Silent Movie at Night

Friday, May, 27

After classes, I went to the Museo Archaelogia, which has its own post. Then I came back for alumerzo, and then went back out to see a silent Vampire movie: el Vampiro. It was a series, like a television show, and most of my companeros didn't like it so much, so we left after a while. I enjoyed it though. It was silent with English and Spanish subtitles. It was so much fun to watch a silent movie and how they explained the proceedings and events through the titles, but also the music and facial expressions of the characters.



After the movie, we walked around town for a while. We eventually decided to go to the helerderia, or ice cream shop. I bought a pina colada drink. So amazingly wonderful. Then we went home.

Im not quite sure what this buidling is at the moment. It is directly across from el Palacio Gobierno and in between the catedral and the ayunamiento. But most of the buildings in the Plaza Grade are lit up like this. It's like Christmas everyday.



And of course this is the catedral at night.



Everyday: Most people here have fences of some sort. Some of there are just cement plastered on top of rocks. For these kinds of fences broken glass bottles are spread across the top. (Other more expensive fences have spikes as decoration). The broken glass is used to keep things out, and people of course. But sights like this are very common as I walk about through the neighborhoods.

Dzonot = Cenote = Waterhole

Saturday, May, 28, 2011

One of the best experiences here: going to the cenotes. Our group traveled to Cuzama to swim in the cenotes there. It off the beaten path. We parked and then got off the bus to see this site before us.



We were confused. Then after some explaning, we were suppose to ride on the carts. In groups of four we loaded onto the carts. The carts were on railway tracks. Then a driver came up with his horse and the horse pulled the carts along the tracks. Such as below. It was a bumpy and uncomfortable ride at times, but we all made it through.



There were three cenotes in total. All of them were awesome. They were all underground, so we had to climb down into the ground about 3-5 meters depending on the cenote. It was scary at times, but it was straight down. I just didn't think about it too much. Some of them had docks to jump off as the only real way to get into it. It was about a 10 foot jump, too. Didn't really think too much about that either. Just lived for the moment.



I didn't take a lot of photos because it was wet, and dark. The water was cool and clear though. It was said to be cleaner than the water running through the tap, which I totally believe. They are located in caves, so it was fun to float around and just look up at the tree roots and the bats flying around. I didn't think about the bats too much though. It was just a great experience. Everyone should do it.



Everyday: So here are a few photos of the old-fashioned beatles that people drive down here. As you can see, they are used for a vareity of puposes. Very versatile.


























And then there are the markets. Like I am accustom, there are standards for the way meat is handled, with vegetables, animals, and clothing. However, in the markets here the FDA is not in charge. Therefore sights like the one below are very common. Chickens just hanging there. But the markets are a lot of fun and one can find most anything there. There are flowers, shoes, clothes, vegetables, fruits, meat (obviously), toys, music, videos, etc. There are several markets, too, all around the city. Some of them feature a base of permanent shops with surrounding make-shift tiendas. Others are all make-shift with just tents and the merchandise for sale. The venders always call out to you to lure you in. Careful because they are slick talkers as requires their job. And being an American puts me at top of the list for sucker.

El Museo de Antropología

Time is fleeting, and there is still so much to do. My laziness is getting the better of me at times. However, on Friday I went to el Museo de Antropología aqui en Merida. It is one of the more famous museums here.

The museum itself is on the Paseo Montejo in one of the rich older manisons of the Porfiriato era. The architecture on the outside is lavish as well as on the inside with internationally imported marble stair cases and floors. There are many decorative columns.




The permanent collection of the museum, houses artifacts from the Mayan civilizations. There are jade offerings excavated from the bottom of the sacred cenote in Chichen Itza, ball court rings from Chichen Itza, estuco masks from Uxmal and more. Here are some of the more interesting things I found.

Some of the maya used to change the shape of their babies skull just a few days after birth to signify different things such as wealth. They would put a board on top of the head that then attach a strap around the chin and back of the neck to make the board fit tight. After a period of time, the skull would become deformed as it worked to solidy during early childhood development.



Another thing I found interesting were the copper bells. They were used for currency in trading between different groups. They look like the bells today.



Also the Maya painted their objectives and temples. There is coloring on this statue for example of the god Hun Nal Yeh. You can see blues and reds. Facinating.



Here are just some more images of things.




There was a special exhibit on the second floor of the Porfiriato era and the Mexican Revolution. It was photographs from the different time periods.

One can see the difference in class structure here. The women on the left are wearing nice European dress, while the indigenous women and her daughter are wearing rags and dirty clothing. The contempt on the look of the faces of the upper class women reflects the disdain for the lower classes in Mexico during the Porforiato era. Much of the European influence today came during this time period.



Maderistas, Ciudad Juarez, Mayo 1911




Everday: People ride in the back of vehicles. All trucks have passangers in the back whether on busy roads or on highways. It is crazy. But these sights are not uncommon. But I guess that's kind of obvious. So one more.



The world is powered by the sun or sol, literally.
This beer is really popular down here. The slogan can be found on T-shirts, seats in bullfighting rings, athletic stadiums, on the outside of bars, etc. The world is literally powered by Sol. The company sponsors many events and has a huge vested interest in community affairs down here. The only place I haven't seen the marca or brand in on schools. But if you see Sol you know your in Mexico. Mexico has soul (or Sol). :-)





Chao!!

Celestún

Yesterday, we went to Celestún. It is said that the area would not be a tourist attraction sin the pink flamigos. And they were gorgeous.

We got on the bus and headed toward the city, what turned out to be a 2-hour drive, a little farther than we were originally told. One the way down we went through little towns along the way. It was so interesting to see how a rural Mexican area appears (mind you from the nice air conditioned, tour bus; not really integrating with the culture). All the homes are cemet, and when the people abandon them, they sit there are a living moment to history. And there is a lot of abandonment, in these parts. The areas are just left desolate begging for someone to come along and clean them up. Also on the way back we passed old haciendas again. The homes were smaller now, but the large markings of territorial gates still stood.

One home was completely destroyed a menos que for the grand central stair case that remained standing in the wilderness of the brush. It was finely decorated from what I saw. I can't imagine how pretty the house would have been.



Some of the houses along the way had thatched roofs made from local shurbry. The roofs weren't flat and were much taller than those compared to the cemet houses. Trash lingers in the yards, and sometimes there are just communal waste dumps, which shows that their isn't an organized trash system. People sit out on their porches and talk and relax. Often the parks were full of older people relaxing and gathered around benches, while the little ones played on the playgrounds and ran around. It felt slightly uncomfortable to know that this big bus were interrupting their lives. I felt like a fish out of water. In what bigger way can you say, "Hello, Im American, big, loud, and proud".

Many homes are adjacent to the shops the people own as their source of income. Unlike Merida, the big names such as Wal-Mart, Burger Kig, Super Bodega, Mega, Office Depot, KFC, McDonald's, etc. don't exist down there. It isn't profitable. Por lo tanto, many of the small speciality shops still exist because of the lack of corporate competition. There were panaderias, papelerias, ferrocarriles, farmacias, etc. Also on the walls of some of the larger stores, the political parties of PAN and PRI wrote their messages. There were several completing slogas in the smaller towns. Here in Merida, I don't see them as often; however, there are large buildings are the party headquarters for the town.

And I saw the coolest thing. So futbol, or soccer, is very popular down here, obviously. Many of the parks have mini soccer fields, and the schools, which by the way are huge, like community college campus size huge, have soccer fields that are on cement, like basketball courts. So what happened is similar to what happened in Spain where there became a vested interest in basketball, but it never really caught on. Now many basketball courts have been turned into soccer fields, although basketball is by far more popular here than in Spain.


So what I saw that was so cool, was a basketball hoop, soccer goal thing. The base of the mechanism was the width of a soccer goal, then two pipes emerged from the top and connected up higher to support a basketball hoop and backboard. I thought it was the coolest thing. The picture just doesn't do it justice. But one can see how the contrapcion has put one thing to serve two purposes.

So after bouncing around for two hours, we exit the bus, and head for the restaurant we will be eating at later. First we go on a boat ride to view the Ria Celestun Biosphere Reserve, which was way cool.

The boat ride...not so much. It was some old, rusted out boat. We get in and Im one hundred percentaje sure that we are going to capsize. I have a backpack full of things that can't get wet...anxiety sets in. I really had to psych myself into this one. This was just not my thing, not accustomed to these things in my life, before. Now I can handle it. So we get in and go.....rather fly. The boat driver literally has half the boat airborne for most of the ride because we are just flying through the water. I am so blessed that I don't have motion sickness or get sea sick because I would have been vomiting like nobody's business. After a few minutes, I just decided this was normal, so relax and enjoy. What's the worse that can happen? We capsize, Im stuck in an ocean with fish and other animals and things, I don't really what to touch, my backpack gets wet with several things ruined and probably lost, and I ride the bus back wet. OK. No big deal. :-)So I just put my feet up, pull my hair down and relax the whole way. Life turned out to be quite nice after I did this.

We saw several things on the tour. Birds, flamingos, mangroves, etc. Totally worth the bumping, crashing through the waves, bruising boat ride (and I swear he just did it on purpose sometimes).
The ria was so pretty. I felt like I was in part of a jungle. The reserve extends down into Campstre from the Yucatan. The birdwatching was great. There were sticks water marking the path like a highway for the boats to use. Many of the birds just perched on the sticks.


Also the mangroves, as pictured here, I thought were the best part. There was an area cut through for boats to travel down. It was thick and filled with wildlife. Fish swam through, and it was fun to try and see what one could find lurking around watching us. Supposedly there were alligators in the mangroves, 1.5 to 2 meters long as the guide told us. I don't know how they could travel around with all the roots of the mangroves being that big; however, I was not going to put my hand in the water and find out! The amound of wildlife that is lurking in those waters...it would have fun to just stick a camera down there and see. I once saw a national geographic speacial on the mangroves and how they are just teeming with life. I was excited to see them in real life.

So the flamingos inhabit one general area of the ria. They stick out like red stop signs on the road against the greenery. In November and December there are thousands of them, and they line most of the area. May is the end of peak season, so we only saw a small portion of what it looks like during the climatic months, but it was still awesome. The boats can't get too close because the birds scare easily, so this was the best I got picture wise. We did see two birds go at it though when we first entered the area. Talk about aggressive. Swaqking and making such a racket. Unbeilevable. They are such pretty birds.

Afterwards, we ate fish at the restaurant, and then played around on the beach. The waters are different colors because it is so shallow. And there were huge, pretty shells everywhere. The beach doesn't get a lot of traffic, so it was nice to be an uncrowded area unlike Progreso. The entire day was well worth it, even the rocky boat ride that I thought at times I was going to die, was just all part of a great experience.

Chao!

Hacienda Yaxcopoil

Today we went to the Yaxcopoil Hacienda. I was so excited because I really wanted to visit one of the old haciendas in the area. Even though I have a TON of homework (about 15 pages to write and a presentacion) I still decided to go, and it was well worth it.

It is in the city of Uman. We rode the bus out there and then took taxi vans back. It was about a hour to get there. It is in the direction of Uxmal. When we entered the city it was different a feeling than in Merida. There were a lot more indigenous people and it was a poorer area. It was a little more of what I imagined Mexico to be like.

The hacienda is located a little farther out from the main city central. A local said that there are about 12 near by haciendas. I of couse want to visit them all, but sadly we are on a time constraint. The area around the hacienda is inhabited by people who live in tiny houses. There was a carnival outside the hacienda grounds. When we entered, you were suppose to drive through the main gate, as pictured above, but we went in through another enterance.

The whole thing is just huge, facinating, and totally run down.




Here are the steps going up to the platform of the building. You can see they are worn with many people who have climbed them. There story tells us about how often people visited the hacienda and how it was busy with human traffic. They are testaments to the large scale production from the haciendas and how they really were like small towns in and of themselves.







The buildings were huge. Tall with columns and other neoclassical elements. After entering in the main hall, there was a area separating the reception from the other parts of the house, as seen here. Most of the walls are falling apart and what once was fine detail has eroded away. But it is still very gorgeous. It is really sad to see it all fall apart.














There are many gardens rooms. There were currently vacas, cows, using the land. Just as the buildings are falling apart, the cows are ill-fed and one can see their skeletal structure quite well. There was no grass to eat because everything has dried up and is withering away. What once was profitable and well taken care of now just withers in the wind. More picture following.






This is where the farm management took place. There is still the old machinery, stables, etc. As seen some of the buildings didn't even have roofs. All that stands as a memory is the facade and the wooden frame, which is falling apart quickly. Soon all that will be there are the stone facades of the building.

























Everyday One of the things, I have come acustom to seeing is the white paint at the base of the trees. Most of the trees on public property are covered with this stuff. I have never seen it before. At first we all thought is was so that at night people could see the trees, ie traffic purposes.
However, senora said that the paint is a mixture of anti-bug stuff so that bugs and other small animals won't climb the trees. I believed her until we passed a tree and I saw a trail of ants climbing up it. Either the paint was old, or the stuff is just a deterant because everybody knows there really is know way to deter all insects and animals. Or it has another purpose. Who knows? But sights like this are all around.


Chao!!

Piano Recital

Recital de Alumnos de la Maestra Irina Decheva "This is a performance by the students of CEMUS, under the direction of Mtra. Irina Decheva. These are the students who will travel the globe and represent Yucatan as one of the world’s best incubators of classically trained musicians." Ayer I went with my roommates and a few others to this piano recital. Fue muy bien. It was held in the Teatro Daniel Ayala en el centro. 9 different students performed different pieces, including those by Clementi, Mozat, Beethoven y Ponce. They were from all different ages.





Everyday So there are numerous ways to get around. Many people drive. The old fashioned bettles, like Herbie, are really popular down here. Senora said they are popular because they are economical and cheap. Not too many people walk except for in the center of the city. Of course there are taxi. However, there are also other methods such as these things. A mix between a bicycle and a taxi??? sort of. When we went to Uman today, they were really popular around and they are more common in the centro. However, some people instead of having people ride in them, use them as a mobile business to sell ice cream, popicles, etc.




















Chao! And p.s. we once again had to pass through security on our way to Uman. It wasn't as serious this time, but I still am scared.

Uxmal (Uish-mal)

Yesterday we went to the famous ruins of Uxmal. It is a shh sound because the word is Maya. We started out in the hottest part of the day, I don't have a clue as to why, but that is how it happened.

So the first temple we see is the one above, but is not the most famous one. It was pretty huge though and decorated. The serpent is a common feature on the temple. Can you see it?




This is where they sacrifices.






The site is huge, and there were so many stairs. We got to climb up one of the temples, which had a great view from the top, but it was really steep climbing back down. I just had to keep reminding myself no to think about it because if you thought about it too much one would fall.

After we visited the ruins in the daytime, we ate dinner and then came back for the famous light show. They used lights and sounds to explain the birth of Uxmal and the Mayan gods. At times it was a little difficult to understand, but it was still cool.








Everyday: So I decided to create an everyday category of things that I have become accustomed to but perhaps in the beginning it was a little weird, or I just didn't notice it.

So the first thing is the policia. There are police everywhere hear. Literally everywhere. They pass by on the roads about every 10 to 15 minutes. Last night as we were entering the city, we got a glimpse of just how unsafe it is and why there are so many police. As we re-entered Merida there was a check point on the highway. Trafffic would slow because of speed bumps that were create by the police so that they could assess the vehicles as they passed by. On either side of the roads there were army officers with machine guns loaded and ready to fire. It it wasn't like they had to have a search warrant either. If they thought you were smuggling drugs or arams (guns) they could just pull your vehicle over and check it out. It was one of the scariest things I have seen here. But they were serious. I asked the tour guide if this was normal, and she said yes ever since the Mexican cartels have taken over, Merida and the Yucatan have been the only safe cities in Mexico. Merida was the first one to be safeguraded in all of Mexico. It's not like Guadaljara she said or the D.F. (Federal district, or Mexico City). She said that the government here in the Yucatan and in Mexico take extra precautions to make sure that it doesn't loose control to the cartels. Hence all the security. So I guess in a way all the security is good, but in another point of view....Mexico is still scary and in a state of anarchy. It's like living on a island of security surrounded by a violent sea. Im safe and sound though.

Chao!