27 February, 2001

We were hoping today's parade would be different. No such luck, but we enjoyed vying for beads (like the ones at Mardigras in New Orleans), plastic aprons, cups, t-shirts, whatever they could throw from a float. Steve and Bill (when he was here) and all the other men, especially liked the Superior beer float: lots of scantily clad, gorgeous girls dancing their little hearts out.

After watching the parade, again, we headed back to Hotel Colonial for a marathon authoring session- the site had fallen into a serious state of tardiness. Four hours later we finally got somewhat caught up. It never ceases to amaze us just how long it can take to "edit some pictures and slap some text together."

Since it's the last day of the parade, we've saved all our pictures until now. Enjoy.

These costumes were different from the first day. Pretty snazzy	This guy's costume changed every day and this one was the best	The big joker head for the Coca-Cola float. At night it lit up like crazy	These guys were rad. The people are the legs, so the tops go tipping and turning all down the street	This was a big moving ant. He had a praying mantis friend on board too

This group is pretty indicative of all the dancers traipsing down the street	Here's the coke face at night, snazzy	One of many crowds, the streets were packed with people

The cool part though, was seeing the aftermath of a great celebration. The streets were not closed off anymore and traffic rolled over the garbage, which floated behind it in the still, warm night. The police and a few restaurant-shack owners lounged about, saying good evening to us. It was like being the last few people in a wasteland, but a happy one. We enjoyed our walk and were only slightly sad we missed the party. Seems we've grown old and boring and really would rather enjoy the company of a few than the loud many.

As night fell we finally motivated to go to the Museo de Antropologia; housed in a stunningly beautiful colonial mansion (which used to be the governor's house), the museum has a very interesting collection of Mayan artifacts as well as a great deal of related information. We enjoyed the visit tremendously. The only unfortunate part to the day was that as we were headed off to sleep some live musicians (with very very loud speakers) started up somewhere nearby and nearly blew our ears out until early morning.

The facade of the museum. This used to be the governor's home. along this main street are many such mansions that have been converted to law offices, insurance buildings, etc. Makes you wonder what they looked like in their heyday.	Steve exclaimed when he saw this piece, "This could be something you see for sale today!" It really did look incredibly well preserved and contemporary as well. Reincarnation perhaps?	Wonders never cease. This is a doll with moving appendages, carved out of stone.	The detail of their carvings is breathtaking. Beebee wouldn't mind having a necklace like this!	They used mostly stone, wood, and obsidian for their tools, with some metal as well.

The Maya believed that a person's beauty and intelligence lay in the shape of their skull. They would tie boards around a baby's head until shaped just right. Ugh.	They also believed that cross-eyedness was beautiful, so at the same time they were pressing their children's heads, they strung a pretty to the end of a rope and hung it down the nose so the child would train its eye muscles to "cross".	Beebee being admired by Steve while she admires the jade, stone and shellwork jewelry.	Carving on a beautiful marble staircase- Spanish, not Mayan

Loaded and rolling we headed southeast towards Uxmal, a semi-famous Mayan ruin. Not as "important" as Chichen Itza or Palenque or Tikal, Uxmal is high on the list of sites for ruin-hoppers. Found a camping/hotel recommended by the guidebook, just north of Uxmal, and spent 50 pesos to park safely, use their pool and a shower/bathroom as well as plugging into their power to cool off the fridge (after a few days in a parked car, set on medium, it needed to cool off a little).

Not too long after we sat down to eat dinner, a couple about our age arrived by bus to stay at the hotel as well. Steve broke the ice and offered them the use of our tent- camping is about 1/3 the price of a room- but they had already agreed to stay in a room. We did chat a little and learned that they are from Argentina. They mentioned that they were thinking of going to a huge cave-system about an hour away and Steve was immediately intrigued: ruins are great, but after seeing a half dozen or so they just aren't quite as exciting as they are at first. So Steve headed over to offer them a ride to the caves and ended up chatting with Rudolpho until about 11:30, about everything from school systems to observing some of the silly things that seem endemic to Mexico (the dearth of toilet seats, for example). Fun night.

After the caves, we piled back into Sandy and drove our Argentinian friends back to the closest town. We said a sorrowful goodbye, but they were on their way to Mérida and, frankly, we've had enough of that city for now. Oh well, we enjoyed their company while it lasted!

Drove onward a few hours to the town of Felipe Carillo Puerto, a historically important place in that it was here that the Mayas regrouped during the war of the Castes- leading eventually to a level of autonomy. Not a bad place, certainly not the kind of place that you travel thousands of miles to see, but a nice place perhaps to spend a night or two.

	Carved head		Pottery shards
			Fireplace with more shards

The theatre was just at the other end of the square, and so took only about two minutes for us to walk there. The movie was fun, the theatre old and funky. We chose our seats carefully, as many places in the ceiling leaked copiously, including a light fixture. Hmmm. We were also treated to an intermission right smack in the middle of the tooth-pulling scene. The movie just up and stopped and Steve and Beebee were the only ones around who found this curious. We figured it was a changing of the reels, perhaps. Who knows.

We have found that we are tired of driving. After about an hour we both get antsy. Makes three hours of driving nearly tortuous! We rolled into Xcalak about 3 p.m. It's a nasty, tiny little dump of a town and we were glad that our friend's place was about 8km north of the town center.

We took their recommendation and stopped to talk to Bruce, a neighbor and fellow Bed and Breakfast owner. He was a neat guy and had lots to tell us about the area, its history, its deadly bug bites, the reef and the snorkeling. Steve could have talked to him all night, but Beebee was hungry and headachy.

We parked Sandy under some palm trees and set up camp about an hour before dusk. First things first, Steve went right to cutting us down some coconuts and opening them up. Those, some guacamole and hot tortillas and we had dinner. We watched the nearly full moon rise and as the buggies came out, we retired to our nearly bug-free tent. We are now reading (and writing) and enjoying the moonlight and rustling palms in this little bit of paradise.

Our campsite is in front of some they've-seen-better-days palapa huts that a friend of ours owns (but doesn't use much) and looks out to the wide, blue Caribbean through a small spattering of palm trees. We've been careful not to eat and drink all of their coconuts, but we manage to go through about three a day. It's hard to beat a cool coconut while you are sitting in the sun enjoying a cool Caribbean breeze… and Steve is finally getting the hang of cutting the darn things open.

It has been a relaxing week. Mostly we've sat around reading or sunbathing with a few notable highlights:

Steve went out spear-fishin' with Jorge, our neighbor to the left, and had a great time. He brought back three little fishies for lunch (six inch Grunts). As this was only his second time spear fishing, we both think he did a pretty good job. We sauteed some garlic in olive oil and after gutting and scaling the fish (something Beebee wasn't entirely sure she ever needs to do), Steve fried them up for us. Very tasty. Our pan wasn't very good, so a lot of the garlic got left behind with the fish skin. Too bad.

Midweek we ran low on water and wanted some more food supplies, so we drove up the beach road and then the highway for about an hour and a half to get to Mahahual. We expected something bigger than Xcalak, which isn't really even a town, and we got bigger, but not much. This town did have it's own beer store, a tiny grocery and a produce shack. We got what we needed and drove back. Not a very exciting outing for the day, but productive.

We walked down to Bruce's place on Saturday since it was so calm, to take Beebee out snorkeling. She's still a little wary of new water, so the more calm, the better. Bruce pointed out the best places to go along the reef and we headed out. It probably took us about 10 minutes to swim out across two- to three-foot deep water before we started to see the coral heads popping us around us. It was a great snorkel. We saw two stingrays up really close, lots of schools of fish (grunts, tangs, jacks) flashing around and many tiny creatures (Bb's favorite). We spent about an hour in the water and it was wonderful. Beebee got cold again after about 15 minutes, so it's time to get her a vest so that she can enjoy her dives/snorkels more.

Today is Sunday, and we've been here nearly a week. The wind was incredibly strong last night and is still so this morning. We're a little tired of it. We will stay through tonight and maybe Monday, we think.

Today is Monday, and we are still here. The wind got even stronger, hard to believe, and Bruce told us that it would probably last for three or four days and might turn into a real storm. So on Sunday night, while Steve finished soldering the new switch for out tent light, Beebee packed up the truck for an early getaway in the morning.

We got up early this morning and packed up in an increasingly strong wind, planning to stop by Bruce's and say goodbye. Well, we stayed for fresh-squeezed orange juice, fresh-ground coffee, and lots of talking. We see eye to eye with Bruce on many things, especially the state of the U.S. peoples' morale, work ethic and general happiness. At noon, Beebee nearly drug Steve away to do some beach combing before driving on to Chetumal, but when we got back, Bruce offered his trailer for us to sleep in to get out of the battering wind and invited us to dinner. Hard to pass up.

It's been a lovely afternoon. Steve snorkeled, even in the choppy water, Beebee laid on the beach, and we enjoyed great conversation and a nice dinner made by Beebee.

Thank you, Bruce, for great hospitality. We are happy to have met you.

Our incredible campsite from the viewpoint of the Caribbean Sea. The red chairs were set up for a lovely sunset game of backgammon.	We strung up the hammocks the first full day we were here, but as of yet, it hasn't been warm enough in the shade to use them because of all the wind.	Steve made us pancakes for Sunday brecki. Even with powdered milk and oil instead of butter, they were scrumptious.	Our little monkey going after coconuts. Mostly so they wouldn't fall on our heads while in the hammocks -- had we only known that wouldn't be a problem!
The moon has been getting closer and closer to full. We took pictures three nights in a row. Each moon rise was different.	A nearly full moon rising in the afternoon in a blue, blue sky.	A nice red glowing sunset from Bruce's rooftop deck.	There isn't anything quite like moonlight on water, is there?

Much of the beach road is rough, but this section of pure coral heads was extra bad. Thanks to Kumho for tires that didn't get torn to shreds.		Looking south on coast of the Yucatán Peninsula as seen from the beach road.