Wow! What happened? It's 2016

Well we guess that we are going to skip to the part where we ride off into the sunset for this winter in Cozumel.  Although we have no actual way to account for it, our time here has been full of  doing the things we love.  It is amazing to think that we have only been to the wild side of the island once and done just one trip to the Yucatan.  Yet every night, our heads hit the pillows and there is a satisfied sigh as we sink into our nest.

As with last year we left the loudness of Carnaval in Cozumel for quiet, quaint, and tranquil Bacalar. The only evidence of Carnaval here this year was the filming of a popular novela (soap opera).

BACALAR

Carnaval float left over and used in filming the novela episode.

Lights! Camera! Action! The town turned out to catch a glimpse of the leading actors.  Amazing to watch the actors be so animated for the filming and then so tired looking when it was done. After watching for awhile we went home to enjoy our last quiet night before returning to Cozumel.  At 2:30 AM we were sure there was a full scale attack on Bacalar with huge booms and flashes of light.  It turned out that it was actually the last of the filming complete with fireworks.  They were sure working late!

While staying in Bacalar, we hired our favorite guide, Reggi, and Taxi #36 driver Candelaria for a day to visit 3 ruin sites. This last one was Chicanna. This site apparently was a "resort" for important Mayans.  We discovered a workshop there which made pottery. Thousands of shards all over the ground. In the photo are also several orchids which grew on virtually every tree surrounding the ruins. Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands!The site is famous for the serpent's mouth sculpture (where Peggy is standing) which supposedly led to the lower underground world. The pyramids were pretty spectacular. The carvings amazing. The bottom photo shows the noses of the creatures on the corner of one pyramid.

 

Pottery shards and a couple of fallen orchids.

Peggy in the mouth of the serpent. Nice teeth, uh? I mean the Serpent, not Peggy!

Stairway up the building.

Great noses, no?

Part 2 Bacalar 2016

XPUHIL

Xpuhil is a small town near Bacalar and also the name of a Mayan ruin site. Cola de Gato means Tail of the Cat. While visiting the site, we met one of the caretakers, Leon (Lion) who has been volunteering there for 3 years.  What a hoot he was! 

 
Ed, Reggi, and Leon in front of the three towers of these ruins.

Peggy and Reggi in front of the narrow, steep stairway going up a secret passage in one tower.Peggy just hyperventilated a little bit with a little whining thrown in.

 
Reggi, at the top of the stairway, explaining to Peggy that this is probably where the king or queen did their blood-letting sacrifices. With that in mind, we didn't stay long!  

The first building done at Becan was in 550 BC!  It was the capitol of  the province and reached its peak in 600 AD. Becan had a huge moat about 15 feet deep and 48 feet wide around it, It was abandoned in 1200 AD.

 
Some very impressive pyramid building here.

Reggi showing us an Allspice tree that loses it's bark. The fruit (seeds) were used for its numbing qualtities. Maybe before a king had to pierce his tongue or something else!

Unexcavated stairs. The jungle just covers up everything.

From high atop a pyramid, we saw this lady using a wheelbarrow as a stroller.

Peggy comtempating how to scale this building without expending any effort! Or, maybe thinking about her previous life as a Mayan queen.

Huge orchids growing on trees.

More orchids.

March madness

We were happy to be invited by our friends, Edwin and Mariana, the other day to a party at their family house in Cedral.  We're sure we talked about Cedral before but the story intrigues us.  Who knows, maybe the story may have changed sinced the last time we relayed it.  Cedral is about 15 miles south of where we live in San Miguel.  It's the first town established by the Mestizos (people with both Spanish and Mayan ancestries) who were running from the Mayans in the Caste War of the mid 1800's.  We'll digress even further to say that the Mayans were just about to win the war by overtaking Merida when they realized it was  time to plant their crops.  They, being the smart people they were, just laid down their weapons and went home to their frams! And that, was the end of the war. Needless to say, they lost. 

There were 17 original families of Mestizos who made Cozumel their home.  They built their houses in the jungle by Mayan ruins.  This must be a good place, right?  It was and is!  Lots of land to grow crops, lots of water from a huge cenote underground and inland from the ocean where hurricanes do their heavy lifting!

The land and the homes have been handed down through the generations.  The tradition up until recently was to keep these places in the families.

Back to the party.....Edwin seemed to be firm on the time.  Really be there at 4:00 PM (American time) not 8PM (Mexican time) . We did a pretty good job and when we arrived Edwin was missing but his brother,  Roman, was there enjoying some cervesa.  To our surprise and Roman's as well, we had been invited to his birthday party.  Well good, we brought some beautiful mangos, coconut ice cream and, of course, Tecate Light.  Roman seemed a little concerned about the mangos but being the consummate host, he offered us beers and a seat.  When Edwin and Mariana arrived about a 1/2 hour later (really, that's early in Cozumel time), Mariana explained the the mango mystery.

Apparently, veteran drinkers in  Cozumel don't mix certain fruits and beer for fear of getting out of control drunk and suffer a hangover that's guaranteed.  So what to do with the fruit?  After much pondering it was decided that the fruit wouldn't do its voodoo if there was chili sprinkled on it.  The search was on for chili.  Since Edwin's grandma died a few years ago, no one lived in the house.  Edwin and Mariana went through some pretty old jars of mysterious herbs.  Edwin had decided on one that Mariana was sure smelled like some earth.  As she was throwing out the contents of the jar, Edwin remarked that just maybe it was some of Grandma's ashes.  We're pretty sure that she would enjoy the party now that she was released.

After eating the best tacos topped with pork that had been grilled, pico de gallo, and, you guessed it, mangos together with pumpkin seed and cheese/garlic dips and a small walking tour of the town proper, it was time for us to go home.  This just as the party was getting started.  We drove by one of the original houses now owned by Edwin's aunt.  When the gate you see in the front is open, you know you're welcome to come through the house to the back where she's cooking something delicious.    

We took a road and were on our way out of town when we came to a chain stretched across the road .  The policeman posted there said it wasn't an exit.  So we backed up and picked another road that had a gate across it.  The same policeman walked about 50 feet around the corner and  lifted the gate for us.  Nice waves were exchanged and our scene out of Monty Pithon came to a close!

Our friends and neighbors, Chuck and Moni, are always working on some creative project.  Their house is now officially named "Casa des Pescas" because they have a very large school of these fantastic fish they make.  Last week, we were talking about our favorites and they gave us one.  YES!  Love this buddy.

Chuck and Moni do mosaic, Ed landscapes, paints, fixes everything and cooks up a storm.  What does Peggy do?  She loves to Zentangle.  That's it! More than enough.

Bacalar. Fort and Chetumal. Part IV.

While in Bacalar, we ate several meals at a loncheria named El Socio. The population of Bacalar is maybe 2,000 so there are quite a few taquerias but very few sit down restaurants. This restaurant was crowded the first day.  No wonder, the food was good, plentiful and very inexpensive.

Bacalar built a fort to protect itself from pirates who kept coming down into the lagoon and sacking the town. Here's a photo of a gun port looking out over the school (can you imagine going  to a school built on the shore?) and the lagoon.

The fort even had a moat with a drawbridge. It did curtail the pirates, but failed to protect itself from the Indians during the Caste War who attacked from land, not sea.

Peggy looking out for pirates! Actually enjoying the view of the lagoon and the "seven shades of blue" that it's supposed to have. We only counted 5 shades. We want our money back!

Ed trying to ignite a cannon to celebrate our visit. Didn't work.

Here's the real operator of the cannon!

We spent 2 nights in Chetumal, the Quintana Roo state capitol and border city to Belice. Could have reduced it to one, as there is very little for tourists, other than the Mayan Museum below. On a walk around the central market we found this young man selling a strange looking fruit called rambutan. It's hairy looking fruit that you slice around the middle and you then can pop out the gelatinous middle. It's very sweet and good tasting. He gave us one to try and said they came from Chiapas. We bought 1/4 kilo. It has a nut/seed in the middle and it can be eaten or not. Ed saved a couple and he'll try to grow a tree.

The Mayan Museum was a treat. Although almost every display was a reproduction, it did have great explanations (in Spanish and English) for the exhibits.The best display was an interactive one about the Mayan numerical system.  We spent several  hours there.

The museum had great models of all the Yucatan's famous pyramids. We think this one is of Chitzen Itza.

A fresh rambutan!

The fruit inside.

Bacalar. Carolinas, the lagoon and cenote. Part III

Here's a view of the long pier that extends from Casita's shore into the lagoon. The lagoon is fed by many fresh water cenotes and extends for something like 50 miles. Huge! Much of the bottom is white sand making

it a brilliant blue

  

Peggy loved how calm the water was before sunrise.  Ed is taking her word on that!

Outside of Bacalar is Cenote Azul. A huge cenote that is 300 feet deep and several hundred yards across. Fresh water. Not terribly clear- you couldn't see more than 30 feet. But, refreshing to swim, as Peggy is here swimming toward the other side. She decided to stop short of the shore thinking about fresh water crocodiles! There was a platform a portion of the edge and a large restaurant. A cab driver took us and then came back later to pick us up.

This one's for Alex. Here's Gaga using a tree limb that has grown down to and in the water as a monkey bar! Much easier than the ones on the playground!

Peggy and a guide (Gonzalo Gonzalos- yep, his real name!) from the new Green Monkey Hostel next door to Casitas took a pre-dawn paddleboard trip along the lagoon to watch the sunrise. They also visited Black Cenote, which suddenly drops off  hundreds of feet.  Peggy sat down at the enormity of it.

Bacalar. Dzibanche. Part II

Ww visited another amazing Mayan site named Dzibanche. Both Dzibanche and Kohunlich, were very large cities. This is one of the main structures and the palapas cover the areas of excavation/reconstruction. Lots of work going on here as well. This city is complete with a temple, government buildings, upper class housing and even a convention center. We're talking a big site! The lower corner of this temple has been excavated to expose a tunnel that went to a burial chamber. You can also see three previous pyramida underneath. Mayans build over exisiting pyramids. One underneath had rounded corners and the one on top had angled corners; different designs at different times.

Here are workers cleaning a fresco. Some paint still visible. They use several different methods, including brushing with toothbrushes and a cleaning paste.

A security guard at the ruins took us back to where current excavation was taking place. Here you can see a fresco with the original plaster and red paint. Dzibanche, like Kohunlich, was painted entirely in red. The fresco is a continuation from the previous pyramid.

Original fresco with figures and original red paint. Intricate glyphs.

We didn't climb this although Ed really wanted to so that he could address his imaginary people!

A recently excavated area that contained living quarters. Probably for visiting athletes who played at the ball court or visiting dignitaries.

Here's Peggy taking a brief nap on one of the beds. People do seem to think that beds are too firm in Mexico.

This is the lower part of a fresco just excavated the week before we came. The bottom is perfect; original plaster and paint. The top was destroyed when there was a collapse of the higher part of the building. The rubble covered the bottom, protecting from weather and looters.

We were greeted by howler monkeys and spider monkeys. They were not happy when we arrived. The howlers let out huge roars; like a lion or tiger. Pretty scary. They scattered and went into the jungle. We were the last people to leave along with the workers. The monkeys returned and seemed glad to have us gone so that they could reclaim their city.

As we returned to Bacalar, Candalaria talked about his home and garden. He invited us for some fresh coconut milk. After arriving there and introducing us to his family, he put a homemade ladder to a coconut tree, climbed it, and whacked down fresh nuts with his machete. He washed them and then chopped off the tops, leaving a small hole for a straw. The milk was good and refreshing.

Here's Peggy drinking her drink and thinking about perhaps some vodka?

Among Candalaria's plants are pineapples. It's the season for them now. Many stands along the road selling them. Here are a couple of his plants. One is forming the fruit from the flowers. It takes 2 years before a plant produces fruit. We planted some at our house, but they never produced fruit. Could it be we don't know what we're doing?