The Metro Market

Well, today was the last day of this trip unless you count the day of traveling back to the States. I try to do that especially when we have our first class upgrades, but it makes for a pretty boring blog post. So this will be it.
We left Merida this morning and flew on Aeromexico to Mexico City. We checked in at the Hilton Hotel right inside Terminal One - which is always tres convenient for next day travel. This time, though, we also picked it so that we could quickly drop off our luggage and head in to the city to visit the Museum of Anthropology. The original plan was to get a little more of a feel for the Mayans and other ancient Mexican cultures, and certainly we did. It's a great museum with amazing pieces so that now Michael is thinking we need to visit Aztec sites.
BUT, it wasn't only ancient societies and cultures that we observed today. You see, we took the metro from the airport to the museum. Now given that many of our friends would have had reservations about coming to Mexico in the first place, more of them would have hopped a cab rather than take the subway. However, the metro here costs 3 pesos. Seriously, 3 pesos. No matter where you go. That's less than 30 cents. To anywhere. How could we pass up that kind of bargain just based on the cost savings alone?
Yet, we got even more value than we bargained for. We got to study anthropology. From the young couples engaging in PDA's that were just this side of having actual sex to the vendors on the trains, it was truly enlightening. The salesmen were amazing. They were selling everything from 'chiclets' (in this case Orbit gum for 3 pesos a package or 2 for 5 pesos) to candy to otter pops to books to mix cds. The last guys must be part of a franchise because even though they were all selling different songs they all had the same cd player hooked to the similar 'backpack' speaker system and they'd play a few seconds of each song and then announce it like a radio dj.
It would drive me crazy if I had to put up with all of that on a daily basis, but we are still on vacation so it was just plain interesting. A little touch of Mexicana, so to speak.
So, signing off for now but not to worry. Our next trip is only a few weeks away: South Africa and Mozambique. Until then, Happy Trails.

Pool at Temozon (that is Michael)

How about that?

Just leaving the Hacienda and saw the photos of George and Laura Bush and others of Bill Clinton at Temozon. Don't know that we have ever stayed somewhere a President has stayed. (Let's be serious. Pretty sure we've never before stayed anywhere a President would stay. )
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Hanging at the Hacienda

You’ve probably been wondering what’s become of us. For those of you who might be worried that we’ve been kidnapped or that Tracy was stalking us and that we’ve fallen prey, we are fine. After all those days of getting up and moving on to the next Mayan ruins, we did plan in a day at lovely Hacienda Temozon less that 30 miles out of Merida. So yesterday all we did was have a late breakfast, drive out to Temozon and relax. It is VERY quiet here – like every place we’ve been but more so since we are out in the middle of nowhere. Only saw three other couples since we arrived. When it was a working ranch – back in the day – it covered about 6,600 hectares. Now it’s less than 40. But still pretty isolated.

After lunch (I actually took a chance on my first salad in too many days), we hung by the pool and even IN the pool for the afternoon. Dinner on the veranda overlooking the pool and then a restful night’s sleep in a luxurious bed. This morning after breakfast we are back sitting by the pool waiting to head back into Merida for another night.

The one thing that we were unaware of was that last night was the beginning of the Independence Day celebrations all over Mexico. (Cinco de Mayo commemorates the victory over the French and is apparently a much bigger party in the US than in Mexico.) Last night in Merida there would have been fireworks and partying in the streets. And today there should be parades and more partying. We have no idea if we will have difficulties getting back to our hotel since it is only two blocks off of the main plaza. But for now, just more resting.

 

Here's the quiz of the trip

As promised, here is your brain teaser. The real question will be whether or not the ability to answer this question is age-dependent. When we were leaving Campeche with Tracy in tow, she asked for our help. She had seen these 'things' all over town and had taken pictures of them hoping to be able to identify them at some point. Perhaps we could help her. Maybe we knew what they were.
As she was finding the images on her camera to show to us, I was wondering - were they something architectural? cultural? functional? what could this mystery item be that she saw so many of that she was so curious about their origins.....and most importantly would I look like an idiot when I didn't know?
So let's see if you can identify this mysterious, exotic creature:

Here's one:

Here's another:

And just in case, the rear view of another pair:

Seriously, No, I'm not kidding.
Just how damn old am I now that mature, educated individuals traveling on their own in foreign countries have no idea what a VW Bug is?
*BTW they are everywhere here. These four were taken in a one block walk after dinner tonight. I don't even need my reading glasses to pick them out of the crowd. Sheesh!

Chichen Itza

Off early again to beat the busloads of tourists that drive almost 3 hours from Cancun to visit this site so at least it wasn’t crazy crowded when we walked through. Tracy was right, though. It’s not nearly the same kind of awesome as Uxmal. It is big. It is impressive. It does have the observatory that you don’t see elsewhere.
It does have the largest, best-preserved ball court. But the ball court was closed so we didn’t actually get to see it.
You do see columns here that we did not see at other sites. But the vendors are EVERYWHERE. And you can’t go into any structures. And you can’t climb any pyramids (which really broke my heart coz I was looking to take a run up another one).

It is interesting to see in the one photo the difference between the pyramid’s maintained/reconstructed staircase on the left (see the little wee man working there?) and the au natural one on the right.
 

We also did find a jaguar even if it was a carved one.  But what is he doing hanging out with that crazy, cuckoo for cocopuffs bird?


Finally we did stop at the cenote ikil (the natural freshwater pools deep in the post-meteor-crash cracks in the earth). Michael didn’t swim, but I felt obligated. Suffice it to say that the water was not as warm as my swimming pool in Anguilla, the fresh water is NOT particularly buoyant, and I’m not keen on bumping into fish every other stroke.

But now: been there, done that, check.

Pyramid of the Magician at Uxmal (Didn't post earlier)

 

 

From: Michael Paul [mailto:mapaul.dvm@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2011 7:47 AM
To: 'solucky1.blogpost@blogger.com'
Subject: Pyramid of the Magician at Uxmal