tonight, we are in Ticul, Mexico, a busy small town in the Yucatan near the Puuc Hills where soft breezes fan palms in the main square, loud twostroke bikes go by and from a nearby streetside restaurant´s open cement front, carols in honor of the virgen of Guadalupe, whose feast is in 8 days, are blaring out. It is great here, they are having a ´cold wave´, the locals are exclaiming about how freezing it is and soft breezes blow at a whoppingly cold 65 deg F. We are only at the end of day 2 and there is a lot to tell. Tonight the funnest part, is being practically the only gringos in town, while people get ready for this feast. since the town is a mix of catholics, antagonized by 7th day adventists and other born agains, those who worship the virgin are showing it with amazing displays of christmas tree lights, virgin of guadalupe portraits surrounded by whirling red-green-white gold-silver-blue radiating small lights, and other pictures of her covered by nets of white lights. People are also getting ready for christmas in general, selling lots of pinatas and candy and confetti to stuff them, lots of tinny carol playing displays, lots of articifial trees. but the virgin is big stuff. today we saw a group of 6 young adult men, biking along a country road forming a little pilgrimage group, the first biker hoising a flag with the virgin and the last having a mexican flag. we learned from talking to our restauranteur that the many accoutrements we could not explain, e.g. boxer shorts with the virgin painted on the leg, that sounded a bit sacreligious, are for those on pilgramage, who need to carry her portrait with them. I am dying to get craig some virgin of guadalupe boxers, but he doesn´t usually wear boxers so what am I to do.
our evening in town contrasts a lot with four hours ago, when we were deep in a limestone cave system with our mayan indian guide Salvador, walking over slippery clay floors looking at stalagtites and mites by flashlight and looking at the shards of mayan pottery that are here and there in the cave, listening to the tweety shrill calls of bats - two kinds - the normal kind that stay asleep when you shine your light on them, and the other ones who move immediately, and those are the VAMPIRE bats. they just suck on animals... so they say. the cave is like other cenotes around here, a sinkhole in the limestone, and it´s got an impressive large opening with a large open floor full of lovely tropical plants and as you drop from the scrubland above into the cave, it gets very fresh and cool as you go through the vegetation... but once you get deep into the ground, it´s hot, baby! always hot... even in the ´cold wave´ like the one they have now, that keeps us from ever having to use air con.
so what is mayan yucatan like, far from the coast resorts. it is lovely. the towns we have been in so far, are all colonial type towns, built originally during the spanish conquest of the descendants of the maya, and then, in the 1860s, the haciendas took off by selling rope called ´sisal´or henequen made from a mescal type cactus, by brute slavery it appears. they spent their millions at the turn of the century on very ornate french style mansions, both in Merida, and in the countryside. we have visited three deserted and some restored haciendas today and it was really interesting... the limestone blocks, mostly stolen from mayan buildings, create very ornate palaces, out in the middle of nowwhere, with narrow guage railways from the fields, to the factories, which were themselves built with neocolonical facades and statues. very interesting... everything lush. nowadays since the revolution and the rise of plastics and competition, they are all desolate, and very enticing in their own way. Merida is a nice city, lots of music, and although it´s modern, still, one in 4 women still wear white huipils with colorful embroidery at the neck, arm openings and bottom hem, over a lacy underskirt that reaches almost to the ankles, and with a handsome shawl over the shoulders. they look very nice in them. the modern-ness is fun - last night we went to one of the free concerts, expecting to hear some Trova music which is a cuban-latinamerican romantic sound that the city is famous for, often performed with trios, and instead we heard a great group in a cool modern concert hall called ´Los Golden Years´, a rockin´out band of 60 year olds playing very good 60s pop-rock classics. hilarious to see some white haired guys in dark suits, pale pink shirts and red ties playing the spanish versions of songs by creedence, los bee gees, ricky vallee, and others, in spanish and having the whole audience often be singing along. made me realize back in ´68, the whole of yucatan was rockin´out not listening to ranchero music, and now it´s just as sentimental for them, as it was for us. we had a lot of fun dancing in our chairs. the drummer was particularly great as was a sax they had and the electric guitarists were also superb. lots of fun. then we wandered home along the flagstone streets from one little classic colonial plaza to another, home to our great little hotel, the ´Luz en yucatan´.
oh wow, now though, we are getting some great ranchero music coming on, here in our email cafe - great to type to! a different style. well it´s time to stop as my hands are a bit sore... tomorrow we will continue down in the Puuc route, exploring caverns, mayan ruins and small mexican towns where guys on bikes pedal little carts in front of them bringing ladies in huipils home from market, and the cafes are full of extremely tasty yucatan food often with fresh conch and the best fish ceviches we can recall.
a few other things to share... last night in Merida, wandering down an aisle in one of the markets and there were a few stores with video games and on the sidewalk, slot machines of the latest styles, red and seductive... and each one had a middle aged mayan woman with traditional huipils on, giving it a spin! guess the wish for good luck spans all traidions. also, twice, once in a fancy store and once in a car rental, we have met young folks who clearly speak californian... both were raised in the states from elementary school on, then came home to merida and fell in love with home again, or decided the opportunities were strong... they have chosen a good part of mexico to re-settle in, as the tourism here is still pretty strong catering to europeans, and the warmth and easy living is more like california than some of the more traditional parts of mexico, the level of cultural familiarity with the rest of the world seems higher and I think it´s easier to fit in, as an american raised mexican. really nice folks who seem very happy. it has to be hard in mexico, as recently the peso has fallen from a stable 10 or 11 pesos to the dollar, to somewhere between 13 and 15 pesos to the dollar, and those who work in the states also have less money to send home. we see signs of strain in the economy, yet, as usual, the easy hanging out outdoors, the quite evident enjoyment of family and community ties here, the respect for elders, the enjoyment of just hanging out talking, love of music and jokes, are great... some things about mexican life are just a lot, lot more pleasant than the basics of american suburban life. especially here in warm yucatan! (brrrr.. only got up to 75 degrees today...)
one last comment - our two nice hotels so far - both smallish hotels with little suites not just rooms and both with pools and quiet... the luz en yucatan, which is a city hotel but lots of relaxed feeling, $60 to $65 US, run by some nice americans who took over from an older women who went on to south america... and here in Ticul, the posadajardin which is a hotel on large grounds, taking up much of a city block, not extravagant, made with a little of this and a little of that, but basically small clean cement cabins in a great outdoor setting with lots of tropical ungroomed yard and a small pool also. not swank but perfect for our needs especially at 300 pesos a night.
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