Not Our Wisest Choices

We were both in desperate need of haircuts and finding a good one in Merida is very difficult without knowing someone who lives here.

Fred was certain that he saw a shop when we got off the bus last week...so we walked the 2 kms to the place and found out it was a school that teaches bleaching, nails and some styling of women's hair.  They took pity on us and agreed to cut Fred's hair.

Some of the students watched closely while the instructor cut and gave a running commentary.  I wasn't that brave and declined!

I maybe wasn't that brave, but I wasn't thinking clearly either, I just walked down the street and took the first shop I found.  Don't ask me why?

The lady waved me in and I just climbed in her chair.  She didn't have a clue what she was doing, but thankfully she only took about twenty cuts before sticking a bunch of gel in my hair and telling me she was finished.

She ran a small grocery store that happened to have two barber chairs inside so she thought she could cut hair!  On top of that she kept watching her soaps while snipping away.

I guess we can live with the end result....$7.00 Cdn for both!

Peace and Quiet

After we visited the Hacienda Yaxcopoil yesterday, we went to see the ruins at Uxmal.  We have been there before, but we wanted to make a comparison to the touristy ruins at Chichen Itza.

In Chichen there are at least 500 vendors situated amongst the ruins and at Uxmal there are none. There are a few stores at the entrance and that was it....no one was calling you to buy something you didn't want.  And, it was so quiet.  How nice!

At Uxmal, you can climb many of the structures and this gives a different perspective of the area.  The main pyramid is off limits, but you can get close to it.

It was a very nice day, one that should have been spent getting haircuts...but there is always tomorrow!

More Haciendas

Why do we always leave our touring until the last week?  It should be a week of packing, washing clothes and buying groceries for Akumal.....instead we are running around seeing things we could have visited five weeks ago!

Yesterday we made a detour to see the Hacienda Yaxcopoil, about 45 kms from Merida.  It was quite the place, not renovated and yet it had everything we wanted to see.

Much of the furniture was still in place as well as some of the equipment used to move the henequen.  It allowed us a chance to see how the owners lived and how the hacienda operated.

Life in the Villages

On our cenote trail, we came across villagers who still lived in the old Mayan huts and still wore the traditional Yucatan dresses....not for tourists, just their way of life!

And the bikes!  Everywhere!

Just a Little "Lost"

Yesterday when we drove to the cenotes, we tried to stop at every old, abandoned hacienda that we could find.  Most of them were on the main road to Cuzama and were easily accessible for picture taking.

The best part of the hacienda search was finding a superb hacienda in some little village that we came upon by chance.  Okay, we were on the wrong road!  Remember, Fred is never "lost"!  Somewhere we  just missed a turn and ended up in this little village with the most interesting ruins!

We had to ask for directions back to Merida and look who showed up to help!

It's Not Just a Hole

Our plans were to go to see the ruins at Uxmal, but for some reason the car went in the opposite direction and we ended up at the cenotes at Cuzama.  We have visited cenotes throughout the Yucatan and Quintana Roo and Cuzama rivals all of them.  If not for the cenote itself, then for the unique method of getting to them.

The cenotes have a story to tell, which is interesting on its own.  The village of Chunkanan was the first to conduct tours of the three cenotes in the area, but the town of Cuzama wanted a piece of the action so they started to divert the traffic to their own route to the cenotes.

Even today, a man with a red flag tried to wave us down and tell us we had to park in Cuzama's parking lot.  Because we had read about the dispute we were prepared to keep going on to the original tour at Chunkanan.

We were taken to the first of three cenotes by a horse drawn wagon of sorts.  The wagon runs on a narrow gauge railroad that was used for the hauling of henequen years ago.

The first two cenotes were more like caverns so we had to climb down walkways and steep ladders.  At cenote #2,  I was unable to convince myself that any water hole was worth the climb down three rickety ladders.  Fred did it and found the cave and cenote to be "interesting".  Whatever that means!

The last cenote was much larger and easier to get to.  It was also the prettiest with fish swimming in the crystal clear water.

Occasionally our driver/guide had to remove our cart from the tracks to make room for another horse and cart.

Sundays in Merida

Sunday is family time in Merida.  Vendors line the walkways in the Zocalo and a stage is set up on one of the streets.  We have watched clowns do their routines for children and have listened to singers entertaining the crowd with Mexican folk songs.  But today was the best, by far.

We were treated to a group of Yucatecan dancers perform traditional Yucatan dances such as the pole dance and the beer dance.  I'm sure these are not the correct names, but that is the best I can do!

Mexicans love music and they love to dance....so after the dancing performance we walked to Santa Lucia Park to watch the locals dance up a storm.  A live band performs every Sunday at 2:00 and the locals love it.  Today they were even dancing in the aisles of the restaurant!

What a great way to spend a Sunday!  I didn't mention that these activities are free and they happen every Sunday!