Our chauffeur home tonight was Chichenita and Jose and boy oh boy did we appreciate having a ride! Chichenita is a slightly sad looking little horse and Jose is the fellow driving the buggy we were riding in. Why did we decide on a buggy ride home? Well....Merida is well known for the horse and buggy rides that will tour you around the city and we figured we didn't want to miss out on anything while we're still here. Secondly, we're so tired tonight that we didn't trust our feet to get us home! We deserve to be tired though...it's been a very full day!
This morning we had to be up and in the lobby ready to go by 8:00 a.m. When you're used to sleeping till noon'ish...that is no easy feat! Our car and driver Juan were there at the ready and we were off. First stop was a small village about an hour from here where we spent some time wandering their main market shopping for our breakfast. We surprised Juan by finding several things we'd like to purchase and so we made a picnic of it on the bleachers of the basketball court that is situated right beside the market area.
This little town that we were in was interesting as for the most part their motorized transport is motorized bikes that have a large metal basket that does double duty as a taxi (for up to 3 people) or to carry fruit or veg or any other product that one might want to haul from point a to b.
From our breakfast stop we were off again and this time there was no stopping until we arrived at the UNESCO site Uxmal (one of the largest and most significant Mayan ruins in the Yucatan) Uxmal is both significant and magnificent even all these years later. People first settled there about 2500 years ago but many of the structures are "only" 1000 years old. One area of the site that I'll call the main square really caught my attention as the acoustics in it are phenomenal! When you stand in the middle of that very large area and clap your hands it can be heard loud and clear from the furthest reaches of that zone of the site. There were iguanas scurrying everywhere and bats hidden in the cracks above the doorways so we were really careful where we sat but once we did find a spot that looked safe enough we discovered that there was also a fantastic breeze that was created between the doorways into the main square! We enjoyed that breeze, chugged a bottle of water, and coveted our spot in the shade for as long as we could and then it was off into the heat again. Yes...it's HOT wandering around stone ruins in the heart of the Yucatan! There were very few tourists at this site and that is one of the main reasons that we decided to do Uxmal over Chichen Itza. Chichen and Uxmal are considered the two most significant (size and import) but Chichen gets more publicity due to it's proximity to Cancun etc hence the crazy crowds that line up there. Neither of us could imagine visiting a historic ruin like that with so many others...it just felt like the vibe of the place would be affected so...Uxmal was the winner for us. From the ball court to the pyramid we sweated our way through the grounds. When it was time to leave there was no question that we'd be guzzling another drink before we hit the road again!
From Uxmal we were off to discover our first Cenote (fresh water pools located in caves below ground). We feel so lucky to have had Juan as he was able to take us to a cenote that is used almost exclusively by locals so the price of $10 pesos (less than a dollar) was a treat and the fact that we were the only car there was another! While we were there another young couple also joined us but they were local so had just walked to the pool. To get into the pool you descend a flight of "interesting" (another word for slightly challenging) stairs and even though you are going into seeming darkness...something happens about half way down the stairs and it is as though there is a light on in the cave. (even though there are no lights anywhere). It is just the sun shining into the mouth of the cave that illuminates the water and the cave below. At the bottom of the steps you're right into the water and it is a perfect 22 degrees... so refreshing and so clear! What a treat to be in such fresh clear water! All cenotes are joined together and so the water is constantly moving which is why it is always fresh and clear. The cave overhead has stalagmites (or tites...I can never remember which is which!) and there are spots in the pool where you cannot touch bottom and other areas where the water is just a few inches deep. What a wonderful experience! Cenotes were revered by the ancient Mayan's and I can understand why! Before getting into the cenote both Lynda and I had to find a spot to change into bathing suits (that have been packed way too long and were likely still a little wet when last packed so smell a lot like a stinky old hockey bag!) The site has a makeshift banyo (outhouse) that Juan directed us to change in but...neither of us could bring ourselves to do it so we just changed out in the open instead! Thank heavens it is not a busy spot!!! By the time we came out of the cenote we felt cleaner than I can describe and my bathing suit smelled a whole lot better than it did when I went into that cave too! Another thing that we both noticed about the water in the cenote is that it is super buoyant...it's as though it was salt water but it's not...it's fresh. According to Juan there are lots of minerals in it though and again...according to Juan the ancient Mayan's believed that by going into the waters of a cenote you would emerge refreshed both in mind and body. Based on my experience today...I'd say those ancient Mayans had something figured out!
Once we struggled back into our clothes while still wet and standing in the open 'jungle' we were back into the car for our next stop...a hacienda. This hacienda was the largest in all the Yucatan and at the peak of their rule in this region...there were 300 of them. Our tour guide was Edward, a 30 year old Mayan who speaks enough English to have been able to give us a tour AND a great story which brought the place back to life for us. Edward's grandfather was one of the Mayan's who where captured by the Spanish for slavery. That is how he ended up on this particular hacienda. Edward's grandmother, also a Mayan, fled her village when it was attacked by the Spanish. She was about 6 years old at the time and made her way to the hacienda for safety. She too was then enslaved. That is how his grandparents met. They continued to work as slaves on the hacienda for as long as that era lasted and the hacienda completely ceased production of sisal (a plant based fibre that was used to make string and other similar products) in 1984, the same year that Edward was born at home on that same hacienda. He lived there for the first 15 years of his life and was able to tell us some of the trouble he got into as a boy on such a massive estate. He was also able to describe for us what life would have been like for his grandparents and the family who ruled the hacienda in it's day. For his grandparents, the only payment they ever received was foodstuffs from the hacienda store and a spot to sleep in one room of the warehouse. Oh yes...they shared that room with approximately 498 others too! The space wasn't more than about 30 feet square and so slaves took turns sleeping and when they slept it was in layers. Sometimes they were on the floor and other times they had one of the hammocks that hung at varying levels above the floor. As for the family in the big house...there was a bathroom that was for the mother and father and the youngest children but the older children had to run out to another building to use the bathroom there so life wasn't all a bed of roses for them either. It seems to me that they were hard times that were filled with hard people. Edward's grandmother was one of those hard...or maybe it would be more appropriate to say tough people as she lived to the ripe old age of 103 and passed away in the 1990's. It was amazing to be able to look into the mirror in the sitting room in the big house and know that the reason it was hanging there was so the patron (man of the house) could watch the slaves working in the mill and the fields without having to get up from his chair. It was unbelievable to think about the 500 people who were crammed into that small space after working tirelessly for a master who owned them. It was such a gift to get to meet the grandson of two of those slaves and to know that today he is being paid by the estate to work on the grounds as their electrician (and occasional tour guide...he was the only person on site who spoke any english so they talked him into it!)
By the time we'd finished our walking tour of the massive hacienda we were done in! By the time we made it back to the car for the trip back to Merida and our hotel we weren't certain that we were going to be able to follow through on our plan to head down to the main square for an 8:00 pm game of pok ta pok, the Mayan soccer that was played in those ball pits that you see at the ruins. They don't kick the ball, they drop their bodies under it and hit it with their hip...all the while working to get the ball through a wooden circle that is suspended about 5 ot 6 feet in the air.
In the end...we rubbed on some P3, popped a couple of Ibuprofen and made our way to the front of the cathedral where the game was just getting ready to start. We found a spot on the sidewalk where we could sit with our feet in the gutter (kind of appropriate for how we felt to tell the truth!) and 1/2 way through the game were rewarded with two seats on the bleachers as two seated guests decided to leave early. Again, we are sooo lucky. It was a great game and ended in a shoot out!
By the time it was all over we had only energy enough to find a bite to eat and a ride home...which is where Chichenita and Jose enter the picture. Yep, it was a good day but a long one so...good night for now.
Hasta luego,
L & L
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