Adios Yucatan!

And to add to our Yucatan experience, there was the music and the dances! All the time, everywhere, for people of all ages, local and tourists! Viva la musica! Viva Merida!

You can se it all live on this VIDEO: http://youtu.be/HLBnpN0qG10

This photo was taken as we were sipping our last beers in a bar from Merida...after the big Carnaval parade!

                                                                   Adios Mexico!

Last days in Merida

The end of our week in Merida was more relaxed but the heat index was rising...36C in the afternoon! Luckily, the humidity is not as high here as in Cancun but 36C is 36C!!!!

We still had to explore the Merida market and found it during one of those sweltering afternoon...We have seen many markets during our travel in the Caribbean but this one was really very special. First its huge size! but also the produces! it looks so chaotic but it is a really neat place to be!!! We bought super large avocados, juicy mangos and had we been on our sailboat, we could have loaded the ship with amazing stuff!

Walking by the "fish" department, we notice small kiosks serving seafood ceviche; we had a large portion of fresh shrimps in tomato juice with crackers...that's the way they serve shrimps there.

And then we found out that it was Carnaval!!!! Of course, we wanted to experience that.  That is when Merida started to transform itself, with its street being closed for a part of the afternoon, seats and gates installed along the main streets for the parade, and with an equal influx of tourists and sellers of all kinds.

The first parade we saw was the one for pre-school children .... Mayan people are short with the average adult being 1,40m...so you can imagine how small these ninos of 3 to 6 years of age were !!! Difficult to see them in a parade...but we caught them in the hour before the parade when their proud parents were walking with them to the start line...

Oh! by the way, what this little girl in the bottom right picture is eating is called a "marquesitas": a thin pancake or crêpe filled with gouda cheese or with Nutella!!! If you wish to see how they are made, check out the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2vOXybZ0LQ and you will appreciate that to make them when it is so hot outside must be quite taxing!!!!

Excursion from Merida to Uxmal

Having visited Tulum and Chichen Itza, we were wondering if a visit to Uxmal site would bring anything else to our experience and understanding of Mayan culture...but stunning photos of the Uxmal site made us opt for a visit to yet another Mayan archeological site. We left Merida with the ADO bus and followed the Puuc route south of Merida to Uxmal.

Not only is Uxmal set in a hilly region (small hills but which nevertheless offer a relief of the very flat landscape of Yucatan), but its structures are very well preserved and very ornamented.

In this panoramic view, one can appreciate the atmosphere of the site. In the far, is the Temple fo the Sorcerer, dominating the valley.  This temple is so imposing by the sheer size of its structure and by its smaller temple on top, symbolizing a gigantic mask of the rain god Chaac. It is 19 ft x 19 ft but stands out wonderfully against the almost smooth pyramide structure (115 ft high)!

 

The Birds' Quadrangle depicted in the above panoramic shot conveys the grandor of the Uxmal site.The Birds ' quadrangle was so named because birds, mainly macaws, were found to ornate its western side! While birds are alluded as malefic animals due to the damage inflicted to mais culture, the macaw, on the other hand, symbolizes the Sun God.

Below is the Governor's Palace, which is magnificently decorated.Its foundations were laid out in accordance with the apparent east-west movement of the sun!
 

Its ornementation comprises 103 masks of the rain god Chaac along the lenght of the frieze!

Also striking is the undulating body of a snake which continues all along the structure, interpersed with geometrical , mathematical and natural elements. Such ornementation was not sen in Tulum or Chichen Itza.

One of the features of Uxmal that we like so much is the "natural" setting in which the structures are set. For example, it was quite stunning to see the South Group also referred to as Dovecote (so named because of its crenellations) arising from the jungle...and being able to find your way to it!

Merida Impressions

Merida, a town that seems to have appealed to all Yucatan tourists! Upon our first steps out of our hotel, we hear music: drummers have congregated on a balcony near Plaza Grande and practice for the upcoming Carnaval!!! Later on the same evening, dancers spring up on the Plaza de la Independencia to the sound of Mexican music. (Check out our short video with those musical tid bits:  http://youtu.be/HLBnpN0qG10).

We both decide that we will stay here one week rather than 3 days as previously planned!

The following photos are images of Merida that wil stay with us for a long time; the cathedral, the Palace of Governors, the folklore dances on the Plaza de la Independencia, the Plaza Grande, the long illuminated passage to the Museum of Modern Art, and the people of Merida. How often have we been asked to buy shals by these young Chiapa women or for Heiner to try one of those typical guayaberas or for me to get in one of those flowery hipil worn by Mayan women?

And what about street food????? Mexico is supposed to be one of the countries with the largest choice of street food and Meruda is a good example of that...And there are foods that sell better in the morning (gorditas) than in the evening (tamales and pastor). We loved the churros while strolling in the Plaza Grande!

Chichen Itza

Chichen Itza has become a tourist mecca for several years now  It is the best restored archeological site of the Mayans culture and for that reason, one that cannot be missed.

Originally, all these buildings were painted in bright colours, mainly in red and blue and adorned with yellow trimmings.

The size of this site is overwhelming and we spent several hours wandering from El Castillo to the Observatory while admiring the immense "ball game site" referred to as Gran Juego de Pelota to finally get to the Sacred Cenote or Cenote Sagrado, where objects of sacrifices (people, animals and objects) were found at its bottom . 

El Caracol, so named because of its spiral staircase is one of the most inspiring building of Chichen Itza.  From its towering structure, Mayan priests decreed the times for celebrations, rituals, corn planting and harvest depending on star configurations.

The immense ball court was very impressive, as well by its size (it is the LARGEST  in Mexico!) as with the rituals associated with the games. 

The soccer-like game was played by well equipped players trying to get a hard rubber ball through a stone ring...without using their hands. Some carvings suggested that at some points the use of bats might have been permitted. Anyhow, carvings depicting decapitated people suggest that the losing captin and may be his team mates may have been sacrificed! No "negociations of contracts" here...You loose, you die!

And speaking of sacrifices, we finished the visit by a slow walk - it was very hot -to the Sacred Cenote, a huge 60 meters in diameter and 35 meters deep natural sunken well.  This sacred well appears to have been a place of pilgrimage for ancient Maya people. Archaeological investigations support this as thousands of objects have been removed from the bottom of the Sacred Cenote, including material such as shell, gold, jade, wood, obsidian, cloth, as well as skeletons of men and children. Today, it is overgrown with wines and is a rather calm and serene place after the crowds of the main architectural site.

Along with the sites of Machu Pichu, the Taj Mahal, and the Roman Colosseum , Chichen Itza has been declared one of the 7 new wonders of the world.

Valladolid

Adios sea and surf, we are driving inland to Valladolid more precisely. From there we will go by bus to the site of Chichen Itza. Valladolid - or V as we decide to call it because its name seems to be a tongue breaker for us - has a special place in the history of Mayans and Yucatan. A place that saw much violence occuring between the Spanish conquerors and the Mayans. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valladolid,_Yucat%C3%A1n

Valladolid felt like an"real" place, and we liked its pastel painted facades, its busy streets with food vendors of all kind.

And by pure coincidence, we happen to be in Valladolid during one of its most important religious celebration: in honour of the Virgin Mary of the Candles, masses are celebrated; but with music! On our first evening, there were mariachis made music during mass. On the second evening, choirs invited the people to sing along and very very long queues formed with peole of all ages wanting to touch the statue of the Nuestra signora de la Candelaria.

But Valladolid, who has become an important touristic site, was also the lace where we had a degustation of tequila (a distillery exists near by) as well as of Mayan chocolate specialties. We like Chocolate with chillies the best!!!

We admired the quite impressive Templo de San Bernardino built between 1552 and 1560 and found time to taste some Yacatan specialties in the restaurant Las Campanas (left plate is Pollo Pibil and right plate is Longariza, a smoked sausage made in Valladolid).

Tulum

Time to get moving again...we take the 2nd class ADO bus passing by Playa del Carmen to arrive in Tulum at noon. Tulum is located on the Caribean site of Yucatan.

What you see below is the reason why we went to Tulum...to see one of the most spectacular site of Mayan architecture.

After visitng the ruins under full sun for the whole day, we were happy to come back to the village of Tulum.  We really liked the feel of Tulum  and it will prove to be the most fun and easy going place to be of our whole trip. One can eat and any time of the day or night, there are all kinds of restaurants and little pubs, jazz bars and one wonderful authentic eatery where we discovered somptuous antojitos (tappas) and aguas de fruitas...El Rincon Chiapaneco! Every day and night we stayed in Tulum, we went back to El Rincon for more edible discoveries!  Our preferred antojitos were the panuchos!!!

The days in Tulum were wonderful; while our Posada was pretty, we did not spend much time there, preferring taking our breakfast in a pretty little hotel restaurant in Tulum's centre that served very good coffee with huge croissants (Maison Tulum), and then going back to the beach for more swimming.