A Broad Abroad

i could not be more thrilled that i picked this place to spend the final week of my adventure.  it´s a stunning, quiet and charming island on the northern tip of the yucatan peninsula.  i just popped into the internet cafe to send a quick email.  i am staying away until i get home and plan to make my final round of updates then.  well, i may have to pop back in here to check the primary results.  go barack!!  i have heaps more pics to upload as well but that can wait - so check back!!

can´t believe it´s my last week!!  just a prelude THANKS to those who shared my adventure here.  this is a great place to reflect on my travels so i´ll do a little writing while i´m here but not any posts.  hasta luego!

I forgot to mention my trip to the ruins of Uxmal.  I did this easily from Merida, catching the 8am bus from the 2nd class bus terminal directly to the ruins.  I considered taking what’s called the “Ruta Puuc” bus, which is a good deal.  For around $13 it makes a circuit to the ruins of Uxmal, Kabah, Payil, and Xlapak, spending 1.5 hours at Uxmal and ½ hr at the others.  It leaves at 8am (also from the 2nd class terminal, on ATS) and takes 7-8 hours.  As I think I mentioned before, I take my sweet time when I visit ruins so because of this and the fact that I’ve seen quite a lot of ruins in the last few months, I opted to just go for uxmal-only.  The bus to Uxmal takes about 1.5 hrs.

Uxmal’s style is completely different than anything I’d seen before. this is the Puuc style, as referenced in “Ruta Puuc”.  The carvings are very animated and stylized and stones are laid in intricate designs along the tops of all the temples.  This, combined with the fact that there are tons of mot-mots (birds) and heaps of iguanas, makes it a really cool place to visit.  I made it back to merida in the afternoon just in time to duck into the hostel and enjoy a nice thunderstorm.  Except for the brief rain and hail storm in san cristobal, I haven’t had any good storms since leaving panama!!  I miss the rain but the bay area’s season will be over by the time I get back.

I found a nice part of valladolid I’d missed before:  barrio del convento sisal.  Today, while sitting in iglesia san Bernardino admiring the altar I was offered a $1 tour.  After seeing the catacombs (Franciscan bones and all), cenote and ... [Continue reading this entry]

Palenque, Chiapas, originally uploaded by peggydaly. slow evening in a hot room series...

The whole Yucatan was boiling so I grabbed a fairly inexpensive room ($24) with a/c at Santa Lucia Hostal.  There is only one or two private rooms and the rest are dorms.  Young Rafael runs the place almost completely solo ... [Continue reading this entry]

En Tenejapa op.JPG, originally uploaded by Enrique Escalona. A picture taken by Enrique Escalona. Follow the pic's link to his other great photos of MX. It was too tricky for me ... [Continue reading this entry]

Not sure I’ll make it thru a second day here.  Very pretty colonial town but rather boring – so anticipation for the nightlife doesn’t really get one thru the miserable, oppressively hot afternoons.  I got in around 2:30 yesterday and ... [Continue reading this entry]

El Señor had some of the best menu translations I’ve seen, obviously run thru a program that wasn’t familiar with latin American Spanish.  My favorite was “Papas a la francesa” translated to “Popes to the French” (papas are potatoes in ... [Continue reading this entry]

Palenque, Chiapas, originally uploaded by peggydaly. one of the unique structures in palenque

The decent from san cristobal to the palenque area is beautiful.  Chiapas continued to enchant me.  One can see a change of style in the woman’s dress – still square necked tops and belted skirts, but the skirts are of ... [Continue reading this entry]