Alec Saunders SquawkBox

To the south of Merida there is an area of low hills called the Puuc Hills.  Rich in historical sites, it offers a number of Haciendas and Mayan sites to visit.  Monday, we hit four of them.

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.

Sunday we had a decidedly unusual day. Fans of Jack Black's goofy comedy Nacho Libre will understand that when we learned that the Lucha Libre were in town, we had to make a trip to see them.  However, because the Luchadores didn't get underway until 12:30, we zipped over to Merida's Regional Anthropology and History Museum, where we got a guided tour of this small, but interesting collection.

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. 

Saturday we changed locale from Cancun, to Merida — the capital city of Yucatan State.  Getting to Merida is a 3 1/2 hour drive from Cancun on the 180 toll road.  Tolls will set you back just over M$300. 

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've spent the last three days diving and snorkelling the wonderful reef system here.  The Yucatan reefs are the second largest reef system in the world, next to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.  Comprising 1500 miles of reef, they extend from the Northern tip of the peninsula, south to Belize, Guatemala and beyond. 

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 Group popped a piece titled Lament for a Wireless Nation into my mailbox just as I was leaving on vacation. It's a 39 page indictment of Canadian cellular pricing models which leads off with the observation that Canada has the same market penetration for cellular that Botswana and Gabon do.  We lag the developed world dramatically.

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?