Chichen Itza and Tulum

After leaving Merida, we continued on to one of the biggest tourist attractions in Mexico: the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza. This impressive site is considered one of the "New seven wonders of the world!" The most famous and incredible structure is the pyramid in the center of the site that was built to be a representation of the Mayan calender. The number of stairs and levels correspond to the months and years and are also aligned with the pattern of the sun in the sky! On the spring equinox, many people gather to see how the sun creates a shadow on exactly half of the pyramid- its hard to explain but it sounds very cool! You can also clap in from of the pyramid in a specific place and the echo is very loud and unusual sounding. The site also includes a huge ball court, which is for a game that most Mesoamerican civilizations played, a sacrificial platform with hundreds of skulls carved into it and an area with hundreds of stone columns lined. There is also a Cenote, one of the underground open caves nearby which archeologists believe was used as a place to make sacrifices to the gods as well as make offerings of gold and other valuables. Today, there are lots of iguanas who like to hang out in the shade and stare at the tourists! After cooking in the heat for so long, we decided it was time to swim in a cenote! We visited one that was very touristy, but very beautiful- the water is turquoise, clear and cold. There were wines hanging down and little fish swimming around. The water felt so refreshing!
That evening we got on the bus once again to head to the beaches of Tulum. This town is on the caribbean sea a couple hours south of Cancun- so it has the same beautiful beaches but it is less touristy and less developed. We stayed in an another hostel that had little cabañas and an outside kitchen. We actually ran into other travelers we had met in Merida there! The first day, we visited the Mayan Ruins in Tulum which are right on the coast in front of the ocean which is very spectacular. The buildings are less complex; it was a trading city in the past. From there we walked directly to the beach and were surprised and happy to find it practically empty! We were there in the off season, so we settled ourselves under a palm tree and slathered ourselves with sun screen. The sand was soft and white and the water was warm and clear! It was like paradise! We spent most of the day on the beach and Joselo built himself a little fort with palm leaves. When we returned at night, we discovered that despite our attempts to prevent getting sunburnt, we were looking quite red!
The following day, we walked through the heat (the things you do to save money!) to 2 more Cenotes that were more like ponds than caves, but were still very clear and deep. We also cooked a huge feast for ourselves of breaded shrimp and pasta using the open kitchen in the hostel which was lots of fun! My favorite time on the beach was when we went in the evening and got to see the sun set behind the palm trees (unfortunately the sun doesn't set over the ocean there.) The last day, we went to the beach one last time before getting on the bus- for 24 hours! Somehow we survived that grueling journey back to Puebla, although our backs and necks were quite unhappy with us. When I reached my host family's house, I slept all day and night to recover!
I'm so glad that we seized the day and had this adventure to the Yucatan- it was a grand finale to finish an awesome semester!

Time in Mérida

The grand finale of my many trips around Mexico was a weeklong trip to the Yucatan Peninsula with two of my friends, both named Anna and my mexican boyfriend Joselo. My friend Paige lived and studied in Mérida last semester and she inspired me to make the long hike down to the tip of Mexico and it was worth the 17 long hours in the bus. We finished our last exams and papers of semester, went to our program's goodbye party, said goodbye to friends and headed off to the heat and the beach. After attempting to sleep on the bus and watching bad movies, we finally reached our first destination- the city of Merida. We stepped off the bus and immediately started sweating like crazy because it was so hot. However, we were very grateful that we had booked a hostel that had a swimming pool! We arrived at what was our cheapest and favorite hostel in Mexico where we stayed in boys and girls dormitories with fans and were provided with free internet, breakfast, pool, hammocks and salsa lesson! Although the heat was unbearable during the day (we spent most of it in the cold art museum and the pool), it cooled off at night and we got to explore the city a little bit. The huge Zocalo was filled with people and food venders and I ate a huge, delicious tamale (cooked corn meal wrapped in corn husk) and churros (stick of friend sweat bread). The next morning, we headed out to see the famous flamingos on the tip of the yucatan. After taking 3 buses, we finally arrived at the reserve which was in the midst of many private estates and discovered much to our dismay that it was not flamingo season. With a sigh, we climbed the watch tower to see the beautiful view and then posed as flamingos, because we figured it was the second best thing to seeing the real thing. The good news was that Progreso, a large public beach, was not far away, so we headed to the market for some amazing mega-tacos and then to our first day at the beach, slathered with sunscreen! That evening, we joined in the hostel's free salsa class with our fellow travelers which were from everywhere from South Africa to Brazil. Despite the fact that salsa is no easy business, by the end of the night, Joselo was leading me around the dance floor and everyone was having a blast! Joselo then took me out to a lovely restaurant and the Annas went out to eat with our new german friend that we met at the hostel. Our time in Merida came to a close, and we were sorry to leave our lovely hostel and a vibrant city that slept during the day and came alive at night.

The pool at our hostel where we spent most of our afternoons- laying in the hammocks and cooling off in the water.

Delayed Guanajuato Post

I am catching up on the trips I still haven't written about. Here is my entry about our program trip that we took in the beginning of May: After one day to rest and repack my bags after our trip to Chiapas, we headed off traveling once again, but this time everything was organized by our program so we could relax! We first visited the city of Queretero for a day; it is a city filled with parks and museums. After eating the famous enchiladas from the city, we headed off to find the art museum. We were all pleasantly surprised to find various shows by contemporary mexican artists (we are a bit tired of mesoamerican and colonial art by then). Several of the artist's work was quite abstract and some of my friends were having a hard time relating to it so I suggested a tactic I use with the school tours: use you imagination to find images in the art. We ended up have a blast finding clowns, cities and who knows what else! We also saw an amazing exhibit by a realist portraitist in which it felt like you could reach out and touch the people in the paintings. After buying a cone of pinon ice cream (sweet pine nut= yummm), my friend Jessica and I set off on an adventure to find the ancient aqueduct that carried water to the city. We arrived as the sun was setting and were surprised to find a very long and beautiful aqueduct stretching for at least a mile.
The next morning we traveled to our next destination- the city of Guanajuato which I absolutely loved! The city is built in the valley and along the steep mountainsides so the streets are narrow and cobblestoned and there are hundreds of little alleyways and plazas. However, one of the most unique things about the city is that there are a series of underground roads under the city which actually used to be underground canals. These tunnels allow there to be less traffic and make it easer to get around the mountains. Another distinct thing about the city is that practically all the houses and buildings are painted very bright colors, so when you look down on the city from below, its like looking at a rainbow of colors. The main church, for example is painted bright yellow and red. After we dropped our things off at our hotel, which had a beautiful view of the city, we went off in a tour bus which took us around to see the architecture of the city and various famous tourist sites, such as a museum that holds the famous "mummies" that were found in a graveyard in the city. However, unlike egyptian mummies which are preserved through a human process, these mummies were preserved, they believe, because of the minerals in the water and soil and/or the climate. When someone went to dig up the bones of the dead of someone's family who was no longer paying rent for their space in the graveyard (a common practice in mexico), they discovered that the body had been preserved (hair, skin, etc). Anyways, we got to see these creepy, weird mummies. And of course the lights went off in the middle of the museum for 5 minutes, which really creeped us out- we were left in the dark with the mummies! Other activities of the day included visiting an old mine, because Guanajuato used to be a rich mining town (thats why the city sprung up in such an inconvenient place for building houses). However, my favorite part about the city was just wondering around the charming streets that felt like italy or some other place in europe and seeing all the little gardens, houses and statues that were scattered about. The city really had a magical and happy feel about it- I would love to live there! The next morning, my friend Jessica and I had breakfast in the main plaza looking out on the church and the statue of peace, sitting under umbrellas and sipping coffee. Who says you have to go to europe to experience the european life style? We then found the statue of Diego Rivera, who was born in Guanajuato, and posed with the famous artist- closest thing to meeting the real guy! Then we had to leave, but I promised myself that I would be back because I had already had fallen in love with this city.

A photograph of the entrance to one of the city's underground streets which were decorated with potted geraniums.