the Governor’s Palace is one of the longest in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, with more than 100 stone masks of the rain god Chac. Still, it was like looking for Waldo trying to find Chac among the warriors, snakes, planets, and macaws, and other deities. The Governor’s power was based on divine right (a direct link to the gods). He could remain as the Governor as long as he had the power to make it rain. (In prolonged dry seasons or years of drought he go voted out).
The central doorway, which is larger than the others, is in perfect alignment with Venus.
preserving and restoring
It seems that another temple was to be superimposed on the existing structure and some demolition had taken place before the plans were halted by the Mayans
Triangle arches are unique to Maya Puk architecture.
Pyramid of the Magician from the Governor’s Palace
Rock pile and wedge facade. Look at how the arches were constructed.
Nunnery Quadrangle and Pyramid of the Magician
preserving and restoring on the backside of the Governor’s Palace
There’s a LOT of work ahead
Casa de la Tortuga
It was believed that turtles suffered with man at times of drought and would also pray to Chac for rain.
View of the Nunnery through the windows
Great Temple (or Great Pyramid)
71 steps to the top. See me in the yellow shirt?
Dale is at the bottom in the middle with tan baseball cap and navy blue shirt
Top of the Temple looking towards the Nunnery and Pyramid of the Magician
Top of the Temple along the front
Top of the Temple
Guardian ‘guana
Dovecote. The Spaniards gave it the name because they thought it looked like a pigeon loft complex.
At one time there were statues on out jutting structures
Juego de Pelota (ballgame)
It’s in pretty rough condition
Rock pile and wedge facade. Good example of the construction.
The Nunnery Quadrangle
The Nunnery Quadrangle was given its name by the 16th-century Spanish historian Fray Diego López de Cogullado because it reminded him of a Spanish convent. It may have been a military academy or a training school for Mayan princes, who would have lived in the 74 rooms.
The North Building of the Nunnery is the highest and has a many-chambered terrace accessible via a second wide staircase leading from the courtyard. This structure has 13 doorways representation of the 13 levels of the Maya heavens. Opposite, the South Building has nine doorways, imitating the nine levels of the Maya Underworld (Xibalba). The West Building has seven doorways, this time reflecting the Maya mystic number of the earth. Mosaics on the East Building suggest this structure may represent the point in the Middleworld where the sun rises.
West and North buildings
West building.
The rain good is all over the west building facade above with his trusty rainmaking tools (axe and snakes). One snake runs the entire length of the facade. The snakes head and tail start and end here at the rightmost panel of the building.
Top steps of the Nunnery looking at the south building (underworld), Governor’s Palace and Great Temple
Rounding the corner on the west side of the Nunnery, between buildings, is a view of the Pyramid of the Magician.
West side of the Pyramid of the Magician
Top of Pyramid of the Magician. Looks like a face.
Museo del chocolate (Chocolate Museum) Duh, yes. Of course I had to go.
This Museo del chocolate is one of four owned by Eddy Van Belle, a Belgian chocolate business owner who decided to dedicate his life to chocolate at the age of 12. The others are in Brussels, Paris, and Prague.
The Museo del chocolate is located in a botanical garden, which includes several varieties of cacao trees. It also houses and cares for native animals that can not be returned to the wild for various reasons.
Through out our walk we heard ceremony drums a conch horns. One section of the museum had been sectioned off for a private Mayan ceremony.
entrance
cocoa beans
Hershey Kisses tree (ceiba tree)
papaya trees
Henequén ‘green gold’
melipona bees – stingless honey bees
Mexican jaguars
chicken for lunch
spider monkeys
Lunch at a local restaurant where they make their own Cochinita pibil in the traditional way. Cochinita pibil is a marinated pork dish that is made with achiote, a reddish spice with a distinctive flavor and peppery smell. The pork is wrapped in banana leaves and baked in an underground oven.
Pilib ovens
They have their own supply of banana leaves
At sometime I will be too old to vacation in Mexico. (seat-less toilets)
Chicxulub meteorite ridge
I think this was the highlight of our day’s trip. It was mind blowing to see the Chicxulub meteorite ridge. Imagine the impact.
for 10 pesos (50 cents) per person we climbed to the top of the viewing station
what a blast
It is estimated there are over 200 Mayan cities in the jungle are yet to be discovered. Some of these bumps may be a city.
For a few more pesos we took a tour with Pedro, a Mayan who lives here that is studying to become a shaman. First stop was his workshop where he makes traditional Mayan items like drums and vessels. He also had two types of stingless meliponini hives.
xik and kansak meliponini beehives
Mayan ceremonial ground.
Guided by dreams, Pedro 15 years ago first found the cave 15. It scared him so badly he said it took him 7 years before he would return to the cave. He said people have come from around the world who have dreamt of this place and sought him out. Pedro doesn’t want the government to know about the cave because he is afraid they will take it away from the Mayan people. I seriously doubt you could find this place in any tourism literature.
Surprisingly it was like a sweat bath inside the cave. Mayan wedding ceremonies are held in the cave and people from around the world come for multi-day spiritual retreats.
Pedro at the entrance to the cave
Old Mayan vessels Pedro has found in the cave
It is possible to splunk into other sections of the cave. We didn’t go.
Agriculture. There are small sections of land immediately outside the Chicxulub meteorite ridge where agriculture is possible. Other than that it’s lots and lots of rock.
Weapons and drugs checkpoint Coming and going between Merida and Tabasco there are weapons and drugs checkpoint. We were asked to roll down the windows so they could look at us. Apparently we looked liked harmless senior citizens.
Buenas noches
Out for our last night in Mérida.
Dzalby for a little music. Great band. Reminisce of Django Reinhardt, Stéphane Grappelli and David Grisman.
Buenas noches
One of the must have tourist pictures.
Muchas Gracias to La Casa Carmita for a wonderful stay!!!!
Daneila y Lorena in the courtyard
La casa cat
Hechos Graciosos (Fun facts)
Mexican words sure have a lot of Xs in them.
Many of the Mexican words are not in Spanish, but in Nahuatl, the language spoken by the ancient Mexicans and still in use in modern Mexico mixed with the Spanish.
The sound of the “X” in Nahuatl was closer to the modern “sh” (like in the original pronunciation of Mexico “Me-shee-ko”) and because the Spaniards could not pronounce the names properly they re-codified them for phonetic pronunciation. Pronunciation ‘X’, ‘Z’ and ‘J’ is really goofy in the Mexican language.
‘X’ is used in a lot of Mayan design. I haven’t found out the reason why yet. Let me know if you know.
Cementerio General, Mérida’s main cemetery and one of the country’s oldest, first began in 1821, when the government decreed that cemeteries be established outside the city limits. It was founded on San Antonio X-Coholté hacienda owned by Captain Clemente de Acevedo two centuries ago and is still in use.
The Cementerio General had its greatest splendor in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. At that time there was a custom that when a corpse arrived they had to build their place as similar (same architectural style) to the place where they lived, as a way to make the transition from life to death a little easier. This is why most of the mausoleums of the General cemetery have different architectural styles and construction materials brought from Europe. The Calle 60, the main avenue of the cemetery, can be compared to Paseo de Montejo because many wealthy families wanted their mausoleums to be placed on that avenue.
Its more than 25,000 vaults, ossuaries and mausoleums are part considered part of Yucatán’s architectural and cultural heritage.
black Jesus
Whispering Angel (common statue)
maintaining the family crypt
tree growing from roof
1887 Roundabout of the Socialists Illustrious
backside
Although I really enjoyed walking through the cemetery I was disappointed that I could not find some of the significant tombs. It was too hot to keep looking. Something for when we return…
The old cemetery has expanded to include a modern cemetery section just outside its old gate/wall.
wall along modern cemetery
The newer cemetery section is full of very skittish iguanas
Back to the Casa Carmita for una siesta. It’s HOT again today.
Refreshments, botanos (free snacks) then back again for a siesta.
One of the botanos was jicama and cilantro marinated in lime and hot peppers. Pretty tasty. Another was chicken gizzards.
Buenas noches
Out for our evening stroll around Plaza Grande and Santa Lucia Plaza.
Church of Santa Lucia began construction at the end of the 16th century and ended in construction 1960. Over 250 years!
Hechos Graciosos (Fun facts)
The impact site of the Chicxulub meteorite, the one that took out the dinosaurs 65 million years, is less than 15 miles away from Mérida. The asteroid/comet, estimated to be 6.8 to 50.3 miles wide, hit the Earth traveling at 44,640 miles per hour, roughly 20 times the speed of a rifle bullet. The crater is estimated to be 93 miles in diameter and 12-18 miles in depth. It’s estimated that on impact the Chicxulub meteorite was a million times more energetic than the largest nuclear bomb ever tested.
Gate to the other life…The impact of Chicxulub meteorite extinguished three quarters of life forms on Earth, marking one of the major events in the evolution of life, with the transition from the age of dinosaurs to that of mammals.
102 degrees Fahrenheit today (39 Celsius). We took the taxi.
Gran Museo Del Mundo Maya (Great Museum of the Mayan World). I would equate this museum to a Smithsonian Museum.
Mural painted on barrels
Jadite baubles and beads. Wilma Flintstone would envy the one on the right.
We are touring Uxmal this coming Friday so I took a couple pictures of Uxmal artifacts.
Popularily know as the Queen of Uxmal from the Pyramid of the Magician, it’s actually the head of a young male. 250-1000AD
Uxmal Pok-Ta-Pok goal. 600-1000AD
Statues of gods. It’s amazing any artifacts are left as harsh as the Catholic Spaniards were on the Mayan people.
Buenas noches
Catrinas dancing in the dark. Woo Woo! Cementerio General has walking tour at 8PM on Wednesday. We made it there but …. we met a bunch of Canadians at 7:45 PM who convinced us we were at the wrong gate because it was locked. Foolishly we followed them. At some point I rechecked Google maps. I am certain we will be in the USA long before they find the correct cemetery gate. By the time we got back to the gate we were 30 minutes late for the tour and no one was there 🙁 I suspect the tour guide had a key for the gate.
Through the gate. We have to come back!
Hechos Graciosos (Fun facts)
The
earliest Mayan settlement dates back to 1800 BC. According to Mayan mythology,
the world was created in a sequence of four events sculpted by a group of
“artisan gods”: first came the animals, then wet clay, followed by wood… and
finally the first human beings, which were said to be made of maize.
The
pre-Colombian Mayans often sought to “enhance” the physical features
of their children. Mothers would press boards on the foreheads of their kids so
that they would be flatter (mostly just in the upper class). Objects were also often dangled in front of a
baby’s eyes until the baby was cross eyed, which was another desirable trait
found in nobility.
Besides
having flattened foreheads and crossed eyes, Mayan nobleman had noses that were
built up with putty/clay giving them a beaked shape. Their teeth were also
inlaid with jade. Nobel women filed their teeth into points.
Mayans made
use of painkillers for anesthetics, medicinal purposes and also as
hallucinogenic agent during religious rituals.
Conquistadors
had the audacity to call the Mayans barbarians. In fact, these incredible
people had created one of the most advanced scientific nations on Earth…
Mayan
cities had pyramids, palaces, and ceremonial ball-courts. These buildings were
painstakingly placed to align perfectly with the stars, to help make the
practice of stargazing an absolute breeze. The Maya built some of the biggest
pyramids in the world. They did it without the use of metal tools, the wheel or
pack animals!
The Maya
were also prolific writers. They were among the first to record history in
books. Historians believe the Mayans may have written as many as 10,000 books. Bishop
Diego de Landa took a brutal approach converting the population to Christianity
by burning books and destroying other artifacts, in an effort to erase their
culture.
Experts
in the Mayan history simply do not have enough solid information to state with
clear-cut certainty how the Maya civilization ended. The downfall of the
ancient Maya was likely caused by some combination of famine, drought, and
change in the environment brought on by deforestation for farmland. This likely
caused neighboring cities to turn on each other causing civil strife. It wasn’t
a single event, though: It took over 200 years for the civilization to fail
completely.
03-Marzo-2020, Martes. Mérida, Río Lagartos y Los Colorados, Yucatán
All women like flamingo. Today we took a tour van to go see flamings. The van was one short of capacity with 11 women plus Dale, not counting the tour guide and driver. Since we were the last people to be picked up we were relegated to the back of the bus for the entire trip. Although our tour guide was multilingual the greater portion of the tour was solo en español 🙁
The drive to Los Colorados was more interesting than the drive from Cozumel to Mérida. A little more agriculture, a small amount of irrigation for crops and cattle, a few ranches (small to large), miles and miles of rock fences and a lot of scrubby land. It’s 300 miles round trip.
Sometimes when you travel out west in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado you see beautiful ranches and think ‘Wow! That would be a cool place to live”. Not here…… The land is rugged, extremely rocky. Occasional there are dining room table size chunks of rock, no doubt courtesy of the Chicxulub meteor.
Potty break at the Oxxo in Sucila. Sucila is small town a couple kilometers west of Tizimín, where we turned north to Río Lagartos. I bought one of each of the limón (translates to lemon but it really lime) flavored cookies.
If girl scouts made limón cookies, they’d have made the Principe cookies.
the local taxi
The longer we were in the back seat of the van the better our seats looked. The bus driver played heavy metal music on the radio. The music was more than loud enough for us. Interesting music choice for a bus load of old women and Dale.
Estamos aqui al la Parque Natural Ría Lagartos. (We are here at the Ría Lagartos Natural Park.)
Ciudad de Los Colorados
The ISYSA salt company has mined the salt at Los Colorados since the 1940’s. Los Colorados is an ancient saline estuary where the Maya harvested for more than 2,000 years. The salt gave life to the towns and businesses of Central America including Chichén Itzá, Cobá, Uxmal, Edzná and Tikal, as well as more distant places like Copán, Izabal and other Caribbean islands.
Ariel view of the las coloradas ‘big red sea salt lakes’.
The ISYSA facilities harvested more than 200,000 tons of salt last year.
pink salt lake – ISYSA facilities and salt mountains in background
Short stop at a beach in Parque Natural Ría Lagartos near Los Colorados
The Chicxulub meteor site is about 100 miles in this direction
Don’t know what this is. It was about 3-4 feet long.
Río Lagartos (Alligator River) boat ride from Los Colorados to the city of Río Lagartos. Río Lagartos is a mangrove-lined, salt water river. But in reality Río Lagartos is not really a river. It’s an estuary. The lagartos are not alligators, they are crocodiles. The entire of Parque Natural Ría Lagartos has been recognized since 2004 as UNESCO a Biosphere Reserve because of its incredible flora and fauna.
We picked up our boats to go see flamingos under the bridge.
fisherman tossing a net. they only bring in one or two fish each cast.
we are off!
tres muchacos – you can tell they are males because of their height
salt mines the north
Frigate bird closely followed by a pelican
Frigates (I really like them)
guests
Uno lagarto – zoom in to see his teeth
mouth of the beast
It’s not much of a picture below but interesting never the less. The bubbling spot near the bow of the boat is where a cenote is emptying into the river.
We also saw lots of migrating white pelicans, egrets and herons from the USA and Canada, and Mexican eagles.
Ciudad de Río Lagartos (City of the Alligators)
Ciudad de Río Lagartos
mouth of the river
We stopped for lunch then headed back to Mérida. In case you wondered, here’s what the back of the van looked like.
Buenas noches
I was exhausted from sitting in the bus all day. We ate the rest of our cookies just to make sure any cockroaches around here didn’t get them. Per room instructions posted in yesterdays blog, I didn’t want to use my shoe:-) (We haven’t seen any cockroaches)
After a shower to wash the salt water spray and heat of the day off we were in bed by 8:30PM.
Hechos Graciosos (Fun facts)
The word ‘flamingo’ comes from the Spanish word
‘flamenco’ meaning fire. The pinkest birds have the highest status in
the colony as the bright color shows that a particular individual is strong and
good at finding food resources.
Flamingos are social birds thrive on social interaction and do not thrive if they have to live alone. A flock of flamingos is called a stand, pat, colony, regiment, or flamboyance.
There are six species of flamingos. The American flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber) is the only flamingo species native to North America, but is rarely seen in the United States anymore.
Flamingos are monogamous by nature, and only lay around one egg per year. Flamingo chicks are born gray or white and up to three years to get their pink and red feathers.
Flamingos, both female and male, feed their young directly from a secretion produced in their crop (throat). This ‘crop milk’ is bright pink. So much carotenoid is taken up by their crop milk that by the end of a breeding season both parents have lost the pink coloring from their feathers and appear almost white.
BTW. Flamingos are pink on the inside, too. skin is pink and
flamingo blood is pink.
El Norte es no mas. The north wind has stopped blowing and it is hot. It is an art to stay in the shade as you walk around. This often makes one sidewalk on a street very crowded while there is no one on the other side. Fortunately it’s not humid like Cozumel was.
Color of the city
We’ve mastered the art of walking around here. I thought I’d seen the narrowest side walks ever two days ago but the two below are narrower!
We didn’t walk the one on the right. We went up a block then turned so we could stay in the shade.
We lept around like the video game Frogger just to avoid getting hit by traffic and keep on the shady side of life the street.
Paseo de Montejo
Paseo de Montejo, modeled after Paris’ Champs Elysees, is lined with the mansions of Merida’s old aristocracy. It’s named after Francisco de Montejo y León (el Mozo), conqueror of Yucatán and founder of the city. From the late 1800s to the 1920s, Merida was the richest city in the World as it was the leading producer of henequen, a plant that is used to make ropes.
beautiful architecture of a bygone era
Maybe Zorro lived here?
using a Mayan palm broom
Palacio Canton museum – cultural heritage
mending cement work
Walmart
A modern Walmart! Better than most in Alabama.
Quinta Motes Molina
Monumento a la Patria. There are more than 300 hand carved figures, that tell the story of México from the establishment of Tenochtitlán to the mid-20th century. There are also Maya cultural figures like a Cacmool, a ceiba tree surrounded by butterflies, jaguars, and the city’s shield.
Monumento a la Patria (Homeland Monument) at the north end of Paseo de Montejo
Decisions, decisions, decisions
There are so many mansions that have fallen into a state of disrepair due to expenses to maintain.
Have you ever seen a bunch of pigeons sitting in a tree? I never have until today.
Its 93 degrees at 1PM. With humidity factor it feels like 104. Not yet the hottest part of the day. Time for the siesta.
Dale wanted to hit a Mexican dive bar. I went along for the walk and to keep him out of trouble. Found one.
I did want to stand up and take picture of the bar so I took a picture of the mirror. Dale’s hat is in the lower left corner. Zoom in… It’s worth a look.
The bartender asked if we wanted nuts. Before I could say no Dale said yes. He ate some, taking it for the team. I wouldn’t touch it. All I can say is that the food along Plaza Grande yesterday was a whole lot better than this. Gee I hope he isn’t sick tomorrow…
It wasn’t nuts.
Around town
yes, I believe in unicorns
Dining and dancing(not us)
Dinner at Museo de la Gastronomia Yucateca. This is another one of the many must eat at places if you ever get to Mérida. Two drinks, dinner and dessert $30 USD.
the kithen is behind the wall of bottles.
Traditional dancing in the street in front of Plaza de la Independencia. The price for one of the lovely women’s dresses is approx $100 USD. I totally would buy one but think it would look really out of place and funny on a Scandinavian.
The trick to keeping an item balanced on your head it to wet the top of you head first. Our Cozumel friend Jasianna taught us that.
at one time they were spinning sooooo fast water was spinning out of the glasses
Impressive dancing on a small box.
How many times do you have to fall off the box before you master staying on? Women have a distinct disadvantage from their male partners. They are in heels where as the men wear a flat shoe. But then again the men’s feet are larger.
Buenas noches
Literature in our hotel room. Practical advise. You gotta read it. Zoom in.
I keep my shoes by my bedside.
Hechos Graciosos (Fun facts)
Mérida is known as the White City in Mexico. According to some, the city was painted and decorated with white materials in the Spanish Era, so, they call it the white city. Whereas, other claims that it is due to its Sanitation. One thing Mérida has going for it is that most sidewalks in El Centro are level and void of dog poo.
I believe it is a city of colores y sabores brillantes (bright colors and flavors).
Streets are closed down around Plaza Grande for a weekly Yucatan market.
First stop the Picasso Exhibit in the Olimpo Cultural Center adjacent to the Plaza Grande. We couldn’t get in right away due to some sort of a military recognition ceremony. The drum major ceremoniously twirled and sounded his bugle orchestrating the troupes.
drum and bugle core have rifles on their backs
Youth drum and bugle corp. I took this picture more for the lady in the background. She has a long sleeved flesh-toned skinny shirt under her white shirt. I suspect it is for warmth. This morning was a little chilly.
In the Picasso gallery
FREE access to the Olimpo Cultural Center Picasso exhibit. There was over 100 drawings and paintings.
Dans l’atelier de Picasso. The Picasso’s Workshop gallery was completely void of people when we first entered it. A private showing for the Tobins! We were amazed at the minimal security. A woman touched the glass on a picture while pointing and talking to her son. Try that in the USA…
Dale’s favorite
Mary’s favorite
Picasso’s “Le Tricorne” – Le Tricorne (Three-Cornered Hat) is a two-act ballet that Picasso designed the set and painted theater curtain. My pictures in this room didn’t turn out but in this room a movie of the ballet is playing and the walls are lined Picasso’s set design and costumes drawings. It was fun to look at character in the movie then find the corresponding on the wall.
Picasso’s Carmen Fixation – Mistresses and wives successively served as Pablo Picasso’s muses, but they were not enough. He also sought inspiration from fictional women. Carmen was born in a novella by a Frenchman, Prosper Mérimée, and made famous in an opera by another, Georges Bizet
Plaza Grande is know for its topiary trees and conversation chairs (chairs you sit in and face each other).
Plaza Grande
Sunday shops. Everything will be gone by Monday morning.
lazer cut old records
blow up toys with wheels
Dale couldn’t get this guy to donate to Trump’s wall
FREE access to Casa del los Montejo museum.
Casa del los Montejo courtyard
Casa del los Montejo salon with bedroom through the door. Ceilings were easily 25 feet high
A Jacobo y Maria Angeles ‘alebrijes’ art exhibit was in the old library rooms. Their work has been exhibited in major national and international exhibition including the Smithsonian Native American Museum and the National Museum of Mexican Art. Jacobo y Maria Angeles wesite: https://jacoboymariaangeles.com/?lang=en
looks like a watermelon tree ? what is it?
Dance performances are held throughout the day around the Plaza Grande. This look like a dance recital. We didn’t stay long.
new sombreros
Second level vendors displaying blankets
Ceremony, Picasso pictures, museum, dancers and a market. Not bad for a Sunday morning in the park.
Post siesta
Dzalby – Dzalby is a great little music cantina at the end of our block. We’ve walked by several times and heard Miles Davies and other great sounds of jazz and blues wafting out of it. Today we stopped in. It was full of expats and Canadians! The bar is owned by seven guys, five of which are musicians at the symphony, one is a sound tech and the last? Don’t know.
He’s playing ‘Here Comes the Sun’
Felt like we were in any great music bar in the USA
Frida Kalo lager (tastes terrible) – Mayan word xix (pronounced shish) is the swallow swallow of the bottle.
This woman had an amazing voice Her version of ‘Over the Rainbow’ was transcendental.
Music is an international language
I was still hungry so we returned to the food courts at Plaza Grande. (The food courts are Dale’s personal hell). Heck, they can be that bad. All the tables had hand sanitizer on them.
food court
polcanes relleno
The polcanes relleno was served on plastic plates placed in a paper bag with a piece of brown paper on top. It was delicious! Didn’t need to do dishes. Just toss the plastic bag
Plaza Grande – Plaza de la Independencia in the background
Music and dancing in the streets in front of Plaza de la Independencia
Music is an international language.
stroll through one of several plazas on the way home
Buenas noches
Palacio de la Música – we need to check this out during open hours. Music is an international language.
Hechos Graciosos (Fun facts)
Alebrijes are brightly colored Mexican folk art sculptures of fantastical (fantasy/mythical) creatures. The first alebrijes originated with Pedro Linares. In the 1930s, Linares fell very ill and while he was in bed, unconscious, Linares dreamt of a strange place resembling a forest. There, he saw trees, animals, rocks, clouds that suddenly turned into something strange, some kind of animals, but, unknown animals. He saw a donkey with butterfly wings, a rooster with bull horns, a lion with an eagle head, and all of them were shouting one word, “Alebrijes”. Upon recovery, he began recreating the creatures he saw in cardboard and papier-mâché and called them Alebrijes.
His work caught the attention of a gallery owner in Cuernavaca, in the south of Mexico and later of renowned artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.
