SUMMER 2019, PART 1-I: MAYAPÁN & KANKIRIXCHE

Our adventures in Yucatan, Mexico ended with a visit to one more archeological site and one more cenote: Mayapan and Cenote Kankirixche.

Mayapán is known for being the "Bandera de los Mayas" (Flag of the Maya) and it is considered the last main Maya Capital. This city hosted "La Liga de Mayapán" (The league of Mayapán) where the powerful political leaders of both Uxmal area and Chichén-Itza area came together for peace talks. And every year, the league would come together to celebrate their alliance in Mayapán.

Mayapán's main attraction is a pyramid similar to El Castillo in Chichén-Itzá, except much smaller. It is also known as "El Castillo." And unlike the one in Chichén-Itzá, we were allowed to climb it.

Mayapán covers 42 km2, which is about 10, 378 acres. In this area, one can find about 4,000 different structures. It has civic, administrative, and religious buildings.

Many residences, including government official houses, which have long corridors, altars, and several rooms and columns.

There are also buildings with small altars for "lesser deities."

One can also find observatories, and sanctuaries.

After we visited Mayapán, it was time to take a swim in a cenote. There are so many cenotes around Mayapán, some who have been turned into tourist attractions, others who are just happened to be visited by people who dare to find it.

We are such people and it took us about 30 minutes, getting lost, and driving in a very narrow mud road to find what was promised by a local Maya as breathtaking cenote called Kankirixche, known to mostly local people. AND IT WAS!

 At first sight you wouldn't know there is a cenote here. See, the tree, well, it marks the spot where the water whole is located.

 Once you reach the tree you can see a huge whole in the ground.

From the inside it looks like this:

The water is cool, very blue and very clear. The deeper you go, the darker the water gets. The image above was taking from the deeper side of the cenote. To my immediate right it gets deeper and if one dares, one can swim down and go under a cave. BUT what would anyone want to swim deeper and go under a dark underwater cave?

Here's a video, which I took while swimming so once in a while the camera is turned the wrong way:

Next: OAXACA during its biggest festival: LA GUELAGUETZA!

SUMMER 2019, PART 1-D: UXMAL

Wikipedia says that Uxmal is an ancient Maya city of the classical period. It is located in the state of Yucatán about 85 km (52 miles) from the city of Merida. It is considered a very important archeological site and to many people, like me, far more impressive than Chichén-Itzá.

Unlike Chichén-Itzá, Uxmal is deep in the jungle, which gives it a very magical feel. It is said that this is a magical city that was build over night by the king who used magic to make it happened.

By design, Uxmal is far more impressive to me, and obviously to the world for it has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The name Uxmal means "three times built" and also "What is to come."

The May were very advance people, I mean, they had already integrated the used of the computer cursor in their architecture.

Uxmal's pyramids are magnificent, and unlike in Chichén-Itzá, one is allowed to climb such buildings, if you are actually able to do it.

For me, one of the most admirable things about this city is how some of the buildings have round edges while others have sharp edges, but no matter what, the architecture, the lines, and the angles are perfect all around.

I mean, just look at the precision of this pyramid steps. A straight line from top to bottom.

While the pyramid is round, the steps are straight with very sharp angles. 

And last but not least, the humidity and exhaustion in our bodies... but oh, what a joy to be here!

NEXT: SUNDAYS OF 'VAQUERIAS'

SUMMER 2019, PART 1-A: MERIDA, YUCATAN, MEXICO

Our summer 2019 vacation was met with anticipation. While in 2018 we were excited to spend a month in London, England, this time we decided it was time to spend time in our own native country and to top it off, we decided that one month was not enough so we added two extra weeks to make our stay a total of 6 weeks. 

The idea was that if we were willing to spent a month in Europe, visiting castles and enjoying architecture, why not enjoy the same in our own country? And so, the trip began with two weeks in Merida, Yucatán, México. And while we anticipated it that it was going to be a hot summer, we were not really ready for a 100% humidity every single day we were in Yucatán. So, if in some pictures we look like we are wearing two colored shirts, that is because they are soaked in sweat. 

Merida is a beautiful, colorful very colonial and very Indigenous city. The native people are all 100% Maya people and they speak the Maya language. In fact, most Mayas today are bilingual, speaking Maya and Spanish. Many are trilingual, speaking Maya, Spanish, and English. Some are polyglots, speaking up to five languages, including French, German, Dutch, and Portuguese. 

Merida (as well as the entire state of Yucatán) is very proud of its Indigenous roots and traditions, for this reason, the city hosts free cultural events everyday of the week. Tourists, like ourselves, can enjoy different events depending on the day of the week. We arrive on a Wednesday and on that evening we saw a dramatic presentation about the founding of the city.

The dramatic presentation takes place on the street, in front of one of the oldest and most beautiful houses in the city's center, La Casa de Montejo. The dialogue is between a Maya Chief and the son of aSpanish conquistador named Francisco de Montejo, the lieutenant. Hi son, also named Francisco de Montejo (because Spaniards are very creative with family names) was known as "El Mozo" (the son) and he's the one that conquered the Maya city known as T'ho. In the dramatization, the Maya Chief and The Mozo have an exchange of dialogue that relates how T'ho has been destroyed and taking over by Montejo and then given the name of MERIDA, to honor the original Merida in Extremadura, Spain. For me, the best part of the dialogue was the following (and I'm paraphrasing):

                       Maya Chief: "You have destroyed our houses, our temples, T'ho, our city."

                       El Mozo: "The rocks from your temples have built our houses and churches. Our City."

                       Maya Chief: "Our city, T'ho, is no more."

                       El Mozo: "Your city is the foundation of our ours."

One thing I loved about every single cultural presentation was the fact that regardless of what it was, there was always a consciousness to let the audience know that the Merida and the entire state had been colonized by the Spaniards, and that despite such colonization, the Maya still thrives. 

One of my favorite presentation was the Vaqueria Yucateca, which is basically a presentation of Maya/Yucatán customs from all over the state. This presentation, however, is done through traditional  folklore dancing. 

An exciting presentation is watching Maya people play soccer, also known as Pelota Maya or in original name: Poktapok. The game is like today's game except that instead of using their feet to hit the ball, they have to use their hips. Not easy to do and not easy to score a goal either. 

A very colorful presentation is what is called "mapping," which is basically projecting images on stone buildings. In this case, the mapping had to do with Merida's main church, La Catedral de San Idelfonso, (Saint Idelfonso Cathedral). The mapping tells you the story of two buildings: A pyramid, which I forget its name and the cathedral... and how the cathedral was built on top of the pyramid (as the colonizers did to EVERYTHING in  Mexico and Latin America). The image below shows where the pyramid used to be, of course, now reflected onto the cathedral's main entrance wall. At the end, the storyteller says, "two gods, two cultures fused into one." And very subtle it reminds people of the colonization and how the Maya people continue to thrive with their own traditions.

Moral of the story: The Maya might have been conquered but they still alive, thriving, and spreading their traditions to the world. 

NEXT: CHICHÉN-ITZÁ