Tuesday, February 22, 2011

#25: So What's There to Do in the Yucatan?

Buenas, y'all!

So, as you know, I've been in Mexico for 11 days.  From Sunday the 13th to Wednesday the 16th of February, my classmates and I packed only one backpack each and loaded into a 15 passenger van with our professor, her husband and our tour guide David (who was also the van driver!).

The very first day, we went to the ruins at Chitzen Itza.  It was very fascinating to see the giant pyramids and learn how they aligned with the stars and various astronomical events...  the steps where people were sacrificed to their gods...  the game courts where teams played for honor and sport.  After the exploration, we went to a cenote, which is basically a lagoon fed by a natural underground river.  Gorgeous!!  We got to swim in the cenote, which was quite refreshing after a long day of walking around ancient sites.  That night, we retired at a hotel in Valladolid.

The unrestored side of Chitzen Itza.  Under the grass you can see the ruins of more of the temple underground.

The top of the sacrificial monument.  Despite what you may have seen in the movie Apocalypto, the bodies weren't thrown down the stairs after sacrifice.  In fact, they were honored by having a likeness of each sacrifice carved into a pillar below.


The Royal Observatory.  It was found perfectly intact, but the excavators must have left a piece of metal inside, because it's been hit by lightning--twice--which destroyed half the dome.

Looking down into the cenote... you can see people climbing the stairs to jump in from the highest step.  (There was also a ladder to climb into the water for those of us with less bravery.)

Looking up from the cenote, back to the surface

That was Sunday.  Monday we went to Tulum, which is another set of ancient ruins on a cliff overlooking the ocean--so beautiful!  Tulum was an actual town, so we could see the outlines of houses and temples instead of just giant monuments.  After exploring there, we descended down the cliff (with stairs of course) to the beach and had a great time splashing in the waves and relaxing on the sand.  We had lunch in a gift shop/restaurant/strip mall (what a mashup!), then went to Playa del Carmen.  I was really excited for Playa del Carmen at first, but when I got there I was kind of disappointed.  It's pretty much a tourist trap...  tons of shops with souvenirs and jewelry at exorbitant (tourist) prices... hotels and resorts...  even the beach was crowded and not as pretty as the one at Tulum.  If you're looking for a little piece of America in Mexico, I'd say hit up Playa del Carmen.  But if you want a more authentic experience, go elsewhere.

Tulum:  I believe this was the royal palace?

The beach at Tulum was amazing! (No photoshop needed.)

For the next two nights we stayed in a small town called Puerto Morelos.  Tuesday morning we had a great time snorkeling on the coral reef (Mexico has the 2nd largest coral reef in the world, after Australia's Great Barrier Reef).  I'd never been snorkeling before, mostly because I hate having my face submerged in water (the only reason I don't swim!).  But once I got the hang of using the snorkel tube to breathe, I loved it!  It was like a beautiful underwater garden...  we saw different types of coral, barracudas, tons of fish, a stingray, a little lobster and someone even spotted a sea turtle!




One of our snorkeling guides holding a stingray!

(All snorkeling pics courtesy of Ben B. and his underwater camera.)

After snorkeling, we were all pretty laid back for the rest of the day... some of us hung out on the beach behind the hotel, but once it got cloudy we all returned to our rooms and took siesta time.  That night we had dinner together in town.

Wednesday morning we packed up and went to Ek' Balam, the last set of ruins we would see on the trip.  At Ek' Balam, we were able to actually climb the monuments and take pictures.  One of the coolest things there was a giant pyramid with original Mayan stucco sculptures.  For some reason the Mayans built a wall in front of the sculptures that made the original facade of the building, and during restoration the construction crew cracked it open on accident and found the treasured art within.  We climbed to the top of that structure (which was VERY steep--you had to ascend the stairs on a diagonal angle), and the view was amazing!  You could see the jungle canopy for miles around.  Climbing down was hard, so I actually crabwalked down on my butt.



The original Mayan stucco architecture--how cool is that?!

View from the top of the largest monument in Ek' Balam

The next stop on Wednesday was to a small Mayan village, where we visited a Mayan school.  The kids there were all dressed up in their finest traditional clothes, and were very happy to show us their (complicated) alphabet system made of ancient Mayan glyphs, their counting system (using the base-20 method), and some of their local dances.  We had a delicious lunch there of homemade chicken soup (that chicken probably lost its life about 20 mins before we came, it was THAT homemade) with fresh tortillas and our choice of sodas.  (Fun fact:  Pepsi is not very popular in Mexico, which makes me sad.)

Our class with the young Mayan students

A demonstration of the Mayan counting system. Black bean dots are 1 and green rods are 5. Each square represents a placeholder (1, 10, 100, 1000).

Finally, we drove back to Merida and to the Hotel Caribe, where we first stayed when we arrived in Mexico.  We all waited for our host moms to meet us there, and that's how I met Mama Mili!  She was just as excited to meet me, because the other students met their host moms before I arrived.

As for this week:  on Friday, the 18th, we went to the beach at Progreso, which is a 20 min (air-conditioned!) bus ride away.  It's the beach where all the locals go, so it's very peaceful without many tourists.  There's a giant flea market there and great shopping, not to mention a yummy restaurant on the water that is famous for its appetizers.  I tried octopus cooked in its own ink (not bad!) three types of calamari (squid, but not fried here), ceviche (which is sort of like a cold mexican sushi salad), and pollo (chicken) pibil, which is a method of cooking the meat...  it's marinated in sauces, then wrapped in banana leaves and roasted.  Very yummy!

Look at all those appetizers! Octopus in its own ink, a lime potato dish (middle), black beans (in the bowl), ceviche (back right), and two of the 3 types of calamari

My lunch: the pollo pibil with black beans and pico de gallo.  The orange was bitter and was only to sprinkle juice on the chicken.

Friday evening, the class and I went to a popular nightclub down the street from my homestay.  Dancehalls and clubs are very popular with the young people in Mexico.  At the one we went to (Club Tequila), ladies pay 80 pesos ($8) and guys pay 100 pesos ($10) to enter, but there are free unlimited drinks and a giant dance floor.  At the door, you receive two tickets--you take one and the bouncer takes the other.  When you're ready to leave, you show your ticket and give a tip to the waitstaff and exit.  For a group of our size (10 people), they asked for a tip of about 500 pesos, or $50--we easily chipped in $5 each.  So, $13-$15 for unlimited drinks and music?  Could be worse.

Saturday morning some of us met on the Paseo de Montejo, which is one of the main scenic avenues in town.  It has sprawling, Spanish Victorian houses and many businesses, as well as a very cool monument showing the history of Mexico.  We also went to the Anthropology Museum (Museo de Antropología) and looked at some of the exhibits there.

Part of the monument showing the history of Mexico. Took 30 years to complete!

The twin houses of Paseo de Montejo. The two wealthiest families in Merida own these.

On Sunday, most of us met again downtown, at the cathedral, to see Domingos en Merida, which is a weekly street fair in the main square.  Dozens of local artisans and vendors have little booths where they sell amazing souvenirs, clothes, jewelry... everything, for great prices!  Bargaining is acceptable there.  There was also some live music playing, and a bounce house for little kids.  Street vendors had food carts with lunch and snacks available for purchase.  It was nice to see what seemed like the whole city shopping, having ice cream and churros and enjoying the beautiful day.  I plan to go back at least one more time while I'm here.

It's crazy to think that I've been here almost two weeks and yet I've done so much!  There's still much more of the city left to explore in my spare time.  I'm now a pro at taking the bus, but navigating the city is hard--let me tell you why.

Each neighborhood (grand scale), or district, in Merida has its own name and its own numbering system for the streets.  Generally, streets going north to south have even numbers, while streets going east to west have odd numbers.  Only major streets have names--the street that my homestay is on, for instance, is Avenida Campestre, in the district of Campestre.  When you're looking for an address, you get the number of street it's on, the building number, and what two streets it's between.  Example:  the house where we have class is on Calle 49 (calle means street), between Calle 52 and Calle 54, in el Centro (the downtown district).  If I told a taxi driver "Calle 49, between 52 and 54" but didn't tell him what district, I could end up in a COMPLETELY different part of town than I wanted.  Not to mention that some of the streets have subnumbers--56a, 17b, etc--if the street splits into a smaller drive.  This happens a lot in residential neighborhoods, where let's say Calle 3 is the main street in a subdivision-type group of houses.  Calle 3a would be a drive with a few houses for say, 2 blocks, before Calle 5 (because Calle 4 would intersect with them, don't forget!).  In my district, Calle 3 actually has like 8 sub-streets--all the way to Calle 3h--that all run no more than 4 blocks in length through residental zones.  Having my classmates come visit is VERY tricky, because of the confusing street names and numbers... Usually I have them meet me at Costco, which is 3 blocks away, and walk them back to my house.

On the bus!  All the buses are standard shift, which is scary when the bus driver is talking on the phone or is speeding through a yellow light while traffic is slowing down ahead.  The red box, which is not on all models of buses, allows people with discount cards to swipe electronically.  Each bus has some of its major destinations on the front windshield.  In order to ride the bus, you stand on the sidewalk and hail it like you would a taxi, but if the bus is full (or the bus driver doesn't want to switch lanes), sometimes the bus will pass you by.  There's usually another one within 5-10 minutes.

My bus at the changing point downtown.  Everyone on the bus gets off, and other people who want to head north to my neighborhood and beyond get on.  Buses here are red, yellow, green, and white... the green and yellow, and occasionally red, pass by Costco (my bus stop).  There are also 15-passenger vans that act as minibuses around town too.

Have I pumped up Merida enough yet?  I hope so!  I think it's a great city to visit or take your family on vacation.  It's not too congested or too touristy, yet there are tons of attractions in and around the city to make your time here worthwhile.

PS:  As usual, I have open albums on Facebook with all of my pictures--nearly 400 so far!  Here's Album 1 and Album 2.

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