Second week in Mexico
We were glad to get out of hurricane-struck Mahahual, which was pretty depressing, even though our hosts went to such great efforts to make our stay as pleasant as possible. From there, we drove to the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site. We were now in rural Mexico, a very different world from the reasonably well-off tourist hotspots up the coast. On the way, we visited the Mayan site at Becan, which had a good array of structures including a classic stepped pyramid.
I was a bit disappointed with our accommodation. It was quite expensive, and the website looked wonderful, so I was expecting “luxury in the jungle”. Rather, it was a case of woefully inadequate mosquito nets, expensive but less than stellar food, and a grumpy waiter/receptionist who only spoke Spanish. Now, although I’m a linguist, I’ve never learnt Spanish; I understand the written language pretty well, but was struggling with communication in my pidgin creation, which consisted of speaking Italian and throwing in the odd Spanish word! It was also incredibly hot and humid there, and we were kept awake by weird growlings, which turned out to be howler monkeys (pretty cool!). The good thing about the place was that it was well located for visiting the Mayan city of Calakmul itself, set deep in the heart of the jungle near the border with Guatemala, some 60km down a narrow dead-end road. We wandered around for ages, wondering what all the fuss was about, then finally stumbled on a huge pyramid. Once we’d climbed it and got above the trees, we had a fabulous view: jungle in every direction as far as the eye could see, with the odd partially excavated Mayan structure poking out above the canopy. On the way back to the car, Jon spied a toucan, but I missed it. We did, however, see several parakeets, wild turkeys and a tarantula.
From Calakmul, we moved on to Campeche, a pleasant colonial town on the Gulf of Mexico coast. We hadn’t planned to go there, but we were both craving a return to civilisation! It was a lovely place: historic cobbled streets lined with colonial-style homes in a palette of pastel shades. We had dinner at a restaurant overlooking the central plaza with its classic twin-towered cathedral. The next day, we continued to the larger city of Mérida. It too had an attractive colonial-style plaza, and we did a bus tour to get our bearings. However, I wasn’t wild about the place. It may have had a million inhabitants but it felt provincial, was polluted, confusing and rather worn. We had just one night there, rather than the two we had planned, and moved on to Chichen Itza afterwards, the best preserved and most famous of the Mayan sites in the area. The hotel there was a pleasant surprise: it was really cheap, yet it was friendly and had a couple of pleasant sun decks and swimming pools. On the first day, we visited some caves with more stalactites and stalagmites, where Mayans had left hundreds of jars as offerings to the gods. It was a bit spooky, especially since it was inhabited by a good number of bats. In the evening, we went to the sound and light show at the great pyramid, saving our more extensive visit of the site for the next day. We went early, to get a head start on the coach-loads of visitors from Cancun. There were lots of structures dating from around 800 to 1200 A.D., including a fabulous ball court, a platform decorated with carvings of skulls (where the Mayans actually displayed the heads of their enemies and human sacrifices) and an impressive central pyramid. What surprised me, however, was how little is known about the purpose of the buildings and the ceremonies the Mayans performed. There are several structures that the Spanish conquistadors named according to what they looked like to them – an observatory and a nunnery, for example – which are still not properly identified even today. Chichen Itza was certainly impressive, but not as fun as Calakmul, which really had that “lost in the jungle” feel, where you could scale the pyramids to your heart’s content (they were all roped off at Chichen Itza).
We took a long detour up to a remote fishing village on the northern coast of the peninsula called Rio Lagartos, an area of wetlands rich in wildlife. Travelling up there was a pleasure – we passed through several, “typically” Mexican villages, with old churches, sunny plazas, children playing. When we got to our destination, we managed to commandeer a boat and captain to take us on a ride to see the flamingo colony. The birds were some distance away, but it was still lovely to see them in the wild. The water of the lagoon they inhabited was ultra-salty and tinged pink by beta carotene in the clay, which was also the cause of their colouring. On the way back we saw a crocodile. The boatman put on a show by slapping the water and encouraging the croc to come so close that he could grab its tail! We also saw a fish eagle and an osprey. It was then a long drive to downtown Cancun, where we spent the night in a nice hotel, revelling in the cleanliness!
Our flight was in the afternoon, so we went to the airport via the “Zona hotelera” (the hotel zone) of Cancun, a long row of gargantuan, primarily upscale hotels strung out along narrow islands enclosing a lagoon on one side, with the Caribbean Sea on the other, connected to the mainland by a series of bridges. This is what Cancun is famous for, but I really disliked it. Sure, the sea is an incredible colour, ranging from brightest turquoise near the white sand shoreline to deepest blue on the horizon. However, it’s a completely fabricated place, constructed with little thoughtfulness, and most of the hotels are just plain ugly. I don’t know what people see in it, but I was glad we’d gone to take a look. I had some criticisms about the trip as a whole, but two weeks in Cancun would have been miserable!
We were relieved to make the rather tight connection in Mexico City and arrived back to a rather chilly San Francisco late yesterday evening to find signs of Christmas cheer everywhere: lights around the skyscrapers and even a brightly lit tree on Angel Island, which we see behind Alcatraz from the apartment. Today we awoke to the sound of our own flock of parrots chattering loudly as they passed by in their morning flight, and were glad to be home in our beloved city with drinking water on tap, decent plumbing and a distinct lack of mosquitoes! I know I sound terribly condescending and don’t mean to – it’s just that you appreciate these things more when you’ve not had them for a while! We had lots of chores, but took a short jog in the afternoon, delighting in the fact that the beaches are open again and there’s no longer a smell of oil after the spill. We’re still having a nightmare sorting our remortgage out for the house back home (boring!), so I’m crossing my fingers for that as well as hoping that the return to work won’t be too much of a shock tomorrow. Photos from Mexico are available here: http://public.fotki.com/EllenHardwick/mexico/ (password: moocow)
I was a bit disappointed with our accommodation. It was quite expensive, and the website looked wonderful, so I was expecting “luxury in the jungle”. Rather, it was a case of woefully inadequate mosquito nets, expensive but less than stellar food, and a grumpy waiter/receptionist who only spoke Spanish. Now, although I’m a linguist, I’ve never learnt Spanish; I understand the written language pretty well, but was struggling with communication in my pidgin creation, which consisted of speaking Italian and throwing in the odd Spanish word! It was also incredibly hot and humid there, and we were kept awake by weird growlings, which turned out to be howler monkeys (pretty cool!). The good thing about the place was that it was well located for visiting the Mayan city of Calakmul itself, set deep in the heart of the jungle near the border with Guatemala, some 60km down a narrow dead-end road. We wandered around for ages, wondering what all the fuss was about, then finally stumbled on a huge pyramid. Once we’d climbed it and got above the trees, we had a fabulous view: jungle in every direction as far as the eye could see, with the odd partially excavated Mayan structure poking out above the canopy. On the way back to the car, Jon spied a toucan, but I missed it. We did, however, see several parakeets, wild turkeys and a tarantula.
From Calakmul, we moved on to Campeche, a pleasant colonial town on the Gulf of Mexico coast. We hadn’t planned to go there, but we were both craving a return to civilisation! It was a lovely place: historic cobbled streets lined with colonial-style homes in a palette of pastel shades. We had dinner at a restaurant overlooking the central plaza with its classic twin-towered cathedral. The next day, we continued to the larger city of Mérida. It too had an attractive colonial-style plaza, and we did a bus tour to get our bearings. However, I wasn’t wild about the place. It may have had a million inhabitants but it felt provincial, was polluted, confusing and rather worn. We had just one night there, rather than the two we had planned, and moved on to Chichen Itza afterwards, the best preserved and most famous of the Mayan sites in the area. The hotel there was a pleasant surprise: it was really cheap, yet it was friendly and had a couple of pleasant sun decks and swimming pools. On the first day, we visited some caves with more stalactites and stalagmites, where Mayans had left hundreds of jars as offerings to the gods. It was a bit spooky, especially since it was inhabited by a good number of bats. In the evening, we went to the sound and light show at the great pyramid, saving our more extensive visit of the site for the next day. We went early, to get a head start on the coach-loads of visitors from Cancun. There were lots of structures dating from around 800 to 1200 A.D., including a fabulous ball court, a platform decorated with carvings of skulls (where the Mayans actually displayed the heads of their enemies and human sacrifices) and an impressive central pyramid. What surprised me, however, was how little is known about the purpose of the buildings and the ceremonies the Mayans performed. There are several structures that the Spanish conquistadors named according to what they looked like to them – an observatory and a nunnery, for example – which are still not properly identified even today. Chichen Itza was certainly impressive, but not as fun as Calakmul, which really had that “lost in the jungle” feel, where you could scale the pyramids to your heart’s content (they were all roped off at Chichen Itza).
We took a long detour up to a remote fishing village on the northern coast of the peninsula called Rio Lagartos, an area of wetlands rich in wildlife. Travelling up there was a pleasure – we passed through several, “typically” Mexican villages, with old churches, sunny plazas, children playing. When we got to our destination, we managed to commandeer a boat and captain to take us on a ride to see the flamingo colony. The birds were some distance away, but it was still lovely to see them in the wild. The water of the lagoon they inhabited was ultra-salty and tinged pink by beta carotene in the clay, which was also the cause of their colouring. On the way back we saw a crocodile. The boatman put on a show by slapping the water and encouraging the croc to come so close that he could grab its tail! We also saw a fish eagle and an osprey. It was then a long drive to downtown Cancun, where we spent the night in a nice hotel, revelling in the cleanliness!
Our flight was in the afternoon, so we went to the airport via the “Zona hotelera” (the hotel zone) of Cancun, a long row of gargantuan, primarily upscale hotels strung out along narrow islands enclosing a lagoon on one side, with the Caribbean Sea on the other, connected to the mainland by a series of bridges. This is what Cancun is famous for, but I really disliked it. Sure, the sea is an incredible colour, ranging from brightest turquoise near the white sand shoreline to deepest blue on the horizon. However, it’s a completely fabricated place, constructed with little thoughtfulness, and most of the hotels are just plain ugly. I don’t know what people see in it, but I was glad we’d gone to take a look. I had some criticisms about the trip as a whole, but two weeks in Cancun would have been miserable!
We were relieved to make the rather tight connection in Mexico City and arrived back to a rather chilly San Francisco late yesterday evening to find signs of Christmas cheer everywhere: lights around the skyscrapers and even a brightly lit tree on Angel Island, which we see behind Alcatraz from the apartment. Today we awoke to the sound of our own flock of parrots chattering loudly as they passed by in their morning flight, and were glad to be home in our beloved city with drinking water on tap, decent plumbing and a distinct lack of mosquitoes! I know I sound terribly condescending and don’t mean to – it’s just that you appreciate these things more when you’ve not had them for a while! We had lots of chores, but took a short jog in the afternoon, delighting in the fact that the beaches are open again and there’s no longer a smell of oil after the spill. We’re still having a nightmare sorting our remortgage out for the house back home (boring!), so I’m crossing my fingers for that as well as hoping that the return to work won’t be too much of a shock tomorrow. Photos from Mexico are available here: http://public.fotki.com/EllenHardwick/mexico/ (password: moocow)
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