JCollins

Celestum and Flamingos This is a nice day trip. The guide explained the flamingos. They fly down from Canada to breed. They eat 12 hours a day. They are shallow water feeding birds. The flamingo mates for life and has one egg per birth. They generally mate twice each winter. We went on the trip with two couples from Arkansas. The couples were friendly and one of the guys was a very knowledgeable fisherman. Both of the guys were lawyers.... read more

Why Merida 1. There are Catholic Churches everywhere. Across the street there is one, down half a block. Beautiful Santa Lucia is a few blocks away, the first Cathedral built in the Americas, half a block from the hotel. 2. Every 2 or 3 blocks is a park - All the parks have Wi-Fi 3. Great music 4. Great people 5. Cheap living; a really good hotel room for 2 is 50.00 to 60.00 US$, a single is 38.00 US$. A good Mexican hotel is 10 to 30 per cent cheaper. 6. Great Food. It is all delicious but it is also a little different, different cuts and different spice combinations. 7. Great Museums and Art Schools. There are 3 or 4 within a block of this hotel. Museum Mundo Maya will blow your mind. 8. ... read more

Compeeche If you like the beach, I strongly recommend Compeeche. It is the capital of Compeeche state and about a fourth the size of Merida at a little over 200,000. The beach is about 5 K long. In the center is the old fort. They recommend you do not swim because of the strong undercurrents. It is a short 2 hour bus ride to Compeeche, about 180 K.... read more

Uxmal – Kabah We took a day trip to Kabah and Uxmal. We were blessed with an excellent guide. Kabah was the ceremonial or religious center for this tribe of Mayans. It is only 4% excavated and it is still big. The tribe controlled about 170 Mayan villages in this valley. The valley has very fertile soil. Outside the valley, the trees are only about a third the size they are in the valley. Uxmal is huge and only 5% excavated. It was the government center for the trip. The major monuments where built over the former monuments five times over 271 years. Uxmal even had a University. The Mayan civilization was family based and very hierarchical, much like Europe. There was little or no merit based hierarchical movement. On the trip we met a delightful ... read more

Comments Mexico is so interesting and different. One of the surprises was Mexican wrestling on TV. At the Grand Hotel there are no English language TV channels, but with Mexican wrestling, you just sit back and enjoy the show. It would put Jessie the Body Ventura to shame. It is men wrestling men, women wrestling women and mixed wrestling. Many of the wrestlers wear masks. Maybe they do not want their mothers to see them. One I loved was the male bad guy beating the hell out of the good guy. The bad guy knocks out the referee and then the good guy drop kicks the bad guy and knocks him out. The good guy falls out of the ring and is hugged by a lady wrestler. She then kicks the hell out of him, knocks ... read more