Yucatan Day 9: Cenotes of Cuzama and Merida

Journal entry:

While walking around Merida the night before we found a tour company and booked a cenote tour for the next day, much to Alejandro's dismay. Alejandro was the constantly smoking manager at our hostel. He told us we could find our own way out to the cenotes for a lot less money than a tour (he was fairly adamant about it) . We decided we wanted a break from finding our own way and booked a tour through someone else. Our guide Jose picked us up and drove us to Cuzama. We asked him questions about everything from Mexican politics to the cost of rent to what the houses were like on the inside. You could only see walls with old doors in the city with no indication of what was behind them. When we arrived in Cuzama we hired a man and a horse to take us on a cart up a funny rail left over from the hacienda days. The first cenote was blue and fairly large. 8-10 motmots flew out as we walked up. Tons of blue damselflies were everywhere and let you get pretty close to them. Unfortunately we couldn't get either camera to really focus on them, so we only go one picture. We had the cenote to ourselves. There were some bats and swallows. The 3rd cenote had a narrow long shaft to descend. It was mostly enclosed with a few shafts of light. After a few minutes we were overrun with Puerto Rican youth. The 2nd cenote we didn't get in the water, it was fairly cool that day. A rainstorm started just as we got there. We watched the rain pour in through the roof. After a few minutes sediment came pouring into the crystal clear water creating a cloud. Aaron and I began eating some 2 day old pastries - one of which had meat and cheese in it. We decided to eat it anyway, but were displeased to find that one end was black with mold after each taking 3 bites. Thankfully neither of us got sick.
Jose took us to a Yucatecan restaurant where we ordered drinks and they brought out 6-8 different dish samples. Civeche, venison, Lebanese fried chickpea pockets, pumpkin seed dip, chips, sausages. Yummy. About $10 for 3 drinks and more food than the three of us could eat. After the lunch snack we were stuffed. We went back to the hostel and crashed for a bit.
We heard about a Mayan dance going on 6-8 blocks away. We were very tired, but decided to check it out since the dance the night before was so good. It was actually a local dance rather than a performance. We watched for a bit then went home to bed.
Note- Jose took us to a cemetery at my request (a perk to being the only ones on the tour) there were many shrines and we learned that 2 years after the bones are buried, they are dug up and placed in a box. The family plot is then reused.


Our driver putting our cart back on the track.


Me going down the rabbit hole!



The horse runs along side the track...I wouldn't be surprised if this is one of the few systems in the world like this, especially that is still being used.





Torrential downpour, it was nice to have a cave to get out of the rain in.


The cemetery



Remains


Back in Merida




I could have done without the powerlines, but there was no avoiding them

Yucatan Day 8: Uxmal, Kabah, Merida

Journal entry:

We booked a tour to Uxmal at 9 am. I forgot to put on deodorant and asked our guides to turn back because "I had forgotten something". I felt bad, but it was 100 degrees and we wouldn't get home until 5. We were only a block away, and there wasn't anyone else in the van yet. We met a couple from Holland and another from Italy. Uxmal was cool, pretty big, but you couldn't climb on anything. There were dogs everywhere at Kabah. We didn't get to eat lunch until 2:30, I nearly perished. The food was ok, chicken with rice, tortillas, sopa de lima (aka bone soup in this case), and flan, which was really good.
That night we went to the central plaza to watch local youth dance in Mayan dress. It was very good and the teenaged dancers seemed to be having a good time. The evening events (there is some sort of musical event every night in Merida) were well attended. We attributed this this to both a strong sense of community and the fact that everyone's houses were probably boiling in the evening.


Aaron at our hostel, the building was huge and had all sorts of funny quirks to it.


Like this bathroom with its huge doors, and the big curving step that halfway cut into two of the stalls. I only almost died twice.


Uxmal, when our guide clapped in front of this pyramid, the sound changed and it sounded like the call of a quetzal. They don't know if this was intentional when the structure was built or not.




These are the face of a god, and the appendages are his nose.


A motmot, we kept seeing these, but this is the best picture I got of one. They are beautiful.


Kabah, so many dirty dogs there. This was a small site, and I was hot and starving at this point.



Back in Merida


From the dance that night, all 20 of the dancers matched. They danced well and always with a smile.

Yucatan Day 7: Rio Lagartos, Merida

Journal entry:

We met Ismael at 6:30 am to go out on the boat. We saw 30-40 different bird species within the first hour. Ismael was very good at identifying both by sight and sound. We walked out to an area where the Phoenicopterus ruber ruber (flamingo) were feeding. They walked away when we got there, but they came back after we hid for a few minutes. On the way back we found 2 horseshoe crabs. Ismael got a fish from a fisherman and fed a common black hawk right in front of us. We saw a crocodile briefly. Then we went to an area that had a salty trench used for processing salt, we floated effortlessly. We also swam in this huge foam pile, it was kind of like being in a foam party. Then it started to itch, so we rinsed off, then painted ourselves head to toe with the unusual mud found there. Our guide called it a "Mayan bath". After the boat ride home we rinsed the mud off in a natural spring just outside town. We had a bus to catch when we got back, so Ismael called in our lunch order and we got our stuff. We ate a quick meal, then Ismael and Chino gave us a ride to the bus station on their scooters. We were off to Merida.
One bus transfer in Tizimin. We had lunch in a restaurant across from the bus station, Erin took pictures of crocodiles and ordered an extra beer on accident. They brought out a turtle shell, I think they were showing off. We arrived in Merida, it was much warmer and busier than any of the previous cities. We meandered the streets to our hostel which was right off the main center plaza. Sunday in Merida was going on - basically a Mexican Saturday market with vendors and fair food. We got mini fried hot dogs w/ french fries, churros and a cup of fruit. We kind of felt sick the rest of the day from all the grease. There was cheap internet downstairs in our hostel. Room was ok, but smoky. We had our laundry done.




Early morning fishing


Aaron took this, it's one of my favorite pictures from this trip.


Tiger heron


Me with flamingos!


Painting ourselves with the mud


Rinsing off


Our guide Ismael, and the lovable Chino


Frigate birds


The hawk with its free meal


The muck we walked through to get to the flamingos




Horseshoe crab helmet!



Jason, we definitely tried these and took this picture for you! They really weren't that bad, the hot dogs with the fried taste of the fries reminded me of a corn dog.


Churros


The awesome bug I found crawling around on my shirt. We happened to be at the hostel, so I had my macro lens, but none of the pictures I took were in focus. It's some sort of leafhopper.

Day 6, Coba

Journal entry:

We got up, our cab picked us up at 7:30 am, and took us to Punta Laguna. It was about 20 minutes away. We got there too late for most of the birds. Our guide was Mayan and was ok, but didn't know all of the birds. We saw red and green parrots, something that looked like a turkey and a Yucatecan Jay building a nest. We also saw both kinds of monkeys, howlers and spiders and both with babies. We also saw coatis and a cuckoo bird. We went back to town and then walked over to the ruins. We rented a bike to go around the ruins, climbed the 2nd tallest pyramid in the Yucatan, there was a great view. Aaron got yelled at for climbing on a ruin. It was funny. We caught the bus to Valladolid, then to Tizimin and finally Rio Lagartos. We bought a sewing kit in Valladolid and Aaron sewed his bag back up. In Rio Lagartos we were hounded to buy some tours, but we knew who we wanted to go to and found him (Ismael). We borrowed their brand new scooter. It was fun, Erin lost a bandana. We found good light and walked around taking pictures. We ran into Chino who took us to his place and showed us his two white pelicans. He also showed us pictures other tourists have mailed to him and shared these special banana doughnuts with us that were excellent. He had a huge virgin Mary in his sitting room. We went back to our hostel and went to sleep.

Baby spider monkeys


We also saw howlers just a canoe ride away


The view from the canoe





We rented bikes to get around the ruins...such a good idea! Especially since we were on a time crunch to catch a bus.


A game court, the Mayans used their hips (no hands or arms) to get a rubber ball through that hoop. The winner (maybe it was the loser - they aren't sure) was sacrificed to the gods. Apparently this was a huge honor, answering my question of why the hell would you score if you were going to die.


Aaron decided he wanted to climb up this building, there were no signs or ropes, but there was a huge group of people on a tour in front. When he came around the side and I was there to take his picture, the group immediately began shouting at him and at me in either Italian or Spanish to get down.


The one picture I got before I was mauled by the crowd. Just kidding. But I was glad we were on bikes for a fast get away.


The second tallest pyramid in the Yucatan.


The view from the top. You can see another structure off in the distance.






Mexican dentist sign




Rio Lagartos was a friendly fishing village. We met some nice people there.