The last while has seen some gallivanting about down here on the Yucatan. Merida is about 25 minutes from the coast and the resort town of Progreso. We did the day at the beach thing a few days back. It's pretty garish in spots and some of the beachfront Restaurants actually include a charge for "renting" those thatched umbrella tables and beach loungers. etc. It's no where near as frenetic as Cancun, however, which is about three hours due east along this same shoreline. Apparently there are a significant number of Canadian ex-pats who call it home either in the winter or full-time. 
If you fly straight out across the water just about where that para-sailer is in the pic above you'll end up in Louisana and the Mississippi Delta area, which segues nicely into the next highlight. A performance we attended at a downtown square in old Merida a bit later in the week by a Zydeco band known as " Mo'mojo ". Zydeco music is basically music from that part of the southern states. It shows influences from a variety of sources including Spanish/Mexican, delta blues, Cajun, Motown, soul and French. My first exposure to it was on Paul Simon's Graceland album. It's addictively toe-tapping, good-time stuff sometimes loosely referred to as " Parti-Gras music" This accomplished band has been spreading the Zydeco word both in the U.S. and throughout the Western hemisphere for over two decades. It's fronted by two women, each playing a variety of instruments and both having excellent expressive and sometimes downright overpowering voices. Another good time experience, for sure!
Best outing over our stay thus far has to be our very recent visit to Dzibilchaltun - which is pronounced pretty well as written except the "D" up front isn't fully enunciated but is used to add a little scratchy sound to the "z" it preceeds.Took me a couple of days just to get it right.
It's another Mayan ruins site that has been partially excavated and restored to something that partially resembles its former glory. The city itself first appeared in the third century B.C. and really reached it's zenith in the four hundred years before the Spanish Conquistadors came to spoil the party in the 1500s. At that point it covered about 15 square km and the population was close to 50 thousand.
It's located quite literally on the outskirts of Merida and as the city is growing ( just cracked the one-million mark, unofficially ) its spreading out and around this site. As soon as you leave Dzibilchaltun you see a golf club, a polo club, a country club and the beginnings of good old surburban sprawl as the burgeoning middle class move in to new developments being built.
Entering the site brings you to a long boulevard leading what is known as The Temple of the Seven Dolls. AS well as being the focal point for the whole area its actually a seasonal calendar, too. At sunup, the sun will shine directly through the central opening at the fall and spring equinoxes and will shine through from the rear door to the front windows on either side when it is the first day of winter or the first day of summer. - Cool!
At the opposite end of this central area is what was once a Mayan sports stadium ( for want of a better term ) It would easily be the size of an NFL stadium today and must have been impressive in its prime.
The Spanish domination of the Mayans took over a century. With the Conquistadors came the Church. This also brought the worst aspects of missionary zealotry including that myopic sense of presumption and conceit that compels one culture to feel it is "saving" another by imposing its spiritual creed and systematically obliterating that of the conquered race.
This, our guide pointed out, is why in the middle of this once impressive stadium one finds the remains of a Christian Chapel and a corral area for the horses and livestock. The Spanish even took the building blocks of the Mayan temples to various of their deities, that also dotted the area, and used them to construct these invasive structures.
I found I had the same feeling while walking this site as I've had in all of the others we've visited over our last four years here. There is always that kind of spiritual sense that once, long ago, this was an area teeming with life and vitality. Closing your eyes easily brings to life a scene of busy grandeur. It's almost always accompanied by a feeling that ancient eyes are upon us. That part however comes more from the presence of the many descendants of Fast Eddie that populate these ruins in abundance.
Easily the coolest part of this whole complex, both architecturally and physically was the natural spring fed "cenote " at the opposite end. It was about the size of an Olympic pool and was shallow except for one end which apparently extended diagonally downward under the rock for approximately 140 ft where it joined one of the underground rivers that underpin most of the Yucatan Peninsula. At the shallow end and around the sides were rock ledges where people sat and put their tootsies into the water so that the small fish could nibble at and strip their feet of the dead skin - a natural pedicure. My better half tells me that it was quite effective, too. 
I did lament earlier that the bugs were not as plentiful as before but I offer the following visual evidence that they are still about both at work and at play. This weeks bugs of the week were both green and both very well-maintained and turned out. The one at the bottom is a delivery vehicle for the paintstore that it sits in front of.
( Yes, that's my pinkie in there trying to photobomb all three pics ... )
Long live das beetle!
Okay, the tour is over for now. Back to more pedestrian pursuits. I have managed to attempt the limerick thing in the midst of all of this cavorting. They are not nearly as easy as they look, especially when there has to be a SF angle. I can see why Mr. Gerrold had spent six years at them - I wonder if his collection has expanded since then?
So far I have one to offer :
My wife caught me cheating on Venus
I swore there was nothing between us
She called her attorney
To court went our journey
Where the judge sent me off to the cleaners
There will be others, though.
Now, to close with some words from one Samuel Clemens.
BTW, A walk through the children's section one of the bigger bookstores in the centre of the old city yielded evidence that Mr. Twain's influence indeed has crossed The Rio Grande. This one is a fitting observation dovetailing in well with my earlier pontificating on organized religion.
Man - a creature made at the end of the week's work when God was tired.
Buenas noches.
Don
All pics courtesy of my erratic photographic efforts.
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