The end of August - A Mexican Adventure

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The last couple of weeks of August we spent in Mexico. I submitted an abstract about my honours work for the Society for Ecological Restoration Conference in Merida; which to my delight and utter surprise was accepted. We found ourselves planning a short trip down to Ol’ El Paso.

Finally the day came! After a short schmozzle – I left my poster beside Phil’s front door and realised just over halfway to the airport – we made record time getting to Toronto airport for our Montreal-Cancun flight. Hey, in my defence, it was a VERY unsociable time in the morning! Our excitement grew as the plane descended into Cancun and we could make out the distinct junglyness of tropical plants and vegetation! On landing we were greeted with the longest immigration and customs line-up I’ve ever been in; and beautiful humid hot heat... and tropical showers.

Wanting to avoid the touristy crowds of Cancun, we negotiated bus tickets to the main bus station, then onto Piste, a town a kilometre or two away from the Mayan Ruins of Chichen Itza, about 220km inland from Cancun. Proud of our abilities to piece together a few sentences of Spanish, we headed off to get some water, pesos and prepare ourselves for the 4 hour journey. Our proudness promptly vanished when we discovered we had left off the vital ‘primere clase’ – first class bus – and were on the local bus, that stopped to pick up or drop off anyone on the side of the road. I might just mention that we also had cramped standing room only, for 1 ½ hours of the trip. It wouldn’t have been so bad if we hadn’t been in transit for 12 hours already, had more than a few hours sleep and weren’t suffering a minor case of culture shock after coming from the luxury of Canada. Things were just not as ‘polished’ as they are at home or in Canada - I’ve gotta also add that my eyes lit up and I could hardly wait to experience it all and soak it all in. 5 ½ hours later we reached Piste, where we downed a cerveza and promptly crashed out for 9 hours.

Now I am in no sense of the word, a tall person. On that bus trip, I felt the tallest I have ever been in my life! The people of the Yucatan Penninsula are something like 60-70% Mayan, beautiful dark brown skin, dark brown hair and lovely round faces. But also short, with the majority of women only reaching my shoulder height! I can only imagine that Brad felt like a giant!

In the morning we were greeted with the humid heat of the tropics and a short tropical downpour. We had our first heuvos a la Mexicana and heuvos rancheros, bought 4 bananas and a pink grapefruit for 5 pesos (less than 50c) and headed off to the ruins. Wow – how extraordinary, the ruins were incredible (so were the number of tourists there by 11.30am). The grand pyramid, the observatory, the sacred walkway to the sacred cenotes... the ball court. Carvings and remnants of the painted frescos on the temples and palaces. The jungle surrounding it all. Just imagining what life would have been like back in the day. I can’t describe that day very well... we were adjusting to the heat and the humidity, really just overwhelmed and loving the different world that we had entered.

We caught the first class bus to Merida – wow, talk about luxury, worth the extra 3 or 4 dollars each. Hightailed it to check in at our hostel, right in the middle of town near the grande plaza.

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