Travel In The Time Of Swine Flu

Our three months in Mexico ends today and we're heading home. I'm not sure what to expect from our border crossings today never having traveled during a pandemic before. I assume we will receive some special attention at customs because we are coming from Mexico, although the state of Quintana Roo where we've been has not had any swine flu cases so far. Going through customs is never my favorite thing, but I imagine we'll make it through eventually. More posts once I'm settled back home. Happy May Day!

Cecilio Chi Elementary School

This is Cecilio Chi Elementary School on the town square of Laguna Bacalar.


Cecilio Chi was a leader in the Mayan rebellion during the Caste War in the Yucatan in the late 1800's which was very nearly successful. That there is an elementary school named after Cecilio Chi seems to me a little like passing by Nat Turner Elementary in rural Virginia. I wish I knew more about the local politics that brought this about. I'm sure they are very interesting.

Daniel the Manatee

This is Daniel the Manatee.


He is adorable. He was rescued as an infant off the coast of Belize and fostered by faculty and students at ECOSUR. He's living now in Laguna Guerrero and is almost an adult.

I really wasn't expecting such charisma from an animal called a sea cow. Daniel is more alert, inquisitive, and playful than most dogs I know. He's clearly smarter than any dog I know. He's also beautiful and incredibly graceful. Sadly, habitat destruction is taking its toll on these amazing creatures.

For those of you who can stand the cuteness, there are also baby pictures of Daniel available online. ZOMG soooo cute!

Kohunlich

Taken at the Temple of the Masks at the Mayan ruins of Kohunlich:

These masks were covered over when the temple was remodeled at some point during the centuries Kohunlich was occupied. Because of this ancient makeover, these masks are wonderfully well preserved with even some the colors still visible.

Pica

When this was put on the table, the waiter made sure to make eye contact with me, the obvious gringo, and say very seriously, "Pica."


Yucatecan food is typically not terribly hot as compared to say Northern Mexican cuisine (or Southern Texas food for that matter). The one exception to this rule, though, seems to be Yucatecan salsas. This particular batch of salsa was basically just shredded habanero chiles and is among the more ferociously hot things I have ever put in my mouth. I imagine the stern warning was directed at me because once upon a time some poor unsuspecting German tourist mistook the small dish for carrots or coleslaw and ate a big forkful. It does look mostly harmless. I liked the heat, but I also appreciated the warning too.

By Special Request

Another soothing, stress-free beach pic. Plus, a bonus iguana shot.

Blues

The unreal blue of the Caribbean as seen from the beach at Tulum...


and the even more unreal blue of the freshwater Laguna Bacalar...


'nuff said.

Dzibanché

This is Dzibanché, the ruins of a vast Mayan city in southern Quintana Roo dating from the Early Classic to the Classic periods (about AD 300-800). The site is still being excavated and has only been open since about 1990. This was my introduction to Mayan ruins, and I fear I've been spoiled. I don't think there are many sites quite so secluded and lush.




There were no other tourists at on this Wednesday morning, so instead we got to share the site with this coati and these howler monkeys along with many, many birds.

Lizard Blogging

Sometime ago, Sisyphus requested a picture of the tiny geckos that are so often underfoot here. I've learned more about them as I've lived with them, but one of the things I've learned is that they are very uncooperative about photographs. They are small, fast and shy. I've also learned they are incredibly useful. They seem to live on a diet almost exclusively of mosquitoes and cockroaches. This makes them my heroes. I watched a lizard on the back porch take down a cockroach almost as big as itself. I did finally get this picture of one of these brave and noble creatures:

The reason I was fast enough this time was because I was already busy with my camera and because the rock it was sunning itself on was here at the Mayan ruins at Kinichná:


I'm behind on my photo-blogging, so for the next few days I'll be posting more pictures from the Yucatan. Perhaps if I get this urge out of my system now, I'll be better able to refrain from inflicting my travel photos on unwary friends and colleagues back home. We shall see.

Havana Club

Cuban run makes coke taste really, really good. I'm sure I'm not the first to discover this fact. It does strike me as politically very unlikely though: communist rum cozying up to capitalist cola. You would think the two would be ideologically immiscible and separate out, or explode when combined, or something. But no. They go together very nicely. There's probably not any deep metaphorical insight lurking behind this bar-fact, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to resent not being able to buy Cuban rum when I get home.

Laguna Bacalar

Last weekend was spent cooling off on the shores of the redonkulously blue and beautiful Laguna Bacalar.



It has all the shades of turquoise water found in the Caribbean, but in a fresh water lake. No salt. No rip tides. No sharks. And the cool water is so clear it's almost invisible when you swim out into it. This was taken off the pier looking down through about three feet of water. There's water in the picture. Honest.



There's a small community of American expats that have washed up on the shores of Laguna Bacalar and they all seem very happy with life. The food was good too. Here's what the pescado frito looked like. I was honestly expecting something more like fish and chips. This was better.



We're planning a return visit soon. This has been everyone's favorite spot so far on the trip. And as it starts to get hotter here, I think we may need some more lake time.

Name That Bird

Perhaps this will be regular feature for the next couple of months. I need my readers help with identifying some of the birds here. So far, I've only successfully identified the obvious urban birds of grackles and pigeons.

While at lunch the other day, with my camera handy, I snapped these two pictures of local Yucatecan birds unfamiliar to me. The shots aren't very good and are already enlarged as far they go. No doubt, both of these birds are dead common, but they are new to me. What are they? The yellow one was largish -- bigger than a robin. The black one was larger still -- almost crow size and behaved obnoxiously like a blue jay or steller's jay.

Can you help me name that bird?

Colorful Repast

A colorful late morning meal outdoors near the bay at the university's cafeteria after a morning spent dutifully writing in the library. Yum!



enchiladas de molé



agua de sandia -- watermelon juice.

Recycled Colors

At the parque ecológico. The planters are made from plastic water bottles cut and painted.

Nescafé

I´ve started writing. But I´ve run into one completely unexpected difficulty here. There is no coffee.

I seem to be living in one of the few small pockets in Latin America where people don´t really drink coffee. It´s not that coffee is completely absent. You can order it in a restaurant. It´s not unknown. It´s more that no one really cares about their coffee. And finding things such as coffee filters can be difficult. Since going without coffee isn´t really an option for me, I´ve been reduced to drinking instant coffee. Nescafé is easy to find. It even seems to be what some of the restaurants serve.

The truly upsetting thing about this whole situation, however, is discovering that I don´t mind instant coffee. I like the Nescafé just fine. This has shattered my self image as someone who knows and appreciates good coffee. Perhaps there have been great strides in instant coffee technology in recent decades of which I am unaware. Or perhaps I really can´t tell good coffee from bad. In any case, I may just surrender and buy a jar of Nescafé for my office when I get home.

Piña Con Chile

My most interesting taste adventure to date - a paleta de piña con chile. This would be a pineapple popsicle with chili powder and big chunks of fresh pineapple frozen inside. Wonderful!

Sun

Sun, palm tress, Belikin beer from Belize and tiny geckos scurrying underfoot. Life is good. The trackpad on my laptop managed to quit working the first day here. Ah, well. Oddly, I had packed a mouse along so I'm still set to work. We're not quite settled in yet, but hopefully in a few days I'll have a routine where I can write most mornings. In the meantime, I shall play tourist!