Time to Travel: Yay for Yucatán!

We were a little at a loss as to where to head from San Cristóbal. On the one hand we wanted to see a little more of the highlands to the north and visit the Pacific on the Oaxaca coastline, but on the other that would mean heading away from Cancun, where we needed to be at the beginning of November to fly to Cuba. In the end the prices of bus tickets north decided things for us – it was incredibly expensive to get to Oaxaca, and we couldn’t justify the cost of going all the way up there only to have to turn around and come back again. We will just have to come back again one day and explore the rest of Mexico, but for now we decided to stick to Chiapas and the Yucatán Peninsula. So we reluctantly left our wonderfully cheap and comfortable home-away-from-home in San Cristóbal and headed for the Yucatán. After a stopover in Palenque, our first destination on the peninsula was the colourful colonial town of Campeche. It was a bit of a shock to the system after life in San Cristóbal in more ways than one. First of all, it was about 25°C warmer and the fresh mountain air had been replaced by a thick, humid soup. Secondly, the cheapest accommodation we could find was a very run down old hotel with peeling paint, sagging mattresses, and – as we found out in the night – bedbugs: A bit of a rude awakening from our pleasant experiences in México so far. However, despite these drawbacks, Campeche was wonderfully beautiful; a tidy little town centre packed with perfectly restored, brightly painted colonial buildings, cobbled streets and elegantly shady courtyards, surrounded by what remains of an impressive city wall (to protect against those ever-present pirates). The only trouble was, the picture-perfect city centre was almost completely devoid of life, making it feel a little like we were walking through a very well-constructed movie set (and actually, as we found out, parts of the movie Original Sin starring Antonio Banderas were filmed here) After two days of wandering around the beautiful, echoingly empty, baking hot streets, we decided it was time to move on.

Our first sighting of the Gulf of Mexico - the windy foreshore in Campeche

The imposing Cathedral baking in the sun, Campeche

The beautifully restored, but sadly lifeless streets of Campeche

Our next stop was what is known as the cultural capital of the Yucatán; Mérida. Here we found all the life that had been missing in Campeche, and more! An elegant, but at the same time bustling city welcomed us, and we found a wonderful place to stay right on the leafy main square. Hostel Zocalo was a little bit more expensive than we usually like to pay, but offered great views over the Plaza Grande, a plenitude of breezy communal areas and an impressive buffet breakfast. We settled in for a few days while we explored the town. We went on a very informative free walking tour of the colonial city centre organised by the City Tourist Office (really great!!) and found out a lot about the town’s history – in particular about the Montejo Family who founded the city (on the site of a Maya city called T’ho) in 1542 with only 100 soldiers. Their strategy to subdue and rule the local population was based on fear rather than brute strength, and evidence of this can be seen in the preserved façade of the original Montejo family home: it shows towering, triumphant conquistadors standing upon the decapitated heads of their Mayan subjects. However, proof that the Spaniards knew they were outnumbered and feared a Mayan uprising is also evident in the construction of the Cathedral. Built using the stones of a Maya temple that previously stood on that spot, the massive structure also doubled as a fort, providing both a place of worship and place of refuge should the locals realised that they were being enslaved by a mere handful of Spanish soldiers. Another building that really brought us closer to the city’s impressive past was the Palacio de Gobierno, the balconied halls of which are decorated with bold murals painted by the local artist Fernando Castro Pacheco. They took him 25 years to paint, and provide a vivid overview of the Spanish conquest of the Maya civilisation. There were several other art galleries and museums in the city that offered free entry (and air-conditioning ;)), so we were kept busy for a few informative days.

Palacio Municipal, Mérida

Looking across the Plaza Grande from the upper balcony of the Palacio Municipa towards the Cathedral, Mérida

Casa de Montejo - built in 1549 with an impressively savage facade designed to scare

Inside the Casa de Montejo. Mérida - today it is a bank, but some rooms have been restored and are open to the public

The massively solid Cathedral de San Ildefonso in Mérida - built between 1561 and 1598 using stone from the Maya Temple that was located in this spot previously. The Cathedral doubled as a stronghold, as the many firing loopholes show.

One of the numerous murals by Fernando Castro Pacheco that line the halls of the Palacio de Gobierno, Mérida. This one shows the gods forming the original Maya from corn.

Another of the murals, this one depicting the destruction of Maya scripture and cultural heritage by the Catholic church

A German beer hall in Mérida! Hefeweizen! Yay!

Local woman painted by a local painter - 'Veniendo mis flores', by Bertha Sauri, Museo de Arte, Mérida

More local artwork - by Reynold Pech

The amazing view from our balcony at the Zocalo Hostel in Mérida

The Cathedral at sunset, Mérida

After getting to know the colonial history of the region in Mérida, it was time to step further back in time by visiting the most famous Maya city in México – Chichén Itzá. We were a little sceptical about Chichén – it is so close to tourist mecca of the Cancun coastline that we expected it to be completely overrun and possibly overrated. Our first surprise came when we found the little town of Pisté just outside the ruins to be much less touristy and thus cheaper than we had ever expected. We found a nice little hospedaje to stay in for a very reasonable price, had a cheap and tasty chicken dinner at a roadside stand and had an early night in preparation for the morning’s exploring. We were up with the sun to beat the crowds, and walked out to the ruins just as they were opening at 8am. And despite our doubts, we were seriously impressed by Chichén. During the two hours before the crowds started arriving, we had the place almost to ourselves, and we were able to fully appreciate the size and grandeur of it all. The main attraction, the wonderfully restored El Castillo really is as impressive as it is famed to be – it is actually a massive Maya calendar disguised as a building. Each of the pyramid’s nine levels is divided by a staircase, creating a total 18 terraces that represent the 18 20-day months of the Maya Year. The four flights of stairs all have 91 stairs each, plus the top platform – adding up to a total of 365, representing the number of days in the year. These are just some of the things about the Maya calendar that can be read from the pyramid – every small aspect of the construction has a meaning, it is fascinating! The other building that impressed us the most was the Gran Juego de Pelota (the Great Ball Court). It is simply enormous – the largest in México at 135m long. We felt dwarfed by the pale limestone walls, and a little intimidated by the fact the acoustics inside the court meant that even the quietest whisper echoed ominously. The ancient Maya and Toltec inhabitants of Chichén seemed to have taken their pelota even more seriously than most – there are carvings on the walls of the court indicating that the losing captain (and possibly the whole team) was decapitated. Talk about an incentive to win! The Toltecs, whose culture mixed with that of the Maya in Chichén, were a very bloody-thirsty lot. In addition to adding a win-or-die rule to the game of pelota, they practiced the ritual of sacrifice excessively. Evidence of this is present throughout the site – with numerous skull-covered sacrificial platforms and alters engraved with images of jaguars and birds of prey ripping open human bodies and eating their hearts….deliciously spine-tingling stuff! J

El Castillo, Chichén Itzá as the sun is rising - pretty special!

El Castillo - a Maya calender built in stone

The pelota court in Chichén Itzá - win or die!

The biggest pelota court in Mexico, Chichén Itzá

Images of Quetzalcóatl, the plumed serpent of the Toltec

Evidence of Chichén Itzá's bloodthirsty past - an image of a jaguar eating the heart of a sacrificed human

La Plataforma de los Cráneos - the Platform of Skulls - in ancient days this platform was used to display the severed heads of sacrificial victims...

Plaza de las Mil Columnas

Iguanas abound in Chichén Itzá

Edificio de las Monjas, Chichén Itzá. Although this building was actually home to Maya royalty, the Spaniards thought it looked like nunnery, hence the name. Never saw such a wonderfully decorated nunnery though!

After all this cultural and historic input, we decided we deserved a break and the beach, J and so we headed next for Tulum on the Maya Riviera. After some research we had discovered that staying right at the beach was pretty much out of our price range, but thanks to some contacts made through a friend of a friend, we ended up getting a great deal for a fully equipped, double storey apartment in the centre of town. With two balconies, air-con and a kitchen, we felt very spoilt. :D And a mere 3km down the road is the most beautiful beach you can imagine – where whiter-than-white, palm-fringed sand meets crystal-clear, turquoise waters and the sun is always shining. And to top it all off, there is a beautifully located Maya ruin to explore as well – a small but lovely site called either Tulum (Maya for wall) or Zama (meaning dawn). The ruins include a tall watchtower used as a sort of lighthouse by the Maya to mark a break in the coral reef which was used by boats trading up and down the Caribbean coast during the post-Classic Period (1200 – 1520 AD). Today it is an impressive structure of pale limestone against a backdrop of brilliantly blue ocean, but back when it was in use it must have been an even more awe-inspiring sight – brightly painted in bold reds, blues and yellows, and with a rooftop fire perpetually burning. And that is not all! Dotted throughout the area are fascinating limestone sinkholes called cenotes. They are connected to a network of underground rivers and thus many are filled with the most beautifully clear, cold water, making them a wonderful spot to take a refreshing dip and – if you are brave enough – dive into the dark watery depths of the underwater caves. All in all, the Maya certainly knew what they were doing when they selected this site –Tulum is a perfect spot to swim, soak up some sun and relax - we are in heaven!