The story continues from Rio Bec and Xpujil

The site of Kohunlich, city of Chetumal, Bacular Bay, Oxtankah and Muyil on the way to Tulum

On to Kohunlich:

As I left Xpujil, I made a quick stop at the small market to get some lunch items and took the highway past the checkpoint with the guards on duty. I had seen them each time I came into Xpujil to use the Internet. They were always walking around the corner with the one signal light on it. I couldn’t find the gas station. I asked several people for the gasolina and after several gestures with arms I went, ’that way’. I continued over the hill and sure enough there it was. After that I followed the map Diane had made for me to find a couple of little sites, Coabas, and another place past Chicanna 22 K off the road. I sure was disappointed when there was no gate or markers. Once more, sites lost to the casual observer. This section of the main highway was under major road construction that lasted for miles and miles.

When I arrived at the Kohunlich turn off I had to make a choice between that site and the other two almost across the road from it, Dzibanche and Kinichna. I chose Kohunlich as I wanted to see the sun masks located at that site. There wasn’t enough time to do both in one day.

Kohunlich:

Kohunlich was almost as varied as Becan in the different layouts and styles of buildings. This one was located clustered in a thick date palm forest. I found it almost as magical as Becan. The palms were delightful to walk underneath. I spent a really long time visiting. I found the residence area on top of the 27 steps hill really interesting and wondered how many animal skins; mats and padding it took to make a stone bench comfortable enough to sleep on.

The last part of my visit I walked around a tree covered path to the Temple of the Sun Masks. Wow!! They were beautiful. It was hard to get pictures with the protective roof covering the side of the temple, but I managed to get enough to get the drift. I didn’t want to leave but I needed to drive to Chetumal to find a hotel before dark.

The City of Chetumal on the Caribbean Sea:

When I l left Kohunlich I dropped down into the flat plains of the coast and found fields of sugar cane as far as the eye could see. The highway was exceptionally good after passing into Quintanna Roo state. They were working on the road from Xpujil to the state line and it was a mess. Big trucks were tearing up the road faster than they could get if fixed. From the turn off to Kohunlich site it was only 22 K into town.

I had been told the streets in the town of Chetumal were torn up with pipeline construction. Rick gave me a map of the town and how to get in and miss the area that had the construction. That was the reason I didn’t reserve a hotel in advance. I tried several places that were all full and finally on a street one block off the main street I found a semi acceptable cheap hotel. The room was clean, but the shower had almost next to nothing in water pressure. I stayed only because I could park my car inside a locked gate parking lot and I found a super speedy Internet next door. The personal at the hotel didn’t speak English, but the man that ran the Internet spoke passable enough English to carry on a conversation with. Down on corner of the same block was a wonderful restaurant called Sergios. I ate there every day. Breakfast and dinner both were well prepared, the service was very good and the restaurant had a lovely décor. So, all in all, I made a good choice.

Today I’m looking around the city of Chetumal. Found an Internet next door to where my room is at the Hotel El Dorado. This is Sunday. I went through the museum here in Chetumal. I enjoyed it and was able to take pictures. I found that out after I looked at everything. So, I went back and took pictures of all the exhibits, of which most of them are copies. That was great. Who cares as long as I could get up close and personal and get a good look at the items? Most of the town was shut down for Sunday, no money exchange, no bank ATM, no tourist info. I couldn't find the bus station for the busses to Belize to see the sites close to the border. I drove down to the bay and drove along the shore. That was worth one picture.

So, I decided to drive to Bacular before dark. When I arrived at Casita Carolina there was a man (her caretaker) who told me Carolina was gone on vacation and I didn't have a room. I told him a reservation was made. After some hem hawing around he showed me a bed upstairs I could use. Great, I didn't care whose bed it was, as long as I could sleep in it. As it turned out he had rented my room to, guess whom, Oliver and Jasmine. I stayed in Carolina's personal quarters.

I went in search of gas and almost had a heart attack when I drove all around town and couldn't find the gas station. When I asked about 6 or 7 people I finally found out that there was no station, just a guy that sells it out of a 55-gallon drum. Oh, well. Several more directions later I found him and that's what he had, a big barrel and a small siphon hose to put into a five gallon bucket with a long nozzle on it. I sure was relieved when he filled my tank. I made the bad mistake of not filling in Chetumal. I had been so careful not to get below a half of tank and then I made the big mistake. Not again. But, I was so upset there was nothing open I let that get to me instead of being more cautious. After I filled the gas I went back into Bacular and found a little place open on the park. The senora made me two quesadillas with ham. Nicest ones I've had to date. My luck improved a little more and the Internet was right next door. I can't get the pictures on here so I am going back to Chetumal tomorrow and get it done there.

After I left the Internet I was getting into my car when I heard a loud whistle siren. I stopped to see where it was coming from. Just ahead around the corner came a truck with a shrine set up in the back of it for Our Lady of Guadalupe. Behind the truck walked a throng of people, old and young a like carrying candles and singing. I watched as they made their way down the street in front of me heading for the church. I stepped out to get pictures and was almost stepped on. It was very emotional and a delightful surprise. It was the 12 of December and they were going to worship Our Lady on her day. I went back to Casita Carolina’s uplifted and refreshed from the long day. That night I wasn’t able to get much sleep, not only was the bed hard but I had verses running through my head. I got up and wrote them down. I always know when poetry inspiration hits and when to get the pencil and put it on paper. I had the start of three or four poems that I perfected later on the trip up the coast.

Day in Chetumal:

After driving back to Chetumal from Bacular this morning, I checked back into my fleabag hotel and I spent several hours trying to find a place to get the photos put on a CD disk. Having no luck at that or finding out how to get a tour to Belize from Chetumal, which doesn't seem to exist, I gave up and went back to the place I use the Internet on my first day here. I found he had the equipment to put the pictures on CD. He did that in 15 minutes and I spent the next 8 hours here getting caught up on as many pictures I could load. I'm fried and I giving it up for the night.

I also think the Universe is telling me to stay out of Belize as I am finding it so hard to try and get in. So, that is that. I chose to skip the two sites I didn’t see close to Kohunlich in favor of finishing the picture upload before I move on to Tulum on Thurs. I may regret it later, but the volume of pictures is so big and who knows the bushes of Tulum and Coba may be a wash out on Internet facilities.

This is really a more modern town than I expected, a little dustier than Merida, due to the road construction, but not crusty and dirty. Right now there is a lot of street work going on and a million taxis using the unpaved streets. Not too many bicycles here. Ladies dress modern and hardly any hupilis are seen. This city sits right on the bay and has some fishing. Can't figure out what the rest of the people do that don't sell shoes or telephones. I walked the main street several times and looked in a good many stores. It was interesting to find that the Daewoo Company that makes cars also makes washing machines. They have round sides, not square like the ones in the states.

I ventured into the market that is located next to the museum looking for a larger suitcase to carry my things. What a place. They had everything imaginable stacked from floor to ceiling. I walked up and down the aisles just looking at all the stuff. I found an Internet set up in the hallway. Around the corner from that were fabric goods and clothing of all kinds. Down another aisle I found the meat market with chickens in all sorts of positions. They were different meat vendors, different dogs, but doing the same thing as in the Muna Market. Next to the meat market was the fruits and veggies. Beautiful displays with all sorts of fruit you can imagine. Just beyond that was a section of food vendors, all doing a brisk business selling all sorts of food. I made my way down another aisle and found the bags and T-shirts. The salesman was overjoyed when I asked how much a large bag was. He tried to sell me several. Then he started trying to sell me T-shirts. He would show me a shirt and when I said no, he would rummage around in the piles of shirts and dig up another. There were two other men watching and soon they approached and spoke in English to me. They explained the church they went to was teaching them English. As we talked the first man kept coming up and showing me shirts. He made six or seven attempts to find a shirt I liked. After the last time he came up I turned to him and patted him on the shoulder and said, ‘Why don’t you take a break’. I thought the other two men would fall over laughing. I learned they also were merchants and I came away with a couple of T-shirts, a scarf with Our Lady on it and the bag. It was one that zipped up three times and made itself as large or as small as you wanted. The adventure at the market was over when I reached the outer patio. That is where I found the shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe between the veggies and plastic toys. It was really beautiful and I wished I had a candle to light.

While I was in the market I asked another man who spoke English and was selling chickens if there was anything he would like the people in the United States to know. He though a minute then said, ‘no’. Well, that has a lot to say for my inflated opinion of my world. He had his own world and anything outside his town didn’t exist or he didn’t care. Right outside the market was a huge monument that had the goddess, the modern Mayan child and the suffering Christ with the feathered serpent on top of the figures. I was really taken with the detail and movement of the design. I wrote another poem in honor of the monument.

Oxtankah (an ancient site near Chetumal) and a village by the sea:

I took several hours off from loading pictures to drive up to the site of Oxtankah and see the place before the Internet opened. I still have three hundred more pictures to go before I feel I can leave Chetumal and head back to Bacular tomorrow eve and then on to Tulum the next day. It won't be until I get to Valladolid before my next chance. I am fine, and making it ok in the big city of Chetumal.

The drive up the edge of the bay was nice even though the landscape seemed dry and the trees sparse. On the way through the northern part of the city of Chetumal I found of all things, an Office Depot. What a surprise. This side of the city had many department stores, parks, industrial buildings and government buildings. I found the road to Oxtankah without much trouble and was there within the hour. The site had been worked on recently and there were a number of sections that had plazas with buildings flanking all four sides. There was a building being worked on by a team of archaeological workers. They were restoring some glyphs under a protective roof. The woman was injecting moisture into the stucco to make it wet. I didn’t see what else she did as it was taking so long I didn’t want to stand over her shoulder. I walked from plaza to plaza under the tall skinny trees whose leaves were making wonderful dappled patterns on the ground. The last part I came to I found a Spanish Chapel built there like the site of Dzibilchactun near Merida. It sure saddened me to think the Spanish destroyed much of the ancient sites to build chapels in order to convert the people into the Catholic Church. What historical losses of the ancient sites that has caused throughout Mexico is a real shame.

I stopped in the village on the bay and took some pictures then headed back to Chetumal to continue my marathon picture upload.

Leaving Chetumal for Bacular

Going to leave Chetumal today and go back to Bacular for the night then head up to Tulum in the morning. I

posted all the pictures except for Becan, Calakmul and rest of Kuhunlich. That gives you about 600 pictures for you to chew on until I get back to a strong computer. I have been here in Chetumal for 3 days on the computer. I am fried. The rain started to sprinkle when I pulled out of town this afternoon. Have to arrive in Bacular before dark. So, I am allowing a little daylight on the 40-mile drive up the road and see where I am going. I stopped for gas on the way out of town, no mistakes this time. There was a man going from car to car carrying a tray of what looked like sandwiches. I inquired what they were. He said jamon and queso. Oh, my favorite. They were prepared with flaky pastry crust dough, kind of like a pie folded over to make a half of pie shape. They were 50 cents each so I purchased two. I started to eat one after I purchased my gas and was driving up the road. They were the most delicious things I ever had. I almost turned back to get some more but was afraid the man would be gone. I was going to lose daylight anyway. This time the caretaker at Casita Carolina was waiting for me and had my guest room ready. I settled in and spent the rest of the night listening to someone down the road strumming a guitar. It was bad enough that the fleabag hotel in Chetumal was located over a bar and I had musical bedtime songs every night there.

I managed to get through that night and felt better after a shower in the morning. You know, living in the US with access to dryers to finish your laundry makes you spoiled for soft fluffy towels. It seemed a lot of the places in Mexico had to line dry their towels, which made for a stiff scratchy piece of material to rub down your body and exfoliate with at the same time. Some parts of my body were not in need of extra skin taken off. Oh, well, now this would be one of those times that I would suggest a dryer would be worth considering. I took pictures of her lovely place before I checked out. The weather had improved to give some sunshine. I went into the town of Bacular and ran right into what I had missed a couple of days earlier in the dark. The Fort of San Felipe sits right on the plaza of the town. I spent some time looking at the huge fort then went across the street to have breakfast with the lovely Senora at her café. She remembered me and fixed me a really nice plate of eggs and rice. I ate it at one of her sidewalk tables. I took her picture in her kitchen and when I left she gave me a big hug. All of this, you understand was done with no English, no Spanish but a cross culture friendliness of love. She was a real sweetie.

It was time to head up the coast to Tulum. Not far up the road I spotted three men in the process of building a Mayan house. I stopped and gestured to them that I wanted to see and take pictures. I was given the royal 15-minute tour. They were friendly and showed me how they constructed the sticks and put on the dirt and straw mix mortar between the gaps. The man gestured inside and motioned with his arms ‘no frio’ when the house was completed with all the mortar in place. It looked roomy and comfy even only partly done. It must have been 12x18 with a dirt floor. When I left they went back to work hoeing up the dirt and mixing the corn leaves into it to make more of the mortar mix for the house.

Muyil then on to Tulum and the beach cabana:

I wanted to see the small site of Muyil I read about in the tour book. It said it only had a couple of towers from one temple that was left of the site. When I arrived a small sign by a parking lot marked the place. There was no one at the caretakers’ booth. The gate was open and several people were coming and going. Ok, I went in. I looked at the temple shown in the tour book and was surprised to find the site extended further back past a huge open square. I found another temple that had been recently reconstructed called the temple of the pelicans. There were birds in a large niche in the back of the temple. There were no stairs to get to it so I tried for a zoom shot from the ground. I walked down another path and found several other buildings and temples including the rose palace. The path also included caves under the outcroppings of rocks. The last part I walked was on a sacbe road for a mile or so until it came to a sign that showed a nature trail to the lagoon. That was more than I wanted to do so I made my way back and found a trail on one side of the pelican temple that lead past a well. I walked that for a while and found some stones with glyphs on them. This place shows a lot of potential just by the stones that were peaking out from under the soil.

The story continues with the section on Tulum. Pictures for this section can be found on the webshots.com photo albums. Click on the Mexican hat on the first page of my web site to get to it.