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Published: January 27th 2008
I know it says this is about Chichén Itzá, but it´s also about Merida, so don´t feel like it got left out.
So yesterday remember how I was supposed to go to that tamale party with the kids in my class? Yeah. Well, they didn´t show up to where we were supposed to meet. So I hung out with this girl Rachel instead. Oh, and a little Mayan man who first tried to sell me cigars and then noticed my necklace and talked to me for like an hour and a half about his traditions and being a mayan and stuff. It was basically awesome. I think what he does for a living is sell his Mayan experience to interested tourists, because he kept offering to take me to sites to do rituals together and stuff. I don´t think I´m ready for that--talking in a very public place is enough for me, but it was still interesting to see what he thought.
Anyway, so Rachel and I were hanging out and enjoying ourselves. She bought a pair of shoes. We wanted to drop the shoes off at her house so she didn´t have to carry them and on our way we saw the most super-awesome-tastic thing ever!. It´s call the Coronation of the Kings of Carnaval (Tercera Edad). Tercera Edad means senior citizens. So it was amazing. There were all these 60ish year old women in vegas showgirl outfits--spandex leotards, tiny skirts, fishnet stockings, feather headdresses and all, dancing, getting down, doing the samba and that like humpy movement. Their hips were going wild. I tell you, their hips don´t lie, even when their older. It was amazing. They were so happy and cute with no shame getting up there in front of 2-300 people and getting down. A few of them did that little dance move where they put their hands out front a little and move their hips back and forth in a small little humpy motion. It was basically adorable.
So anyway, we also found where the bus station was so that we would be able to find it this morning to go to Chichén. We´d all agreed to meet at the cathedral at 8:15 so we could make sure we got there in time for the 9:15 bus. Also it takes about a half hour for the bus to get from my house to the cathedral. Important information.
So when I got home at like 10, because I wanted to sleep a lot, my house mother was having a party. She´d invited over her brothers, sisters and brothers- and sisters-in-law. So I had to hang out for a while with everyone, meet them all and whatnot. It was fun. There was a funny joke involved. It makes fun of Campechans, so I have to tell you that Campeche is the state next to Yucatan, so then Campechans are the people from there. (If desired, you can substitute any group of people for making fun of you desire.) So, these psychologists wanted to do an experiment and they got together an Englishman, a German, a Japanese man and a Campechan. They brought the Englishman into the room where the experiment was and took a rabbit out of a bag. Then they cut off one of its legs and told it to walk across the room. It does, and they ask the Englishman what he concludes. He says "I conclude from this that a rabbit with three legs can still walk." So they next bring in the German, and cut off another of the rabbit´s legs. They ask it to walk across the room and it does. They ask the German what he thinks and he says "A rabbit with two legs can still walk." So then they bring in the Japanese man, cut off another of the rabbits legs, ask it to walk across the room, and when it does they ask him what he thinks. He says, "A rabbit with one leg can still walk." Then they bring in the Campechan, cut off the last of the rabbit´s legs and ask it to walk across the room. It can´t. So they ask the Campechan what he thinks and he says, "A rabbit without legs is deaf."
So after the party I helped my house family clean up and so I didn´t get to bed until 1. That was sad. because I wanted to sleep more, but whatever. So at 7 my alarm goes off, I roll over and all of a sudden it´s 8:15 and my house mother is knocking on my door asking "Kassandra, aren´t you going to Chichén?" I started crying because I was going to miss the bus and not be able to go because there´s no way I could get there in time and I was quite distressed, but because my house mother is a wonderful woman she agreed to drive me so I´d be there in time. I called up my friend Al and asked her to buy me a ticket and that I´d meet them at the bus station. So I get to the bus station and everyone´s laughing. I ask what´s up. Al hands me my ticket and says, "Ok, so I tried to buy your ticket, and the lady asked if I had your id and I said you didn´t, so she had me type in your name, but I forgot your last name so I just typed in Smith. And then she asked if I was related to you and I didn´t want to take a chance so I said I was your cousin, so they wrote on the back of your ticket "traveling with her cousin."" So I thought that was funny, but figured it didn´t matter. Oh wait. They were checking id to make sure it matched the ticket. Oh no, have to think fast so that I can get on the bus. So when they asked for my id, I looked a little shy and said "Well, my last name doesn´t match because I just got married." And then they started singing "Felicidades" (not a song, just a word that means congratulations) and sort of dancing. SCORE! I got through fine.
So after riding for two hours on the bus, we arrived at Chichén Itzá. Sweet! With my student ID I got a half price discount. Considering the fact that it´s now one of the seven wonders of the world, it´s remarkably cheap. My ticket cost the equivalent of $5, and the full price ticket is something like $9.80. That´s super cool. So we went in, and the first thing you see is El Castillo (The big, famous temple.) Wait, that´s a lie. The first thing you see are vendors. The place is entirely packed with them. All of the pathways are lined by people selling stuff. Most of it is all the same, some of it is very lovely, and it´s all nice and useful if you want to buy something, like a tshirt, because you don´t have to go anywhere special to do it. Funny thing though, all day while we walked by they´d say stuff like "One dollar" even though there was clearly nothing for one dollar at their stand. I think they think "one dollar" actually means "look at my beautiful goods, I will give you a good deal." Anyway, they also loved to say "Something for your boyfriend? Something for your ex-boyfriend? Something for your lucky boyfriend?" They ALL said it all day. Also, they´d ask you if you speak Spanish, and if you say yes, they say, "then it´s cheaper for you" Anyway, enough about the vendors, that´s not actually what you guys want to hear about.
So the castillo. Big and beautiful and absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, you can´t climb it anymore since some lady from San Fransisco fell down it and died. I was sad. We next saw this building that has 1,000 columns, some of which represent warriors and some of which help hold up the cieling. We also saw the famous Chak Mool which is 1) much higher off the ground than pictures would have you believe and 2) much larger than pictures would have you believe. Since you probably don´t know, Chak Mool is the place they put the hearts after they cut them out and then light them on fire. It looks like a guy reclining and they put it on his stomach area. We had lunch in the old market, saw the observatory and the ball court. And the cenote. It would be SO easy to fall into that. Oh well. Anyway, I don´t want to bore you all with all the details of what it all looked like, because none of you really care. Point is, I really enjoyed it and it was a lot of fun, but I could really have done without having to tell people I didn´t want to buy stuff all day. We rode the bus back and talked and enjoyed ourselves, and then I bought a book about the Maya I need for a class (big and beautiful, by the way.)
I believe that is all, for I´m quite tired, and this is already a novel as it is.
Tomorrow I´m going to hang out in the market. It should be awesome.
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linda
non-member comment
Glad you had a good time. Glad you took a good American name. You showed good sense about talking in public vs private