My travels
I've been traveling around the Yucatan a whole bunch. This is my description of all the trips I've taken with a whole bunch of pictures. Mayan ruins, pelicans, beaches, sunsets, abandoned factories, and flamingos -- something for everyone!
Uxmal and an ex-henequinera
Our first day trip out of Merida was to a really cool ruins site called Uxmal not too far away. All the kids from my program went, along with Diana, our fantastic program director, and Paula, an architecture professor who specializes in ancient architecture. Here's the big pyramid at Uxmal:
Well, apparently Google isn't letting me wrap text around an image. That's annoying. Anyway, this was really interesting! I learned a whole bunch about how archeologists reconstruct ruins. If you can see in the picture, there almost seem to be vertical stripes running up and down the pyramid? That's because archeologists intentionally make the plaster visible where they've done reconstruction so people know what's "new." Also, Mayan pyramids are built around each other -- there's several more pyramids inside this big outer one. You couldn't climb this one, but there was one that you could on the other side of the ruins. Despite my fear of heights...
I climbed up to the top! I was pretty much the sorest I have ever been in my life the next day, partly because I practically ran up a 60 degree angled set of stairs and partly from being super tense about it while I did it. The Yucatan is seriously pancake flat (flatter than Minnesota, maybe not quite as flat as Iowa but getting there), so pyramids are the tallest things around out here. In the city, there are probably some buildings taller than these pyramids, but they are not really in to huge skyscrapers in Merida as far as I can tell.
After we left Uxmal (the letter "x" in Mayan words is pronounced like a "sh"), we went to a local restaurant and had super amazing food. The limeade (which is called limonada because "limón" means lime -- I'm not sure if it also means lemon but I don't think so) here is AMAZING, we had great guacamole, and then I got this local Mayan dish called poc chuc, that's a bunch of smoky grilled pork with avocado and onion and other vegetables that I didn't eat. I have no pictures from this event.
In the afternoon, we went to an ex-henequinera. Henequin, which is apparently called "sisal" in English but I've never heard of that so I'm just going to go with henequin, was the basis of the Yucatecan economy in the 19th and early 20th century. It was used to make rope until petroleum-based alternatives came into prominence. The henequinera (which pretty much just means "henequin factory") is now kind of a museum. It's an interesting mix of colonial Spanish and post-Independence Mexican architecture. Here are some pictures.
Ek Balam and Isla Holbox
Our next trip (which I believe was the following weekend, actually) was a full weekend trip after our first week of classes. We first went to Ek Balam, another Mayan site that's about 3-4 hours away from Merida, and then to Isla Holbox, which is about another 3 hours from Ek Balam, including an hour-long ferry ride. Let's start out in Ek Balam.
Ek Balam is a pretty freaking cool place. It means "Black Jaguar" in Mayan, and it's been fairly well restored. There's a double wall surrounding the main site, which indicates that it was something of a fortified city. Lilia, an archeology professor, came along to explain this time. She told us that the part of the site we can see today -- the big stone buildings and such -- wasn't really the part where most people lived. The farmer class lived outside the double wall, in huts that were mostly made of biodegradable materials and as such aren't around these days. Lilia told us that it is generally thought that farmers could come in on market and holy days to sell their goods and participate in religious events. This pyramid (which I also climbed) is called the Acropolis.
There are awesome sculptures under the awnings, but they are made of limestone, old, and kind of fragile and there are concerns about their durability in excessive rain. Here's some pictures of what's under the awnings.
This opening is intended to look like a snake's mouth. There's a lot of symbolism I don't completely understand around pyramids, but I believe (please correct me if you have better information) that they are thought to be a connection to the underworld (which is simply another plane of existence, and not any sort of hell). It is very symbolically strong for important people to be seen walking out of a snake's mouth. Ditto jaguars:
This is the carving at the top. Generally, this was really awesome to look around.
When we left Ek Balam, we headed off to Isla Holbox (again, that's hol-BOSH, not hol-BOKS). We take all our program trips, by the way, in an 18 person van that the program hires. We had to leave the bus at the docks, however, to take an hour-long ferry ride into a ridiculously dark sky towards the island. It was completely pouring when we got there, which turned all the streets, which are made of white clay, into a giant puddly soup. We took bike taxis to the side of the island our hotel was on, which was cool and muddy. We had lunch at the hotel restaurant and then went out on the beach once it stopped raining. A few other people and I got in the water, even though it was cold -- the water was actually warmer than the air once we got used to it.
We also walked around the town some. There was an adorable dessert cafe where I got a nutella crepe and hung out with some other girls in my program for a while. We also stopped at a jewelry stand in the central plaza where I got a fantastic necklace -- it's a round piece of obsidian with a sun carved on it. Then I walked back to the beach to check out the sunset.
The next day was much clearer, but still kind of chilly for the beach, by which I mean it was like 65-70 oh boo hoo poor us. I went for a walk on the beach and did my reading standing in the ocean before we had to head out. Isla Holbox is famous for being a good place to see whale sharks, which seem to be gorgeous based on pictures, but 1) we were there out of season and 2) they don't come near the shore and we didn't leave the shore. Still a completely amazing trip. I decided that I am in love with pelicans.
Amazing.
Progreso
Progreso is a small ocean-front town about a 30 minute bus ride north of Merida. I don't have any pictures from there, but I am sure I will go back. It's very convenient to get to for an afternoon. Generally, the standing plan of our program is to go there after our group class on Friday mornings, but it has rained the last two weeks. There are many pelicans, being awesome. We got to watch them fight over fish and dive straight at the water. Other people got very cheap beers (it's 11 pesos for a Sol, the popular brand here, which is about 80 cents) and we generally had an awesome, relaxing time. I got a very nice blue purse that I then spent several days washing the dye out of. I still can't wear it when it's raining for fear of staining my clothes. The point is that Progreso is very pretty and convenient.
Celestún
Celestún is awesome. So awesome. I went with a few friends last weekend and I'm going back tomorrow and Monday, because it is amazing. It's a 2.5 hour bus ride from downtown Merida, which we barely caught as it was leaving the station. Once we got there, we picked out a boat tour to take around the area. It was pretty amazing. We were able to do a cheap one because we didn't need it to be in English. First we went to look at this "petrified" forest, where the mangrove barrier broke in a hurricane, flooding the area with salt water. The trees died, but their trunks are still there. It is pretty cool looking:
After that, FLAMINGOS! Flamingos are incredible. I am so amazed by them. They were standing in the water, so I couldn't tell if they had their legs folded up or not, but they are just so amazingly shaped. They kind of run on the water when they are getting started flying. When they're flying, they are this almost straight line, bent slightly into an upside-down U with their wings at the top. This is the greatest picture in the history of the world:
But that wasn't all! After the flamingos, we went into a mangrove swamp and saw this amazing ojo de agua (eye of the water), which is a freshwater spring in the middle of the mangrove swamp. It is ridiculously gorgeous and you're allowed to swim it in. We were pretty sad to not have our bathing suits on, but next time I go (tomorrow) I will be prepared. The water was incredibly clear and warm and full of fish.
Seriously, how gorgeous? Other exciting things about this trip: I ate fish for the first time! I thought it was OK. My piece mostly tasted like fried. Shrimp on the other hand is still freaking gross. Baby steps. After eating, we hung out on the beach and looked at the jewelry local women make. The bus ride back took a ridiculously long time, which was kind of a bummer, but it was still a fantastic day and I'm super excited to go back.
Whew! Those are my trips. Let me know if there is any topic you are particularly interested in hearing about!
Uxmal and an ex-henequinera
Our first day trip out of Merida was to a really cool ruins site called Uxmal not too far away. All the kids from my program went, along with Diana, our fantastic program director, and Paula, an architecture professor who specializes in ancient architecture. Here's the big pyramid at Uxmal:
Well, apparently Google isn't letting me wrap text around an image. That's annoying. Anyway, this was really interesting! I learned a whole bunch about how archeologists reconstruct ruins. If you can see in the picture, there almost seem to be vertical stripes running up and down the pyramid? That's because archeologists intentionally make the plaster visible where they've done reconstruction so people know what's "new." Also, Mayan pyramids are built around each other -- there's several more pyramids inside this big outer one. You couldn't climb this one, but there was one that you could on the other side of the ruins. Despite my fear of heights...
I climbed up to the top! I was pretty much the sorest I have ever been in my life the next day, partly because I practically ran up a 60 degree angled set of stairs and partly from being super tense about it while I did it. The Yucatan is seriously pancake flat (flatter than Minnesota, maybe not quite as flat as Iowa but getting there), so pyramids are the tallest things around out here. In the city, there are probably some buildings taller than these pyramids, but they are not really in to huge skyscrapers in Merida as far as I can tell.
After we left Uxmal (the letter "x" in Mayan words is pronounced like a "sh"), we went to a local restaurant and had super amazing food. The limeade (which is called limonada because "limón" means lime -- I'm not sure if it also means lemon but I don't think so) here is AMAZING, we had great guacamole, and then I got this local Mayan dish called poc chuc, that's a bunch of smoky grilled pork with avocado and onion and other vegetables that I didn't eat. I have no pictures from this event.
In the afternoon, we went to an ex-henequinera. Henequin, which is apparently called "sisal" in English but I've never heard of that so I'm just going to go with henequin, was the basis of the Yucatecan economy in the 19th and early 20th century. It was used to make rope until petroleum-based alternatives came into prominence. The henequinera (which pretty much just means "henequin factory") is now kind of a museum. It's an interesting mix of colonial Spanish and post-Independence Mexican architecture. Here are some pictures.
Ek Balam and Isla Holbox
Our next trip (which I believe was the following weekend, actually) was a full weekend trip after our first week of classes. We first went to Ek Balam, another Mayan site that's about 3-4 hours away from Merida, and then to Isla Holbox, which is about another 3 hours from Ek Balam, including an hour-long ferry ride. Let's start out in Ek Balam.
Ek Balam is a pretty freaking cool place. It means "Black Jaguar" in Mayan, and it's been fairly well restored. There's a double wall surrounding the main site, which indicates that it was something of a fortified city. Lilia, an archeology professor, came along to explain this time. She told us that the part of the site we can see today -- the big stone buildings and such -- wasn't really the part where most people lived. The farmer class lived outside the double wall, in huts that were mostly made of biodegradable materials and as such aren't around these days. Lilia told us that it is generally thought that farmers could come in on market and holy days to sell their goods and participate in religious events. This pyramid (which I also climbed) is called the Acropolis.
There are awesome sculptures under the awnings, but they are made of limestone, old, and kind of fragile and there are concerns about their durability in excessive rain. Here's some pictures of what's under the awnings.
This opening is intended to look like a snake's mouth. There's a lot of symbolism I don't completely understand around pyramids, but I believe (please correct me if you have better information) that they are thought to be a connection to the underworld (which is simply another plane of existence, and not any sort of hell). It is very symbolically strong for important people to be seen walking out of a snake's mouth. Ditto jaguars:
This is the carving at the top. Generally, this was really awesome to look around.
When we left Ek Balam, we headed off to Isla Holbox (again, that's hol-BOSH, not hol-BOKS). We take all our program trips, by the way, in an 18 person van that the program hires. We had to leave the bus at the docks, however, to take an hour-long ferry ride into a ridiculously dark sky towards the island. It was completely pouring when we got there, which turned all the streets, which are made of white clay, into a giant puddly soup. We took bike taxis to the side of the island our hotel was on, which was cool and muddy. We had lunch at the hotel restaurant and then went out on the beach once it stopped raining. A few other people and I got in the water, even though it was cold -- the water was actually warmer than the air once we got used to it.
We also walked around the town some. There was an adorable dessert cafe where I got a nutella crepe and hung out with some other girls in my program for a while. We also stopped at a jewelry stand in the central plaza where I got a fantastic necklace -- it's a round piece of obsidian with a sun carved on it. Then I walked back to the beach to check out the sunset.
The next day was much clearer, but still kind of chilly for the beach, by which I mean it was like 65-70 oh boo hoo poor us. I went for a walk on the beach and did my reading standing in the ocean before we had to head out. Isla Holbox is famous for being a good place to see whale sharks, which seem to be gorgeous based on pictures, but 1) we were there out of season and 2) they don't come near the shore and we didn't leave the shore. Still a completely amazing trip. I decided that I am in love with pelicans.
Amazing.
Progreso
Progreso is a small ocean-front town about a 30 minute bus ride north of Merida. I don't have any pictures from there, but I am sure I will go back. It's very convenient to get to for an afternoon. Generally, the standing plan of our program is to go there after our group class on Friday mornings, but it has rained the last two weeks. There are many pelicans, being awesome. We got to watch them fight over fish and dive straight at the water. Other people got very cheap beers (it's 11 pesos for a Sol, the popular brand here, which is about 80 cents) and we generally had an awesome, relaxing time. I got a very nice blue purse that I then spent several days washing the dye out of. I still can't wear it when it's raining for fear of staining my clothes. The point is that Progreso is very pretty and convenient.
Celestún
Celestún is awesome. So awesome. I went with a few friends last weekend and I'm going back tomorrow and Monday, because it is amazing. It's a 2.5 hour bus ride from downtown Merida, which we barely caught as it was leaving the station. Once we got there, we picked out a boat tour to take around the area. It was pretty amazing. We were able to do a cheap one because we didn't need it to be in English. First we went to look at this "petrified" forest, where the mangrove barrier broke in a hurricane, flooding the area with salt water. The trees died, but their trunks are still there. It is pretty cool looking:
After that, FLAMINGOS! Flamingos are incredible. I am so amazed by them. They were standing in the water, so I couldn't tell if they had their legs folded up or not, but they are just so amazingly shaped. They kind of run on the water when they are getting started flying. When they're flying, they are this almost straight line, bent slightly into an upside-down U with their wings at the top. This is the greatest picture in the history of the world:
But that wasn't all! After the flamingos, we went into a mangrove swamp and saw this amazing ojo de agua (eye of the water), which is a freshwater spring in the middle of the mangrove swamp. It is ridiculously gorgeous and you're allowed to swim it in. We were pretty sad to not have our bathing suits on, but next time I go (tomorrow) I will be prepared. The water was incredibly clear and warm and full of fish.
Seriously, how gorgeous? Other exciting things about this trip: I ate fish for the first time! I thought it was OK. My piece mostly tasted like fried. Shrimp on the other hand is still freaking gross. Baby steps. After eating, we hung out on the beach and looked at the jewelry local women make. The bus ride back took a ridiculously long time, which was kind of a bummer, but it was still a fantastic day and I'm super excited to go back.
Whew! Those are my trips. Let me know if there is any topic you are particularly interested in hearing about!