On Monday, we left the beach and headed inland, to Valladolid. We made a brief stop in Chemax to see the church. We discovered that Google knew nothing about one way streets in Chemax. ;-) We decided to visit Xkopek, outside Valladolid, for their Mayan Bees Tour. We had lunch there. Our guide, Edwardo, was good and taught us about Meliiponario bees, different than the honeybees that we typically think of. These are smaller, and each species has its own characteristics. None of them have a stinger, but one of them tends to get in people's hair, one is kind of a parasite on other bees. We walked down into their dry cenote, perhaps 30 feet deep; the humidity makes for better habitat for bees. We might call a dry cenote a sinkhole. Theirs has a well in the bottom. The original owners used a rope and a bucket to pull water out of the well. They created a hole in the overhang area, and lowered the bucket perhaps 30 feet to the bottom of the cenote, and then another 20 feet to the level of the water. But that way they did not have to walk to the bottom to draw water. At the end of the tour we sampled honey and various honey products.
After the tour, we drove to our Hotel Peregrina, where we got a nice large room. We headed to the main square and had a good but expensive dinner at El Atrio del Mayab. The waiter passed the allergies issue to the manager, Ishmael, who told Sandi what she could have. We ate in a garden area of the restaurant, with a nice ambience. The square was busy, with many tour buses, locals, and tourists. There were two young men dressed as Mayan dancers, taking photos, and later dancing.
Tuesday, we had breakfast at a hotel next door to our hotel, and headed for the ruins at Ek Balam. Richard's guidebook to the architecture of the Yucatan was obsolete, because of the restoration work at Ek Balam. We hired Natilio as a Spanish language guide. He walked us through the ruins, including the ball court, and the huge building they call the Acropolis. The center has a stairs like a pyramid, but the building is just huge, perhaps the second largest Mayan building by volume. It is 500 feet long, 250 feet wide, and 100 feet high. Richard had to climb to the top.
We then headed to the town of Ek Balam, where we were to meet our tour guide, Edwardo. He took us to people's houses to see them work. The first house the lady had a treadle Singer that she used for machine embroidery. Sandy bought a blouse from her. The second house there were two ladies showing us the chocolate process. They make chocolate as part of the day of the dead celebrations. The third house the lady demonstrated hammock making. Our guide said that everyone in the village sleeps in hammocks. Sandi bought a shopping bag made using the same technique. We drove back to our hotel, and had a very good dinner at the Osteria della Nonna. The owner/cook knew exactly what to do with Sandi's allergies, and showed Sandi her box of gluten free pasta. Sandi felt very comfortable there, and the food was good.
Wednesday we visited the women's handicraft center Zaci, on the north side of the central plaza, There were several rooms with mostly clothing. Sandi bought a couple of embroidered blouses. One lady had a huge selection; she represented 8 women in her neighborood who did embroidery. Richard was tempted by sandals, but did not buy. We walked to the Murem museum of ethnic clothing, showing ethnic clothing from all over Mexico, including some used only in ceremonies or celebrations. Unfortunately, most clothing had no label at all, no indication of what part of the country it was from, no indication of who wore it and why.
We continued to the Casa de Venados, a couple's massive collection of Mexican crafts and art. The dining room chairs had portraits of figures from Mexican history; Richard enjoyed going around the table naming each person, but he missed a few. It was really an incredible collection, including some commisioned pieces. Some of the emboidered pieces were of the same style as pieces in our own home. We walked back to the hotel and headed for the Cancun airport, as Sandi wanted to be there early. The last part of the drive was in the dark, and near Cancun the traffic was very heavy, and the signage poor, so we missed our turns a couple of times. We settled into the Courtyard Mariott for our flight the next day.
The flight home on Thursday was routime, but the cold weather was a bit of a shock
No comments:
Post a Comment