What are all these people doing in MY Mexico?

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This part of our little journey entailed a whirlwind of quick stops around the Yucatan Peninsula. In fact, from since we left San Cristobal until we meet our friends Matt and Melissa in Belize we will visit a total of 7 cities and 3 sets of Mayan ruins in merely 13 days. For us, that’s really moving.

In addition to the whirlwindishness, this leg of our trip has been really different than the other parts of our journey through Mexico in several ways. One really conspicuous thing has been how many more tourists we’ve encountered, especially tourists from Europe. Whereas in other parts of Mexico we saw tour buses filled with Mexicans on vacation, now everywhere we look there are buses full of French, Spanish, and above all Italians. This is definitely not something I remember from previous jaunts around this part of Mexico. And it’s definitely been more painful on the pocket book as prices have nearly doubled since I remember (and from other parts of Mexico we’ve visited). Can’t really blame all the tourists for being here, heck we’re here too. I just hope it doesn’t change things too much, and to be honest, it was just a lot more fun traveling around when we had the place more to ourselves.

This leads me to the other interesting thing about this part of the trip. Because we have been traveling only a few hours between each of our stops, there have been all sorts of second-class buses that we could take which has been fantastic for a couple of reasons. One, it saved us about 50% on the price of our tickets. Two, it got us off of the buses filled with tourists and onto buses used by Mexicans who actually live here. And three, it took us off the main highways and through all sorts of little towns that I’ve never heard of, instead. This gave Paul the opportunity to see, albeit through the window of the bus, another side of Mexico, the small rural towns where life hasn’t changed much over the decades with the crumbling little cathedrals, dirt roads, campesinos riding their horses into town, and kids playing contentedly with sticks, that you don’t really encounter when just hitting the big cities and tourist sites. The only drawback to these more scenic bus trips has been the necessity to cross our legs (and our fingers) and hope that we could hold it long enough to use the toilet once we reached our destination—no toilets on second-class buses. Sometimes, this was a little rough.

Now you probably want to hear about where in fact we went and what we actually saw, so I’ll quit with my meanderings. And in hopes of keeping ourselves organized (and the meanderings to a minimum), I thought we might try to write about each place we visited separately and hopefully as we go. We’ll see how that works.

Campeche: I love Campeche. It was the closest city to visit from where I used to work so I’ve been here a few times. Somehow I never get sick of it though. Maybe it’s because it’s so pretty. Maybe it’s because in some ways it feels so unlike other parts of Mexico. One of the reasons for this is because Campeche is one of the few walled cities in all of Mexico. In colonial days, it was a very rich port from which ships would sail full of Aztecan gold and other riches plundered from the natives, as well as beautiful natural dyes taken from the variety of trees and plants nearby. Due to its extraordinary wealth, the city was sacked more than a couple of times. Sick and tired of the pillaging, Spain finally decided to enclose the city with huge three-meter wide walls built from the abundant coral nearby. In addition, two well armed forts were posted on the hillsides on either side of the city and all traffic into the city had to enter through one of two doors. Security was tight, and it seemed to work.

Today the forts, the doors into the city and some of these walls are still standing which makes for a very compact city center. What’s more, the city decided to preserve the colonial character of the town and has enforced all sorts of building codes and restrictions. The result is a stunning little town with all the houses and store fronts painted various shades of pastel hues.

While the town is beautiful to stroll around and look at, there really isn’t much to do. I always remembered it as a sleepy little place, but this time it was comatose. Despite that, we still had fun. We stayed in my favorite little hotel in Mexico, Hotel Colonial. It was once the colonial mansion of a governor of Campeche and the rooms are painted, like the town, in various shades of pastel yellows, pinks, greens, and blues. It’s so cute.

For fun, we roamed the town snapping photos and visiting a few of the museums that are housed in the wall’s bastions. We ate popsicles in the beautiful town square in the afternoon listening to all the birds and ate coconut shrimp and Mexican drinking chocolate to the sounds of marimba music in the evening. But the highlight of the trip was renting a couple of bicycles and peddling for hours down the long bike path that runs for kilometers along the town’s boardwalk, stopping to watch some fishermen and wishing that the water was a little more inviting (the “Swim at your own risk. Water is polluted.” signs put us off a bit).

Merida: Merida is one of the largest cities on the Yucatan Peninsula and as such, functions as a tourist hub with folks heading in all directions, catching buses to the beaches, taking tours of the ruins, or stopping over before long all-night journeys into the heart of Mexico. For us, our stay in Merida was mostly spent taking care of the inevitable administrative tasks of traveling like washing and blogging and stuff that’s much easier here than in other less touristy towns.

Most of the rest of our time was eaten up by my relentless search to find marquesitas, these delectable, paper-thin, sweet, hot waffles rolled around scrumptious, sharp, full-flavored, grated cheese (an unusual combination, but pure heaven) that Melissa and I fell over heals for when we stumbled across them in the Merida plaza years ago. The trouble is I’ve never seen them in any other city in Mexico. Consequently, I started salivating on the bus ride into town and didn’t stop until late in the following day when after hours of searching and following bad lead after bad lead, we finally tracked some down. Mmm-mmmmm! Unfortunately, I’m afraid that after such a build-up, Paul was again a little underwhelmed. I still thought they were pure heaven.

Also in Merida, we did some shopping where Paul got himself a handsome guayaberra (one of those cotton shirts with the pleats and pockets that old guys wear and make you think of the Caribbean) and a fancy box of cigars from Cuba. Since we decided that we weren’t going to be able to make it to Cuba this trip (not enough money or time), then we’d at least buy us some cigars and pretend we went there.

But the highlight of the trip to Merida (other than the marquesita) was watchinh their famous folk dance performance. Merida is known to be an artistic and cultural center and this dancing is their trademark. Ten young couples in traditional Yucatecan attire (girls in colorfully embroidered, lace trim white skirts and tops, and boys in white guayaberras and slacks and high heeled sandals!) dance a series of progressively more difficult and interesting dances. My favorites were a colorful dance that involved the dancers intertwining rainbow colored ribbons around a Maypole and an amazing performance where they danced and spun with trays on their heads carrying full bottles of beer and glasses of water. It was incredible! I don’t know how they did it.

Chichen Itza ruins: The European tour bus phenomenon hit its apex at Chichen Itza. And at noon, as we were leaving and we saw the mobs of tourists squeezing through the turnstiles, we thanked our little stars that we arrived to the archaeological site at eight when it opened. The mob was so unbelievable, that I couldn’t help myself and had to ask one of the little Mayan ladies selling jewelry along the trail into the site if it was always so overwhelming. She started to giggle and said everyday between 11 and 12 the hordes enter and between 2 and 3 they leave. It made me understand a little better why the folks in charge decided to stop allowing tourists to climb on the ruins. There’d be nothing left in a few years.

But what’s still left is pretty impressive. One of the most remarkable structures is El Castillo, which to me is the most stunning pyramid of any of the Mayan sites. And we have to owe some of this beauty to the Toltecs, yet another gruesome civilization of central Mexico whose glory days fell between those of the great Teotihuacan and Aztec empires. Archaeologists believe that Toltec outcasts must have stumbled upon the abandoned Mayan city of Chichen Itza around about 1200 AD and put their own touches on some of the buildings as they made their new home feel a little more cozy (like adding urns to hold human hearts for sacrifice to the existing Mayan sculptures of their rain god, Chac-Mool).

But many vestiges of the Mayan culture still remain at Chichen Itza. El Castillo, the pyramid is a great example of the Mayan’s understanding of the calendar and astronomy (as is the city’s impressive observatory building from which they learned how to read the stars and even predict galactic events like eclipses and such). El Castillo was thought to be built around 800 AD and has 91 steps on each of the four sides which with the top platform makes 365 for the days of the year. It also has 18 separate terraces to represent the 18 calendar months of the Mayan (20 days each plus 5 bonus days each year). But coolest of all is what happens every year during the spring and fall equinoxes. Shadows from the terraces of the pyramid reflect onto the carved serpents along one side and make it appear as if the snakes are actually climbing or descending the pyramid. So cool! And something I’ve just got to see for myself one of these years.

But besides the beautiful El Castillo and the Toltec influence, Chichen Itza stands apart from other Mayan ruins for a couple of other reasons. Firstly, it has the largest and most notable ball court in all of Latin America. The ball game played here was an important part of the Mayan and other groups’ traditions. While it’s difficult to get the straight scoop on the rules of the game (apparently there were some pretty vast regional differences), here’s the gist: Players were on two teams and had to pass a hard rubber ball of about six to eight inches in diameter back and forth as the sun moves, meaning always in an easterly or westerly direction (never north or south as this had grave consequences not only for the sun, but for the poor player who happened to commit such a foul). As if this wasn’t hard enough, these passes had to made by smacking the ball with one’s hips or elbows (although by some accounts players could also use knees or feet—and according to one plaque describing the game at Chichen Itza, players also sometimes used bats, but I’m not sure about that).

The game was over when one of the teams was successful in passing the ball through a stone hoop mounted to the sides of the ball court several meters up. Now again we have some fuzziness, but at this point either the winner or the loser (depending on who you ask) would be sacrificed which was supposed to be quite an honor as those who are sacrificed get to soar straight into the afterlife without having to pass through all nine levels of the underworld. I wonder though if there might be lots of “mistakes” in games where the winners were offed. Wouldn’t it seem that the games would be a lot more intense if it were the losers who were capped, so to speak? Anyhow, the ball court at Chichen Itza was impressive.

Another very cool thing about Chichen Itza is the cenote, which means a large sinkhole. There are sinkholes all over the Yucatan Peninsula due to a massive meteor strike which left a 284 km-wide crater and since then has eroded to reveal a vast system of underground caves and sinkholes. Mayans considered these sinkholes to be sacred not just as a source of water, but also as a more direct passageway to heaven. Therefore, many tributes were made to the gods by throwing sacrificial victims into these deep wells. At Chichen Itza, the cenote is 60 meters across and 35 meters deep (the water level being about halfway up to the top of the sinkhole). And somewhere I’m sure that I learned that if those who were sacrificed into the cenote were able to stay alive for two days they were rescued and allowed to live, but I can’t corroborate that little factoid. One thing I do know for a fact is that archaeologists have found thousands of skeletons and other Mayan artifacts in the bottoms of these cenotes around the Yucatan.

There are so many other impressive things about Chichen Itza, like “The Patio of a Thousand Columns” and the intricately carved buildings which the Spanish curiously named “The Nunnery” and “The Church” (ironic since in actuality these were two of the rare constructions that had nothing to do with god or gods), but y’all can check out the pictures, and I won’t bore you with any more of my long descriptions.

Valladolid: The Big Book of Lies (as Paul calls our Lonely Planet) described Valladolid as a charming, quiet colonial town without the tourism of other nearby cities. Lonely Planet was wrong.

Valladolid was smallish, but it was neither charming nor untouristy. In fact, the afternoon we arrived, we were flabbergasted by the dozen or so tour buses (and hundreds of foreign tourists) that surrounded the town plaza. And because of all the tourists, it was nearly impossible to find a decent-priced meal or hotel. Add to this, a massive thunderstorm that left the streets flooded and uncrossable, and Valladolid was just about as inhospitable as any town we have found thus far. So we decided to screw it and drown our sorrows in the glitz and glamour of ‘Miami Vice’ which was playing at the local cinema. It was a good little escape from reality.

Thankfully, the real reason we came to visit Valladolid, to swim in the one of the many cenotes in the area, was just as magical as we had hoped. We rented bicycles and peddled eight kilometers out of town to the cenote of Dzitnup, a stunning swimming hole inside of a cave. The cave was breathtaking with rays of sunshine spraying in through holes in the ceiling and illuminating the crystal clear turquoise waters. While the first ten minutes inside weren’t as tranquil as we would have liked with Italian tourists making a ruckus splashing in the water and a little Mexican boy shouting at the top of lungs for pesos in exchange for throwing himself off one of the tall stalactite formations. But soon the Italians left and the boy caught on that nobody wanted to give him money to encourage his early demise, and the cave was magic.

To be honest, I was a little afraid at first. Swimming in a very deep pool in a cave which may or may not have been the site of sacrifices is just not something that on the surface seemed real comfortable to me. The water was a little heavy (probably because of minerals) and the air was a little thin and the sound of bats screeching about all added to my trepidation. But with time, we grew a little more at ease and were able to relax and marvel in the splendor of it all. The water was delightful, clear and cool and the stalactites which dove down into the water were just surreal. And believe it or not the sound of bats ended up adding nicely to the serene ambiance of the place.

Playa del Carmen: Six years ago, I fell in love with Playa del Carmen. Back then, it had the reputation of being the less touristy, more laid-back alternative to Cancun. And to me it was heaven. Most of the town consisted of the ten-block pedestrian walkway that ran parallel to the beach and the five or six blocks back from the beach from there. That was pretty much it. It was full of hip bars, delicious restaurants, and reasonably priced hotels. But best of all, Playa del Carmen has one of the most wonderful beaches of anywhere I have ever dipped my toes. The sand is the softest white powder, the water so clear and tranquil that you can see all the way to the sand floor even when swimming past where you can touch. And best of all, there is virtually no seaweed, no fishies, and no other creepy crawly things to rub against you in the water. (Granted, this was the place I got stung by a stingray years ago, but that was at night. By day the sea creatures leave you alone to bathe in the glorious cool waters of the Caribbean.)

However, no town that we’ve visited has changed as much and grown as fast as Playa del Carmen. (In fact, it’s Mexico’s fastest growing city.) There is still the gorgeous beach and lots of bars and yummy restaurants, but the prices now are anything but reasonable and the city has come to give Cancun some serious competition for the package tourist-type.

Despite these minor inconveniences (is it nice to call other tourists inconveniences?), we have positively savored every minute of our stay here. So much, in fact, that we decided to bag going to another ruin site, Tulum, that we had originally planned to visit. Instead, we’ve spent four glorious days here kicking back, relaxing in our hammock, playing in the waves, and basking in the sun on the deck of our hotel’s pool. (Can you believe we actually splurged on a hotel with a pool? It turns out that everywhere we turned hotels were double or more the price we wanted to pay. Our charming little hotel with pool cost merely $5 more than the cheapest dark, stuffy dives. So we splurged. And we’ve more than made up for it by avoiding the tourist restaurants and eating from the taco stands and grocery stores instead. What clever little travelers we are.

And now tomorrow, we’re off again. Lucky for us, in two days time we’ll be sitting on another glorious beach, this time on an island in Belize with our good friends Matt and Melissa. It’s this part of the travels that make up for all the Valladolids, stepping in gum for the twentieth time, and getting the “gotta-gos” on a long bus trip. Life’s good.

Thanks to everyone who has sent us emails and written kind comments on the blog. It really means a lot (and helps with the motivation to write) to know that you gals and guys are following us along on our journey. Sorry if we haven’t been as good at responding. We always plan to write back, but the time in the internet cafes seems to tick by at lightening speed (and our connection speeds are anything but lightening fast). Just know that we appreciate it and are sending you hugs and warm thoughts right back.

P.S. An extra-special hello to Rhiannon and Rebeka!!! and Happy Birthday David!

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Photos

Biking on the boardwalk
Why does this picture remind me so much of Three's Company?

Paul in the best place to be when it rains . . .
. . . undercover and laughing at all the poor fools getting drenched.

The cenote of Chichen Itza
I wonder how many skeletons are at the bottom of this one?

The Observatory
Paul reading up on the astronomical achievements of the Mayans

Comments

[Jordan]

Living through you
Casey, I have really enjoyed reading about all of your travels. I don't know if I will ever make it to a quarter of the places you have been but it has been fun living through your experiences. Thanks again, Jordan (UNCG)