More Mayan

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25/03/07 - 27/03/07 Merida, Yaxcopoil, & Uxmal

Arriving in Merida we soon found our hotel based on the grid system of numbered streets, each one running as a one-way street for traffic. We wandered the locals market in the Plaza Mayor and soon found 4 large sombreros at a bargain price for us all to wear for a mad night out and Patrick and Rebecca modeled the Love Seats. Although the streets are all named with numbers, i.e. calle 61, calle 45 etc. there are pictorial signs on some street corners based on characters or events from those who had lived in the streets over the years. One picture shows a head with 2 faces representing the house of a known liar and another shows a headless man, after a window fell onto someone’s head decapitating them!

We followed signs in the lonely planet shop to an excellent hammock shop, (which we think turned out to be in the red light district) where I purchased a quality hammock for a bargain price and spent the rest of the day photographing the town and avoiding the mosquitoes as best we could! The hammocks come sized ready for an individual, ‘Double’ for two, ‘Matrimonial’ and then ‘Familiar’ for the whole family to sleep in. On top of that they have ‘King’ for really big families!! I can’t remember if mine’s a double or matrimonial but either way it’s plenty big enough.

Heading for the Mayan ruins of Uxmal, we stopped at the picturesque Hacienda Yaxcopoil (meaning ‘place of the green Alamo trees’ in Mayan). The Hacienda was an important estate during the boom years of henequen production during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is maintained in original condition from its Moorish double arch at the front through to the henequen machine rooms where henequen was produced until as recently as 1984. We walked through the house and grounds and one of the staff showed us how henequen string was made from the individual fibers by rolling up his trouser leg and then rolling the fibers on his knee. It was more interesting to see how white his leg was compared to his tanned face and arms!!

We explored the ruins of Uxmal in strength-sapping heat; the impressive Pyramid of the Magician, unusual for it’s oval shaped steps instead of the usual rectangular shape, the cemetery with excellent carved heads and the high up Governors Palace atop a large plateau looking over the rest of the site. It was a real effort to climb the steps in the heat and then even more of an effort to follow the track off to the phallic rocks that were nestled together like mushrooms growing out of a wood. I’m still not sure that it was worth the effort! We saw fleeting glances of beautiful orange birds and much slower huge iguanas sunbathing on the rocks.

En route to Campeche, we drove through the modern Mayan village of Santa Helena where Jen and Rebecca photographed the town. I was far too hot and bothered and just stayed in the air-conditioned car! The buildings were colourfully painted with pictures depicting the business such as clothes, butchers or simply the Coca Cola logo.

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Photos

Beetle City
Merida

Double Moorish Arch
Yaxcopoil

Yaxcopoil Shrine
Mexican Jesus

Fashion
Santa Helena

Pyramid of the Magician
Uxmal