The story continues from Kohunlich, Chetumal and Bacular

Tulum:

I made it to Tulum and looked for a place to eat. I tried a restaurant on the main street. It was an open-air patio type. The man that owned the place stopped me on the sidewalk and spoke enough English to try and sell me a timeshare. I told him all I wanted was something to eat. He escorted me to a table where I looked over the menu. There were a couple of cooks grilling some fajitas on a grill in the middle of the restaurant. Well, maybe that would be ok to order. Wrong. The meat was grizzly and hard because they didn’t trim off the edges. I ate what I could, which was not much as I couldn’t chew it. I did, however, enjoy the bowl of pickled carrots that was served with dinner and the guacamole.

I had to check into Cabanas Copal so I drove the last mile down the side road to the beachfront. Cabanas Copal was a beachfront resort with primitive Mayan houses located right on the beach. Each cabana had a sand floor with a suspended bed covered with mosquito netting. There was no electricity, only candles. I only took out what I needed from the car, as I didn't want any extra sand filtering through my stuff. I settled in as best as I could, which took 5 minutes. I took the advantage to walk the beach. The weather had turned a little stormy ever since I left Chetumal and even though the sky only had a few clouds, the sea was really rough with a stiff wind blowing.

I found the stone sculpture someone built on the rocks along the beach. It was really adorable. I couldn't figure out how the stones stayed balanced with the wind blowing. I walked up the other way toward the site of Tulum, I couldn't see it, but it was about 2 miles away. The whole beach area was devoted to beach resorts and if you didn't have a room, you couldn't walk through to the beach. I found all sorts of sea sponges, mineralized sea ferns, some branches of sea plants and general unrecognizable stuff that washes up on shore. I knew I was only a week away from the winter solstice, but that didn't matter for the pictures I planned to take in the morning. I was going to get up before sunrise and be waiting for the winter sunrise over the beach.

With that plan in mind I walked up to the restaurant and had a couple of margaritas. This time they were served, as they would be in the US, with a long stemmed martini glass including the salt on the rim. I took the second one back to the beach cabana and lit the candles until I finished the drink. I couldn't see the sea with the candle on so I put it out. There wasn't much light and that mood lasted about 10 minutes. I put my clothes and towel in the bed with me and crawled under the netting to one of the hardest beds of all. I knew from the brochure that visitors come into the room; crabs and other night creatures crawled under the door and would scurry around inside the cabana. Well, that would never do if I were to need to get up in the middle of the night. I moved the chair close to the end of the bed to use as a ladder. When the night call came I crawled out onto the chair and leaned way over the back and......you know the rest. Sure enough in the morning I found many crab tracks all over the sand. Another night without much sleep as the sea roared so loud from the stormy conditions it sounded as if I were laying right on the beach and not a hundred feet away up on a knoll.

It didn't take much to be down on the beach before the sun rose. It was a magical time and I delighted in the pictures I took. They speak much louder than the words I could conjure up. I was also inspired to write a couple more poetic verses. I even waited for the next person to come walking along the beach in order to take the footprint pictures. He never knew what I was doing.

After I was done with the sunrise picture shoot I went to take a shower. Well, there was no hot water. In fact, hardly even a dribble came out of the showerhead. Bummer. I gave up on that plan and washed in the sink instead. I did spend some time having a nice breakfast at the restaurant on the open-air patio with a huge Mayan thatched roof. The staff was very friendly and polite and even though I had sand everywhere and the sea was too loud, I enjoyed my stay. I walked back down to the beach for my last passage and gathered as many of the sponges, ferns and other shells and coral pieces I could carry in my foam lunch cooler. I carried that all the way home without being crushed.

Tulum and the flying Valadores:

When I checked out of the Cabanas Copal I drove the two miles up the beach road and parked at the back entrance to the site. The site of Tulum had made some major changes. I found the site had improved since 2002. They had well defined streets marked out between the buildings. There were several more buildings cleared and reconstructed. The Castillo was roped off to visitors, as were several other buildings. One of the new places cleared was the cenote house past the Temple of the East Wind. Workmen were working on laying water lines to irrigate the grounds. The beach was pretty and even though rough there were people out in the sea. I walked more of the site than I had time to do on my first bus tour and was happy about that. When I was done at the site I caught the shuttle bus up to the front of the site where the shops were located. I found a Subway sandwich place in the shop area. I sat outside at one of the tables and watched the man with his two monkeys entertain the visitors for only 10 pesos for a picture. I looked at every shop, where each shop owner hounded me to make a purchase. Some of them spoke a little English. I said I was going to look first. That is where I found the bark paper and the spotted animals from Oaxaca. I bought 20 sheets of paper. In the next shop I found a really pretty gauze dress with flowers embroidered on the yoke. The man said 50 dollars. I said 'no, too much'. I continued on to several other shops. I was in the process of buying some T-shirts in another shop when the shop owner came running down the aisle with the dress, saying 'Ok, 30.00 for you Senora'. So I bought it the dress while standing in the T-shirt shop. I enjoyed the shopping, as I had been very careful not to overload my bags until I could start on the down leg of the trip. I figured I was about half way. I went out to the plaza and bought an ice cream. Every time I found a vendor with ice cream, I just had to have one.

I sat down on one of the benches just in time to see the start of the Flying Valadores show. They are the ones that brought their custom of flying to the Tulum area from El Tajin. The dancers dropped off the top of the 100-foot pole swinging upside down attached to a rope around their leg swinging around downward until they reached the ground. It signified the descent of the Eagle gods from heaven to Earth. I gave a donation when they passed the hat. When they were done with the show I motioned to one of them that I wanted to take a picture. For another generous donation they all grouped together and posed for me. Their costumes were beautiful. Looking at them close up I found they were all hand beaded and were very heavy. Each costume was just a little different, however I couldn't find out why.

After a most enjoyable time in the plaza I caught the shuttle bus back down to the back entrance and walked to my car. I had to go on to Coba so I could arrive there before dark. Less that a block past the only stop light in town, the buildings abruptly ended and the jungle began. I ran into some sprinkles on the 60k drive, arriving at Coba about 4.pm. There were several places along the road that had roadside craft shops set up. Other than that, the road could have looked like any other that ran from any town to the next with very high weeds making it difficult to see anything past the edge of the road.

Coba and the wedding reception: Dec 18

Coba was a dirty, one road, 30 dog town with a few shops with junky stuff in them. I spotted the first hotel on my way down the road. It turned out to also be where the bus stopped to pick up passengers to go to Tulum. It had a café with passable food. I inquired about a room, as Coba was one of the places I didn't have a booking for. No wonder, there wasn't any Internet connection to the outside world. The hotel man told me 12.00. I hemmed and hawed and before I could answer he said 10.00. Well, ok, the bed could have been jumping with fleas, but he said he would have the room cleaned and the bedding changed. I looked at the shower, egad, crustier than Tulum and the Hotel Cantu. That would make my third day without a shower. No water, but they would bring me some in a bucket. I guess I would tough it out. I could have gone down the street further and rented a room for a hundred dollars at one of the club med type hotels, but I was not into that kind of room allowance on my budget. The hotel man spoke sparse English but managed to convey to me there was going to be a wedding reception that evening, but it would only last until 10 p.m. While I was having a bite to eat the sound crew came with lots of equipment to set up for the wedding reception. They had racks of lights and half dozen speakers bigger than I've seen on concert show stages. I left them to set up their gear and walked back behind my room where I had seen some chickens in a cage. I went out there and found about 15 of them in a cage built for two. They didn't have any water. I looked around for some water and there was about 25 5-gallon buckets full of water sitting by the clothes-washing shack. I dipped some water out and filled their pan. I felt so bad for their condition, because as soon as the water hit the pan there were 15 beaks in it. Later when I checked on them again, I found someone had fed them a pan of tortillas soaked in some sort of broth. They had left the door to the cage open and as each chicken finished eating she would wiggle out of the open door and head for the bare branch tree above it to settle down for the night. Ok, girls, I thought, you're O.K. I went around to the front again just in time to watch the wedding party go to the church across the street. I could see the church was a newly built mortared building, but without any glass in the windows. Soon the whole parking lot was filled with wedding party guests. Man, where did all these people come from? They were dressed to the hilt with suits and fancy dresses. After the wedding the guests started to fill up the café and I went to my room so I wouldn't intrude with their party. I lay down thinking it would be only 3 hours before 10 p.m. when the hotel man said the party would be over. Yeah, right. I lay there trying to endure the wedding reception music as only a brick wall separated the music away from my room. They must have stacked all the speakers up against it as I thought the bricks would lose their mortar at any moment. Naturally I wasn't able to sleep, so about 1 a.m. I got up and went to see what the party was doing. The place only had about six people in it. Strobe lights were flashing all over the room. The bride was dancing with her maid of honor. There were a couple of other ladies dancing with each other. At a break the bride came over and found the groom on the sidelines. She gave him some packages and he left and never returned. I sat down and watched. In about 15 minutes the dancing dwindled down to the point the band decided the party was over and stopped playing. Of course the sound had been deafening. I thought it was loud in my room, but it was ear piercing in the café. The silence was overwhelmingly welcome. The wedding party, minus the groom, gathered their things together and started to leave. As I was sitting right by the exit I stood up when the bride came by and wished her good luck and happiness. She gave me a hug. I didn't tell her I was just glad to have the music stop. When I was sure the band was starting to pack up and leave I went back to bed to get some rest. In the morning I felt like I had been pulled through another knothole. (Boy, this whole country is full of knotholes).

When I pulled into the parking lot of the Coba site, which was about a mile from the hotel I found it had several vendor shops and another little café. I had a really nice omelet for breakfast. It was good and I felt like I could make it through the day. I bought my ticket and went through the gate. There were a number of men who wanted to know if I wanted a guide. There were also a number of bicycle taxis that were for hire. I didn't use either. The trails were long between the different sections but the shade of the trees was refreshing and it was pleasant to walk. I found the main temple with the ball court on the side of it. I walked on back to the Macanxoc group of temples and residences. There were many stelaes, but were very hard to make out. This was a place for the royal ladies from Tikal. The place had a very feminine feel to it, like I could detect their presence. I walked on back down the trail and turned at the fork in the road to go to the temple of the pictures. There was a building in front of the ball court that looked just like a depot house at the end of a sacbe road. ‘Welcome to Coba’, it seemed to say. It sure seems like some of the buildings could be lodging houses for the visitors that came to Coba for ceremonial reasons or the ball games.

I made my way further down the path and found the Nohoch Mul or the big mound or house. It is the tallest pyramid in the Yucatan. I climbed to the top and stood admiring the view. There was a huge plumb of smoke coming from the trees somewhere on the other side of the site. After I climbed down and was walking back to the entrance I could hear crackling that sounding like bicycle tires on the gravel, but there were no bicycles there. I remembered the smoke and took the path to the lagoon I had walked earlier. When I reached the edge of the lagoon I could see the underbrush on the other side of the lagoon was on fire. It was burning almost the whole length of the shoreline. When I reached the guides that were sitting by the entrance and managed to convey to them that the lagoon shore was burning, a couple of them came and looked, but the rest of them apparently didn't care as they never got up to see. Apparently it wasn’t any big deal.

I left the site and looked at a couple of the vendor shops at the entrance. They didn't have anything interesting, so I went further past the parking lot on the road out and found an artist making Batik cloth. His work was nice, but I didn't see any design I wanted to live with. Next door to him was a silver shop. Now, that was interesting. Even though the shop owner said he made the jewelry there I could see no sign of a workshop. He had some really nice things. I bought a bracelet and two pairs of earrings and a T-Shirt for 140.00. I was thrilled. They matched my necklace I purchased in Taxco, Mexico two years earlier.

After spending time shopping, it was time to drive to my next destination, which was Genesis Retreat in Ek Balam.

Ek Balam and Genesis Retreat: Dec 19

The road between Coba and Valladolid was a good highway and it didn't take long to get there. I actually bypassed the city when I took the turn off road to Ek Balam. Here the landscape thinned into scruffy weeds and some short stubby trees. I could see the limestone sub structure of the land protruding through the thin layer of soil. The whole landscape was nothing but a solid shelf of rock all the way to the sea. When I turned on the road marked Ek Balam and went down it for about 5 miles I came to the closed gate to the site. I took the left hand turn, as that was the way to the village of Ek Balam that Genesis Retreat was located. When I arrived at Lee Christies' lovely oasis, it was tucked in behind a ten-foot high block fence. I was greeted by her and shown to my room. The whole acre of her place should be called a Garden of Eden, as it was filled with flowers, pools, gardens that were lush and serene. She had a bathhouse located next to my room. You know the first thing I did was take a shower after 3 days without one. It was luscious. I felt so refreshed after that I had renewed my energy to walk around and look at all the things she built, from the gardens to the guest rooms. The kitchen/great room was located under a Mayan roof and was opened air on the one side facing the inside of the enclosure. She had a friendly parrot and a testy Toucan, not to mention the 4 dogs that lopped on all the couches. I ordered something to eat and sat and talked with her and several of the guests that were staying there until it was time to go to bed.

The next morning, (Dec 20) I took off early to see the ancient site of Ek Balam. It was only a couple of miles away. After I drove in the parking lot, I parked close to the entrance building to get some shade of the few trees available. There were several men on the porch and wanted to know if I wanted a guide. Thanks, but no. I wanted to take my time and poke around.

The site was down a path that also had fairly decent trees shading it. It was a hot day and the shade sure was a valuable commodity. After passing through several low walls I was greeted by the arched building. It was the perfect example of the 'end of the road depot house', or the 'Welcome to Ek Balam' arch. I could just see the road stopping at the arch building and people going through the arch and down the steps into the city. It was beautifully reconstructed. I climbed the building that had rounded corners and could see most of the site from the top. It was grand and beautiful.

After climbing down to the plaza I made my way around the perimeter of the site beyond the backside of the temple that hasn't been excavated as of yet. I found a trail that lead behind into the bushes and after walking it for a short way; I ended up in a field whose crop was already harvested. There were signs that workmen had used the bush area to rest and eat in, as it was trashy with paper litter. I knew there wasn't going to be any great finds there, so I made my way back into the site and found myself at the corner of the big temple.

The rooms on the first floor ran the whole length of the temple, with huge doors entering each one. In a couple were giant stone benches. In the middle the temple a staircase ascended on the outside to the upper levels. That would be where the 'angels' would be located. When I reached the top of the steep steps I found myself on the platform with the most amazing stucco workmanship that would not be equaled at any other site. It was beautiful. The Earth Monster mouth supported the statues of the kings of Ek Balam. They did have wings, but not angel wings. The wings were an expression done in metaphor showing each king had divine right to King-God ship and was directly connected to the Heavenly Cosmos. There were once 7 kings, but two are missing. Each King was in the family lineage of rulers that ruled the ancient city of Ek Balam. The same expression of Divine Kingship is shown at the site of Kabah, with the two kings statues mounted on the back of the Codz Poop temple. The wings they had were etched in the stone. (See picture for the entry on Kabah). By the way, the Earth Monster mouth also is a metaphoric symbol of entering the underworld, or the entrance to the heavenly cosmos to become in touch with the ancestors that resided at Galactic Center with the Mayan Gods.

The pictures for the rest of the site speak for themselves. I really enjoyed the visit and slowly made my way back by way of the ball court and out the arch to my home away from home for a few days at Genesis Retreat.

Chichen Itza: Dec 21

I left Genesis Retreat early enough to drive the 50 K to Chichen Itza in order to spend the whole day. I wanted to see the light and sound show in the evening. Being I had to pay for it anyway. After I looked at the small display in the entrance museum I walked down the path to the site. Wow! What a place. I didn't know what to see first. Everything had been preserved and/or reconstructed so well, I felt like I was standing in the great plaza in ancient times looking at the Castillo and Temple of the Warriors. Uxmal, Edzna and Ek Balam had been great, but Chichen Itza was the best so far. What grandeur of form and elegance the temples displayed. I decided to start at the edge of the plaza at the stone platform of the skulls and work my way around, saving the Castilo for last. That way I could view all four sides before I climbed to the top. The pictures speak for themselves, so I will let them.

By the time I reached the path to enter Old Chichen area, it was time for lunch. I went back to the entrance building where they had a café. I had a nice lunch of chicken taquitos with guacamole. I found a vendor there selling pendants that had the Mayan glyphs for the month you were born in. It was pure silver and etched very finely. I was very impressed with the workmanship and bought one.

I returned to the site and proceeded into Old Chichen. The temple of the Count was first then, the red house, the deer house, the corn grinder building then on to the Observatory. It was roped off. Bummer. I did manage to get some zoom shots of the top, with the chac faces on the four sides. The nunnery was the next building in line. I sure wish the Spanish had a better way of labeling the buildings when they conquered the ancient cities, because this was not a nunnery. It may have been a woman's place but not for celibate women. On the contrary, if the goddess was honored here it was not done in that manner. The little building next to it, in my opinion was a temple marking the solstices, because it has the same little windows in the back of the building and one doorway in the front, same as Tulum and Dzilbilchactun has. I didn't go down the road toward the hotels. The road looked way to long and I was parked at the main entrance. I believe I missed three or four of the most ancient temples including the Temple of the Phallus. I have looked at several different site maps and have never found them. However, I know they have to be there because I researched several Archaeological web pages set up by the archaeologists that worked on them. After some more poking around I found in order to reach them you have to book a horseback tour at the Mayapan Hotel. That gives me something else to see on my next trip. Same with Uxmal, I missed a bunch because it wasn't marked on the tour map.

When the day was almost done it was time to climb the Castillo. It was grand, very steep and huge. The view from the top was magnificent. I huffed and puffed my way up, now I had to huff and puff my way down. Climbing and descending was like eating an elephant, one bite or step at a time. By taking so much time I missed the room under the Castillo with the red jaguar throne. Bummer. There will be a next time to see this. The grounds people ushered everyone out of the site grounds, which by the way I haven't mentioned, but there were several thousand visitors that day. They had to get ready for the light and sound show. I had two hours to wait. What better way than to visit the shops set up at the entrance? Oh, yummy, more shopping! Some of these vendors spoke some English. I found a T-shirt and several carved wooden plaques. The best was the carved wooded serpent in 3D. It is a great piece. I also bought the jaguar head from a man inside who had goods set up along the cenote trail. I think I bought it because he was persistent and came down on the price to 10.00 dollars. He also had a wife and cute child with him.

There were so many really wonderful crafted goods here, but I limited my purchases as I still had a long way to go. I went back in for the light and sound show. I never gave it a thought it would be spoken in Spanish, so I couldn't understand a thing. I sat for a long while then started to think about the 50 K of dark road I had to drive back to Genesis Retreat, so I left the site and made my way to the toll road. I didn't have any problem finding my way and was back to my bed before 9 p.m.

Leaving Valladolid for the Balankanche Caveand Yaxuna: Dec 22

I made a slight adjustment to my schedule and left Genesis Retreat a day early so I could pick up a couple more sites. I drove the same way to Chichen Itza and stopped at the Balankanche Cave that were located about 6 k from Chichen Itza. I had seen the sign for them the day before but knew I would not have time to do both. The grounds for the cave were very clean and well raked. They had a small museum in the ticket building. I looked at everything while more people arrived to take the tour. Our guide took us down into the cave explaining the history as we went. He turned on lights that had been installed in the cave system. A lot of work went into the presentation of the caves. It was very nice. Even though it was cool in the cave it was also damp and humid. What I liked the most were the teeny corn grinders with the T or tooth shape feet. The things found in the cave were never moved and had been sitting there for over two thousand years. Being it was located so close to Chichen Itza, I wondered if the people from there came to the cave to make offerings to the ancient gods. After the tour I continued down the road past Chichen Itza and through a number of small villages. Being every town of any size had 'Topes' or speed bumps you had to slow down almost to a crawl to keep the undercarriage of the vehicle from bottoming out. One of the small towns had a Tope right in front of a café that was grilling chicken on the front porch. Boy, did it smell good. I stopped and had lunch. While I was waiting I watched a man on the roof adding thatched palm leaves to the roof addition. I found that very clever. As I was eating lunch a really skinny dog came up to the steps of the porch of the café. I mean so skinny her rib cage stuck out so bad I could tell she hadn't eaten for a while. I gave her a bone, which she almost swallowed whole. I finished another piece and gave her that. I ended up giving her almost the whole lunch including the tortillas. She ate everything in one gulp. When I left the dog followed me to the car wagging her tail. It was so sad, because I couldn't take her with me. The man cooking the chickens was watching the dog and me. I looked at him and told him to give the dog something to eat once and a while. I don't think he ever would. If he did, the dog wouldn't be so starving in the first place.

I continued on to the small and obscure site of Yaxuna. The site is also spelled Yacuna on some maps. It was lost in the bushes next to a small village not far from Chichen itza, but could only be accessed by road going around the horn, so to speak and through several small villages. The map was good and I found it very easily. It was getting late in the day by then and I wanted to explore it before dark. I parked the car by one of the temples and climbed to the top. I could see a man on a bicycle riding down the road at break neck speed toward me. I thought it was the caretaker to sell me a ticket. When he reached me I could see he was young Mayan man of about 20 sporting a two-foot long machete hanging from his belt. He wasn't the caretaker, but in a ten-minute conversation of broken English he got across to me he would show me around for money. I fished out 2 dollars in change and he took it. He then went on to explain that he had to see the doctor and it cost more. I finally opened my notebook and showed him all I had was a 100-peso note. He took it and was happy. He then showed me around everything I had already seen from the top of the temple I had climbed.

While I was looking at a small platform I could see a small sign printed on a piece of board tacked to a post that said Coba. That had to be the platform that connected the site of Coba with a sacbe road to the site of Yaxuna. So much was over grown with weeds I would have never found anything else.

I asked him why he didn't cut the weeds as he had a machete. He spoke in sign language, no money, no weeds. That was pretty clear. He did take me a little further down a weed-infested path to another section. The thought ran through my mind, 'You know, here you are out in the middle of nowhere on a site that is overgrown with weeds, where no one knows where you are, being lead into the bushes by a strong muscular man wielding a machete and the sun is rapidly going down beyond the horizon. There is something wrong with this picture. It is time to get out of here and fast'. I thanked him very much and said good-bye and got in the car. He left on his bicycle.

I was so relieved. He may just have been after a few pesos, but who knows what other things may have happened. I stopped briefly at a complex of Mayan houses at the entrance to the site. I found it was the houses used by the archaeologists during the time they were exploring the site and were not for rent. The last time anyone was here was 1985. What a shame to have it all overgrown after so many wonderful discoveries were made. I had to do some research on this when I returned home and found I missed a whole lot. Yaxuna will be on the list for next time and I will be sure to arrive early in the day.

As I was driving out of the town of Yacuna I passed the man on the bicycle and one of his friends on the street. He looked the picture of health. He didn't need a doctor, but his story could have used a bit of doctoring to say the least.

The story continues with ‘The sea coast and Xcambo’. Pictures are located on the webshots.com photo albums. Click on the Mexican hat on the first page of the web site to get to it.