Mexico Adventure!

-          Today we went to Progreso Beach for the last time.

-          Tonight was our last night in Merida, so we went to Panchos to celebrate.  Tomorrow, we were off to the jungle in Kiuic.

-          Today, after class, a small group of us went to MACAY, the modern art museum in Merida.  I’m not too fond of modern art.  I’m more into the classics, but occasionally I do like some modern art pieces.  It is mostly because I don’t quite understand it.  When I think of modern art, it is like splashing paint on to a canvas and then calling it a work of art.  Apparently there is some meaning to these pieces but to me, it is quite difficult to grasp what the artist was trying to do.

-          At MACAY, I only like two exhibits from two modern artists, Gina Novendstern and Benjamin Dominguez.  Gina Novendstern’s pieces were small metal sculptures.  They weren’t completely figures though.  Some were just toursos, others were just heads, but when you looked at them, you could grasp what she wanted to portray.  These pieces were very moving.  My favorite was of a torso of a woman that was dangling from a string.  This piece was trying to signify solitude and I was moved by the piece.  Benjamin Dominguez was a portrait artist that used the same background of a room and a mirror in his painting.  I really liked this exhibit because it was clear to see the religious connotations within the works of art.  It was very subtle, which was I thought was very interesting.

-          Other than those two artists, I just clearly did not get the works from other artists.  I’m more into the classics, like Claude Monet and his impressionist paintings.  Modern art is just too chaotic and too open to interpretation, which appeals to some people but not to me.

-          Today we visited the town of Campeche in the state of Campheche.  This town was about 2 hours from Merida.  At Capmeche we visited two museums.

-          The first museum was El Museo Arqueológico de Campeche en el Reducto de San Miguel.  

  This Museum was utilized an old Spanish fortress that was on top of a hill that overlooked the Gulf of Mexico.  The structure was very interesting.  It truly was like a fortress, complete with a moat draw bridge.  The fortress was built within the hill and the entrance was very narrow and cut through the ground so that if an enemy were to come charging they would have to go through it.

-          Within the Museum we saw various artifacts.  The first thing that we got to see was as tone representation of a yoke, which is what ball players wore around their hips to protect them when they hit the rubber ball with their hips. 

-          Another exhibit that I thought was really cool was the tomb of Jaguar Paw from Calakmul.

  His skeletal remains as well as the earthly possessions that he was buried with were transferred from Calakmul to this museum.  At one point, someone had commented on the height of the skeleton.  Robert had lain down on the floor next to the exhibit to compare the height.  The two were very close in length.  The Mayans were not that short.  I figured that the Mayans were short people, but Rebecca had commented that the ancient Mayans were averaged sized people and it wasn’t until later that their stature had declined.  This was due to malnutrition and various other factors that affected the short stature of modern Mayans.

-          After the Museum, we headed towards the central plaza inside the walled center district of Campeche.  However, our bus had broken down so we had to take public transport to get to the city.   It was just like taking the bus to CIS everyday at Merida.  When we arrived at the central part of the city, it really was encased in a wall.

When we walked inside, I was completely blown away by the architecture.  The city was designed just like the city of Cuba, and Hugo, our tour guide had also made the same comment.  The buildings were brightly colored and the streets were stone.  It was very clean, surprisingly.  Merida is a very nice city, but like any other city, it has its filth, especially in the streets.  The walled district was very clean.  I was shocked by how clean it was.  The central plaza was also quite amazing.  Like many towns in Mexico, it too had a central square with a church and some municipal building on either side of the square.  The church was more beautiful than El Catedral in Merida.  It was mostly because the architecture was more elaborate.  It was not simple like the one in Merida.  This one was like the churches that you would see in Europe.  The European influence was clear in the construction of this church.  At night, the square, especially the street was even more beautiful.  I fell in love with this city.

-          After exploring the city, we went to El Museo de Arqueológico in the central plaza.  There we saw various stela and Mayan stone carvings of various styles and various time periods.  It was really interesting.

-          It’s Wednesday night, and we were off to the Mambo Café.  This was going to be our last chance to go.  The Mambo is a very interesting place.  It is a dance club, but it was for all ages.  At the Mambo, there were people ranging from their early 20’s to elderly people in their 40’s.  It was a really nice place to go out dancing.  It was a nice place for everyone to hang out because on Wednesday, it was free to enter.

-          One thing that I liked about Mexico is that dancing is a big part of the culture.  At Mambo Café, and even at the streets on Saturday, there are crowds of people dancing to music.  Latin dances are the most sultry and most fun form of dances.  The salsa, the cha cha, the samba, etc. are all very interesting and when you know the basics, you can have a great time at the dance clubs.  Unlike the US where dancing if very unrefined and are more about grinding, Latin dances are beautiful to watch.  When I was at the Mambo Café, I was always dancing.  It was nice to finally get the chance to show off my dancing skills at salsa and samba.  Everyone was really impressed with my moves, but I was only doing the basics with a few modified moves thrown in between.  What guys in the US don’t understand is that if you know how to dance, girls will be impressed.  At the Mambo, the girls were impressed by the local guys that would ask them to dance.  They had fun dancing the entire time we were there.  Dancing is a fun activity and is a shame that not that many people like to dance.

-          Today, instead of having class, we went to go visit three different Mayan locations.

-          First on our trip was Acanceh.  It was a small town near Merida.  At the center was a plaza square, just like the one in Merida.  There was church that was being renovated.  It was really nice.  I really liked the architecture of the churches in Mexico.  It is very simple, yet very beautiful.  (insert picture)

-          Near the square was a small, preserved Mayan temple. (insert picture)  It was really interesting that a Mayan temple was sitting in the middle of a town.  I would have thought that with the development of the town, the temple would have been destroyed.  I was really impressed at how preserved the temple was.  We climbed the temple and we saw stucco masks on the pyramid.  I was also impressed at how well preserved they stucco was.  Given the harsh conditions in Mexico, especially during the rainy season, I thought that Mother Nature would have had its way with the stucco masks, but the masks were well preserved.  The masks were on the west, north, and east sides of the temple.  The masks were a bit disfigured, but Rebecca told us that some of the damages on the masks were intentional and may have been done long ago during the age of the Maya as a termination ritual.  However, for stucco, which is virtually like plaster, it was well preserved.

-          We also went to El Palacio de los Estucos, which was further down from the square and was another Mayan ruin.  This site had very nicely preserved Mayan stone carvings.  It depicted figures with zoomorphic features.  Some believe that it could be the Mayan zodiac, but there is no evidence to back it up.  (insert picture)

-          The sites were really beautiful but I found it a bit upsetting that the site was not being taken care of.  The carvings on El Palacio de los Estucos were slowly being warn away.  The only thing covering it was a metal sheet to act as a roof over it.  This was the same for the stucco masks on the temple at the square.  Hugo, our tour guide said that many small local sites were getting little funding to preserve these sites.  The only sites that were getting the most funding, especially for restoration of the various buildings and artifacts, were those that were big touristy areas, like Chichen Itza.  Chinchen Itza is a nice place, but places like Acanceh is just as beautiful and has equally nice carvings for people to see.  It was upsetting that these sites were not getting the money to help care for them.

-          We also went to Tecoh.  We stopped by a church, which was build over a Mayan temple.  This goes back to the whole idea of the Spanish replacing the old Mayan religion with their new Catholic religion.  The church was built on a Pre-Columbian foundation.  The church was beautiful but I what upset me was that there was a bull fight ring build near the church.  At this point in the year, they were celebrating with a bull fight.  Here in Mexico, it is still practiced that the bull would be killed in the ring.  I completely appalled that this was being celebrated near a church.  The ring was also a makeshift structure made of sticks and sheets of metal.  If that bull gets lose, there is a possibility that the bull could go towards the church and ruin it.  I thought that the idea was completely idiotic, but that is the custom here in Mexico.  (insert picture)

-          The final site that we went to was Mayapan.  I really enjoyed this site.  It was like a miniature version of Chichen Itza.  Chichen Itza was a nice place to visit, but it was too touristy.  It was overrun with so many tourists.  Also, the place was huge.  Mayapan was smaller and everything was close to each other.  I also liked the fact that not that many people were there.  I understand that tourists bring in money and that money helps to restore the site, but it was nice to have the place to ourselves with not that many people walking around.

-          At Mayapan, we scaled the Castillo, which is the central temple in the site, and the largest as well.  The Castillo had 9 levels with 260 steps, which corresponds to the Mayan calendar round.  We also so the round temple, which was used for astronomical observations.  We also got to see a very well preserved example of a corbel vault.  I really liked this site.  (insert picture)

-          Today was like any other day.  We had Maya class and bio class in the morning.  We then went home for lunch and to get some work done.

-          In the evening, I went out with a couple of people to Carnival again.  This was even more packed with people.  Tonight was just like yesterday with the parade.  However, the parade was even longer because there were Herranas.  These were the various types of folk dances of the Yucatecan people.  It was really nice.

-          Today is Sunday and the fourth day of Carnival Maravillosa.  In Mexico, Carnival is a celebration that takes place during this time of the year.  Everyone has off from work and kids do not have school.  It is 5 days of celebration.  Aaksh, Caitlin, and I went to Paseo de Montejo, the main street in Merida, to see the parade that was taking place today.  If I could describe Carnival in one word, it would be insanity.  It was like Mardigra but better.  There were so many beer tents lined up throughout the street.  Each tent had piles of beer for the very thirsty masses.  There were lines of people getting beer to drink during the hot, sunny weather.  Mexico really loves their cervesa, or beer.  However, people weren’t getting drunk though.  Everyone was just having a good time and celebrating by drinking beer and eating food.  The food around Paceo de Montejo was delicious.  My favorite was the churros.  They were really delicious.  I had been dying to eat some ever since I stepped foot in Mexico.

-          The streets were packed with people, squished like sardines.  Everyone was here to see the parade.  The three of us had arrived an hour early before the parade started and it was already packed.  Bleachers were filled to capacity.  It was crazy to see so many people all in one place.  Our host mother said that throughout the carnival, the place gets packed, especially during the last day of Carnival, which was Tuesday.  She said that by that day, almost everyone in the city is at Paseo de Montejo celebrating.

-          Aaksh, Caitlin, and I, stood behind a group of people sitting on chairs.  It was a nice view.  Even if they stood, we could still see.  The three of us were tall enough that this was possible.  It was nice to be taller than the masses.  Also, because we were in the back, we didn’t obstruct anyone else’s view of the parade.  The parade was a spectacle.  The floats were really beautiful.  This year’s theme was the Seven Wonders of the World.  There were floats of the Taj Mahal, The Roman Coliseum, Chichen Itza, The Great Wall, The Pyramids of Giza, The Christ Statue of Rio, and Petra.  Everyone was in elaborate costumes and the floats were amazing.  They were also throwing beads at the bleachers.  The beads had on it one of the Seven Wonders of the World.  Everyone was going crazy for these beads, screaming and throwing their hands up in the air, hoping to catch beads from the various people on the floats.  Aakash and Caitlin managed to get a beaded necklace.  The parade lasted about an hour or so, but the three of us stayed there and hung around.  Aside from the parade, there were stages set up along the street for concerts and live music.  We had a great time.  We went from only staying at Carnival for an hour to staying there for 7 hours, from 11 to 6 pm.  We had a blast walking around and seeing the different performances.

-          Carnival was an amazing experience.  It was unlike anything I had ever seen.  I wish there was something like it in the US.  Even though there were so many people throughout the streets, it was like an organized chaos.  There were no riots or injuries throughout the entire time we were there.  Also, there were cops and EMTs walking throughout the streets in case anything happened, but throughout the whole time we were there the place was great.  We had a great time celebrating with people of Merida.

-          Afterwards, Aakash and I went home and watched SUPER BOWL XLII!!! The Giants were playing the Patriots.  GO GIANTS!!!  The whole game was intense, but in the end, the Giants won Super Bowl XLII!

-          Today we visited Rio Lagartos in the morning for some bird watching.  Before we went off on the boats to go around the mangroves to look at the shorebirds, some of the people were feeding the dogs.  I noticed this throughout the trip, but people were more sympathetic to the dogs than they were to the people.  They were paying more attention to the dog and feeding it rather than paying any attention to the many people throughout Mexico that were poor and hungry.  It seemed as if no acknowledgement was being given to the poverty stricken masses.  I know that a sandwich may not be much, but rather than give it to a dog, give it to a hungry family.  It’s not that I don’t like dogs, but there are needy people that could make use of that food.  I had spoken to a two other people about this and we all found it a bit upsetting too.  There are less fortunate people that need that sandwich more than a dog.  Also, it was upsetting that throughout this trip, not that many people wanted to talk about this topic.  Aakash and I were talking about this and we thought that people fail to acknowledge this because it’s a taboo.  It’s not something that we want to face, so we try to ignore it.  When a little girl comes up to you to try and sell you something so that she can earn some money, we immediately say no gracias, but when we see a hungry dog on the street we immediately feel sorry and want to feed it.  I admit that I am at times in the position to say no and not acknowledge the poor girl, but I do feel really bad.  As a kid there is not much that I can do, aside having bought something from her.  I just wish that more people would acknowledge this misfortune because many people around the world are poor and hungry.  If more people cared about this, then it wouldn’t be a problem.

-          Anyways, we boarded the boats in a port in Rio Lagartos and were off to watch some birds.  It was amazing.  I couldn’t believe that our classroom for today was the beautiful brackish water setting near the mangroves.  (insert picture)  There were so many shore birds throughout the place.  Some of my favorite birds were the cormorants.  These birds completely submerge their bodies in the water, leaving only their neck and head above the surface.  As Robert said, they are like submarines with only the periscope sticking out of the water.  I also liked the frigate birds.  In flight, their shape and outline is very cool, almost like the bat signal that you would see in batman.  Another really cool bird that I saw was the tern, which plunge dive into the water to catch fish.  While flying, they would dive into the water to find food.  It was very cool.  While near the mangroves, we also so a crocodile.  Our boat captain was crazy and tried to get it to come closer by enticing it with a fish.  He was crazy and fed it a small barracuda.  Even though that stunt was completely insane, it was amazing. (insert picture) I told Ellen when we got on the boat that I wanted to see a crocodile, and we did.  It was amazing.

-          The very end of our boating expedition, we came upon a pink pool where salt was manufactured.  The water was pink because of the shrimp larvae in the water. (insert picture)  We all took a dip in the water and it was a very strange experience.  Because of the extremely high salt concentration in the water, you would float on the surface.  I was able to curl into a ball and stand straight and I would just float on the water.  It was an amazing experience.  The pool also had some flamingos nearby that were feeding on the shrimp larvae.  It was an amazing experience, one that I will never forget.

-          I really enjoyed Rio Lagartos.  I was really surprised that it had not become a tourist destination, completely renovated with lots of hotels.  I enjoyed the fact that it retained its local façade of a port town.  The local fishermen were still fishing for a living throughout the brackish water.  After our excursion, we got to try some of the local fish cuisine.  It was delicious.  I expected nothing less from this place.

-          After our morning excursion at Rio Lagartos, we went to Ek’ Balam, a Mayan site.  It was amazing.  The acropolis that we got to scale was really tall, the tallest one that we have scaled so far.  At the top we could see the acres of trees from the surrounding environment.  The view was spectacular.  Like many of the other sites that we saw, there were stucco structures on the acropolis sides.  They were well preserved.  The detail in the stucco was amazing.  I was completely in awe of the Mayan art.  The witz entrance at the acropolis side was beautiful.  I could not believe the detail.  It was amazing.

-          Today, we left for an overnight trip to various Mayan sites.  Today we visited Chichen Itza.  Last year, it was declared as one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

-          Chichen Itza was a beautiful site.  Upon entering, you first see the great Castillo.  (insert picture)  This pyramid is very tall and is truly a wonder.  Each of the four sides of the Castillo faces the 4 corners of the universe, according to the Maya.  There are 365 steps, which corresponds to the days of the year and the solar calendar of the Maya.  Within this temple is the temple of the moon, which has 260 steps and corresponds to the lunar calendar.  On the sides of the steps of the pyramid is the feathered serpent.  A truly spectacular wonder of Mayan architecture is that during the equinox, the feathered serpent looks as if it is moving down the steps of the pyramid.  This temple is truly a magnificent work of art.

-          The next structure that we visited was the Temple of the Jaguar, which is next to the ball court.  (insert picture)  This temple had very well preserved Mayan stone carvings.  Within the temple, the creation story is depicted.  On the support columns of the temple, midwives (women) are depicted on the right column, while ballplayers (men) are depicted on the left column.  According to the Maya, women symbolize death, while men symbolize life.  It was interesting to hear this because I would have thought that women would symbolize life seeing as how they give life to the earth and that men would symbolize death because it is men that have wars and kill one another.  I found this way of thinking a bit strange, but I guess it makes sense because the Hero Twins in the Creation story were men.

-          The next structure that we visited was the ball court, which was next to the Temple of the Jaguar. (insert picture)  The ball court was a fairly decent sized court.  It was believed to have been played by two teams of seven.  On the edges of the court were carvings depicting seven men on each side.  The ball court and the ball game is such a fascinating topic.  The game is so much like basketball.  Two teams are given a rubber ball in which they must put it through a hoop using only their hips, elbows, and knees.  The ball game was also for ritualistic purposes and I find it interesting that the Mayans have incorporate a sport into their creation myth and make it part of their civilization.  At the very north end of the ball game was the north temple.  Within the temple are carvings and paintings that depict the procession of a ball game.

-          Afterwards, we went to the Tzompantli, or skull rack. (insert picture)  It is a platform with skulls carved on the sides of the platform.  Long ago, poles with the heads of decapitated men would be placed along the edges of the platform. 

-          The next thing that we saw was the Venus Platform. (insert picture)  This platform was believed to be used for ritualistic performances or dances.  The edges of the platform had very intricate carvings.  The steps of the platform also had carving so the feathered serpent.  Near the statue I did spot a ctenosaur. (insert picture)  It was lying on the hot stones of the platform and basking in the sun.

-          We then headed over to the sacred cenote.  (insert picture)  This cenote was very large.  When it was discovered, archeologist found various Mayan artifacts, included jade, at the bottom of the cenote.  It was different from the ones that we swam in during our previous trips.  This one was like the one at Oxkintok.  It was a giant hole in the ground filled with water, except for this one was ten times bigger than the one at Oxkintok and it was very deep.

-          We took a break here before heading out.  Everyone drank some water and had something to eat.  Chichen Itza is a very big place.  It would take a while to explore the whole site.  Though Chichen Itza was an amazing place, I did not like the hundreds of people that soon poured into the site.  The place was overrun by tourist.  I understand that tourists bring in money and some of the money goes into repairing Chichen Itza, but I just did not like the crowds.  I liked how our previous expeditions were to less crowded areas and how the site was more for us.  I also did not like the lines of local vendors lined up along the various paths at Chichen Itza.  That took away from the beauty of Chichen Itza.  The tourism and the vendors just made the place seem claustrophobic, even though the site is very big.  However, if you want to keep the place intact, you need to bring in money.  Another thing that I didn’t like was that because of the tourism, the monuments were closed and people were no longer able to scale them because Chichen Itza was just declared a new Wonder of the World and people have started to pour in to come and see it.  This is understandable because large crowds of people constantly coming everyday and wanting to scale the monuments would really take its toll on the stone and make cause even more damage.  I would have been nice to have been able to scale the Castillo.

-          After our break, we made our way to the Temple of the Warriors. (insert picture) This place was really cool.  There were columns called the Group of a Thousand Columns that surrounds this monument.  At the top were stone monkeys and of course the feathered serpent.  Each column had either a warrior or a prisoner carved on it.  At the temple, we spotted some warblers perched on a tree.  There were black and white warblers, yellow throated warblers, and northern and tropical perula. 

-          We then made our way towards the old site of Chichen Itza.  The site that we saw that contained the great Castillo is the new site, which is oriented north to south.  The old site is oriented east to west.  Along the way we saw a great example of a corbel vault.  (insert picture)  We also stopped by to see an example of a Mayan house.  (insert picture)

-          Upon arriving to the old site, we saw the plantform of the tombs. (insert picture) It was believed that this was the connection between the two worlds, this one and the supernatural.

-          We then saw the High Priest’s Grave. (insert picture)  The pyramid had 7 platforms and the stairs were also lined with the feathered serpent.  The monument was believed to be a portal to the underworld.  It was build over a cave/cenote.  The pyramid contained 7 sarcophagi but only 6 skeletons were found.  Within the building was the high lord, Kahkupakal.

-          We then made our way towards the ball court.  It was much smaller than the one at the new site.  It was probably played by two teams of two.  On the other side of the ball court was a structure called Casa Colorada.  It is believed that fire drilling ceremonies were performed to conjure vision serpents.

-          Afterwards we went to the Nunnery.  The structure was remodeled 5 times.  The nunnery had corbel vaults in it and towards the left side were Puuk style expansions.  The expansion had a witz doorway (or mouth of the mountain according to the Maya).  The doorway had a face like carvings and teeth that made it look like the entrance into the mouth of a beast.  (insert picture) 

-          Next to the Nunnery was a structure called the Iglesia.  (insert picture)  the structure had stone carved masks of the rain god Chaak.  There were carving of various animals on the structure also. 

-          The final structure that we saw at the old site was the Observatory.  (insert picture)  The observatory was used to track the movements of the sun, moon, and Venus.  These celestial bodies were very important to the Ancient Maya.  The Mayans were great astronomers and through their observations of these celestial bodies were able to come up with their various calendars and track the equinoxes and solstices that occur during the year.

-          After our excursion through Chichen Itza, we went to this very nice restaurant that was built next to a cenote.  I did not like this cenote because it was very touristy.  The cenote had been completely redone to have a stone staircase that went down to it and stone platforms for people to jump off of.  Though the swim was nice, it was very different from the other ones that we had gone to, which were untouched (with the exception of a wooden staircase being built to go down to it) and completely natural.  This cenote was too perfect and just did not have the beauty that the other ones had.  It was unnatural and had become manmade.

-          Towards the late afternoon, we made our way to Valladolid, a quaint town that was near Chichen Itza.  The place was really beautiful.  The center was set up just like Merida with a church and a government building built at the center.  After settling into our hotel, everyone decided to go and explore the central area.  A couple of people from the group and I went to the government building to go see the murals. (insert picture)   The building was just like the Palacio de Gobierno, with murals on the second floor.  Though these murals were much different from the ones in El Palacio de Gobierno, the concept was still the same.  The murals depict the struggle of the Mayan people.  I found it strange to see that these murals are being painted and yet nothing is being about the Mayan people who are still struggling and being oppressed.  There is still inequality between the Mayan people and the Mexican people today.

-          Today we had Maya Class, a short bio lecture, and Megan and Dana presented their individual projects on Pelicaniformes and Momots.