Day 6 - Mérida + Uxmal

Day 6 - Mérida + Uxmal #mexico2021

Wow that was good sleep after yesterday's rock bed

Waiting to go down for breakfast now, then a tour around Uxmal and "choco story" whatever that means exactly

On the way

Got some info about Merida and the history of the region on the drive here and now we're about to do the tour

The degree to which this is emptier than Chichen Itza is insane

Done with the tour, hopefully more to come about it during motivated down time, next up choco museum

Done choco story and now lunch time

Lime soup, cochinita pibil, flan

On the drive back I can try to catch up with today (still behind all the way back to like Tulum...)

The big pyramid at Uxmal (x is like a sh sound) meaning Ux (three) + Mal (times), allegedly for three times built and conquered but could be misheard and have been Uxnal which means bountiful harvest or something

Mayans were good at arches, they were everywhere

You can see that a lot of temples have been built over in many layers (possibly with the 52 year cycles they followed) and the add layers of rubble to cover and then smooth stones

More of the rain god chaac, and as a sidenote to the above remember that back in the day all these exposed stones would have been covered in stucco and painted

Towards the top of this you can see the distinctive puuc style (meaning hill) that is not parrot present in the other sites we saw save one entrance on the palace at Chichén Itzá

Can see a bit more of this ornate style here though this one has a few other influences if i remember correctly

This almost looks like a college campus and is theorized to have possibly been one, the buildings were built at different times but we're thought to be related to teaching, military "school" and administration

More Mayan arches and in the last pic a red hand which people think might have been the signature of the laborers or a way to say this arch was blessed, remember it would have been covered in plaster and pigments and this invisible, some of those pigments survive albeit barely

More of the buildings

Can see some of the other buildings in the jungle as they haven't been quite reclaimed yet, apparently before COVID you could go there in the dry seasons but they really limited the zone here due to it

Uxmal is much larger than what was accessible today unfortunately

It's one of the few parts of the Yucatan peninsula that isn't extremely flat so you get things like this view the old aristocrats and priests enjoyed

This was thought to be an administrative building and the top pattern is one of the purest puuc style representatives

Back to the main pyramid from the other side

Now catching up with the choco story museum, it's a short walk though a little jungle section that teaches about cacao and Mayan use of it

Here's the actual pods

Got to feed some monkeys, beside the chocolate info the place acts as an animal sanctuary for rescued wildlife including some jaguars (no pic because they were hiding)

Pondering moneky

We saw a Maya ceremony too

Feel a bit weird about it because something that was once meaningful and sacred is now commercialized

But I suppose it also works to educate and it's what they are doing to survive so I can't fault them or guess why they do it, just a weird feeling

The stingless bees the Maya raised that make a kg of honey a year in those stumps

Bee movie

Rough comparison of the timeline for various sites in the area

Birb and crocodile

And deer

And now I'm caught up for today, many days to go to catch up on but almost back at the hotel

Back at the hotel and now some relaxing maybe?

Dinner upcoming at the rooftop resto

Tamarind mezcal and sake mojito

Short rib Bao, surprisingly good

Pad Thai and Singaporean noodles were not bad but not authentic in any way

Some weird bubble tea "mousse" and choco cake eith green tea, they were good

Bonus pics of us at resto

Now we get to finish this season of "La Rueda del Tiempo" as the tv at the hotel calls it