Saturday, December 15, 2007

Animal, Vegetable, Plastic

Yesterday we had some shopping to do in the north of town. Since we had to take the car out anyway, we went farther and revisited Cholul, which is a village only a couple of kilometers from the edge of the city.

Cholul has become a refuge for wealthy people who are escaping the hustle and grit inside Merida and other parts of Mexico. Even though those walls, topped by bougainvillea, hide a palatial estate, there are still ordinary folks doing ordinary village things. And animals in the street.



And ordinary household objects. This must be the modern equivalent of the traveling tinker.

Cholul also has a vivero (plant nursery) and we stopped for some local, vegetable color.

A banana blossom.




A palm leaf. I photographed this same kind of palm years ago in the Como Park Conservatory in St. Paul, MN. It was a kick to see one outside.


I should know both of the orange flowers, for we saw them often while sailing in the Caribbean, but I don't.



A blue water lily with the same growth habit as the white ones seen in the Dzibilchaltun cenote.





Elephant ears.



And a leaf, again one I'm not sure of, but it might be a young banana leaf. They get ragged as they age--a bit like Kent and me.


I realize that I haven't given you many of the colorful flowers that are blooming now--bougainvillea in rainbow hues, a purple morning glory that climbs through the trees, the red cosinera shrub, or the yellow-flowering tree with spikes of blossoms that look like snapdragons on steroids, but my photos never manage to show the richness that is there when viewed in person. Perhaps a lot of green is enough for those of you snowed in. In any case, I think you all simply need to come and see yourselves.