Cenote defector threatens a purchase

We’ll get to Chichen Itza in a second. While we drove around today, Daniel and I had a chance to cover a lot of topics and I learned a lot but the key thing Daniel helped me understand is that, in a country where I cannot drink the water and cannot use the ice, when I see ice with a hole through it, the ice is made with purified water and safe to use. Daniel, you have no idea how you have changed my life!

Daniel came to tour guiding by way of teaching, which was not to his liking since he was responsible for a group of 52 fifth graders at a public school with no air conditioning. He reports that the government-provided health care has certain functionality limits: when a family member needed medical care for an eye issue, the wait for a doctor appointment in the public health care system was 4 – 6 months.

We happened to pass by a police officer using a radar, and so I got to pepper Daniel with my typical driving questions. Yes, you can get pulled over for a speeding ticket and if you’re going way over the limit, the car can be confiscated and you can be arrested. Which all made sense until Daniel added that because we are driving around in a tourist van with federal plates, none of the state or city officers actually have the authority to issue a ticket to us. Instead, if they pull you over, they’ll see if they can get 200 pesos out of you (10 dollars) and, if you don’t crack under the pressure, they’ll likely send you on your way. I checked with Daniel before I put that in print to make sure Mexico is not like Turkey, where they might arrest Daniel overnight for such a statement, leaving us no way to get to the next cenote.

We had a nice talk about legal gun ownership rights in Mexico (none whatsoever), the monthly cost for a full cell phone plan ($30), where he went for his honeymoon (Cancun) and whether he listens to English/ American music (yes – think Metallica and Pink Floyd).

Ron fans will know that he added almost nothing to this conversation…near total silence from the back of the van…until we set foot onto the grounds of Chichen Itza and then he immediately butted in to ask what year Chichen Itza was built and make some comments about the exquisite architecture and ask pertinent questions about the ceremonial ball playing field. I remembered from the previous site of Ek Balam that the ceremonial ball weighed two pounds and felt pleased with myself about that.

Chichen Itza was one of the largest Mayan cities, active from about 600 AD and thought to be over 1500 years old. Population was nearly 50,000. The picture way above is El Castillo, 98 feet tall, constructed between the 9th and 12th century. Buried way beneath El Castillo is a cenote.

Above is the Temple of a Thousand Columns, used for civic and religious purposes. There apparently are a full 1000 columns here, each with a different and unique warrior face chiseled on it, which allowed Ron to tell Daniel about the Terra Cotta soldiers in China, where each one also has a unique and different face. Ron’s curious statement made me look around to make sure there was no gift shop nearby for a Ron impulse purchase and tonight, at dinner, Ron confirmed that my Ron impulse radar is alive and well because he mentioned that it would be nice to have a large Mayan calendar carved in wood.

Enough history. Let’s go swimming. This is another private cenote. Name forgotten but numerous Xs involved. Here’s the Shangri-la entry. Ron’s carrying a bag but don’t be fooled – he’s already declared he won’t be going in this cenote as it’s too much trouble and I nearly wept with embarrassment at his statement. Maybe that’s how he feels about me when I say I don’t need to see the Mona Lisa?

Here I am in my daily wonder, reasonably good photo by Ron, which reminds me to tell you this story. Ron, who cannot operate a camera, cannot take a video, can’t fill the frame, can’t zoom a picture…nada. Well this same Ron managed to sua sponte take an entire, close-up video…right up my skirt and everything…of me coming down Ek Balam on my rear end yesterday. I do not know when the alienation in this relationship will ever stop. DM Ron on your own if you want a link to the video and NO ONE tell him how to upload to YouTube.

Back to our day. Daniel asked if we wanted to pop into some small village to see a cool church. (Answer: Always yes). It’s from the 1700s and what I thought was interesting is that, at some point, they lost the roof, but being a village of moderate means, they just keep right on using it.

Daniel drove on, Ron asleep in the back of the van, which was fine for Daniel and me because we were able to move onto a discussion of license plate sequencing without a philistine listening in. We woke Ron up for a quick look at the yellow city of Izamal:

And then we were on to Merida, which I will share with you tomorrow. I will leave you with a few pictures from our hotel. As lovely as I thought that Valladolid hotel was…well, I take it all back. We’re at the Mansion Merida and we will never have a better hotel room – ever. Our suite is $170 per night with breakfast. Here’s our room with Ron in a chair so you can see how high the ceilings are.

Here’s the hallway outside our room:

Here’s the courtyard: