Merida Day 13 - Uxmal

I'm a bit late posting today as we just got back from our tour of Uxmal which included a sound and light show, so its now after 10pm.
Last night we went to the Merida English Library for Spanish/English conversation but there weren't many people there. This was either because of the national holiday or because of the rain. From there we walked down to the Municipal Building on the Plaza Grande for the Yucatan dancing. It was a different troop again with the most beautiful hipiles.

We spent the morning getting some shopping done in preparation for Mum and Dad's arrival tomorrow. They have decided to join us for a couple of weeks and fly into Cancun and then take the bus to Merida. We did our shopping at Santiago square - produce in the market, dry goods in the SuperAki (the grocery store) and meat from the MaxxCarni butcher behind the market. Then schlepped it all home. Thank goodness for the Sobeys bag we bought with us, sturdy enough to carry the bag of pop, bottle of Kahlua (we found it is cheapest at the grocery store), cartons of milk etc etc. We will have to make it a regular part of packing for a trip from now on.

My street sign for the day

After a quick swim and lunch we waited outside our gate for the tour pickup. After a late start, as two registered guests didn't show up, just 4 of us set of with Manuel our driver and guide. The other two were a mother and daughter from Mexico City so Manuel would say something first in Spanish and then in English (all day, it must have been exhausting). We drove South out of Merida past the airport and an industrial section.  We drove through the small town of Uman which had a beautiful, huge church and the largest population of 3 wheel taxis I have ever see.

This shot shows a number of favourite Mexican modes of transportation.

On the right is a collectiva , in front of it a VW beetle (there are tons of these

around, some in pristine shape, some held together by rust and bits of wire.

Directly in front of us is one of the scooter driven 3 wheel taxis.

 



They were of both the peddled and the scooter driven kind and clogged the streets. It took about an hour after that to get to Uxmal.

First sight of the Pyramid of the Magician, its base is oval.

It is a very different site than Chichen Itza. Chichen Itza is in a very flat area and the site itself is flat. Uxmal is built in the hills and is a hilly site, lots of steps to climb. It is also far more wooded. There is a very different feel, it is more peaceful, somehow more reverent. The pyramid is larger than Chichen Itza and on the first side you see it stands alone but once you go around to the other side it is integrated into the rest of the city.

The pyramid from the other side.

There were far fewer people there than at Chichen Itza. When I look at the pictures I quite often have shots with nobody in them but I didn't do that intentionally. Manuel gave us an extensive tour, explaining about the rain God, Cha'ac, who is depicted on many of the corners of the buildings.

When his hooked nose is pointing up he is thanking for rain, and when it is turned down it is praying for rain. The plumed serpent is also frequently depicted, as he was in Chichen Itza. There is extensive, ornate relief work on all the buildings.

The ball court is far older and smaller then Chichen Itza. A short walk off from the main cluster of buildings is the Turtle Temple, Governers Palace (Uxmal was ruled by a Queen not a King according to Manuel) and a newer pyramid (from the people from Central Mexico, Manuel said with some disdain, "it is not Mayan"). However this pyramid we could climb, so we did.

That's George about a third of the way up.

It was a very hot day (over 37) but luckily the sun was behind the pyramid and it was quite breezy. The views of the site and surrounding hills were magnificent and we could see at least one more pyramid, covered in undergrowth, and other ruins.

It was difficult not to take pictures of the main pyramid, it dominated the site and somehow looked even more impressive due to the hills and woods around it. We made our way back to the entrance but not without taking a number of pictures of the iguana. They were as numerous as squirrels would have been in a wooded park in Canada.

This guy was about 2 and a half feet long.

We left the site to have supper at a nearby restaurant and enjoyed the give and take of our halting Spanish and the other guests halting English. We returned at 7pm for the sound and light show. It was in Spanish but the play of lights on the buildings, the music, the moon and stars above and a lightning storm giving its own show in the distance made for a very enjoyable evening.