Restoration on the Temple of the Sun.
Inside the palace.
There are still descendents of the Mayas living and working right next to the ruins, carrying out their daily lives. 
I watched them for hours I sat under a Guayaba tree and contemplated this magical place.
Wow....I don't think I have ever done so much, seen so much, heard so much as we did today!!! I need a blog just for today....this city is incredible...and such nice people...all very laid back...Campechanos have that reputation nation wide....this street is calle Calle Onda....notice the sidewalks are built high off the street that floods occasionaly...the town has taken the responsibility to refurbish and maintain its street fronts....also an extremely clean town!
Then I felt obligated to have my picture taken with a gigantic statue of Benito Juarez, a past President of Mexico that was an indigenous peasant, self educated and so did a lot to help the people.
Here we are trying to find a lost cave in the midst of the city. 
This is a very strange building to have in the middle of a colonial town, it is the Congress building....so the shape conforms to the elevated seating that would be expected.....and of course the lights change colors. 
As for me I am heading west, south, and then north. I have decided to drive my car back to the states as there is plenty of public transportation here in Mexico but not in Texas where I will be needing it in the upcoming months. I have planned some significant stops on the way back but not sure after that...am still thinking about which border town to cross in???....if anyone has any news to let me know please do...I have already been warned not to travel in the state of Oaxaca as there are rampant kidnappings now...it came from a trusted source so I will heed that though I really was looking forward to those highlands...but Chiapas will do!! 
I just filled the car up...7 pesos per liter…so thats 26.5 pesos per gallon which is roughly $2.78 per gallon. It was 2050 miles down here and I plan to take a longer route back with my 2000 Ford Explorer that gets about 18 miles per gallon …(wished I had the v6 instead of the v8)
As I was laying in a hammock taking in the view from Casa Toucan in Puerto Morelos, there were several frigatebirds hovering above me and some coming quite close. They are splendid flyers and were probably here because the fishing pier is nearby and possibly a source of some food. They fly across vast oceans, never landing on water, but taking their food in flight. In Baja they call them tijeras, which means scissors in spanish, because of the split tail.
It´s time to leave Holbox…what great memories I will have! Here are a few shots to try and capture the essence of this place. 
The runway is lined on all sides with large conch shells painted white….the runway is 650 meters long with a shell about every meter…I figure there at least 1500 conch shells! 
Palapas on the far west side of the island. The water´s edge used to be much closer to the palapas before Hurricane Wilma (2005) deposited lots of new beach!
Another cool adventure here in Holbox....assisting INAH (Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia), a Mexican federal government bureau that researches, preserves, protects and promotes its cultural heritage. 
The underwater archeology division is interested in documenting ship wrecks in the area. The fishermen here know many of the sites as fish tend to live in and around underwater structures. So the boat captain could take us directly to them. We documented 6 sites in just 4 days. This is not easy work though it is enjoyable for the most part. Most of the dives were in deep COLD water with strong currents and low visibility...I opted to stay on the boat as I am only qualified as a recreational diver...besides they needed someone recording all the data and taking GPS points to make the maps!
They did see some amazing things though....
Sea turtles, Manta rays...
This one was wrecked recently during Hurricane Wilma, but it is important to document it as someday it will be a hundred year old shipwreck!
We met a lady here who does animal rescue and so we offered to care for this sweet little critter that was brought to her by some children that were feeding it coca cola and tortillas.
Coatis are a member of the raccoon family and are very social. We named her Almendra. She is an omnivore and eats fruits and insects. We give her a bottle of milk 3 times a day as she is still young. She loves climbing on anything and everything and likes to curl up with humans.
The whale shark is so docile as she swims along the surface filtering the plankton through her gills. They will be here in these waters as long as there is the plankton bloom which usually ends around the end of August.
Today we were invited to assist the biologist that is directing the Mexican Atlantic Whale Shark Project called "Domino" as that is what the locals call the whale shark. Rafael wants to know how long the whale sharks are here, how many there are, where they came from and where they go from here. 
He has tagged over a hundred whale sharks with transmitters and is installing acoustic receivers on the bottom of the sea that will record the data as the whale shark passes within 500 meters of a receiver.Today we placed 3 of these cylinders on the sandy bottom (21 feet deep) by driving in a stake with a sledgehammer and affixing a cable that is attached to the device. They will be taken up in 6 months and will have the data inside.
When combined with similar data from other projects in Belize, Honduras, Cuba etc, we will have a better idea of the migration patterns of this mysterious shark.
