Cindy Taylor’s blog

            Yesterday we went to Oxkintok.  Hugo came with us, and he talked about all sorts of things on the way there.  He told us about how Merida used to be a Mayan city that was given a name meaning “the ones facing the sky.”  Spaniards came from the city of Merida in Spain (I think there are 3 cities named Merida now) which was poor and struggling economically.  In 1542 Francisco de Montejo was given the charter from Charles the 5^th to found the new city of Merida, right on top of the Mayan city.  They rebuilt all the buildings and got rich quickly from growing and exporting sisal (aka henequen).

            While driving we passed two electricity plants, one is old and the other is new.  The old plant employs 3,000 workers.  The new plant, which was designed in Japan, only employs 12 workers.  How high tech is that?!  A lot of people didn’t like the new, more efficient plant because it didn’t create more jobs. 

            Hugo also explained that to become a policeman here, a person is only required to study (and be trained) for three months.  Then they only get paid 10 to 15 dollars a day, and so bribes are the easiest way to make money (not trying to justify this, I’m just explaining).  This is what leads to all the police corruption.

            I learned a lot just on the drive to Oxkintok!

            Once there, we walked around the ruins and identified as much as we could.  We all saw a motmot, which is a beautiful bird with long tail feathers that swing side to side like a coo-coo clock.  In Maya it is called a t’oh (pronounced like “toe”).  Inside one of the ruins there was a big tarantula, and I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen one outside of a pet store or zoo before.  We crawled into a small room inside the ruin because someone had identified a tailless whipscorpion inside.  I’ve been told that in Harry Potter, the arachnid that Mad-eye Moody (or should I say Barty Crouch?) enlarges and does an unforgivable curse on is a tailless whipscorpion .  I haven’t seen the movie in a while so I can’t be 100% sure about that, but we use the idea to remember the whipscorpion’s Order, because Amblypygi sounds like a fun spell name.  Nerds.  The whipscorpion ended up being very small and so I was disappointed that I summoned all the guts I had to crawl through just for the little thing.

            After the ruins we went to a cave, which had Mayan writing and carvings on the walls.  Mayans believed caves and cenotes to be sacred just like temples or churches, so we weren’t allowed to wander off and take pictures as we pleased (mustn’t disturb the spirits), but we did get to see a lot.  In one part of the cave there was a small nook where the Maya would make offerings.  We crawled inside (we could only fit a few people at a time) and it was beautiful and sparkling with quartz.  The nook was filled with small rocks that must have come from outside of the cave and given as offerings.  There was also a small figurine and a small carved seashell left as offerings. 

Hugo told us that it takes 100 years for a stalactite or stalagmite to grow 1 centimeter, and it was really cool to see little ones starting to form all over the place.  I’ve noticed that a lot of the Mayan architecture and even some the hieroglyphics in the cave face certain directions depending on their meanings.  For example, the picture of an owl faced west to depict part of its meaning.  The two men showing us the different parts of the cave and explaining the hieroglyphics were very nice and as we walked out I had a conversation with one.  It’s actually really fun to try and communicate with someone who speaks a different language.  It’s a challenge, especially because of my poor Spanish and he only knew a few words of English.  He knew Mayan though, and I was proud to tell him I knew that bellybutton was tuch in Mayan.  He taught Megan and me that nose is ni and mouth is chi and that legs are called walks.  He said a lot of other words but those are the only ones I remember, and I’m not sure about the spelling.

From the cave we went to another cenote, and it was in someone’s backyard!  It was way better than having a pool.  We climbed down a ladder through a small hole and inside was completely enclosed except that little hole.  They had light bulbs strung up along the rock ceiling and it was very dark, humid, and the most cavelike cenote we’ve seen yet.  The boy whose backyard it was, named Concho, swam around with us.  He was 8 and really cute.

On the way home we stopped for dinner at a Mayan restaurant, where they served us cochonita pibil, which is pork cooked underground.  They showed us how they buried the huge tray with cochonitas and shoveled over it.  It tasted amazing.

After the long day we had an even longer night.  We went to Canta Mexico again, and danced and sang Uptown Girl.  It was the only English song sang all night and we sounded horrible but people were still nice to us.  Then we headed to the beach and went night swimming.  It was my first time ever doing that, and I loved it.  In all it was the longest and best day yet.

            I haven’t had much to blog about lately because we haven’t been doing much this week, except for going to Mambo on Wednesday, because we had our Spanish final today.  Mambo was a lot of fun again, except Jessie ended up going to the hospital because she cut her finger on glass and needed to get stitches.  Danielle went with her, and she learned not to go to public hospitals or the red cross unless you really have no money.  Good thing to know.  Her stitches ended up being a lot cheaper than they would have been in the states.

            This afternoon we went to the Governor’s Palace, which is filled with huge murals by Fernando Castro Pacheco depicting Mayan history and people who helped the emancipation of Mayan peasants.  If I can ever post pictures (generally the connection is always too slow) then I will explain what each painting is showing.

            At night we had tacos at Daniel’s house, and we got laughed at for folding our tortillas so the meat didn’t fall out.  Apparently you don’t do that in Mexico.  Then we went to Canta Mexico, which is a karaoke bar.  Merida has a lot of Canta Mexicos.  It was fun because people were really into it and were up dancing right next to their tables.

            Lunch today was a fantastic surprise, we had tacos!  Unexpectedly, we haven’t had many of them.  Usually we’ll be given some sort of meat (which will be very good on its own) and then handed plain corn tortillas.  Then you’re expected to cut your own meat and put it on the tortilla with no cheese, sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes, or any of the other taco-toppings we love.  I’d rather eat the meat plain.  But today’s taco was the real deal, with all the toppings, except instead of sour cream we had “crema,” which is white and poured out of carton.  I’m not quite sure what is in it. 

            We also had soup, which we always have for lunch.  We are also always given a lime to squeeze over the soup.  I don’t find this particularly good, but I do it because I’m in Mexico!  I know some of my friend’s host moms squeeze limes over all their food.  Limes must be cheap because Delia goes through at least two limes a day.

            For lunch desert we had “pan dulce” which is sweet bread.  Some sweet breads are very good, and others not so much.  Today I picked a good one.  So far the only thing that I’ve had a really hard time swallowing was some sort of bean soup.  Other than that, food isn’t too much different from home (I still don’t like corn tortillas though).

            This morning we woke up early and got breakfast from a street vendor next to a highway, which I something I’ve never done before.  They even had some plastic tables and chairs set up on the sidewalk and a romantic music radio station playing.  What an atmosphere!  We all ate cochonitas, which is like pulled pork on a sandwich and it was delicious. 

            Then we went to el centro, where the cathedral is.  The cathedral is the second oldest in North and South America.  Today they had a crucifix from Guatamala on display.  The story behind the crucifix is that when the church holding it caught on fire, the entire crucifix was charred except for the crucifiction points.  It was very interesting to see.  After seeing the display we shopped around all the vendors and haggled a bit. 

I thought the cenote trip today would be a bust because the other two cenotes we saw were so fantastic, but it wasn’t at all.  We were at the ancient Mayan city Dzibilchaltun, and got our first look at some ruins.  The biggest building we saw was an observatory for the stars, and built around 300 B.C.  Mayans used math and astronomy to predict eclipses all the way to 2012. 

After running around on the ruins we walked over to the cenote.  This one wasn’t underground, but it was just as clear and beautiful, and had lily pads growing all over.  There were little fish all around and I could see straight down to the plants and rocks on the bottom that looked blue like the kind you can buy at a pet store.  It made me feel like I was swimming in a fishbowl.

At the cenote I saw my first ctenosaur (family Iguanidae, suborder Iguania, order Squamata, subclass Lepidosauria, class Reptilia… thank you bio 220) and it was huge!  It was at least a foot long from head to tail.  They like to live in dry places and so they’ll be at a lot of the ruins we go to.  I wish I could have gotten a picture but he was quick to run away under a rock.

Today we went to the Museo Regional de Antropologia to check out some Mayan history.  We learned how to write numbers and years the way the Mayan did, but it was pretty tricky at first.  I had a kid from China helping me out with the math.  We also learned that they followed a 360 day year, called a tun, and a 20 day month, called a winal.  One day is a kin.

            Mayans believed that when a person died their sold went on a journey to the underworld where they would be reborn as a heavenly creature after killing the deities that lived there.  Dogs were sometimes killed after a person’s death because the dogs served as guides to the underworld, and caves and cenotes were thought to be entrances.  Ruling classes were buried in tombs much like the Egyptians, with food and supplies that the person may have used during their lifetime.  Lower classes were often buried under homes. 

At Chichen Itza, there is a cenote called Segrado.  It is green and not like the turquoise ones we have visited so far because the water is stagnant.  Mayan bones that are possibly from the sacrifice of children and adults were found at the bottom (my understanding so far is that there is some debate over whether the Maya actually sacrificed humans).  Some historians claimed people were sacrificed for any specific god, for example if there was a draught then someone would be sacrificed to the rain god.

It was a very interesting museum, and I was really glad they had English translations, otherwise I don’t think I would have gotten as much out of it.

            Culture class today was fantastic.  We went shopping at La Casa de los Artesanos and Arte Chiapenco.  There was a lot of jewelry, hammocks, alcohol, and Mayan vanilla.  There was also a lot of zarapes, which are those Mexican blankets you always picture when you think of, well, Mexico.  We also stopped at a jewelry store to learn what a maquech is, and to try them on.  Mequechs are live beetles with jewels glued on them, and attached to a chain so you can pin the chain to your shirt and the beetle won’t leave.  I tried one on and I think it looked dashing.  They’re supposedly extreme high fashion, so I was surprised that they were only 200 pesos.  We discussed buying one as a pretty pet but it would probably be difficult to get through customs when its time to go home.  I didn’t have my camera at the time, but we plan on going back eventually to get pictures.

We had a test in Spanish today and then for culture class we learned how to make panuchos.  The tortilla was made out of cornmeal, and then stuffed with beans.  Then it was fried (yum!) and chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, and onions were put on top.  It was very good and a lot of fun to make.  Dana and I have had them once before with Delia, but it wasn’t fried and there weren’t any beans.

At night we went to Mambo Café.  It was fun to see younger people doing some sort of real dancing.  There was an awesome live band and the dance floor was packed.

Although men here whistle, honk, and “meow” at women a lot while walking down the street, in all other situations they seem really respectful and chivalrous.  For example, at Mambo a group of us girls went out and danced without being bothered, while at home I know a lot of girls have to ward of “creepers” when they go out.  Any time we’ve been driven somewhere by one of Felix’s friends, the guys always open our car door for us.  Also, in culture class we learned about serenading, which to most of us from the U.S. sounds very cheesy, but it’s very common here.  Boys will go out and hire a trio to come to a girl’s house, where they will stand out on the street and sing until the girl comes out.  Then both the guy and girl just listen to the music for however long the boy paid them to sing.  It usually happens at night and wakes up a lot of the neighborhood, so people will always peek out and watch.  I really hope someone in my neighborhood gets serenaded while I’m here so I can peek out and watch, too.

Today we went to the botanical garden and identified plants, while being attacked by bugs.  A lot of the plants on our taxonomy weren’t there but we saw our first Ceiba tree (muy importante!), lots of palms, Henequen, Bull-thorn Acacia, orchids, and Gumbo Limbo trees.  Gumbo Limbo (Bursera simaruba) is nicknamed the “Tourist tree” because its outer bark color is red and peeling, like a sunburn.  Hahaha.  The Ceiba tree is sacred to the Mayans and is symbolized by a cross.  We’ll be learning a lot more about the Ceiba once our Maya classes start.

The other student living with Delia is back from visiting her family (she’s been living here for six months).  Her name is Dani and she’s from Belize.  She lives with Delia because she goes to medical school here in Merida.  I felt like a complete fool when I asked her when she started learning English and found out that English is her first language.  In Belize they speak Caribbean English, but most people also speak Spanish, which makes sense because of the surrounding countries.