Last year in early December, Anastasia was travelling by herself in Uganda and Guinea, having a lonely dinner on her birthday while I crawled around on my hands on knees in the basement, vacuuming up flood waters from a brutal early season rainstorm.
As much fun as that was, we decided to do things a little differently this year. Anastasia had a conference scheduled in the city of Merida, the capitol of the state of Yucatan in southern Mexico, followed by a second conference in New Orleans the following week. As a result, she'd be staying in Merida a few extra days before heading straight to Louisiana -- a chance for me to glom onto the fancy hotel room and explore the Yucatan peninsula, albeit very quickly.
I arrived Wednesday night after wandering through Mexico City's new "T2", a massive, sprawling terminal that has far fewer signs than it should. I was pretty nervous at the start of the trip, which I blame largely on the need to be "out there" with my spanish speaking. To my surprise, my speaking skills came back far faster on this trip than they did in Nicaragua two years prior, owing to the absence of the Owen-and-Amy crutch. I felt pretty good by the time I got back on the plane on Sunday.
Thursday was the last day of the conference, so I had some pool time and napping while Anastasia finished up. We explored the city in the afternoon, including a fantastic anthropological musem on Paseo de Montejo. After picking up a few souvenirs, we returned to the hotel and Anastasia went to the closing session of the conference and then we had a fantastic meal in one of the hotel's restaurants -- sopa de lima, poc-chuc and cochinita pibil.
Anastasia's birthday dawned and she was forced to get out of bed early, as the bus to Celestùn left at 8:30 and there was a presentation for the tour-takers on the ecology of the reserve beforehand (the tour was for the conference attendees, so we got a lot of information that isn't in the normal tours for the turistas). After about an hour on the bus, we piled into the boats and began the three hour tour. Before we'd even left the dock, our guide Eduardo pointed south. A huge flock of birds was heading up the bay, about a mile distant. They could have been geese, for all I could tell (my glasses are still at the bottom of Lake George in New York), until they banked as one and the sun flashed on their bright pink wings -- flamingos. A migratory population of 25,000 lives in Celestùn and they were a treat to watch over the course of the tour.
[singlepic=683,320,240,,center]Dinner that evening was at Pancho's, where the waiters wear "traditional" Mexican outfits, complete with sombreros and bandoliers, with wine corks where the shotgun shells should be. The food was fantastic, with more sopa de lima (though not as good as Los Alemandres in the hotel), chile relleno, and pechuga de pollo relleno, followed by some tasty postres and a Mayan coffee, served with an impressive display of flaming liquer. Happy Birthday!!
For our last day in Merida, we joined a tour (with AP's conference friends) to Chichen Itza, the most famous of the ancient Mayan cities. It fell to civil war around 1000 AD, but was so well constructed that many of its buildings stand today, though they've been closed to climbing since 2004. The most eye-popping is El Castílo, the central pyramid.
[singlepic=718,320,240,,left]El Castílo was built as a temple to Kukulkán, the Mayan sun god. As such, its construction mirrors the Mayan calendar. Staircase on all four sides with 91 stairs each total 364 steps, plus the top level makes 365. On the Spring and Fall Equinoxes, the sun strikes the pyramid just-so, creating the appearance of a giant, undulating solar snake crawling down the temple to the snake's stone head at the base of the northern staircase.
Dinner that evening was at Los Alemandres again, with MORE sopa de lima (must. get. recipe.) and a truly sublime steak and a tostada for AP. We crashed early and obeyed the painful four a.m. alarm, then bid each other farewell at the gate, her to continue to New Orleans and I to begin my 14 hour trip home, complete with a five hour layover in Mexico City, during which I became much more familar with the layout of Terminal "Dos".
Where's the next trip honey?!?
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Isn't there a provision somewhere in the foundation's by-laws that allows employees to take in-laws along with them? There must be ...
ReplyDeleteI'll have Anastasia look into that -- I'm sure there's a way to make it work, though the French Polynesia folks might not have enough beds for all of us.
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