13
Jul
2009
Mérida – Yucatan Capital Prints
Mérida is the capital city of the Mexican state of the Yucatan. The Spanish founded it in 1542 on the foundations of an older Maya City, T’ho. Because it’s foundations were laid on an older city, Mérida is said to be one of the oldest continually occupied cities in the Americas and its centro historico (Historic district) is among the largest. Mérida has architecture stretching from it’s foundations to today gracing it’s easy to follow numbered streets. Because of the hot temperatures (at least in the summer), the city tends to close down in the afternoon and re-open as the sun goes down. I never did figure out when they close back down again! Even the local car rental place I used one day while I was there closed in the afternoon and re-opened in the evening.
Mérida Cathedral
The Cathedral in Mérida may not be the largest or grandest on the earth, but it is the oldest in the mainland of the Americas. It is also far older than one might think. The Cathedral was built between 1561 and 1598, using readily available stone. The Spanish pulled down the temples the native Maya had built and used it in this cathedral. This photo was taken in the late afternoon as the city was just waking up again. The warm glow is from the sun hanging in the west.
Iglesia de Santa Ana - Mérida
The city of Mérida is a collection of neighborhoods or barrios built around neighborhood churches. This is probably among the older ones and was likely built on the platform of a Maya temple. Originally built in the 1500s, the Iglesia de Santa Ana was built to serve indigenous Maya and mulattoes. The church was reconstructed in the 1700’s and in the 1800’s, the nearby Paseo de Montejo, a wide Parisian style boulevard was built and this barrio became the address to have. The people who lived in the area were eventually pushed into other parts of the city. Today, it’s a beautiful if eclectic church (observe the pyramids on the towers).
Wired
This photo is the epitome of Mexico (in my mind anyway). Gorgeous colors and textures that just call for photos. No matter how much you upkeep things in this partof the world, nature is constantly fighting you. Anywhere else, I would fight heaven and earth to eave out the power lines, but here, they are such a huge part of the landscape it’s hard to imagine a photo without them (despite the fact that they obviously weren’t there when these buildings were new). This photo is from the streets of Mérida, a simply beautiful and friendly city.
Neon Dreams
Mérida is very much a place that’s proud of it’s city. It’s an incredibly clean place where they have managed to preserve so many of the buildings that have been built there over the centuries. I don’t know any of the history of this theater, but it looks very art deco to me and there was a sign that I believed indicated it was owned by the government, but very much still an active part of the community. On my last night in town, I managed to catch this shot of it with the marquee and neon lights accenting the architecture. An enjoyable shot both for the place and for those of us who love these old movie palaces.
More photo prints from Mérida are available in my Mexico Prints.
10
Jul
2009
Puuc Hills – Uxmal & Kabah Prints
If you’re ever planning a trip into the Yucatan to see ruins, you should really try to get into the Puuc Hills. From Mérida, Uxmal and Kabah are an easy day trip, but there are more Puuc Hill ruins to see to the extent I wish I had more time when I visited to travel a bit further afield. None-the-less, the ruins I did see were excellent. The ruins in this area of the country have the distinction of having a style of Maya architecture named for them. They are also different from their low land counterparts in not being built over Cenotes (sink hole access points to the underground rivers of the Yucatan). Instead, the Maya built large cisterns in these cities to capture rain water for the dry months. If the theory that droughts were largely responsible for the end of the Maya way of life, these people were probably the first to suffer.
Uxmal, the first place I visited is still touristed but not nearly so heavily as Chichen Itza. People were living at Uxmal around 500 AD. It flourished for sometime as the main city in the region, but it’s star dropped after the fall of Chichen Itza. By the time the Spanish arrived, Uxmal was already largely abandoned.
Uxmal - The Nuns Quadrangle
This is part of a large complex of buildings adjacent to the main pyramid at Uxmal. The first Spaniards to study this location thought that it looked like a nuns convent, hence the name. It’s believed that these buildings may have been a school for princes. This was the last building of the quadrangle, note the masks on the corner, these are masks of Chac Mool, the rain god, and are on each corner of this building. Also note the elaborated decorations. This is typical of the Puuc style. The prominence of Chac Mool highlights the importance of rain to the people living here.
Palacio del Gobernador - Uxmal, Mexico
This is another of the buildings at Uxmal, said to be one of the best examples of the Puuc style. Built in the 9th an 10th centuries, it was probably an administration building for the region. As with other Maya buildings, it is aligned with the heavens, the main door lines up with the planet Venus.
Inheritance of the Maya
The site of Kabah is yet less touristed and there’s been far less reconstruction here. There was a city here as early as the 3rd century which reached it’s height around the 8th. By the 11th century, the site was abandoned. This palace appears to have had 30 or more rooms and is remarkably intact considering how long it’s been since it was inhabited.
Uxmal is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Kabah is not listed, but should be on the list of anyone who appreciates the ruins of our past cultures.
More photo prints from both sites are available at my Mexico Prints.
8
Jul
2009
Chichen Itza Prints
It’s been a couple of years since I visited Chichen Itza. At the time, I spent a week in Mérida, the capital of the Yucatan taking day trips out to see the sights, including possibly the most well known of the Maya ruins. Many Americans visiting Cancun will take a tour to see these ruins and learn about the Maya.
The topography and soil of the Yucatan causes the formation of cenotes, typically open pits where underground water is accessible. It’s not surprising that the ancient Maya built their cities around these cenotes, which they considered magical and gateways to the afterlife. Chichen Itza or, Chich’en Itzá in Maya, translates basically as ‘at the mouth of the well of the Itza.’ The Itza were a particiular group of the Maya. This is apparently not the first name of Chichen Itza but there’s a lack of consensus on what the first name was.
These cities, like our cities today, are not built at once, they are built, torn down, and built again, inhabited by successions of people with different tastes and beliefs over the centuries. Chichen Itza was at its peak from roughly 600 AD to 1,000 AD. It was sacked and the focus moved to Mayapan sometime between 1,000 and 1,200, but even by the time the Spanish arrived, there were still people living there and making pilgrimages to the centotes. So, when we look at these ruins, we’re looking at around 1,000 years of human habitation but primarily with the buildings of the last of its prosperous times.
Lost - Pyramids of Chichen Itza
This view is of El Castillo, the main pyramid at Chichen Itza. This temple to Kukulcan was built on top of an earlier temple to Chac Mool, the rain god. The earlier temple has been excavated and was once open to the public but no longer is. The later temple shows Toltec influences. In fact, Kukulcan is the Maya version of the Toltec god, Quetzalcoatl. There are stories of the arrival of a Toltec king around 987 who set up a new court at Chichen Itza. If true, it’s possible this explains the cultural influence. It’s hard to look at these ruins without thinking of the culture that flourished and vanished here so long ago. The craftsmanship is amazing.
Kukulcan Temple
This is a close up of the top of the pyramid. It has been restored by the Mexican Government in the 1920’s and 30’s and restoration activities continue. Still, we have not restored these temples to their original appearance. The buildings were not bare stone originally but were plastered and were likely painted colorfully. Even in their muted forms, these buildings still speak to us of a talented and creative people.
El Castillo Steps
These are the northern steps to El Castillo. There are 4 stairs, one on each side, each with 91 steps. If you were to add these four sets of stairs, they total 364. The final step, the floor level of the temple at the top makes a total of 365, the number of days in a year. There are many such astronomical connections to these temples. On the north side, there are two plumed serpents (Kukulcan) carved into both sides. On the spring and autumn equinox, the sun casts shadows that make the snakes appear to slither down the pyramid. I’m told the nightly light show recreates this view. Even today, this is an imposing edfice!
Chichen Itza is UNESCO World Heritage site.
There are more prints available from Chichen Itza and Mexico in my Mexico Prints
26
May
2007
Mérida – Last Day Wrap Up
Not a lot of interesting news today.
After last evening´s post, I found a bit nicer restaurant, more of a sports bar type place where they were watching “football” – soccer to the US. I´d done more of fast food type places, even though they were local and serving up local dishes. I had something chicken with all these different sauces. Some were okay. One was so hot that I think I used up half of my coke putting out the fire. They did warn me… obviously I still have to learn the hard way.
After that, aimless meandering and a little shopping. I´ve yet to discover when this place really does close up shop. Nearing midnight and you could still wander into tons of shops. I went back to the hostel and iced my knee while reading up on possible things I could do today before packing it in for the night and figuring I´d decide in the morning. I´d narrowed it down to some ruins about half an hour out by bus or Progreso, another beach town, closer and more crowded but not as nice as Celestun. Maybe 45 minutes away with frequent buses until quite late. Apparently it´s where most of Merida goes on weekends when they want to be at the beach.
Slept in the hammock for maybe two or three hours last night. Actual honest to god sleep. I was amazed, but these are definitely for people accustomed to sleeping pretty much in one position as far as I can tell. And I´m not a person who sleeps like that. So, I woke up a couple of hours into my sleep, not fully awake I don´t think, but aware, moved to the bed and promptly went back to sleep on my stomach. Hammocks… pheh….
And of course I´m in the hammock capitol of the world. I haven´t walked 10 feet without being offered, in this order of frequency, hammocks, panama hats, or cuban cigars. I have no desire for any of these items…. I did want a patch for my back pack for my Mexico trip. I sewed on my Scotland one just before coming here. Guess what I can´t find…. oh well… I may just order one online… not the same, but what are you gonna do?
Today, I slept moderately late, somewhere towards 8am when I got up. I looked at the options again while I ate breakfast and decided I was going to do pretty much nothing today. That´s not an easy nor realistic choice for me.
After breakfast, I decided to take in the only “attraction” in the historico centro that I´ve yet to do, the Merida city musuem… the history of merida from it´s time as T´ho (Mayan City) to the coming of the Spainards and today. Yep, I´ve pretty much summed up the museum. Granted, it´s free, but it lacked the one thing I´m accustomed to finding in all museums, even the ones here I´d been to so far… AC… bleh… glad it was like 9am… afternoon in that building would have been pure hell… 20 minutes of hell… but hell is hell… A few cool 3-D artistic renderings of the Maya city the Spainards razed to build modern Merida was about the only thing I really found interesting. Especially after having seen the ruins of Chichen Itza, Uxmal, and Kabah, and realizing what I saw there was here before it was wiped from the earth…. sad…
Afterward, back to the hostel again, had a taste for something sweet and remembered there was supposed to be a great cheesecake place relatively nearby. Looked it up in Lonely Planet. It said it had been at this particular corner for 20 years… well… either I can´t remember street #´s at all or it´s gone now…. I settled for a coke and some sort of gum drop like candy on my way back. Today ended up being shopping day. Odd little items for myself and family and friends. And I hate shopping in Mexico. I remember this too well from last time. I hate to haggle and you´re hard pressed to find anywhere that puts a price on anything. Add to that the 5 minutes of chit chat you invest in most any place you go into and shopping is just a grueling effort. “What´s your name? Where are you from? How long in Merida? How do you like Merida?” I know the script by heart now. Someone this afternoon at the next to last place thought I said Hungary and said very little to me until he caught on that he had misheard. If only I had figured this out days ago! Lie! Pick any place that´s not English. You´ll find plenty here who know English but hard pressed to find someone who knows anything other than Spanish or English! Drat! At the very last place, I managed to get down to half of what I was originally quoted. I wanted it for a gift, but the opening price totally turned me off and I was literally trying to leave and he kept coming down… Ahh… soon to be back in the land where you only haggle over cars…
No real plans remaining. I may take the camera up Paseo Montejo near sunset. It´s one thought I´ve had. As otherwise today has been foot loose and fancy free, everything but my wallet locked up in the hostel. And although I haven´t chilled, I´ve mostly walked and thought about a lot of things.
I´ve mentally summed up my thoughts on Merida. It´s a beautiful safe city, but god it´s blamed hot. And it´s supposed to be hotter still in the coming months. I can´t imagine it. You have to remember, AC is not common here. Its absence is the rule not the exception as those of us from the states are used to. And apparently, when it´s not hot, it´s wet. So there are your choices. And it´s not like most of the things you´re doing aren´t outside. I felt near collapse at Chichen Itza and I got there in the morning. I also realized later that I missed a section of the city, but given the whole 8 gallons of water and still feeling cross-eyed from the heat, probably not a bad thing. Aim for earlier in the dry season and good luck if you´re coming! The city is also a mish mash of new and old. Mostly old in the center city, but if you get out just a piece, you´ll see some modern buildings. The local government is even sponsoring a whole public display of modern art all along the Paseo Montejo. And there are some wonderfully preserved old buildings. And there are tons of equally decrepit old buildings everywhere you look. It´s just a mish-mash of everything. I may pass through again, but I doubt I´ll spend a week here again anytime soon. No ding on the city, just that I´ve done what I came for.
I also thought a lot about my still complete lack of Spanish language. I´ve gotten where I can hear numbers up to around 20 in spanish and not go ¨huh” and I can say it´s muy caliente or buenos dias and the like, but by and large, I still go into every settings and English just spills out. And I realized I´m incredibly lazy when it comes to language. And there´s so many in Merida who speak English when they realize it´s your native language, that they have fully enabled my laziness. But it´s beyond that, it goes back to french as well. When I was in high school, I could have at least carried on a casual conversation, nothing deep per se, but I could have gotten through a bit. I´ve run into two sets of French speaking people this week and even though I knew a word or two, I stuck to English. Today, a French speaking couple stopped me for directions… They were in a car and they were out of luck because I couldn´t have guided them to a water fountain back home let alone here. But I totally spoke to them in English and told them I was a tourist, too, and did not know. After I left, I put that sentence together in my head and I totally could have told them that in French, but there´s that laziness again. English got me by. I´ll only ever learn other languages if I´m forced to by circumstances, end of story.
As said, tonight, maybe some photos, definitely some dinner, and then packing. I´ve gotten a couple of heavier objects and my take on bag is already a monster, so I´m a little worried I may get dinged for luggage in excess weight. I have that fear frequently tho, and ironically only came close once and that was with a tripod in my bag. I wish I had paid attention when they weighed my bag before I left in Atlanta because it´s not going to be any lighter.
Last entry from Merida - take care all!
24
May
2007
