After uneventful travel on Thursday – very thankfully uneventful after Ken noticed that the plane changed course and actually went higher as we approached Cancun. The pilot later announced that he felt we were “just a little too close” to the plane ahead of us, so he circled and made a new approach. Maybe that was TMI, Sr. Piloto!
Unlike most others, all of our luggage was inspected in the customs area – probably because of the multitude of cables, charges, and other electronic devices we were carrying – and we were off to the car rental.
I guess my linguistic heart must be in Mexico as immediately I felt “at home” Spanish-wise. Mexicans are just so appreciative of any efforts to speak Spanish and who wouldn’t love their habit of complimenting on language skills. After telling someone that I had studied in Guadalajara and in Morelia, she asked, “How many YEARS did you live there?” What’s not to love about that question!
After getting lengthy “directions” from a woman who was actually giving us a sales pitch on a new hotel, we were on the road. Ken was quickly introduced to the massive “topes” which make Chicago’s speed bumps look like little pimples on the road and to local drivers ignoring stop signs. We drove the 22 km. to Puerto Morelos without incident and then the fun of finding our hotel in the dark began. Our directions, no lie, said to “turn left under the bridge by the Pemex gas station, drive 2.2 km. until we come to Puerto Morelos, turn right on the first street, go ¼ km. to the security house, then COUNT THE ELECTRICAL POLES ON THE LEFT, turn left at the 12th pole, and follow the as yet not finished road to the hotel!” Well we missed the first street and had a lovely detour through the docks, retraced our steps, found the real first street, drove too far, backtracked and finally found the tiny, unmarked, dirt road.
Stepping onto the sand after parking the car and hearing the Caribbean waves just feet away made the adventuresome directions worth it! After speaking with the owner of this small establishment, we discovered we couldn’t open the trunk of our car! We tried everything, the owner tried everything, finally called the car rental place in Cancun and eventually figured out the secrets of a VW Jetta’s trunk. Then came the challenge of lugging heavy suitcases up two flights of uneven rickety wooden stairs….good training for future pyramid climbing, I guess.
This “rancho” is all that I hoped it would be. There are maybe twelve rooms, all with thatched roofs, hammocks inside and on the balconies, maybe 50 feet from the sea with sea views from every window, a netting over our bed, a bird made from artistically arranged towels and flower petals sitting on the bedspread. The tiled bathtub has bird designs and the shower is actually water flowing out of a conch shell – not great water pressure but who cares! NO TV, no sounds other than the sea, no big touristy things at all.
By the time we were settled it was going on 10:00 p.m. and we were starving so we drove back to the pueblo to find some food. Our first stop was the lone ATM machine in this tiny town. Stupidly we said we wanted $200, then realized we had received a whole $20 U.S. You’d think the Spanish teacher would remember that the $ is also used for Mexican pesos! We ate in a small, open-air restaurant on the main plaza – the entire town is just the plaza and a couple of surrounding blocks – walked around the quiet plaza and returned to the quietest place I’ve been in years….just the lapping of waves nearby and the occasional unique bird sound.
We are about to go to the big “palapa” – thatched open aired room – for breakfast and our Wi-Fi fix and then will “plan” our day here. I’m so glad we chose this real Mexican pueblito for our first stay. Waves and birds and quiet for the same price as a suburban Holiday Inn, YES!
Days Two and Three
First things first, we had to do the obligatory walk on the beach on Friday morning. Unfortunately, the wind was about 35 mph and it was probably only about 60 degrees so our first beach walk was done wearing fleece. It was still beautiful! Upon our return it was drizzling, so I took my book to our balcony and settled myself ungracefully in the hammock and read until my book got soggy.
We drove into town and explored for a while before having lunch at “Los Pelicanos”. Los Pelicanos is right on the beach and provides a great view of all the---yes—pelicans. What fun it was to watch them hover over the returning fishing boats and dive bomb into the sea. We had planned to snorkel in Puerto Morelos but it was just too cold so we opted for a glass bottom boat tour to see the reef which is just offshore. The last time I was on a glass bottom boat was in 1975 with a group of students in Acapulco which was very embarrassing as I became very sick to my stomach as we went round and round looking for the submerged Virgin and promptly threw up in front of a bunch of 14 year olds. No such incidents this time!
Further excitement involved making our first cell phone calls, getting wonderful ice cream cones (we watched the guy making the waffle cones), and again hitting the ATM machine. Man, you feel rich when you get all those bills, but when you realize that 1000 pesos is actually only $80 that feeling quickly dissipates.
The real late afternoon excitement was trying to put air in the tires. We noticed that both right tires were quite low so we drove back to the highway to the gas station. Buying gas was no hassle but my Spanish failed for the first time when I tried to get them to understand that we needed air put in the tires. The guy told me they didn’t have any and that we should drive down the road to the tire place. Of course, the tire place was a place to BUY tires not get them filled. By then, of course, we were back on the highway and had to drive a few miles south before we could make a “retorno” and go back to the gas station. After many gestures and episodes of pointing, we finally were successful in getting someone to fill the tires. The funniest part was that we gave the guy $2 American for his effort. His whole body erupted in joy and he scurried off to an area away from the other workers and buried the dollars inside his jacket. I guess we made his day.
I got about $50 in singles before we left and that was the smartest thing to do. Giving a tip in dollars seems to just make people’s days. We also got 5% off our hotel bill by paying in U.S. cash.
After a siesta at our hotel, we returned to town for dinner which we ate at the culturally authentic “Asia” restaurant. Coconut shrimp and egg rolls, anyone?
Saturday morning dawned warmer with blue skies. Hurray! We just don’t move fast in the mornings when we’re on vacation….maybe we never do…..but we were on the road by 10:00 heading on the tollway to Chichen Itza. What an amazing change from my last visit to the Yucatan Peninsula in 1971. A great divided highway with virtually no traffic now can speed us across the peninsula. Great travel comes at a price, however, as the tolls were almost $20.
Along the way we saw the occasional local resident either riding a bike, pushing a push cart, or walking carrying bundles of fire wood. Since we didn’t see any roads to the side of the tollway, it was hard to imagine where they came from and even harder to imagine working so hard just to have wood, presumably for cooking.
After several detours around Chichen Itza we finally arrived at our hotel and quickly decided we may live here! A beautiful hacienda type building, lovely pool in a courtyard and small but very fascinating room complete with arches, stucco and cool little niches and it is incredibly cheap. Did I mention it’s also walking distance to the ruins?
So after a lunch at the outdoor restaurant by the pool, we walked to the ruins and quickly arranged for Raul to guide us. Raul is incredibly knowledgeable and was able to answer all of the deep questions Ken had as a result of recently reading very intellectual books on the Maya. I was blown away by seeing the ruins again and seeing the changes that forty years bring. (This is why I feel it is important to visit Mayan ruins every 40 years!) There were more vendors of souvenirs than there were tourists and people are not allowed to climb or enter any of the pyramids anymore. None the less, seeing the ruins of Chichen Itza still is an amazing experience. As we are getting close to the equinox, we were able to see the beginning of the snake shadow on the “Castillo” pyramid that will appear fully on the actual date of the equinox in March. I was again blown away by the Mayans knowledge of astronomy. Once again I was amazed by the size of the ball court and the difficulty of the ball game….not to mention the carvings showing the losing captain standing holding the winning captains head!
I now understand that Chac is the Maya rain god and the counterpart of Tlaloc the Aztec rain god. He is represented by the upward curving stones on the side of buildings. Chac Mool, however, is the reclining figure with his knees bent and a plate resting on his stomach. His name means Messenger. I know none of you readers who have gotten this far care one twit about the difference between Chac and Chac Mool, but a major confusion has been lifted off my chest and I’m happy!
Today was in the 90’s but it was surprisingly comfortable with a nice breeze. We leave shortly to walk back to the ruins for a sound and light show. Must stop writing to dig through my suitcase for another pair of shoes. I need to develop a different set of blisters this evening.
Tomorrow we’re off to Merida!
Days Four and Five
Sunday morning we left our lovely hotel in Chichen Itza and drove to Merida. The tollway and then the regular highway were just fine…but then we arrived in Merida. What a mess! Throughout the Yucatan Peninsula the majority of addresses are given as “Km. 248 on the Cancun-Merida highway” for example. In spite of buying the Mexico download for our GPS---who, incidentally, is named “Stella”---we were unable to program any of our locations with the exception of Merida which actually uses addresses. (David tried to help us understand that we should program coordinates on our computer at home and then download them to Stella, but we didn’t really realize the importance of that until we got here. Sorry David! You tried.)
Anyway, between our written directions and Stella we figured we would find our hotel easily. Wrong! We missed the first turn inside the city limits and for the next hour all we heard was ‘recalculating”. We were ready to shoot Stella! Merida has a very logical street layout – all numbers. The even numbers are north-south, the odd numbers east-west. HOWEVER, the numbers don’t always follow those rules in the outskirts, it was Sunday and all the streets around the main plaza were closed for Sunday festivities, and everything in the historic center is one way. At one point we were stopped behind a bus for a long time. A policeman approached us and said we had to move along. When we asked for directions he very patiently told us how to make a big square – turning left, then left again, then left again, and once again to approach our hotel. Armed with his directions we felt better, made all the left turns and then driving super slowly still couldn’t find our hotel. Once again we made all the left turns. This time I asked a guy on the sidewalk if he knew where our hotel was and he told us where we could stop next to a small plaza. We stopped and still didn’t see the hotel. I got out of the car, walked around the plaza and after studying every building, finally saw the Hotel in the corner of the buildings on this plaza.
As we prepared to leave the city today, I read up on the directions we had in our book and got directions from someone at the tourist office. Seemed easy – take Street 65 west to the highway. Well, Street 65 is one way east. So we ended up on Street 69 until it ended, made a few wrong turns, did a lot of circling to get back on 69 and FINALLY found the highway.
Memo to anyone contemplating a visit to Merida. It’s a great city but fly there and take a taxi to your hotel!!!
Once the hotel was located, we enjoyed being there. The Hotel Caribe was originally a school, built in the 1800’s, and has a beautiful center courtyard and colonial styling everywhere. Once again spoiled by our hotels on this trip, we were upgraded to a suite – interesting old fashioned rooms with intricate tray ceiling, huge carved door and only about six inches between the end of the toilet seat and the wall – people were shorter in the 1800’s!
On Sundays downtown Merida is total fiesta. The streets around the plaza become pedestrian only and the plaza itself is jammed with carts with everything for sale from clothing to balloons, to beverages, to ice cream, to Panama hats, to toys. In front of the government building were continual musical performances – we watched mariachis who had to have been melting in their heavy suits in the 98 degree temperature and later saw Veracruz style dancing of traditional Bamba. It seemed like every Meridiano was in the plaza. Little girls dressed in frilly dresses, elegantly dressed women, Indian women dressed in the traditional white embroidered huipiles, teenagers in jeans and skimpy tops. We spent a good chunk of the afternoon just sitting and taking in all the action.
As we walked around the buildings that face the plaza, we came upon a government exhibition hall that had a special exhibit of paintings by Dali! So, in the heat of a Sunday afternoon in Merida, we saw a really interesting exhibit of 50 or so Dalis! There were three series – one based on Dante’s Divine Comedy and two on books by French authors. We didn’t have the background to understand the literature, but it was fascinating to see many of Dalis themes and illusions that we are familiar with from other Dali exhibits. One never knows what one will run into!
Our final event of the evening was a “Calesa” ride, a horse-drawn chariot ride around the city. It took us to the Paseo Montejo, a street modeled after the Champs Elysee in Paris, as well as through parts of the city we hadn’t seen.
By then we were so hot and tired that a pizza at the Main Street restaurant in the plaza just outside our hotel seemed just fine!
Monday morning we were back at the Main Street restaurant for breakfast. The waiter suggested we sit inside because there were so many bees. We didn’t see any bees, so sat outside anyway. Well, the instant we opened a jam container the bees descended. We just let the “bees be” – they pretty much ignored us if we just let them sit on the knife with which we had spread the jam.
We stopped in the Cathedral which was built around 1614. The only older church in the Americas is in Santo Domingo. It’s a unique Mexican church in that it is gothic with virtually no ornamentation. There is an impressive huge wooden crucifix in front but no gold, no other ornamentation except for a few statues. The church was filled with sound – Bach being played on the huge organ! After a visit to a couple of stores for souvenirs and gifts, we began our eventually successful exit from the city.
A couple of hours later, we were in Uxmal. We wanted to stay right near the ruins in Uxmal so had splurged on a fancier hotel than we usually use. When we arrived there, the clerk told us we were being upgraded to their other hotel which is right at the entrance to the ruins. So, we got an upgrade on our already personally upgraded hotel. Beautiful, beautiful! We swam and relaxed by the gorgeous pool right in front of our room.
Tonight we went to our second sound and light show. In Chichen Itza we sat on folding chairs facing the “Castillo” – the big pyramid of Chichen Itza. Here we actually climbed up onto a building in the ruins and sat facing the “Nunnery” with other Mayan buildings on our left and right and more ruins visible in the distance. The program tonight was less a history of the Mayas as we heard at Chichen Itza and more of a series of legends accompanied by some really dramatic music.
Now, buoyed by margaritas and some yummy Yucatecan chicken and pork, we’re thinking about our visit to the ruins tomorrow, are looking forward to spending two nights in this idyllic place, and are REALLY glad that there will be only one road to choose from when we leave here on Wednesday!
IF IT’S TUESDAY, THIS MUST BE UXMAL
Today ended up being incredible! We had pre-arranged with Jorge to guide us to Uxmal this morning and our time with him ended up being much more than expected. Uxmal is a site of equal importance with Chichen Itza but has a much more intimate feeling as the buildings are closer together. It was a bonus that there were very few people at the site, you are able to climb onto almost all the ruins and, opposed to Chichen Itza there wasn’t a vendor in sight!
Once we asked a few intelligent questions, Jorge realized we were really interested in details and gave a wonderful tour, explaining everything very thoroughly. Jorge considers himself a scholar of Mayan history and referred often to major works of Mayan history. He also gave us many lessons I can only explain as religious or moralistic. Among his themes were that Mother nature always provides, that many Mexicans are able to be happy in spite of difficult living situations – that money doesn’t buy happiness - , that smiling is so much better than being a grump, that his ancestors were brilliant, that politicians are thieves, that teachers are good. My previous sentences sound ho-hum, but he expressed these ideas in downright poetic ways.
Jorge also was funny. Every time we saw an iguana – and we saw lots – he told us who they were and why. Among others we saw George Bush the iguana, Sadam Hussein the iguana, Marta Fox (second wife of former Mexican President, Vicente Fox) the iguana, Osama Bin Ladin the iguana, and a trio of iguanas named Bill, Hillary and Monica.
Jorge is probably at least 50, loves old American movies he watched as a kid – Tarzan and Westerns among his favorites. His English is excellent as is his singing. Several times he broke into song related to the topic at hand. For example, in the middle of the ancient Mayan ruins Jorge began singing “Raindrops keep falling on my head” when talking about the rainy season. He most graciously helped me up and down every difficult stairway and repeatedly held the car door open for me. The ultimate in graciousness!
On a lighter note, Jorge also mentioned that Mayans like their women round – to provide heat when it is cold and to provide shade when it’s hot!
We returned around noon, had a short swim, lunch and then met up with Jorge again for a tour of four other Puuc ruins which are nearby: Labna, Xlapak, Sayil and Kabah. He rode in our car with us and continued his intelligent narration as he explained the unique aspects of these smaller towns related to their capital, Uxmal. Although we had planned to see these ruins on our own, it was perfect that Jorge suggested he continue his tour there. We learned details and explored areas we never would have found on our own.
On the way back, Jorge asked if we’d like to go into the town of Santa Elena which we had passed. He explained that many of the men of Santa Elena are in San Francisco working in restaurants and sending their paychecks home. Those men never return, but their money makes it possible for their families to build homes that are much, much more elegant than the norm in this very poor town. It was not unusual to see a lovely home right next to a traditional thatched roof hut. The families living in the thatched roof huts don’t have family members living in San Francisco (where there is a tie for the Santa Elena men) and are jealous of them for obvious reasons.
According to Jorge, Santa Elena is one of the poorest towns in Mexico and I imagine he is right. We saw the skinniest cow I’ve ever seen – every rib was obvious – along with loads of super skinny dogs. Animals really suffer during the dry season.
We were very touched that Jorge wanted us to see and understand the problems of a poor village. We know that’s not part of any regular tour and his confidence that we would benefit and be open to this "extra" was very touching.
Wednesday Observations On The Road
We spent almost all of today driving from Uxmal back to the Carribbean coast. Some observations.
- Mexican people, especially Yucatecans, are among the most gracious, kind people I've ever experienced. They are a bit formal but, oh so very warm. They are so appreciative when spoken to in Spanish and just glow when you show appreciation for their culture. I know it's restaurant or hotel employees' job to tell us that they hope we will return, but I really don't think they say all those nice things just because they have to!
- The women's huipiles are gorgeous! They wear a white underskirt that often has decorative cut-outs and goes to near their ankles. Above that is a white dress - just a square necked recktangle that comes to about the knees - with beautiful bright embroidery at the neck and hem. Just about every woman above age 35 wears them, but we've rarely seen them on a younger woman unless worn as a uniform. I wonder if this beautiful dress will die with the older generation. What a shame that will be - besides being lovely, it's the ultimate in practicality in the upper 90's temperatures that are the norm.
- Having driven through many villages today and yesterday I'm also astounded at the almost glowing white color of the huipiles and also of the all white clothing worn by many men. They should be the ads for laundry detergents....but the majority of the village people are doing their washing by hand and hanging the wet clothes on a rope in a cramped yard!
- We elected to return to the coast via regular roads which took longer but provided us with the opportunity to travel through many villages. In every little hamlet we saw palapas - people living in thatched roof huts -alongside modest cinder block homes. Every so often there would also be the much larger and more elegant home. I'm presuming that each Mayan version of the McMansion is the result of a family member washing dishes someone in the U.S. and sending most of his paycheck home. Both of our countries need to figure out fair rules for immigration as well as somehow making it possible for these poor people to survive in their native land.
- Topes, topes, topes. Every single village seemed to have 100 topes (speed bumps). A particularly nasty one that we approached at about 2 mph scraped the bottom of our car, fortunately causing no harm that we are aware of!
- About every fifty feet on the highway there are signs reminding us to use seatbelts, to only use the left lane for passing, to not mistreat the street signs and, inexplicably, telling us not to put any rocks on the right of way. (Even Jorge the guide could come up with no reason for that one!). HOWEVER, there are no signs telling you what road you are on and you must sometimes drive over twenty miles before there is any clue as to where you might be headed. Add that to the fact that every village has maybe one sign directing you to the highway. Usually that sign points straight ahead, you obediently drive straight for a block or so and the road deadends and goes left and right.....with no clue as to which choice is the correct one. Needless to say, we've retraced our steps often!
- Skinny dogs are everywhere! As you go through villages you see dog after dog in the street. As in many countries other than the U.S. dogs live outside and, here, they find their own food also.
- The main type of transportation among poor people is the tricycle cart. The driver sits on a wide seat on a big tricycle frame. In the front is a quite large basket or open area with a bench seat. Sometimes the driver is transporting his family who sit on the seat and sometimes he or she is carrying wood or other goods. What is truly amazing is seeing people on these tricycles way out in the open area far away from a village. They are gathering wood for cooking or plant material to feed their goats or other animals. They work so hard! Regular bicycles are also ubiquitous and, of course, there are cars...even the occasional mini-van.
- Mayan cuisine is not at all like the Tex-Mex food we usually experience in the U.S. Specialities include pork or chicken pibil. Both are served on a banana leaf and have a very mild, very delicate sauce. The meat itself is so tender that it just falls apart. Fresh fish - they never tell the type of fish, it's always just "fish fillet" - is always good. Even simple grilled fish has a subtle hint of lime and is wonderful. We've seen huge wild papayas growing all over, but breakfast brings pineapple, oranges, watermelon and cantelope in addition to the papaya...and just squeezed juice....and cafe con leche! I've had more than one beer (It's a standard joke that I have one beer a year when we are at our friends' home on a Wisconsin lake.) and considerably more than one Margarita. We also sampled a unique liquor made here in the Yucatan - a mix of anis (the licorice flavor liquor) and honey.
We arrived at Akumal while it was still light and actually found the hotel immediately! Not hard since there is one road in to the Akumal Beach. After experiencing five days in the upper 90's, it's really COLD here - well, actually, it's about 70 degrees but extremely windy. Tomorrow is supposed to also be super windy, but the rest of our visit looks like temperatures in the upper 70's and lower 80's. We haven't explored the property yet but we saw the sea, beach, and pool all from our little balcony before it got dark. The idea of lying on a beach all day is quite foreign to us....but we may find it just perfect...especially when we look at the weather from Chicago.
Now that I have alienated all readers from the northern U.S., I will say good-night!
P.S. My meltdown
After writing the above, we went to dinner. Our only choice, without driving off the property which we didn't want to do without knowing our way around yet, was the hotel restaurant. From the minute we entered, my emotions plummeted. First of all, it was so dark that I really did have to use my flashlight "app" to see the menu. After a moment I realized the menu was only in English and, as goofy as that sounds, my heart just sank. The choices on the menu were American food, not a Yucatecan special to be found. Their special Wednesday flamenco show, of all goofy things, was taking place on a small platform. It was, of course, totally cheesy as there wasn't a Spaniard in the group. A few American tourists joined the dancers while other Americans were cheering loudly and taking pictures. The waitor answered me in English when I ordered in Spanish and no staff people were dressed in traditional Maya clothing. It was exactly what many American tourists want, but, to me, it was just awful.
I felt as though I had been forcibly ripped out of the wonderful Mexican culture I have been so enjoying and, right there in the restaurant, tears began streaming down my face.
Throughout our trip we have seen many tourists, both American and European. Yes, most menus have been bi-lingual and we did hire bilingual guides at the ruins so that Ken could have full benefit of their lectures, but everywhere I have been treated so unbelievably well when I've spoken Spanish and I haven't seen any tourists be anything but respectful to the culture and peoples of this peninsula. Being suddenly plunked into a place where American tourists were acting like, well, American tourists just hurt.
The funny thing is we chose Akumal because it is among the least touristy areas along the coast. I simply can't imagine staying in Cancun or Playa del Carmen.
Am I a totally weird, strange, bizarre tourist or what?
This morning the sun is shining, we hear the waves, the beach looks beautiful and we'll go out to enjoy this beautiful spot and I'll just get over my reverse culture shock.
