Dzibilchaltun--Ruined Mayan City

Dzibilchaltun isn't a large or dramatic archaeological site, but it is one that was used for an especially long time--300 B.C. into the Spanish colonial period. It's only about 15 kilometers from Merida. What follows is probably as much of a travelogue as I'll ever attempt.

Below is the covered walkway into the site from the entrance gate. The palm thatch is typical of palapa roofs today, although this is an exceptionally fine one.

We weren't allow to use cameras inside the very nice museum, even without flash, so I have to photograph the sculpture when I can.

A fairly typical Mayan house. This is a reproduction on the grounds of Dzibilchaltun, but people still use such houses today in the villages on the Yucatan peninsula. Often they will be plastered and sometimes have a roof other than thatch.

Below is inside the above.

The other side of the room. These houses are oval and the center of the one-roomed building will be occupied by the family's hammocks at night. You see one looped over the rafter in the picture below.

Another type of thatching. These were over rest areas on the path through the site and I'd never seen this type of roof before. It seems to be a kind of grass rather than palm leaves.

The opening at the top of this temple frames the sun perfectly at the equinox. The pictures on the postcards are spectacular. Alas, we will not be here then.

The photo below is looking back along the road, which runs the length of the site, from the top of the temple seen above.

Inside the little temple on top of the pyramid. This is the corbeled arch for which the Maya are famous.

A woman, even older than I, stepping slowly down the steep incline of the pyramid.



There is a derelict Christian church, built by the Spanish in the 16th century, in the midst of the pyramids. Note the Mayan carving on one of the stones near the lower right of the church. I suspect that the church was originally plastered and so the carving wouldn't be seen.





Dzibilchaltun (perhaps I'll get the sound of this word if I repeat it enough) has a beautiful cenote. (Note to Shirley--swimming is allowed, so bring your suit.) The water looked as clean as any I've ever seen any place.

Here are only two of the many plants near the museum. The landscaping, as always, was lovely. They left the areas around the ruins alone, although perhaps the roads would have been paved in Classic Mayan times. The plant below, whose name I don't know, glowed in a bit of sun coming through the jungle canopy.

And a palapa roof through the hennequin.

Today's pictures

My office on the laundry patio. It can get hot and sunny here in midday, but otherwise, it's okay.


We were walking down the street when we saw the old lady coast to the curb in her ancient Mercedes sports car, lift the hood, and then get out her cell phone. A few moments later the old man, presumably her husband, came by in his equally ancient Mercedes sedan and coasted to the curb without even braking and leapt from the car before it was even stopped. It rolled sedately to a stop just before banging into the car in front of it. A few moments later she was driving the sedan and he was driving the sports car and they wheezed down the street and away. We weren't sure which car was most in need of repair. They reminded us of ourselves although we tend to own ancient Fords and VWs rather than Mercedes.

In this photo Kent is trying to reach the orejas, a crispy, flakey pastry, not the lady in front of him.

These bent pieces of rebar are Genero's clamps.

Genero. I was wrong, he's only 72. He used to sing in a mariachi band.

Poco a poco everything proceeds much faster than we'd ever anticipated.

It might be possible that you can now enlarge the pictures again by placing the pointer over the picture and double clicking. To return to the main page, click on the back button at the upper left of your screen. I suspect that I will continue to have problems with the enlarging feature, but I will try to make it work.

Night Scenes from Sunday in the Park

My camera isn't good for night scenes and so I don't take many, but the city's parks are full of nacimientos (nativity creches) and often the statue of the baby Jesus is missing so that families can put their own baby or smaller child in the cot and photograph him or her. Many of the creches are less Disney-like than this.

The parks have street sellers, street dances, musicians and mimes. It's a festival every Saturday and Sunday night. I think these photos turned out well enough that I'll try to take more.

Near the Water

Yesterday we'd hoped to visit an archaeological site about 18 kilometers north of Merida, but when we arrived we found the museum was closed on Mondays. The entry fees to the ruins are the biggest tickets around and so we decided we'd try another day when the museum (reputed to be very good) was open. Instead we drove to the coast, another 30 km. north. Rather than watch the tourists on the beach, we gravitated to the fishing fleet. The pilot was very good at maneuvering that unwieldy vessel through the rafted boats right up to the dock. When we sailed, docking was my personal nightmare, but these guys made it look easy.



Kent wouldn't eat fish for lunch after this.



And what had to be a fisherman's washing in a village near the docks. I think the clothes line supports are the best.

Apartment Construction

Genero progresses. The landlord finally introduced us to Genero Enrique. He's 74 years old and is doing the whole job himself. The landlord watches him all day and runs errands for him and sweeps up after him. He earns 200 peso/day. They both sing and both have nice voices. For us, the construction is almost noiseless, except for the choral concert, as there is no machinery helping in the whole process. Soon, Genero will be finished with the exterior of the apartment and we will be able to move our car back into the parking space. I think this will be a dark apartment and I won't want to move into it when it's finished. Also I have discovered why we can't throw the toilet paper in the toilet. The septic tank is under the floors of the apartments on the first floor. There is no central city sewer system and everyone has their own septic tank or two buried someplace on their property. The landlord, Ariel, tells me that they need emptied every three to four years. I asked how he decided when they should be cleaned and he said that when the toilets on the first floor backed up it was time to call the honey truck and have them pumped out. That does explain the smell of drains that we sometimes get when we take walks. I hope nothing happens while Ariel is in Florida for three weeks over Christmas vacation.

Sunday Street Scenes

Food

In the big non-supermarket market. It's lovely to find avacados for $2US/kilo instead of $2 apiece.

Wal-Mart's mole selection.

Mega's prepared meat section.

Street food.