Mexican Mayan Mayhem: the fantasy, the past and the now

Back down to sea level we arrived at the Mexican city of Cancun, the ultimate tourist city. We were joining a tour (Tucan Tours' Mayan Adventure) from here but arrived a few days early. Tours are good if you want to cover a lot of ground fast in an unfamiliar area. We spent a day at a theme park (Xcaret) that focused on water themes. You could snorkel with sharks, walk underwater with a helmet on your head, see many sea creatures, birds and animals. Most interesting was the included show in the evening, a huge extravaganza on the history of Mexico. It began with a weird version of soccer where the players could not use their arms or feet and the goals were hoops on the side. It took a while but finally somebody scored and everybody cheered. We did not understand most of what was going on but it became clearer later, on the tour...

The tour began with a visit to Chichen Itza (not chicken pizza), a large Mayan city that existed from around AD 600 to 1200. It was impressive; the Kukulkan Pyramid is one of the first things you see and it is hard to take your eyes off it. It was voted one of the seven ancient wonders in 2007. The complex itself is huge with many buildings of significance.

The hoop for the ball game

The reason for the ball game in the Xcaret show became clear as we rounded a corner to see the great ball court for the Mesoamerican Ball Game. The Mayans believed that the gods required human sacrifice for the rains to come (and lots of other things), so they would play this game to decide which team's captain would be sacrificed; first ball in wins (or in my opinion loses). Historians believe the winning captain was sacrificed by the loser captain chopping off his head. It was considered a great honour to die as you contributed to the prosperity of the city. Personally I would be a very bad player and hopefully retire in disgrace.

Palenque

Ancient Astronomical Obseratory

Palenque was the next Mayan ruin on our list and is truly magical. We arrived early in the day in a private bus to beat the mid morning rush. Tucked away in lush green rainforest, in the morning light of a cloudy, misty day it reminded me of Macchu Picchu in Peru. The city dates back to 226 BC and flourished for around 1000 years. It was absorbed by the jungle and only a few sections have been excavated and restored. Archaeologists believe 95% of it is still owned by the jungle.

Tomb of the Red Queen

In the structure called the Temple of the Inscriptions they found a huge sarcophagus in the tomb of Pakal, now on display in the museum on site. In Temple XIII is the tomb of the red queen. Using mercury and a red powder made from cinnabar the queen's remains and the tomb were all painted red. I wonder if the painters knew why they were getting sick.

So where are the Mayans today? Well actually, they are scattered in villages everywhere. One such village is San Juan Chamula in the Chiapas region. This village of the Tzotzil Maya people is autonomous; they look after themselves and administer their own laws. Sometimes mob justice rules. Visiting San Juan church is an eye opening, sensory overloading experience. We were not allowed to take photographs so I will try to describe some of it.

On walking inside the dimly lit church the first thing that hits you is the smell of the burning incense followed by the overwhelming thick smoke. As my eyes adjusted I noticed that the floor is covered in green pine needles and lit candles of varying colours. The place is filled with people wandering around and sitting in groups on the floor chanting or in silent prayer; there are no pews. As I walked forward I came across two women, one with her eyes closed and the other holding a live chicken which was being waved around the first woman's body. I looked back a short while later and the chicken was in the second woman's lap, head lolling on the ground, clearly dead. Animal sacrifice is still practised here. Other men were going around with a bottle of liquor distilled from sugar cane giving each person a small glass to drink. (One was passed around earlier in a house of worship; it was quite nice.) On the sides were statues of saints with mirrors on their chests to reflect evil. Also in evidence were numerous coke bottles being drunk and on the ground; apparently coca cola has evil killing powers. At the front on the ceiling was a depiction of Jesus with the sun on his back, evidence of the mixing of the Spanish-brought Catholicism and Mayan religions. Funnily enough you did get a sense of joy and a feeling of family pervading the church. I left to rejoin the modern world with the feeling I had just time travelled from 500 years ago.

Making Tortillas

Every different area has their own type of religion, many without the sacrifice aspect and completely different attitudes and customs. I hope my description gave a small sense of the experience.

Included Margaritas

Merida

Outside of these villages a more conventional existence is enjoyed by this majority Catholic society. We visited the large towns of Merida and San Cristobal where we had a brilliant time, the people friendly, the towns full of character and the food delicious.

San Cristobal

Big band night on Tuesdays in Merida

Train travel in Mexico? (just kidding, explanation next post)

Journey to the Middle of the World

Situated on the Equator at an average altitude of 2800m and surrounded by volcanoes lies the beautiful city of Quito in Ecuador. It is the highest capital city in the world and is also the highest city on the Equator, which gives it the title of the 'Middle of the World', and you can have your passport stamped to prove it. In 2012 we went to the 'End of the World' at Ushuaia, the southernmost city, but have been unable to find a city with the title of 'Top of the World'.

The actual X

First stop was a trip out to the actual Equator line. There are two X's that mark the spot. There is the fancy one with huge monuments, buildings and exhibitions, a price to get in and is the new location where they are building the South American version of the UN. Unfortunately this X is wrong by about 240m, which they discovered after the development of GPS. The accurate X is a small complex with displays of traditional huts and numerous experiments to demonstrate what being at the Equator means. Most intriguing was when they filled a tub with water and pulled out the plug. The water went straight down, without a swirl. A couple of metres on one side of the line the water would swirl clockwise and a couple of metres to the other side it would swirl anti clockwise. I did not expect it to be so dramatic.

The wrong X

Hemispheres Apart :-(

Then on to the main town which has an old sector that was equal first to be placed on the World Heritage List and is one of the best preserved in the world. Lots and lots of churches; there is a whole line of them working up to the Virgin Mary statue on top of El Panecillo hill. At night we went back to the old town to eat in the main plaza area and watched a performance of traditional dancing for a gold coin donation. Ecuador is reallllyyyy cheap with taxi flag fall starting at about 35c and the half hour trip to the old town costing $1.70. They will try not to turn on the meter and negotiate instead, but at those prices you don't mind paying an extra dollar.

The Virgin Mary on
El Panecillo Hill

One of the main things I wanted to do here was trek the Cotopaxi volcano to the refuge. But I suffered badly with altitude sickness and an initial 3 day headache. So what was planned for day 2 was put forward to day 7 (our last day) to allow me more time to acclimatise. I tried to go somewhere higher than where we were every day; the saying for climbers is 'climb high, sleep low'. So we went to high spots in town such as the Virgin Mary statue at 3000m or chose a restaurant on a peak. On the day before Cotopaxi we took the cable car up Pichincha volcano arriving at 4100m and started the trek to the top (4800m) until my headache got too bad. I lasted an hour and we estimated we reached about 4300m before turning back.

Wild horses on the way to Cotop

Volcanic Landscape

So on the day of Cotopaxi I was confident of being able to make it to the refuge at 4800m. The drive takes you to the carpark at 4500m. It does not sound like we walked very far, but at that altitude up a steep volcano your steps are really slow and very difficult. By the time we got to the refuge we were puffing like we had just run two back to back park runs (5km each). But we had made such good time, 15 mins under the average, our guide offered to take us up to the glacier at 5000m. We all agreed.



This was a good move, even though my head was bursting: the view at the glacier was brilliant, the shape and textures took your breath away, let alone the normal volcanic colours on the way up and down. There were some crazy young guys who arrived after us, and I will leave that vision to the video I'll post below. Going down took a third of the time, as going down steeply in volcanic soil is surprisingly easy. The soil is damp and soft but also firm; you tend to step into it and sink slightly which stops you from sliding, but not so much that the next step is difficult. It takes a bit of practice (we have had lots), so there were some slips on to their bums for the people around us.

Coca Leaf Tea

On the way back we stopped at a small museum for lunch. The warming and scrumptious meal consisted of chicken soup, a huge corn cob with a slab of cheese instead of butter (sorry forgot to photograph it) and a steaming cup of fresh coca leaf tea. That hit the spot.


Quito is a beautiful city that gave us some unique moments and has a charm that reminded me of Cusco in Peru. But allow the time, and maybe some pills, to adjust to the altitude when you come here, or preferably take land transport up and stay at several places on the way to adjust to it slowly.

Altitude sickness???

Trivia Note: Next door to Cotopaxi is the Chimborazo volcano. This volcano is the closest the Earth gets to the sun, closer than Mount Everest due to the bulge at the Equator. Measured from the centre of the Earth Chimborazo is higher but at sea level Everest wins. I just found that interesting :-)

Our Holiday Evolves

Lava fields of Volcan Chico on
Isabella Island

Created by volcanoes, the tiny young islands of the Galapagos were born of fire. Eruptions on top of eruptions built these islands one at a time from several hundred thousand years ago, and still forming, to millions of years ago. Initially dark, lifeless and isolated (1,000 km from Ecuador), species still managed to find their way here. Some flew, or were blown across by winds, others swam or became trapped on vegetation or other material and found their way across raft like. Slowly life found its way over; most died, some survived, adapted and evolved to fit the islands' unique environments. This is why many species in the Galapagos cannot be found anywhere else in the world, and even differ between the many differently aged islands.

Seals on North Seymour Island

Giant Tortoise on Isabella Island

In 1835 Charles Darwin arrived on the islands to collect biological samples and document the geological environment. Despite his religious education (he had studied for holy orders) Darwin realised the significance of the distribution and variety of species and developed his theory of Evolution by Natural Selection. Today 97.5% of these islands are a protected national park and 70,000 square km of surrounding ocean are a marine reserve thanks to the Ecuadorian government. This was a long standing bucket list item of mine from way back, for its historical and scientific significance as well as the vast number of species you can see here in one of the most biologically diverse places on the planet.

Puerto Ayora

Seal relaxing in Puerto Ayora

We based ourselves in Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz, which is a fairly central island and has the most developed town for tourists. It is a bubbling energy filled town with lots of atmosphere and opportunities for things to do. We came without a plan, avoiding the cruise ships because, well, they were bloody expensive and deciding to wing it and find day trips. This turned out well because in 14 days we spent only a third of what an 8 day cruise would have cost. And staying on the island allowed us to be immersed in the atmosphere of the town and gave us a lot of flexibility.

Cooking the fish fresh from the boat
and cleaned behind them.

Eating the just caught grub.

Every night after our day trip to another island or other activity would be spent wandering the town and soaking in the activities and sights. These included nearly nightly volleyball games near the pier, where they were clearly playing for sheep stations, or at other times it was used as a skate park by the locals and occasionally by Elizabeth riding cardboard down a concrete wall at the insistence of some cheeky children. You could watch your dinner coming in by boat, cleaned right on the dock, cooked and on your plate while the pelicans and seals fought over the left overs. Or stroll along the jetty coming across the occasional sleeping seal and watching the underwater ballet in the clear waters which included sharks, seals, small fish and the occasional ray, right from the dock.

Swimming with seals

Blue Footed Boobie

The town and all the animals, birds and fish were amazingly non threatening and safe. In the water snorkeling, sharks ignored you, seals swam around you, crabs ran away from you and sea turtles swam with you. Similarly the birds let you come so close binoculars were redundant, iguanas would just look at you and giant tortoises would quietly stretch out their long necks and chew another mouthful of leaves. But don't touch; we are mere observers here and the islands have strict rules about going off the tracks and touching the animals.

Bartolomei and Santiago Islands

Lava Tunnels on Santa Cruz

Frigate Bird

The day trips were fabulous and I can merely give a brief taster here and show some pictures; it needs to be experienced. Bartolomei Island with the picture postcard view after the small trek up its volcano overlooking Santiago Island. North Seymour for the birds, so many birds, from the Blue Footed Boobie to the Frigate bird with its bright red 'balloon' out front as well as the many iguanas and seals. Sante Fe Island for the snorkelling with sharks and the 10 minute swim with a sea turtle and much more. The memories will linger far longer than the experience.

Candelabra Cactus on the lava fields

Then there was Isabella Island...and my continuing battle to see a live volcano, and their success at avoiding me. We specifically went there to trek up the Sierra Negra Volcano, which is one of the few active ones and had a small eruption in 2005. Even though the weather had been fantastic, hot and humid since we arrived, today the sky decided to cloud over and rain, and rain and rain. By the time we got to the crater we were soaked through (having come to Isabella unprepared for rain). We kept going and saw the amazing lava fields, felt the heat coming out of holes in the ground and witnessed the amazing colours that the lava came in. But the shy volcano kept its innermost secrets hidden. The search continues...

Beautiful colours on the lava rock

Pink Flamingo

Pier at Puerto Ayora

Stumped Again :-(

That damn volcano is still haunting me, now 2-0. It all started about a week ago, when we first arrived in Pucon, Chile.

Previous attempt.

The idea was to start the new year in a different country and let the adventure unfold from there. The weather was bad, raining most of the time; we checked the weather apps and decided to book in the volcano on Friday the 3rd Jan, the first fully clear beautiful day forecast. Tuesday was a generally fine day so we went to the National Park (Huerquehue) for a 5 hour trek up the mountains to the three lakes at the top. We thought this would be good training as we had done very little trekking for over a year. All of our plans for weekend treks fell by the wayside under the pressure of real life.

That night the rain seemed to set in and we thought New Year's Eve would be a bust, but at around 10:30 the sky cleared and the rain stopped and we went to the 'Grand Beach' for the celebrations. NYE in Pucon is a festive family affair: cans of foam and streamers and funny hats were the order of the day. The fireworks were brilliant; every time you thought they were finished they would start again. My first NYE in a foreign country in 52 NYE's, a nice start to the year. Pucon is a really lovely place, very relaxing: beaches, boat trips, forests, hot springs, water sports (kayaking, rapids etc), lovely town, friendly people and THAT volcano, overlooking everything like butter would not melt in its mouth. Friday cleared up as forecast and it looked like lady luck was upon us...

The luck seemingly continued as we arrived at the base of the volcano: the chair lift was going, saving us around 1.5 hours of steep uphill walking. The very basic chairlift (no bar in front) spilled us out at the base of the snow line. It was time to put on the crampons and suit up for the cold: jacket, wet weather pants, helmet, unclasp the pickaxe; oh yeah, bring it on.

The long slog began. Very soon it was one foot in front of the other, don't look down, as we traversed uphill in a criss cross manner. Sharp left, change side of pickaxe to high side, walk 50 steps, sharp right, change side of pickaxe, walk 50 steps etc. It's slow going and all uphill; luckily we were prepared for this, we had done it before, so up we went. After about 45 minutes we took our first break: time for some food, check the amazing view, nothing like looking down and seeing clouds and lakes beneath you and other volcanoes in the distance. Off we go again for another hour and so forth.

Then our luck changed. The wind started to pick up, we went over one ridge where the wind was particularly fierce and I grabbed hold of Elizabeth, shades of the TV show 'The Flying Nun' came into my head.

Then they started the 'we might not get to the top, the wind is getting worse, the snow is too hard etc' story, trying to prepare us for failure. Apparently the problem was mainly the fact that it had rained the day before (and most of the last week). The top third was hard ice; it was getting more and more difficult to punch our crampons through the ice to get a grip. They were communicating by walkie talkie with the other groups. Nobody had made it to the top; some groups were waiting at the final ridge for the wind to die down to give it a go.

Most of our group had already given up. We were losing people and guides as we went; they would stay behind at certain points and wait for us. Elizabeth did not want to give up; one of her many impressive qualities, her courage and determination, if Elizabeth makes up

her mind, it is very, VERY hard to stop her. We seemed to be the last two still walking in our group (could not see anyone else) when one of the guides ran up from behind to talk to Elizabeth. "Yes," he was saying, "I can see you are determined, but even if you get up to the top we cannot slide down, the ice is too hard, you would need REALLY strong legs to clamber down, and that will be the dangerous part, one slip and it's all ice for 500 metres."

Elizabeth and Spock
very unhappy

We relented and went back to where the last of our group were, to lick our wounds and look up at how far we had left. Again at the 2400m mark, only about 400m to go, we could see the smoke coming from the top of this active volcano, apparently a two-pack a day one. Yes, we must have made the volcano gods angry, Adrian, they don't want us up there. We were able to still do some sliding down the volcano once we had gotten to softer snow 100m or so below us. Elizabeth does not want to try again; I would be willing if some benefactor paid for a month in December to train and wait for the perfect day. Our hope now is Mt Fuji in Japan, in July. Hopefully she will be kinder, she is family after all, so put in a good word for us, Mariko (daughter-in-law).

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go...

Still an amazing experience, still brilliant views, but when they ask me on my deathbed, "What's your one regret?" I will probably say, "Not getting to the top of that bloody volcano."

A word from Elizabeth:
"I sit on beautiful Playa Blanca on the shore of Lago Caburgua under an umbrella with alternating panels of purple & orangey gold. Families are all around me sunning, swimming & sitting under equally colourful umbrellas. We're nestled among mountains & green forest and surrounded by the sounds of noisy happiness. The highest peak to the east still has remnants of winter snow on it. Gotta be one of the prettiest places in Chile. A perfect 27 degree day with the lightest of breezes & the lake water cool enough to make the skin tingle. Beautiful blue blue sky untainted by clouds. An idyllic end to a wonderful week. So glad we decided to start our year in Pucon."

Playa Grande with its black volcanic sand