Tropical fruits

I always love buying fresh local fruit from the street vendors. This is a new one for me at it is very seasonal here, named cayomita....delicious, not too sweet,one of those sensous fruits like papaya and mango! There were purple and white ones.

Henequin Crops

This plant called henequin is making a comeback in the Yucatan. It produces sisal fibers that are used in ropes, bags, clothing, lots of things...this major export industry experienced a decline when synthetic fibers hit the market in the 1950's, but now with a renewed interest in organic natural fibers, one can see the plantations come back to life. It takes about 5 years for a plant to be harvestable.

Traveling with Google Earth

We took along the GPS and laptop loaded with Google Earth imagery that allowed us to find our way on roads that were not on a map but that we could see on the imagery. Therefore we could take shortcuts with complete confidence and really see some rural stuff! This is one of those roads!

Hammocks

Went hammock shopping in the little village of EkBalam where the women make the hammocks.....all the women folk participate...notice the handmade loom they are standing in front of. They use a double weave called "abeja" (bee), so of course I had to have one of those.
Here are 3 generations of women in the family that I bought from.
It takes about 2 weeks to make one of these very large "family" hammocks. The cost...$50 US....Compared to the price one pays for a bed, not a bad deal huh? And they really are comfortable to sleep in for one person anyways!

Further down the road about 2 miles south of Valladolid there is a prison that sells hammocks made by the inmates....they are a different style and take a month to make one...cost $95.

EkBalam (Dark Jaguar)

I have blogged about this 2000 year old Mayan Temple Pyramid before, but it is always enchanting to be here. It has some of the best preserved stucco relief of any of the structures I have been to. Those palapa roofs were built to protect the marvalous ornate decorations that you can see in the following photographs. Imagine the entire pyramid covered in the smoothed plaster that was painted in brilliant colors!! And remember all this done without metal tools, beast of burden or the wheel!
We were there for a nice rain that darkened much of the stone and gave us a nice reprieve from the afternoon heat.

Cenote X-canche

First place we headed to out of Puerto was to a cenote near EkBalam. Another beautiful natural resource of the area. The trees roots find the water, and the caves are homes for bats, moths, birds etc. Swam with black catfish in the water...my thermometer gave a reading of 72 degrees Farenheight...the same as the San Marcos River! so the girls felt at home.

Coconuts

Mouth watering coconuts! Freshly cut...the greener they are, the more water is inside...Tosca loved them.

Airport Arrivals

Today a couple of friends Tosca and Misha from San Marcos,Texas are arriving at the Cancun airport and I was able to track their flight on the internet so as to arrive at the airport on time to pick them up. Also instead of standing outside this brand new international terminal and waiting for them which can take a while as they go through customs, one can sit inside the bar/cafe directly next to the exit door and watch it on the big screen. My how this airport has evolved!!

Cenote Eden

About a mile from the coastline and fairly close to us is Cenote Eden. Besides being absolutely beautiful and open to the sky, it is a habitat for an endemic species to the Yucatan, the Sailfin Molly, Poecilia velifera. Because of the proximity of the cenote to the ocean, the water is brackish (fresh and salt mixed). The male shows his large fin to attract the females in courtship. They have about 10-120 live offspring. Lively and fun to watch!

Sirius

Inspired by the eclipse, I am reading all about Stars and Planets. I want to talk about a certain star as I am reading about it in another book also.
SIRIUS is the brightest STAR in the night sky. If you look at Orion’s Belt, those 3 stars in a row, and follow the line downward to your left, about 20 degrees away (one fist at arms length covers about 10 degrees of the sky), you will see it. It is actually a double star as there is a fainter companion, Sirius B revolving around it. According to “The Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life”, an African tribe, the Dogons, have cave wall drawings over 700 years old that contain the information of the importance of Sirius B. Recent astronomers were only able to validate its existence in 1862. So how did the Dogan’s get this knowledge so long ago? They told inquiring scientists that the cave drawings show a flying saucer coming out of the sky and landing on 3 legs, then it shows the beings in the ship making a big hole in the ground, filling it with water, jumping out of the ship into the water and coming up to the edge of the water. They looked very much like dolphins. They started communicating to the Dogons. They described where they came from and gave the Dogons this information. Outrageous?! I recommend the book…its about sacred geometry.

Lunar Eclipse tonight!

We should see a total eclipse of the Full Moon about 9:30 central time. Since our beach faces east, the moon rises over the sea here!...about 6:15 tonight...traditionally there is drumming and a fire. I hope to get a photo similar to this one!

Found Sea Turtle

Today I found a small sea turtle on the beach that was dead but still very fresh. Pobrecita! I was eager to identify what kind it was as there are several kinds here. This is a Green Sea Turtle (named that because of the green fat). Other signs of identity are the arrangement of the plates on the back.
Anyways decided to save the shell and so that required a dissection. Flor de Maria, trained in marine biology, performed the dissection while I did things like dispose of the entrails and keep the water clean.....no we didn't dump it in the pool....and I won't post the photos of the organs but it was very interesting....they have lungs and must come to the surface to breathe. Green turtles are carnivorous for their first year then are herbivorous.
First we drew the turtle in complete detail...and to scale...what a great way to learn! Now the shell is drying in the sun upside down with the help of a dusting of lye to speed up the process.

Sea Turtle

Today I saw a sea turtle for the first time on my daily swims.....WOW!! So very cool...I swam behind it for a little while...hard to keep up...then watched it surface for a moment then go down and out to sea!! It was about a meter long..that's about 3.3 feet...I am living in the metric world and so am starting to think that way!! Not to mention I am hanging with some scientists and they all use the metric system! I learned it years ago in grade school when they told us we would be using that in the following years???? What happened?

Vinyasa Yoga on the beach

Today we did Vinyasa yoga also known as "flow" yoga on the beach thanks to Kelli. She instructs us to move from one pose to the next on an inhale or exhale of breath.....very nice to be in the sand with the sea in front of you and the clouds above...thank goodness for those clouds when we get them....then a swim after it's done and everyone is ready to start the day!

New Beach Bar in Puerto

We now have a new beach bar, good thing since our favorite place "Tuna's" closed down. Good friend Tom had this place built in front of his house....I was there for the setting of the first corner post....now it's all finished....one can get a massage from Paula, a drink from Sara or just lounge in the sun and look out at that reef that is less than a half mile offshore. I have a special affection for this place as Tom's round house is the first place I stayed here in Puerto. As you can see development is encroaching but its cool that a funky little beach bar can still happen!

More caving adventure!

Came across this cenote today so we decided to name it "Bumptun"...since we bumped into it....hmmmm...do we explore it??? As we are driving here making our way through the jungle we have a flat tire and out of nowhere appears a Mayan with a slingshot and a machete...he cut down all the vegetation so we could easily change the tire. Then he took us to a small ruin
that also had a cenote nearby. All the while telling us about the trees and plants as his job was to cut them...he showed us a root that you could eat that was very succulent..said it was good if you couldn't find water to drink! We explored the cenote and underground wet/dry cave...which entailed swimming through water, climbing up on rocks, crawling on bellies, squeezing through passages, ducking the bats flying around, observing frogs and moths, all in the DARK I might add!!(I am certain there were snakes though we didnt see any) and it came out underneath the Mayan ruin! My first spelunking adventure! We were careful to leave as few footprints as possible as this was a scout for Animal Planet to come film next week! I am hooked up!

Valladolid

The town of Valladolid is known for good shopping and this is a typical sight on the town plaza...these Mayan women selling their embroidery...the area is mostly known for its hammocks...I will be returning in a couple weeks with friends from the states to buy hammocks! I know a really small village north of here where all the women make the hammocks and you buy directly from them...fair trade practices!!

Town of Izamal

Road trip today......went across the Yucatan Peninsula visiting lots of Mayan villages and colonial towns....this is Izamal....recognized because the whole dang town is painted yellow!! Magical little place....you can see remnants of the pyramid that dominated the region at one time..that is until the Fransicans came and built a convent right on top of the pyramid!! Many of the stones in the convent were taken from the pyramids as well as to build the colonial buildings surrounding it.
How is this for a handmade childs bicycle seat!