Exploring Mayan Sites in the Yucatan

Our sightseeing trip to Mexico ended on a magnificent (Mayan) high although we did get off to a bit of a shaky start in our second week.  We normally hire a car and do our own thing, but this trip we decided to try to get by with only local transport. And we wanted to book guided tours to visit the archeological sites at Coba and Tulum, both of which we’d visited before but on our own with information from history books as guides. Apart from hiring guides in countries where language is a problem, this isn’t something that we typically do. This trip we wanted to get more Mayan history and culture.
                                                                                                                   
Our shaky start was our tour to Coba and Tulum. Have you ever had one of those days where you felt as if you were living in the Groundhog Day movie? This tour turned out to be that kind of day. Our "ground hog day" experience was the constant long and often repeated explanations about the history while not seeing anything for hours.  Steve and I had explored Coba in 1 ½ hours before so we couldn’t believe that we spent over three hours there (mostly just listening to the guide talk).  We were dropped at a very bad roadside restaurant, where nothing was Mayan or even Mexican, and it was 2.30p.m. Since we’d met at 7.00a.m., it had been 7 ½ hours with no snacks or water provided and we were all starving. At this point we all agreed that some food was better than no food. Tulum, my main reason for booking the tour, was totally disappointing. With less than an hour in fading light when a minimum of three hours is needed for exploring all of these fascinating ruins, we had to listen to the guide for 40 minutes and then we were told the site was closed. Our final straw came when the guide insisted on dropping us off at a nearby beach before traveling back. It was totally dark so the only thing to see was the well-lit bar! After the kind of day we’d had, we needed that drink! Arriving back at our resort at 8.00pm-13 hours after we’d met that morning, we were exhausted from the frustration of wasting so much time with so little time devoted to seeing ruins and the constant repeating of the history. Highlight of our day? - meeting three lovely ladies who told us about their trip to the Ek’ Balam, ruins found as recently as 1997. Their high praise of the site and tour guide convinced us to book another trip.

The day before we left Mexico dawned bright and the temperature was very pleasant, so we headed out with some trepidation for another day-long tour. But this one proved to be the pinnacle of our two-week visit. The bus was on time, our tour guide, Sergio, is an anthropologist whose father is an archeologist and they’ve worked together on many sites. He’s half Mayan and half Spanish and an incredible font of historical knowledge. He also speaks 4 languages so I’m incredibly envious.

 

Although Ek’Balam has only recently been discovered and therefore not many of the buildings have been reconstructed, it’s well worth the trip and a treat that shouldn’t be missed. Much is still to be done on the site but my highlight was the almost vertical pyramid that Steve and I climbed. Well, I made it half way to the top where I got to take in a doorway to a temple that is made in the shape of a jaguar’s mouth – including the fangs all around it. I only did half-way because coming down was a scary nightmare and heights aren’t exactly my thing! Steve climbed the entire pyramid.

We had the perfect amount of time to explore these amazing ruins of Mayan architecture and walk along the wall and peek into the very small rooms at the base of the pyramid. Then we were off to visit a real Mayan village where they prepared a typical meal for us of a pork dish, rice, beans and corn tortillas made by hand. Following that, we toured a couple of the Mayan homes. Most of them have no electricity, no TV, no indoor bathrooms, none of the modern luxuries that we have here at home. And the homes were probably smaller than your living rooms. Made us feel really blessed that we have as much as we do!

Muchas gracias for tuning in to read my blog and stay tuned for our adventures in Costa Rica in December. In the mean time we had not one but three Thanksgiving dinners so we are trying to recover and gear up for a busy end to 2012!

Learning Español From a Beautiful Local in a Beautiful Location!

For a short time during our afternoons in Mexico, we met with Marcela by the pool for our Spanish classes and throughout the two weeks we were the only ones who seemed to want to learn, or at least brush up on the language. Marcela, young, beautiful and bubbly (and who had eyelashes to die for) was so good to adapt the “lessons” so to give us words and phrases that we could use in normal everyday life. Although we were only supposed to have classes for thirty minutes two days a week, she met with us nearly every day and extended our 30 minutes to an hour. Quite often the other pool staff -- Paco, Orlando and Jessica broke into our lessons and would off the cuff ask us questions in Spanish as a little test. On one of our first days, one of them asked me “Como esta el bano”. I had no idea where the bathroom was but told him in my best Spanish to take a right and continue on straight. I was using the little Spanish that I already knew and guessed that the bathrooms were at least in that vicinity. (Actually, I learned that this was pretty close to where they were located.)

Many of you may remember language classes in school and think that the proper way to learn a language is to spend hours conjugating verbs but Marcela taught us words and phrases that we could immediately use. And, since we used them daily; they were easier to remember. At our age, we need all the help we can get! We also picked up some of the local slang thanks to Marcela. Our lessons were meant to be fun and not what is called a “proper way” to learn a language but it worked for us. We used what we’d learned as often as we could and I know the staff had a good laugh at our “gringo attempts” during our stay but it was fun and we enjoyed it immensely!

Whenever we travel abroad, Steve and I try to get into the culture of a country because we believe that you can’t really get to know a country without knowing the history and at least a little bit of the native language. We’re now trying to absorb Spanish through online courses. Our poolside lessons were an extremely helpful re-enforcement and learning the local words and slang helped too. Our current on-line lessons are Scottish formulated so the Spanish is “Spain oriented” – not the Mexican Spanish that we need for our current trips. But I love my on-line lessons because I get my very much-missed Scottish accents from the instructor and student during the lessons so I have the best of both worlds! Our lessons with Marcela were exceptionally fun and entertaining and since we were able to immediately use the (local) Spanish to get us around plus order food, we were feeling comfortable in every day situations.

This blog is dedicated to Marcela and her pool colleagues. We had the most wonderful time learning from her and are continuing on as best we can. When we meet up next time, I promise that we’ll be more proficient in Spanish!

My next blog will be about our final Mayan low-lights and high-lights. We had one really horrible tour and one incredibly fascinating tour complete with a traditional Mayan meal and tour of a Mayan home. Thanks for bearing with me during this Mexican part of our travels.