Oaxaca - January 2019

We took a red-eye flight with AeroMexico to Mexico City, stayed there overnight and arrived refreshed in Oaxaca the following day. The flights were uneventful with some interesting aerial views over the surrounding terrain as we approached our destination.

With our friends, Penny and Steve, we had booked five nights in an Airbnb "casa" about a 20-minute walk from the city centre.

The sign says "Welcome to the House of the Grandparents". Since we are all "abuelos" we felt this was a good omen for our stay. We were right. The casa had three bedrooms (one of which we didn't use), two bathrooms, a generous living room with a large table, some comfy chairs, a TV (which we also didn't use) and a small kitchen. There was a patio at the front with a flourishing  pink bougainvillea vine, and our two bedrooms overlooked a second internal courtyard with a large lemon tree.

A couple of streets away was a covered market selling all kinds of produce.

Outiside on the adjoining plaza were stalls selling all sorts of household wares.

There was even a mobile optometrist offering on-the-spot eye exams.

Cafes and restaurants were scarce in our neighbourhood, but we did find one with friendly staff with a diverse menu to suit all our tastes.

 Most days we walked into the centre, enjoying the colourful storefronts and flowering trees along the way.

 One of the stores en route was a local mescal co-op, where we stopped in to sample their product.

Oaxaca's main thoroughfare is a pedestrian precinct, which allows for lots of opportunities for enjoying the architecture and window-shopping. In the heat of the afternoons, the few people not taking a siesta cling to the shady side.

 In the city centre, dominating the street is Oaxaca's magnificent cathedral.

The forecourt, a popular place for the locals to hang out,  is planted with some spectacular agaves.

The interior is vast with a heavily encrusted ceiling.

Here and in the surrounding streets, people gather at dusk to chat, flirt or just enjoy the cool of the evening.

Oaxaca is a centre for art of all kinds, some of it in museums,

 ... some of it on the streets.

 We visited one visited one graphic arts collective that had a display of posters against repression.

In contrast to the rather grim images, cheerful groups of students were having lunch in the central courtyard shaded by a huge bougainvillea.

MEXICO - Chichen Itza

January 15, 2018

Chichen Itza, a Unesco World Heritage site, is the most visited Mayan ruin in the Yucatan. We made the 45 km. journey there and back on the Oriente bus line from Valladolid. Getting there was fine, but we had a long wait for the bus back. The site is impressive, especially the imposing El Castillo pyramid.

From my photo, it looks as if the place is deserted, but in fact I just got lucky - there are hundreds of tourists milling about, partly because this is a day trip from Cancun with its hotels and cruise ships.

Another drawback is that all paths through the site are  lined with eager vendors selling all kinds of items. Even though it does distract from the experience, it's worth remembering that this is a poor part of the country and these people have few other ways to make a living.

El Castillo is constructed of large unadorned stone blocks, but several of the surrounding structures have intricately carved details,

... including this wall of skulls.

Jaguars are a feature on the corners of several buildings.

I mentioned the popular Mayan game of pok-ta-pok in the previous post. The photo below shows the Chichen Itza playing field, the largest still in existence.

The game is played by two teams with a solid rubber ball a little smaller but much heavier than a soccer ball. Players cannot use hands and feet to touch the ball, only their torso, forearms and thighs. The goal is to be the first to punt the ball through a ring set high in one wall of the court (right side of photo), not at all an easy task, especially as the average height of a Mayan man was not much more than 5 feet.

In the demonstration that we saw in Valladolid, the ring was set on a stand in the plaza that was about shoulder height to the players. Even at that easier level, players had a hard time scoring a goal. (A video is available here.)

MEXICO - Valladolid

January 14, 2018

We arrived in Cancun early in the morning after a red-eye flight from Vancouver, and immediately arranged a shuttle to the bus station to catch the next bus west to Valladolid, an attractive colonial city not too far from the famous Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza.
Our hotel, El Meson de Marquéz, was one of the colonial buildings.

 Although I found our ground-floor room rather too dark, the public spaces were bathed in sunshine and had a lot of charm, especially the courtyard that housed the open-air restaurant.

Among its attractions was a large table showcasing an array of tequilas.

 When we set out to explore the town, we happened on a procession moving slowly down the street, led by a group in colourful local costumes.

While most of the crowd were on foot, there were lots of other options.

The main plaza, is dominated by San Servacio, an imposing cathedral built with stone from the Mayan city formerly on the site. Coloured plastic flags fluttering in the breeze brightened up its stark facade

  
At night, warm golden lighting softens it harsh outlines.

It was in the plaza here that we saw a free performance of  the ancient Mayan game called pok-ta-pok. In the following days we saw, both at Chichen Itza and Uxmal, the vast grassy courts on which this game was played.