Valladolid, Chichen Itza and Merida

After checking out the beach one last time in Cancun, I boarded a bus westward for Valladolid. I stayed with two American sisters working as paid English teachers at several different schools in the town. It was interesting to see a reverse migration of what you normally think of when it comes to Mexico and the United States. Andrea has been teaching English in Mexico for almost four years, and says that after accounting for living costs her salary as a teacher here is 12% higher than in the US. Maybe that says something about the American education system, I don't know.

The following morning I headed out early for the Mayan Ruins of Chichen Itza. Frugal traveller that I am, I opted to by a guide book rather than higher a real life guide, which to be fair is actually quite expensive for one person ($40 minimum). Fortunately, I met another American teacher in Valladolid who is crazy about the Mayan culture and says he would love to go with me next time and explain everything. I am planning to head there again in a couple weeks on my way back to Cancun to meet Robin and Mohini.

 

Pyramid of Kukulcan. During Spring Equinox and Autumn Solstice the sun projects shadows onto the sides of the stares, forming the silhouettes of serpents almost 40 meters long which terminate at the stone serpent heads at the bottom of the staircase.

Part of what is believed to have been a marketplace. Stone pillars supported roof (now decomposed).

The court where a game was played in which participants had to get a rubber ball through a stone hoop using only their hips, elbows and knees. A member of the loosing team would be killed afterwards. Apparently the acoustics are so good that you can hear someone talking at the other end.

There was a tradition of building new structures over top of old structures such that the original building remained intact within the new one. In this case an early explorer decided to dynamite a whole in the side, just in case there was gold within.

Many of the local modern day Maya make their living selling carvings, t-shirts and other paraphernalia to tourists. Apparently they are going to loose the right to sell merchandise on the actual site soon.

After an exhausting day at Chichen Itza, I caught the bus to Merida where I met my new host Luis. Luis is awesome. He studies mechatronics engineering, is always smiling and is just generally a great guy. We also share some common interests, namely photography and Starcraft, so that has made things easy. Although Luis speaks a fair bit of English, most of his friends do not. There were a bunch of people over on the weekend and it was fun to attempt communication. Even with Luis, I try to speak to him in Spanish as much as I can, and he tries to practice his English in return. In reality our conversations end up being 75% English and 25% Spanish (or something I'd like to think is Spanish).

Luis.

Although I have been surprised by how westernized things are here, I think the real differences are below the surface. One of the trucks in Luis's father's transport business recently crashed and a lot of money was needed to pay for damages and to bribe police. His father borrowed from the extended family to deal with the crisis, and now Luis and his siblings are trying to find ways to help their parents. His brother and sister will help him pay for his rent and food, and Luis hopes to pick up odd jobs doing computer repair. I told Luis that this kind of extended family support structure rarely exists in Canada.

Luis's street.

Historical centre of Merida.

Beautiful, despite the addition of Burger King.

I started Spanish classes today. Oddly enough, I'm the only student at the school this week so I have my own private tutors. This is good in the sense that hopefully I will learn a lot, but bad in that I'm not exactly making a lot of friends. Either way, the first day was exhausting. I have to bus and walk for about an hour just to get there, and then it's four hours of grammar and conversation. Some sort of caffeinated beverage will need to be in the works for tomorrow.

My Spanish school.

Tomorrow evening I leave Luis's place and head to stay in a nearby neighbourhood with Sarie, an architecture student, and her sister. She speaks almost no English, so communication is about to get a whole lot more interesting.