Visiting a Mayan village -EkBalam

It has been a while since I have posted on my blog....so instead of catching up I am just going to start from here. I am back in the Yucatan and have had several friends come to visit...YEAH!...almost everyone wants to go to some Mayan ruins....my favorite place to take people is EkBalam....the ruins are amazing....you can see previous entries in this blog....but the little pueblo of EkBalam is really special too.....the women and children make hammocks and sell them in front of their houses. It takes a MONTH to make one of these high quality hammocks!! Cost is 500 pesos...about $35 U.S...... There is also a really cool little eco-resort there called Genesis http://www.genesisretreat.com/
owned and opertated by Lee, a friendly and knowledgable Canadian woman. A view of the pool from our little porch which had a nice place to do yoga and read. She will give you a walking tour of the village that includes going into several of the homes with a hands on experience of making tortillas and weaving hammocks. Part of the price of the tour is given to the participating families so everyone is happy. It is an unforgettable experience. Mari first soaks the corn overnight with lime and then the soft kernals are placed on the metate and ground into cornmeal, then mixed with water into a paste that can be flattened into a tortilla.There was a small fire going in the traditional 3 stone hearth that we cooked the tortillas on.....we sat with her and made tortillas while she spoke with us in Spanish so it was easy to communicate as a lot of Mayans only speak Maya. After cooking them on the grill, she handed us one to eat and also offered to cook some with an egg inside....she simply split open the hot tortilla, blew into it to make a space and then poured in the raw egg right from the shell. A little more cooking on the grill and Voila...very simple and very good! We also roasted some chocolate beans (cocao) and ground those on the metate. Mari added some hot water and sugar and whipped it by hand creating hot chocolate!
They do several types or styles of weaves here called water, dog, bee, etc....I would highly recommend these hammocks for sleeping as that is what you want is a tightly woven hammock.