At what price?

American airports are starkly reminiscent of George Orwell's classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.  People bustle to and fro, under the watchful eyes of security officers, and accompanied by the droning of propaganda.  "The threat level is orange", blare the loudspeakers.  Television monitors tell the stories boys and families damaged by combat.  Even the very name of the border patrol — homeland defence — conjures images of threats and war.

This photograph, taken on the F Concourse at Philadelphia International Airport, shows no fewer than 9 visible surveillance cameras, and as you walk further you will discover more — a dozen in total.  Some of them are less than two yards apart.

My friends in America, as you head to your elections, ask yourselves whether the fear fomented by the current administration is justified.  Is it rational, or paranoid?  Ask yourselves what the right thing is for Iraq, too. 

I am not discounting how hard these problems are, nor would it be appropriate for me to suggest that another could have done a better job than Mr. Bush. He's your President, you elected him, and presumably he's what the majority of your electorate wanted.  Besides, I don't have the right to vote in your country.  

The situation deserves a real debate, that's all. After all, the price of security is liberty.

Did you know that Winston Churchill and his wife took separate vacations — he to paint (preferably at a beach), and she on tour?  Well, we don’t take separate vacations, but certainly by the time Thursday of last week rolled around we were all ready for a little relief from touring around.  So, we shopped.  Guyaberas (the ubiquitous shirt worn by Meridano’s), panama hats, table cloths, soccer shirts, and more.  We had a great time.

We also ate and drank!  Ice cream at Colon (a 100 year old ice cream parlor on the square), exotic fruit juices at Jugo de California, Yucatecan specialties like Pollo Pibil and Pok Chuc at the Main Street Restaurant.  In the evenings, we also ate at Pancho’s (good food, awesome mojito’s), and Vino y Pane (poor Italian, to be avoided).  Best deal on a breakfast buffet?  The Colonial Hotel — $6 for adults, $4 for kids buys you all you can eat fruit, pastries, eggs cooked to order, juice and Mexican specialities.

Part way through the day we ran into our friend the saw player again, and this time I caught him on video using our Sony HDR-SR1 camcorder.  The original is in high definition, so this streamed video doesn’t quite do it justice. 

Finally, Friday morning we packed up and hit the road back to Cancun, for one more day at the beach. This is the view of the pool and ocean, shot with a Nokia N93 cameraphone, from the lobby of the wonderful Royal Sands where we were booked to stay. 

An unfortunate screw up resulted in them renting our beach front villa to someone else, so we were forced to stay at another resort — the Royal Islander.

Beach, dinner, margaritas, and one last sunrise the next day, which I caught on the N93, clamped into the tripod accessory you can get with it.  Apologies for the wind noise, but it was quite windy!

Then off to the airport.  It was a zoo!  Despite getting there more than two hours ahead of time, and the fabulous help of the very efficient Mexican team at the airport, we got to the gate just as final boarding was announced over the PA.

From Cancun, we flew to Philadelphia, then on to Ottawa.  I caught these pictures out the window of the airplane on the final leg, just as the sun was going down. The location of the plane, between two layers of cloud, creates a very dramatic effect.  Both taken with a Nokia N80i cameraphone.

Celestun is known for its biosphere on the Rio Grande, and the birds (including Flamingos) which you can see there.  When we got there, we chartered a couple of  boats in town, and then headed out for a 2.5 hour boat trip down the river, and through the mangroves.

First stop was at Bird Island, a sanctuary for pelicans and cormorants.  Its shoreline jammed with birds, the island is quite a sight to see.

Next stop, the petrified forest.  This isn’t a fossilized forest, but rather a forest that has been preserved for 180 years after sea water flooded an existing forest.  The tree strunks are heavily salinated, and the ground hardened with salt.

The boats were tied up to some of the living mangroves, and we walked into the forest.

Peter chose to leap a puddle of seawater, not realizing that the ground on the other side was considerably less hardened than what he had leapt from.  What vacation would be complete without mud up to your knees?

After the petrified forest, our boat driver headed out in search of flamingos.  On the way, I snapped this photo of a white egret in flight.

The flamingos can be found in shallow water on the river.  Interesting flamingo facts:

• Female flamingos are bigger than male flamingoes.
• The pink color comes from the shrimp that they feed upon.  They need to eat for 12 hours per day
• Every evening at 8 PM, the flamingos finish feeding for the day, and then fly away in order to avoid the crocodiles that emerge from the mangroves at about that time to… feed on flamingos.

Here are three flamingos and an egret hidden in the mangrove.

There are hundreds of flamingos in the shallows of the river.  There were flocks all around us. 

Flamingos sure look funny when they take flight, running along the surface of the water, and flapping their wings until the are aloft.

Unlike the flamingos which feed in the open, egrets look for food in the shallows, amongst the mangroves.  I caught this fellow perched on a branch, just above water level. 

There are also osprey, which take fish from the river.  This particular bird in flight has a fish in its claws.

Next we took a trip through a tunnel in the mangroves.  It was quite a different from the experience of having been on the open river.  The mangroves completely enclose the boat.

There are crocodiles which live among the mangroves, but the only living thing we saw was this duck.

Next our driver pulled up to a dock at the mangrove edge.  A short board walk led into the forest.

We all had a swim in the cenote that the boardwalk led to.

On the way back, I snapped this photo of a couple of men crabbing. 

And then we arrived back at the beach for dinner, drinks and the sunset.  The house specialty was fresh caught grouper filet stuffed with… fresh caught crab and shrimp.  Yum!

Down the beach, in fact, there were a couple of fisherman cleaning their catch, and attracting a huge flock of birds wanting to help.

Following dinner we headed back to Merida.  We got lost several times on the way, but ultimately made it about an hour late.

What a bummer!

This is the Temple of the Seven Dolls.  We didn't come back the next day for the rising of the sun, but the central doorway is where you would see it. You can see a small image of the sunrise on this Yucatan Today page about Dzibilchaltun.   In the foreground, there's also a low platform with a stone set in it, which is oriented as a sundial.  At the solar zenith, the stone casts no shadow, which is the first day of the Mayan calendar.  Thus, the astronomers at Dzibilchaltun were able to accurately forecast seasons, and track time.

Here's a view of the cenote as well.  It looks like a very inviting dip, doesn't it?  Notice all the caution tape around the edges to dissuade you from swimming, however.

Right in the center of Dzibilchaltun stands the remains of a Catholic church, as well.  After the conquest, portions of this site were dismantled to create a church, a home for the priest and a corral.

When you pay your admission to Dzibilchaltun, you have the option of visiting the museum for an extra M$20.  It's worth the price.  The museum houses a small collection of Mayan artifacts, as well as providing a good selection of post conquest Mayan displays.  This is a spectacular incense burner housed in the Mayan part of the collection.

From Dzibilchaltun, we headed north into Progreso.  Progreso is a busy port town, boasting the worlds longest pier extending 5 miles into the Gulf of Mexico.  Here's a satellite photograph of the pier from Google Earth.

We ate dinner at Le Saint Bonnet right in front of the pier.  Delicious seafood, plus a steady stream of interesting people walking buy, including this character selling masks.  He asked M$250.  After some patient negotiating we settled on M$130 — about C$14.

After dinner, we took a stroll down the beach, accompanied by a pack of five dogs who befriended us, and photographed the sunset before heading back to Merida.

We began with Hacienda Yaxcopoil, in its time one of the most important rural estates in Yucatan.  With 22,000 acres of land in its heyday, the owners farmed cattle, and maintained a massive henequen plantation.  Today it's a privately owned museum, run by the descendents of those plantation barons. 

The entry is a moorish arch, with enclosing walls, and a tree in the center of the lawn. 

The facade of the main building gives you an idea of the scale of the estate, even though today the stucco is in a very sorry state of disrepair.  Within the walls are courtyards, bedrooms, a parlour, dining room, running water and a swimming pool.

This is a view of the interior courtyard, from the main entrance.

The richly patterned floor tiles, different in every room, give you an idea of the original grandeur of the house. 

And here is a view of the machine shop and workshops of the hacienda, where the henequen is processed into sisal, and from there into clothing, rope, and other products.  We were unable to enter the machine shops, however, because the floors are in such disrepair.

From Hacienda Yaxcopoil, we headed 56 kilometers south to the prime archaeological site in the area, which is Uxmal.  Uxmal is a massive ruin, with some beautiful large structures. The most famous structure at the site is the Magicians Temple, seen here from the top of the Governors Palace.

The Magicians Temple boasts rows of Chac (the rain god) masks up the steps, and a massive Chenes style monster mouth doorway. 

Uxmal is organized as a series of squares, or quadrangles, with living space in each. This gives Uxmal a very different feel from many Mayan sites.  It feels much more like a city, and much more lived-in and liveable.  At the center of each square is a chultune, or cistern, for collecting rain water.  Unlike most Mayan sites, where water was easily obtained from underground rivers and cenotes, the Puuc sites have no water.  The chultunes were used to collect rain water during the wet seasons, which  was then used during the dry season. 

This is a view of the main square at Uxmal. 

The famous Quetzal bird is a permanent inhabitant of Uxmal.  I managed to catch this fellow, sitting in a tree, with a 300mm lens.

The other great thing about Uxmal is that it's less than 20% uncovered.  If you spend a little time roaming outside the main area, there are plenty of opportunities to feel like a modern day Howard Carter.

After spending 3 hours at Uxmal, we jumped in the car and headed to a couple of the smaller Puuc sites — Sayil, and Kabah.  We arrived just as the sun was going down (after hours, but a tip to the caretaker solves that problem), and were able to shoot some great photos in that warm sunset light.

Here's the main plaza at Sayil.

Detail from the plaza's facade.

Detail from the arches at the Temple of Hieroglyphic writing.

 At Kabah, we were very lucky to catch the final rays of the sun on the structure called the Codz Poop (pronounced codes pope).  The Codz Poop is famous for it's repeated Chac masks, which illuminate very well with the light.

On the back side of the Codz Poop, there are a series of 5 figures.  Only one is still standing today, but there is extensive restoration work underway.

This figure is a mayan noble wearing a jaguar headress.

This is a terra cotta incense burner.

This is a stone ornament showing a serpent, with mouth open, and man emerging from the serpents mouth.

Now as I said, after the trip to the museum we headed out to Merida's Polyforum Izamna to see the Lucha Libre, Mexico's equivalent of the WWF. Unlike the WWF, the show has a heavy dose of slapstick comedy — raucous, ridiculous, and pure fun. Many of the wrestlers where masks, and flamboyant costumes, which just adds to the fun.  The Lucha Libre are very popular in Mexico, and the matches travel from city to city with regularity. 

This is the interior of the Polyforum, showing the number of seats and the layout of the show.  Imagine every seat in the place filled, which was the situation by the time the main bouts were underway.

The Lucha's are a family event, with whole families including very small children coming out to the show after Sunday mass.  The organizers cater to families too, with a wide variety of snack food and noise makers available from the stadium vendors. 

There were five bouts on the card, with each becoming more raucous and crazy as the afternoon wore on. 

There was plenty of throwing…

 … posing …

… flips …

… wedgies …

… audience participation …

… spins …

… lost shorts (a match winning move, it turns out!) …

… lady wrestlers, large and small …

… referee distractions (he's the guy in black!) …

… men in drag …

… referee participation! …

… body slams…

… and a bona fide cage match to finish the whole thing off!

After the match, all 8 boys with us each got a genuine Luchadore mask.  Beds and hallways have been used for wrestling matches for the last three days with great regularity. 

Halfway to Merida, about 20 km from Valladolid, there is an infrequently visited post-classic Mayan site called Ek Balaam.   It's well worth the trip, just to see the stucco images and frescoes which have been uncovered in the last 10 years.

Ek Balaam is relatively small, with a number of low buildings and a ball court.  The main attraction is the large pyramid to the north of the site called El Castillo.  A number of thatched roofs have been constructed atop the pyramid, in order to preserve the stucco as it is uncovered. 

Ascending the main pyramid, you are able to step off the staircase to the left, and then view the jaguar mouth doorway.  This particular facade, which is all stucco, is probably one of the most stunning doorways present anywhere in the Mayan world today.

Flanked on either side by elaborate stucco figures, the main door is a stylized representation of a jaguars mouth.  The ruler of the city would appear standing upon the lower jaw of the jaguar.

The base of the jaw is encircled by key designs, and supported on each corner by a skull.

Directly on either side of the doorway are masks of the rain god Chac.

Seated above the doorway is another figure wearing large earplugs.  For me, this one is eerily reminiscent of the figures you see on Indian temples.  

Farther to the right of the doorway are two large warrior figures with feathered capes.  The first wears a belt, but doesn't appear to be wearing a headpiece, while the second wears an elaborate headdress and earrings.

Throughout the site, intact paint such as this small scene painted on the side panel of a doorway can be found.  We later learned that, while restoration has been underway for some time at Ek Balaam, more than 50% of the existing stucco is original, which is why through all of these photographs you can see small quantities of original paint.   

 After leaving Ek Balaam we continued on to Merida, where we checked into El Castillano hotel, a couple of blocks from the central square.  The bellhop informed us that it was Mexican night in the square, so we headed over to see what was happening.  Traffic was blocked off for blocks around the square, and the streets were flooded with people eating in restaurants, each with it's own musical act. 

A popular tourist activity is getting a "calese" ride from one of the numerous local drivers.

Over beside the cathedral in the square you can find a calese line, just like a taxi line, where you can get a ride yourself, which we did later.

Throughout the square, there are flower sellers seeking to sell you a rose for your sweetheart.  

Street musicians also offer lessons on how to play exotic instruments, like the ordinary cross-cut saw.  This guy was remarkable, using a simple bamboo and fishing line bow to coax everything from Happy Birthday to the Ode to Joy from his saw.

Even ordinary people seemed to be carrying guitars, sitting in cafés, and strumming tunes.

We dove twice with Cancun's Solo Buceo to nearby reefs, and then, for our two youngest children who are not yet divers, made a trip south to the tiny fishing village of Puerto Morelos to snorkel the reefs there. 

I shot a couple of hundred photographs on my venerable Olympus C4000 digital camera, using the Olympus PT-10 underwater housing I purchased 3 years ago for it.  At one time this camera was my sole digital camera, but has now been relegated to a dive camera only.  The photographs were retouched using Microsoft Digital Image Suite 10 afterward.

Here's some of what we saw and did.

This is Janice and her brother Dave exiting a coral arch in the reef.  These are lots of fun to swim through, and you can frequently find interesting wildlife hidden inside the small caves formed by the coral.

A relative of the sea horse, it's always a thrill to spot one of the relatively rare trumpet fish on the reef.

Parrot fish are large fish with powerful beak-like jaws which they use to crush coral and feed on the polyps within.  This blue parrot fish was probably 18 inches long.

The barracuda is a predator with a fearsome reputation.  The truth is that they are a wary fish and rarely approach divers.  Jon did catch a glimpse of one catching and eating a smaller fish on this dive, and I was lucky enough to shoot this picture from a fairly close distance.

The big thrill of this dive was spotting four grey sharks.  They didn't stick around long enough for me to get any decent photographs, however.

Just as we were about to surface, one of the divers spotted a hawksbill turtle feeding.  These amazing creatures have the ability to stay submerged for up to 30 minutes at a time. 

On our second day of diving we saw even more wildlife.  This rock fish has painfully poisonous spines all across his back, which is a good reason not to touch him.  Experienced dvers, however, will frequently pick these docile creatures up by sliding a hand under the belly.  The fish will sit right in the hand, not moving, until placed back on the coral. 

This octopus was hidden in the crevasses in the coral.  We played with it a little, putting our hands into the mouth of its lair, and allowing the curious creature to explore our fingers with its tentacles.

Throughout the Carribean, you will find restaurants serving this fellow as lunch.  Spiny lobsters are like their northern cousins, but without the giant claws.

Moray eels, despite their fearsome reputation, are quite timid.  This little green eel was spotted by my son Chris, and I was lucky enough to get a picture before he bolted back into his cave.

It was quite a thrill to spot this young hawksbill turtle swimming in the water, and we were lucky to have him swim alongside our group for nearly 5 minutes. 

We spotted this enormous moray in a cave.  Probably close to six feet long, I was content to have a photograph of him sitting in the back of his lair, when suddenly he exited through a back entrance.  Swimming up over the coral I managed to snap these two photographs of him.

Our snorkelling trip started on the beaches in Puerto Morelos.  The reef here is a national marine park, and you can hire small operators to take you to them.  Reef Extreme offered a package which included guided tours of two areas on the reef, and a fajita lunch with open bar.  Here are the boats we travelled in to get to the reef.

While there are definitely fish (and some large ones) on the shore reef, the star of the show at Puerto Morelos is the coral.  This is a beautiful elkhorn, with a gorgonian in the foreground.

The reef is in very shallow water. I shot this photo from behind the boat, which was moored in perhaps 8 feet of water.  After a short swim from the boat to the reef, depths decreased to as little as 3 to 5 feet, with some portions of the reef actually poking out above water. 

Thriving coral reefs are frequently characterized as being underwater gardens.  This shot gives you an idea why.

And of course, there was plenty of wildlife, as this school of Blue Tangs and Parrot Fish shows.

Seaboard argues that the Canadian market has done well during periods of competition, noting the high growth that occurred while Clearnet and Microcell were still independent.  However, since their acquisition by Telus and Rogers, respectively, growth has once again stagnated.

Here in Mexico, I dropped into the local Telcel dealer earlier this week and bought a prepaid SIM for M$200, and a M$500 top up.  That puts my rate at M$2.2/minute for local calls and M$5.5 for long distance — roughly 24 cents Canadian and 60 cents for long distance.  Not cheap, but cheaper than Rogers rates in Canada.  Moreover, there is already a debate here about whether Mexican magnate Carlos Slim has too much power in the wireless industry.

And everywhere I look, Mexicans are carrying cellphones.  That's a huge difference from the last time we were here two years ago.

Seaboard's onto something.  Besides, what's not to like about the prospect of lower cellular bills?

Xcaret sits on a rocky bay with beautiful sandy inlets for snorkelling and swimming.  The park also sports a small zoo, with native species like tapir and coatimundi, as well as animals like deer.  The big attraction, however, is the underground river.  Geologically, the Yucatan peninsula is a massive spit of porous limestone.  It has no surface water, except where water from the underground aquifer bubbles to the surface in limestone wells called cenotes.  At Xcaret, snorkellers enter one of these underground rivers at one cenote in the park, and then swim the river until it surfaces at an exit near the ocean about 45 minutes later.  At various places throughout the swim, surface light enters through overhead light wells, which allows views of the river bottom, and surrounding rocks.  The water is clear (cenotes frequently boast visibility in the hundreds of feet), and cool, and the swim is hugely enjoyable.  At the exit, the brackish pools support a thriving and colorful fish population.

The other great attraction of Xcaret is the two hour long night show.  When we we first saw the show 8 years ago, it was a reenactment of the Mayan ball game, followed by a trek over to a natural amphitheatre where troupes of Mexican dancers performed traditional dances from different Mexican states.  It's evolved to a Las Vegas style extravaganza.  Now staged in a massive new theater, evocative of a Mayan ball court, it begins with the ball game, the Oaxacan flaming hockey game (played with a ball soaked in kerosene, it makes the NHL look just a little ordinary), and a short set-piece on the history of the Maya and the conquistadors.   Following an intermission, there are traditional Mexican dances, horse tricks, singers and more.

The night show really is the best part about Xcaret.  It would be hard to justify the steep entrance fee to the park solely based on the other attractions, but you would easily pay that fee for the show alone in any other city.

Here are some photos