A Little Carnaval

And Now It is Lent

I've decided to give up being verbose for Lent (sigh of relief from readers) so this will be a really short blog.  But I could not allow yet another raucous celebration of Carnaval go undocumented.
Carnaval here (while not Rio de Janeiro) is celebrated with vigor -- and a great deal of tequila.  To add to the fun Michael's cousin John and his wife Susan joined us for the spectacle.  After 5 years of blogs you know the Carnaval drill -- parades, burning of coffin of ill humor, sayacas -- the whole nine yards. So we'll just stick in some pictures in keeping with my brevity pledge.

On the way to the parade we came across the Danza de los Voladores (Dance of the Flyers).

This is an ancient Mesoamerican ceremony/ritual. The ritual consists of a dance & the climbing of a 30-meter pole from which four participants launch themselves from the top twirling around as they are tied to a rope until they descend to the ground.

At the start of the Carnaval parade are all the antique cars.

A very young king & queen of Carnaval.

I applaud the chaste, zipped up approach of the girl in  white.  Michael may differ

El Rey Feo (The Ugly KIng) -- You decide

Pokemon Battalion

Very, very gay but cool

Just not sure what they are....

Fiesta del Lodo - Otra Vez

Having just taken in the chaos that is the Chapala Mardi Gras parade we retired to the Beer Garden (which is nothing at all like a Beer Garden) for a couple of beers and some chow.  The day was young and we contemplated what we might do.  I remembered that it was the Fiesta del Lodo (translation Mud Fiesta) and asked if they'd like to take it in.  Much to my amazement John and Susan said yes. The fiesta involves crazy people (generally18-25 --their brains have not reached full development) racing their ATVs, Jeeps, Hummers and one very brave/stupid VW Beetle through the mud flats and into the lake.  It is hot, it is dusty (above the flats) muddy (below the flats) and many people are drinking Vampiros and other "ethnic" drinks from about 10 AM on.  To be honest, I was not sure this would be John and Susan's cup of tea.  I mean they are urbanites, rather cosmopolitan and I thought more inclined to a polo match than a mud fest.  Once more, I was wrong, wrong, wrong! They loved it!  Particularly Susan. You just NEVER know.  But there is a lot to like.  It is really Silly.  I mean you drive into the Lake to get stuck.  If you don't get stuck you just keep doing in until you DO get stuck. It is a family affair.  There was a family tailgating in their car stuck in the shallows of the lake complete with umbrella having a picnic.  It defies all safety rules. No helmets, no seat belts, no sunscreen, dogs and children running in front of vehicles, 8 year olds driving vehicles.  I was disappointed this year that the models in the go-go boots and short shorts were missing but hey, you can't have everything.

Michael's camera battery died so these are last years photos but, believe me, it's the same every year.

There are ALWAYS dancing girls

We went up to Tapalpa (a mountain village vaguely Swiss/Mexican) and ate a lot of food all around and then it was time for John and Susan to leave.  And then it was Lent.  And now it is quiet (relatively).  Well, since Benito Juarez Day which was Monday which is to say it has been quiet for one day -- we take what we can get.

We placed Susan in front of the impressively sized Piedras both because she is lovely and to provide scale

John is surprisingly strong for a geriatric

Don't Move Here!~ But You Can Visit

I know...I know... I've exhorted all of our NOB friends to move down here and join us.  I lauded the lovely climate, the reasonable cost of living, the sweetness of the Mexican people yada,yada, yada. Well, forget it.  Don't you DARE buy here.  We can barely move! Now my feelings erupted on Monday which was a collision of the High Season (snowbirds) and Benito Juarez Day (National Holiday). It took me a 1/2 hour to get from one end of town to the other -- and this is not a large town.  If I wanted that I would have kept commuting on Rte. 128!  So, I'm sorry there is just no more room. There is one two lane road that runs through town.  There is no way to build another thoroughfare unless you carve into the mountains (landslides in rainy season) or build over the Lake (glug, glug after you are run off the road by the Guadalajarans).  And they should stay home too!  They drive like maniacs turning the two lane road into a four lane road, going down one way streets (most streets) the wrong way and ACCELERATING through red lights. Oye.  So, no more room at the inn. I'm sure I'll mellow out when the Snowbirds fly home (any day now) and Lent may settle down the Guads for another month.  And just when my equanimity is restored, Semana Santa will be upon us.  And that's the REALLY crazy holiday.  So, anyway, have fun as spring reveals itself and tell yourself what a gorgeous place you live in....because we're all out of room.

On The Way to "Chicken Pizza"

The Backstory

Many years ago, we were vacationing near Playa del Carmen on the Mayan Riviera.  We had an early morning flight out of Cancun so booked a room for our last day in Cancun (avoid) at the Oasis Hotel (avoid).  While Alex and I basked poolside, a woman wearing far too much jewelry and with a very distinct New York accent approached her friend seated next to us.  This conversation ensued:
"So, Sarah, are you going on the excursion tomorrow?"
"Why, why would I leave this place -- heaven on earth.  Where's it going?"
"I don't know.  It's some place with pyramids -- you know-- like Egypt.  It's called something like Chicken Pizza."  Ah, tourists.  Stifling our laughter, Alex and I launched ourselves into the 1/4 mile long pool (not making it up) and swam to the nearest pool bar.  Ever since, Chichen Itza has been Chicken Pizza in our family -- and now WE were on our way to see the famed pyramids.

We landed in Cancun and met up with Ginny and Gary our pals from Portland, Me. who would accompany us on our trip through Chichen Itza, Merida and Tulum.  We fetched the rental car (more on that later) and headed out.  We stayed at a very cool hacienda that had a private back entrance to Chichen Itza which allowed us to avoid most of the tourist hordes (phobia #3).  Our guide Hector was terrific and we learned a lot of Mayan history which I won't bore you with because that is what the Internet is for.

An offering to the god at the Hacienda Chichen.

Chichen Itza - the ancient Mayans really liked large proboscises.

The stone lattice work was another common theme.

The buildings are in amazing shape, having been constructed between the 6th and 10th centuries.

Figures ...

and faces covered many of the buildings.

The rounded corners on this structure were unique.

This building is the Caracol, a circular stellar observatory.

This is the Temple of Kukulkan aka El Castillo.

Some sides of the Temple have been restored, while others were left as found at the excavation.

The Great Ball Court is one of the largest in Mexico.  Using hard, big rubber balls they had to get the ball through the ring using only hips and elbows.  Many broken bones ensued but it was all in fun and sometimes culminated in human sacrifice.

with one of the highest rings we have seen. I am not sure how they ever got the ball through the ring at that height.

A stone representation of  Kukulkan (the feathered serpent). The Aztecs referred to this as Queztalcoatl.

Tzompantil or the Skull Wall.  A local Ajijic artist is creating one in our town.

The people in front of the Temple give perspective on the size and height.

This black vulture was perched on one of the structures. (Possibly waiting for the demise of a tourist.)

The Group of the Thousand Columns.

The Mayans never discovered the arch.

Wares were available for sale to the tourists.

A side of the Temple that has not been restored.

On the way to the back entrance to Chichen Itza we came across this tree with roots trailing down the wall. Very reminiscent of what we saw in Cambodia at Angkor Thom.

This orchid was ready to come into full bloom...

while this tree was already in full bloom.

The entrance to Hacienda Chichen, where we stayed.

The size of the split leaf philodendron growing up this palm...

and the size of the leaves was phenomenal.

Merida, My Merida

We have discussed the GPS in Mexico.  Highly unreliable.  This was compounded by the street layout in Merida.  For reasons unknown, the municipality decided to layout the city on a grid (good move) and then label each street with a number (good move) except they labeled all the streets (north and south, east and west) with numbers -- the same numbers.  Resulting in two Calle 25s, Calles 76 etc.  Quite vexing to the GPS and even to us.  We first noticed the problem when we pulled up to our Air BnB house in a squalid slum with crumbling homes in various stages of decay.  I called our host somewhat panicked and he told us we were on the wrong end of the Calle and directed us onward. "Oh, by the way," he said, "don't walk around there".  Roger.   Our REAL house was quite charming.  Merida is a colonial city with some stunning architecture.  And a great Museum of the Maya.  And some really good restaurants.  We were very busy in Merida running hither and yon and getting lost about twice a day.  Finally we just took cabs.  It ended much squabbling.

An example of the colonial architecture in Merida.

One of the great things about traveling is the serendipity of discovering things like this sculpture display in an arcade in the city.

Exterior & interior shots of one of the oldest colonial residences in Merida.

This colonial building near where we were staying is now a School of Art & Dance.

When colorful letters like this appeared spelling out Chapala, little did we realize this is now a trend throughout Mexico.

These love seats were scattered throughout this plaza.

The facade of the cathedral on the plaza.

The facade of a government building compete with bell and above the Mexican eagle clutching a serpent.

The next three photos were from the Museo de Maya.

This very unique Pyramid of the Magician with rounded sides on either end was at Uxmal, another ancient Mayan site.

We began to wonder at finding a black vulture at another Mayan site.

The number of iguanas at this site was amazing.

This structure was decorated with birds of the area. Can you identify the two birds below?

Our guide claimed that the Mayans were the first to come up with the symbol for the Euro.

The back of the Pyramid of the Magician.

The Mayans never quite mastered the Roman arch.  The couldn't figure out the keystone so got close to the end and then just threw a slab over it.  I've never understood how they could have had the Mayan calendar (round and complex) and never figured out the wheel.  Ah, mysteries of histories.....

See the problem?  Keystone, you need a keystone.

According to Mayan legend a serpent gave birth to man, as shown in this wall depiction.

Another ball court, with a ring at a more reasonable height.

The Governor's Palace.

And yet another one of the many iguanas we encountered.

Ginny & Gary gamely posed for this photo at Choco-Story.

The reflecting pool at the entrance...

with detail of the headpiece of the pool.

Choco-Story also acts as an animal sanctuary for injured or abandoned animals, such as these spider monkeys.

This strangely garbed individual invited us to attend a traditional Mayan ceremony.

Here he is next to the priest. For those interested I will post a video of the ceremony at the end of the blog.

A big jaguar...

announcing the location of the real jaguar.

There were also deer in the refuge.

The Yucatan School of Art.

Deirdre & Ginny posed in the very large love seat chair in the plaza.

Some of the impressive buildings on the Paseo de Montejo.

This was one of the strangest window displays I have seen in a long time. There was also a large zebra outside the store.

Old buildings off the Paseo de Montejo, which have seen better days.

And Then...Tulum

Whereas the slum in which we found ourselves in at Merida was a mistake, there was no mistake in Tulum.  We have rented VRBO and Air BnB places all over the world and have always had a good experience -- until Tulum.  While the house was perfectly nice, it was situated in, let us say, a "distressed" neighborhood.  Our welcome guide informed us that our neighborhood was inhabited "by some of the first Mayan families in the area and we should respect their need for quiet and peace".  Roger, again.  Dog wails that sounded as if they were being disemboweled, many, many roosters and a very loud construction project adjacent to our house was enhanced by blaring ranchero music day and night.  Now, we LIVE in Mexico.  We are USED to noise, fireworks, braying donkeys, tuba bands -- but this transcended all that.  The house was scantily furnished but we are not REAL snobs so we were prepared to cope.

Until the power went out.  Now,  power outages are no big deal in Mexico and somewhat expected. Usually not long before it's back on.  What was weird was that Ginny and Gary had power upstairs but we were frying downstairs.  Our property manager investigated and the reason we had no power was because the owner had not paid the bill (the house was on two meters and Ginny and Gary hadn't run out of $ on their meter).  Now I will tell you that Tulum is HOT.   The property manager strung extension cords from the upstairs down to our apartment, furnished us with a fan and flashlight and said he'd pay the bill first thing in the morning.  It was not a good night.  Next day he appeared and told us he paid the bill but that "CFE (electric company) said that they couldn't turn it on today.  Maybe tomorrow." Maybe not.  We're out of there.   Except it is high season and where will we find a place to lay our throbbing, sleep deprived heads? Luckily we found a hotel that had just opened which was quite nice so we checked in.  Problem solved.  Well, not exactly.

We celebrated our escape from inferno house by going out to dinner on the beach.  It was terrific.  We returned to the hotel to enjoy our well earned, air conditioned rest.  Except the hotel lost power around 11 at night -- not to return until about 3 AM.  I just slept through the whole thing.  Not so for Ginny and Gary.  Now it was their turn in hell.  On that very night, the God of Travel, bestowed Montezuma's revenge on not one, but both, of them.  This requires many, many trips to the bano.  But now, compound the fun with no lights, no air conditioning and a toilet that won't flush after the first couple of go arounds.  We received a text in the AM requesting that we just let them die in peace and not rouse them, if still breathing, until noon.

So Michael and I headed out to the cenote so that Michael could snorkel.  Cenotes are these beautiful crystal clear pools.  They are actually underground rivers.  The whole peninsula is limestone and when it erodes the ground implodes opening up a cenote.  I would have gone snorkeling but it involved caves and dark and holding your breath (phobias #2 and #6). So I sat in a lawn chair.  It was peaceful.  I was happy.  We returned to the hotel only to discover that there was no water.  Michael just plunged in the pool to clear off the salt water having frolicked in the sea post cenote.  One must improvise.

The pals actually had survived and we spent the afternoon and evening at our favorite beach hangout soaking up sun, walking the beach and consuming many margaritas.  We did buckets of interesting things.  The Tulum ruins. Cozumel.  The Super Bowl at a bar.  Having only cheered the Patriots among like minded folk we were devastated to learn that everyone HATES the Patriots.  At least that crew did.  We huddled with three girls from Rhode Island first nursing our wounds as the Patriots appeared doomed and then hoping the crowd wouldn't turn on us when the miraculous resurrection occurred.

Three women originally from Rhode Island joined us to root for the Patriots.

And yet another black vulture. By this time we were not sure this one was not following us!

A beautiful pool at the entrance to Oscar y Lalo. Fourteen years ago this was a restaurant & bar on the beach under palapas.  But two hurricanes came through and destroyed their idyllic beach bar.

They got an offer they could not refuse and opened their restaurant on the caraterra (main road). The food was outstanding.

Tulum also changed dramatically from fourteen years ago.

This coatimundi, a cousin of the raccoon, was just hanging out by the entrance to the ruins.  They are quite sociable and some Mexicans keep them as pets.

Some of the Tulum ruins perched above the water on the coast.

This kiskadee was also perched on the ruins.

While the iguana hung out below by the cactus.

We found a great place to hang out by the beach in Tulum and watch the kite boarders...

and lounge around drinking and eating.

Playa del Carmen (up the road from Tulum) has also changed a lot with the addition of this massive sculpture.

This fellow was getting ready to perform underneath the sculpture.

Gary & Ginny on the ferry to Cozumel Island.

Ginny on the beach on the southeast coast.

Ginny enjoying a margarita on the beach...

and viewing the beautiful waters of the Caribbean.

The End is In Sight (At least for Us)

So, in spite of it all, we had a good time.  We headed to the airport for  home while Ginny and Gary headed off to Cuba.  All we had to do was return the rental car.  Well.  I had booked a car from Thrifty at the amazing rate of $70 for 11days.  Sweet huh?  Now, we don't need insurance because we HAVE Mexican liability insurance for our car and our credit cards cover collision.  So here is the scam.  They don't let you leave without buying their insurance, plus additional coverage, plus coverage for medical expenses of passengers (huh?).  Michael fought with them for quite a while but finally just gave up with the bill now edging towards $400.  We figured we'd fight later.  So we return the car and they tell us we've damaged it --in spite of the fact that it was inspected before we left.  I'll spare you the details but now the bill is closer to $1000 and we have to catch our flight.  The woman next to us had her bill go from $200 to $600.  Another guy (who hadn't driven off the lot yet) had his quote increased over four fold.  BEWARE.  This apparently happens in all the big tourist spots in Mexico.  It happened to our friend George in La Paz.  We are, of course, refusing to pay. Let the credit card company deal with them.....

Immigrant Update

No, not your immigrants -- our immigrant. So, Alex was supposed to go to Laredo to get his student visa.  He couldn't.  Nor could he get an appointment in San Antonio, McAllen or LA.  Why not?Because the Mexican consulates are being overrun by their countrymen who are fearing immediate deportation.  And, rather reasonably, the Mexican government has told the consulates to deal with them first.  Luckily our lawyer had a buddy in the consulate in Las Vegas so off Alex flew and returned 24 hours later with a student visa.  He is now in Language School at the University of Guadalajara. Found an apartment for him and Chico Rico  and  he should be set for a while.

Home Again

We made it.  All in all, it was great fun -- except when it wasn't.  Now we are gearing up for Mardi Gras.  The burning of the coffin of ill humor.  They burned Trump in it last year -- can't even imagine what they have in store for him this year.  Michael's cousin John and his wife will be joining us for the festivities this year which should be great.  Then we're home in Ajijic until June.  Hope those of you in the wintry spots are slogging through.  Spring is almost on the horizon.

The video of the Mayan ceremony. Click on the link below if you wish to watch.

https://youtu.be/gi-9vP8RUSk