Robert and I took the non-toll road to Izamal and it felt as if we were stepping back in time in the Yucatan. The non-toll road is slower going than the toll road and requires extra careful driving because of speed bumps on the road.  These bumps, which are about 2 or 3 ft wide,  several inches high, and cross from shoulder to shoulder, could do real damage to a car if approached too fast. They are not painted so they  blend with the road top in most cases. They also are within towns as well as outside the towns. My guess is that as the towns grow along the highway, new bumps are placed near the city edge, while the old bumps, further within the town, remain. The towns have few cars, some motorcycles and there are people on foot or peddling tricycle carts.

The little villages are worth a look!

The non-toll road is an interesting road because of the little villages and towns it goes through.  Each village has a town square and a church, both of which are usually photogenic. The churches are still in use. Often a funeral, wedding or other personal and familial event is in process.

Baños (Sanitarios) Public Bathrooms

Something I hadn’t seen before in Mexico when traveling are the signs for baños or sanitarios on some of the stores along the highway.  The signs mean that the store is offering a bathroom to the public.  The few that I have availed myself of were clean. The charge for using the bathroom is usually less than ten pesos, often five or eight. So it helps to have some change in pesos in your pocket. Of course there are restaurants, taco stands, and handcrafts in almost every town. 

Izamal is one of our favorite towns

Named a Pueblo Magico because of its history and charm, Izamal is about an hour from Merida.  Our first visit there was last fall. It’s a very peaceful place to stay, there are good restaurants and the people seem to be very welcoming.  Actually it’s one of the  favorite places we have visited on this three year journey in Mexico.  For the time being, it is clean, quiet and not crowded, but I think it will become very popular now that the Maya train stops there.  Once tourists discover its quaint charm, its good food, friendly people and the very big pyramids (big, though not really tall), it surely will grow.

Xcambo Archaeological Site

From Izamal we drove to visit the Xcambo ruins near the coast on the northern side of the peninsula.  My understanding is that this city of the long ago past was situated and successful because of the nearby salt flats and consequent trade in salt. While the reconstructed buildings aren’t big, intricately decorated or as grand like those at Uxmal or Chichen Itza, the site was more extensive that I expected and there are several building groups to explore. There is also the shell of a church, built right on a Mayan structure, obviously an effort of the Spaniards to overcome any lingering vestiges of the religious sensibilities of the Maya inhabitants there.

Mosquitoes cut short my enjoyment of the site, though, as I hadn’t applied repellent before I arrived and they got me!

Sidewalks and Sacbes

The drive from Izamal took us through several small Maya towns.  We noticed that the towns all had raised sidewalks.  The sidewalks reminded us of the Maya sacbe ruins we have seen that once upon a time connected the ancient Maya towns to one another. We’ve seen vestiges of sacbes (sacbeob) at several sites. There is one, apparently, at Xcambo as well. In contemplating sacbes in the Yucatan, I think about the downpours of rain in this region and how this civilized people, the Maya, would have desired raised roads or sidewalks to keep their feet out of the muck.

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Recently I spent two and a half weeks visiting Antigua, Guatemala, the old capital of the Spanish kingdom of Guatemala. The city of Antigua,Guatemala, is a UNESCO world heritage site because of its history and beautiful architecture. I first visited there in 1963. Subsequent visits to Guatemala took me to the Mayan “capital” of Xela (Quetzaltenango), Chichicastenango, Tikal, and many other towns and sites.

Fears, generated by reports of the civil war that raged for two decades, kept me away until the 1990s, when I returned to spend a few weeks in Antigua, learning Spanish one-on-one at a language school.  I returned again a couple of years later. My recent visit was after a 25 year hiatus and I was very surprised by both the changed and the not-changed that I saw. This post will address some of the changes I noticed.

Brilliant Textiles

In 1963, brilliant textiles caught my eyes and I loved them. That hasn’t changed. Guatemalans still produce brilliantly colored hand crafted textiles. Vendors still wear the beautiful traditional Mayan garments. The women, wear long skirts, intricately decorated woven belts, blouses which are called huipiles, fabric headgear, and shawls.  They carry baskets, laden with their wares, often on their heads.

Everyday clothing for most people in the region is now a mix of traditional and manufactured goods. People wear what they want to wear and what is affordable. Traditional Mayan garments are extremely time consuming to weave, therefore expensive, compared to manufactured clothing, so people opt for cheaper manufactured clothing . Take a look at a Maya woman weaving in this video that Robert recorded at the museum of textiles in San Antonio Aguas Calientes. She is using a traditional backstrap loom.

Colonial Ruins

The earthquake of 1976 had a big effect on Antigua. While I visited in the 1990s, I didn’t pay much attention to architecture, as I was in Spanish class all day until nightfall. But on this recent trip, I visited some of the landmarks and old churches. Since returning home, I compared my old photos from 1963 to my new ones. Some of the ruins that were easily accessible are now gated or fenced off. On my next trip, I will chase down some of the ruins and find out more about their stories. On this trip, a two week visit, I developed a fever a few days after arriving, so I lost a few days of sightseeing. Hopefully,  I will return soon to catch up with my original plans.

This courtyard photo with Volcan Agua was taken in 1963.

Food

Antigua has many restaurants that feature the cuisine of far off places, German, French, Italian and so forth. Because of its status as a world heritage destination, Antigua has an international flavor.  But móy goal was to find a restaurant that featured a breakfast of fried plantains, beans, fruit, eggs, tortillas, and coffee, the traditional breakfast that I remembered from the 1960s. And, yes, I found restaurants that still serve just that type of breakfast.

Prices are a lot higher now than in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1990s. The food is delicious, the fruit and vegetables succulently flavorful.

Visiting Antigua, Guatemala, gives many options for dining!  I was not disappointed.

Shoes and Water Jugs

In the highland areas outside of Antigua, in 1963, none of the Maya women I saw had shoes. The women carried water in a round jug made of clay on their heads. By 1964, many of the women were still carrying water, but in plastic jugs, the same color and shape as the clay jugs. Too, shoes had been introduced. They were a type of plastic in bright colors. I think they were imported from China. Now, 60 years later, almost every person I saw wore some type of shoe. However, I didn’t stray very far from Antigua, so I can’t write about the highland villages.

In Antigua, where water comes to a public central location, water now is piped to residences. You can see the women washing in the photos at a 2012 article on Antigua here.

Cooking Fires

Women I saw in 1963 made meals over charcoal or wood fires and inhaled a lot of smoke. I didn’t really pay attention to that in 1963, but during my visit in 1970, I realized that it would be a very difficult life if I had to cook over such a smoky hearth. But many women still cook over smoky fires in Guatemala. Though other forms of stoves are available, for reasons of  tradition or cost, many women have not given up their centuries old cooking techniques and tools.

Cell Phones

Cell phones are common in and around Antigua. This could have surprised me, but it didn’t. I wasn’t surprised, because of the conversation I had with a fellow American during lunch while in Antigua in 1997.

The lady I met over lunch worked for AT&T. She was in Guatemala, working on a project to bring cell phones to Guatemala. I expressed surprise. After all, many people in the USA did not have cell phones at that time. She told me that mobile or cell phone technology was a no-brainer for developing countries, as the in-ground phone infrastructure was dilapidated and inefficient. It would be costly and almost impossible to bring it into the 21st Century. So, her company planned for cell phone technology to  bypass all the old infrastructure.  The new towers would bring Guatemala and other third world countries into the modern era of communications. And so it is! Cell phones are everywhere. Sim cards are available at the airport and at little shops all around Antigua.  I bought one immediately and put it in my dual SIM phone and  had cell service, data and phone calls.

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It was 1967, Haight Ashbury, San Francisco and I was in the newly opened Hare Krishna store-front temple. The temple was next-door to the Diggers, near the Panhandle.  The temple’s swami and founder, Swami Bhaktivedanta, as he was known then, gave lectures and led chanting. I attended on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings.  Usually less than a dozen people attended these lectures. The swami chanted prayers, led group chanting with his harmonium, and gave a lecture. His lectures were mesmerizing. Incredibly articulate, he ended his lectures by asking us if we had any questions. I was far too shy in that setting to ask any. But the others weren’t so shy. They asked questions about many topics, many about the Viet Nam war. That conflict was disrupting life for many of us. War and peace were the pressing issues of the times.

The disruptor of my life was my own actions

While the real disruptor of my life at that time was my own  actions, I also fretted on the ongoing war.  I couldn’t fathom why the war had started and why it wasn’t ending. The government’s reasons seemed unconvincing for many of us. Coupled with our lack of belief in the need for the war was our real fear of escalation.   Growing up, many of my age mates and I heard that World War 2 was the last survivable war. Many believed that future war would lead to the use of nuclear weapons and end life on earth.  We wanted the guru to tell us something about politics or how to end the war. But his message about war and peace was quite different than I expected.

Conflict is part of life on earth

What he told us was that war and conflict was part of life on earth.  This elderly man, the swami, told us that  the only way out was to chant the  holy names of  God. He offered that Hare Krishna was the very best transcendental method to use. Yet, he encouraged us to chant Jesus’ or any  name we normally used to connect to God.  In that way, he opined, we will be transcendental to the  world.  He said that the world only ever offers conflict, but spiritual life gives a way to transcend the conflict.  I didn’t really believe what he said back then. Yet the world is still as full of conflict as ever, despite organizations, movements, and moneys spent to establish peace. His words echo more true as the years pass by.

Transcending the Conflict

I took up the swami’s  suggestion, not immediately, but over time. Within the year, 1967, I gradually incorporated meditation, hatha yoga,  chanting, and prayer into my life. Reading scriptures of many faiths, along with attending classes and lectures, supported my journey. With the insights initially provided by Swami Bhaktivedanta, I perceived the common spiritual thread that connects humanity.

The gist of swami’s message is that we are able to transcend the conflict that is intrinsic to earth-life experience. We transcend, not by changing the earth, but by changing ourselves.

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We were surprised by the well-developed city we found here when we returned in 2021.  We stayed several weeks while we considered making our home here. But we wanted to see a little more of Mexico before deciding.

In January, 2022, we left Playa to travel more around Mexico.  We stayed from days to several months in various Mexican cities.

When we returned this past spring, we leased a newer condo with a great pool and a view from the roof.  After our lease expired we moved to a bigger and older condo two blocks from the beach and two blocks from 5th Avenue. I am really happy to be close to 5th Avenue, a walking street, where pedestrians rule!

5th Avenue

5th Avenue is a walking street in the tourist area of Playa del Carmen. It’s lined with restaurants, bars and shops selling clothing, handcrafts and more.  I suspect that lots of the handcrafts are mass produced in China.  In any case, the shops are eye catching.  Live entertainment in many of the  restaurants and bars as well as street performers in exotic looking costumes capture or assault the senses. I love walking streets and 5th Avenue doesn’t disappoint.

Running parallel to the beach, 5th Avenue extends for about five kilometers, with the action becoming quieter as the street extends further from the center of town.  On the beach itself, there are often public events.  Crystal bowl,  copal, and meditation  ceremonies at the new and full moon attract many visitors.

We swim when the water is calm and beautifully clear.

The Beaches

I often walk to the beach at dawn, which is a common activity for people who live here.  At that hour, a quiet vibe prevails, unlike later on in the day when the beach is crowded with sunbathers, vendors, swimmers and music.  Early in the morning, some take pictures as the golden orb crests above the clouded horizon,  others sit to welcome the sun in meditation, while others begin their morning swim.

Sandwiched between the mornings spent at the ocean and the evening visits to the beach or 5th Avenue, the rest of the day here is usually uneventful for us.  We haven’t found a native market, but there are supermarkets, where we get just about everything we need, and smaller produce markets.

Getting Around

Our new neighborhood is in a  pricey taxi district, so we usually walk to a different zone if we need to take a taxi to somewhere further away. 

When we want to go outside of Playa, Robert rents a car.  We’ve so far visited several of the archaeological sites on the Yucatan Peninsula. We have plans to visit more.

I Still Have Hobbies

Recently I decided that I wanted to sew or at least play around with sewing.  I was able to find two used machines for sale that are identical to the ones that I left behind in California.  I now lack nothing in the sewing department.

Buying the machines was  interesting in itself, because both of the machines were located in the non-touristy area of Playa.  It was kind of an adventure to go into the different neighborhoods.  And it meant that I was finally learning enough Spanish that I could ask how the machine ran before I bought it.

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Purse and Fanny Pack

1. A purse is my airline approved “personal item”. I also use a fanny pack that is big enough for tissue, passport, my phone and a few small items I want securely close to my body. The fanny pack doesn’t seem to count toward the carry-on allowance.

2. My purse is roomy enough for a change of clothes and a few personal items. I like that I don’t have to dig through it to use my phone or pull out my passport, as those are in my fanny pack. Most airlines consider a purse to be a “personal item”. It can be fairly big, but it has to fit under the seat in front of you. Check your airline’s website for a detailed description of what constitutes a personal item and its maximum size.

My favorite purse is a Baggallini shoulder bag. Inside my purse I stitched cords to which I secure my wallet and other small items. My wallet, key and passport holder have loops that I stitched on them, so I can snap them onto or off of the cords. The idea wasn’t mine originally. An old travel purse was made that way, but, since my Baggallini bag had none, I decided to add them myself. Though my effort has an amateurish look, the result works as desired. After accidentally leaving my wallet on a store counter one day and then walking out of the store, I realized that all my valuables should always be tethered to the inside of my purse.

Backpack or Carry-on Suitcase

3. The backpack or carry-on luggage has everything else for a short trip.

4. Since Robert and I actually have lived out of suitcases for a large part of two years of travel, we also have checked bags. But if we go simply on a short vacation trip, the fanny pack, purse and carry-on suitcase or backpack would serve me well.

Shoes

4. I wear shoes that are easy to slip on and off, as US flights require the removal of shoes when going through security.

Laptop

5. At security, if you have a laptop in your backpack, you must remove it and place it in the tray to go through the scanner. It can’t remain in the backpack, even though the whole backpack will go through the scanner too. I take the laptop out of it protective cover before getting into the security line. But I put the protective cover back onto it before walking toward the boarding gate.

Warm Clothes

6. I wear layers of clothes. Airports and airplanes can be quite chilly. Wearing the clothes will keep you warm. If you are too hot, you can take off a layer if you want to. Wearing the layers saves space in your luggage, too.

Drinks Avoidable and Necessary

7. The planes are packed full these days. Don’t expect a roomy flight. No one seems to get up to use the bathroom on these crowded flights. If you have any urinary weakness, do not drink coffee before you board the plane!

8. Part of the necessary expenses of flying is having to dump your water bottle at security, only to have to buy bottled water inside. And it’s pricey. But you really should not let yourself get dehydrated, be sure to buy water for yourself if you are going to be sitting around in the airport lounge for a while.

Water in some countries is not considered potable. I assume that includes tap water in airports.

Gum

9. One of the travel tips that I recently learned was to have chewing gum with me on flights. When my ears started hurting upon descent, a woman next to me gave me chewing gum, saying it would help. Chewing the gum really did clear the pain away as we landed. I will always fly with a pack of gum from now on.

More Travel Tips

You surely can easily find more travel tips by searching on the web. Here is a site I found that you may like: www.worldpackers.com/articles/first-time-travelers

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 The central area’s streets are cobblestone.  The cobblestones seem to be set deeper than those in some other historical town I have walked in, so they didn’t poke into my shoes.

Our horse drawn carriage ride took us by each of the four large pyramid sites in Izamal. Later that day we walked to view them. They were not all open for exploration. We climbed the largest accessible structure, though, which seemed enormous. Climbing the side to what we thought was the top gave us access to a large grassy platform, itself the base of a smaller pyramid.

Though Izamal is not as famous as other Pueblos Magicos, it is bound to become better known in a short time. Soon, it will be a stop for the new Mayan train that encircles the Yucatan.

In the evenings, we watched and listened as hundreds of birds flitted about in the public square jockeying for roosting space in the trees. https://youtube.com/shorts/Mi46-s8TYeM?si=iQIafgwk61wVoWLI

I would gladly visit this charming and ancient Pueblo Magico again. If you plan to go to Izamal, you may enjoy learning more at this site A Day in Izamal: The Magic Town & Its Massive Pyramid – Sailingstone Travel.

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We walked along the ancient sacbe, which is a causeway or raised road, which took us to a structure and to a beautiful cenote. I haven’t done the research, but the structure’s proximity to the sacbe caused me to guess that perhaps it served as a kind of “guard house” to screen people or goods coming toward the city on that ancient road.

When we visited Coba archaeological site, we learned that a sacbe connected Coba to Xel-Ha in pre-Colombian times. The sacbe facilitated trade between Xel-Ha and Coba. Xel-Ha provided goods from the sea and shore such as fish and shellfish.

The number of structures that we saw indicated that this was no small village, but a place of substantial population and importance. There are also archaeological remains across the modern highway 307 at the Xel-Ha park. We didn’t see those on this visit, as it is not connected to the Xel-Ha archaeological site.

Altogether the visit to the site took an hour or two.

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Arne Trettevik: The star Shaman of South Palm Canyon and his art is the subject of the article linked above.

Several years ago Ann Japenga interviewed me. Ann is a writer based in Palm Springs. She wanted to know about the artist who painted the paintings that I was selling. My response piqued her interest enough that she wrote the above article.

Arne, the subject of Ann Japenga’s article, introduced me to the wonders of Mayan archaeological ruins. Until I saw his slides (photos), I didn’t know much about what Mexico and Central America offered. His seven month journey in Mexico, Belize and Guatemala inspired me.

The gallery below has a small sample of his photos. Unfortunately, my scans of the original beautiful Ektachrome slides are somewhat drab.

Shortly after I viewed Arne’s beautiful slides of his unusual (for the times) journey, he invited me to come down to Mexico to see for myself. Without hesitation, I did, and we spent several years together studying and traveling. In those days we climbed the pyramids and often we were the only visitors around.

Ultimately, there is something about being alone in these ruins that expanded our awareness of different cultures and ways of being. Travel, in general, changes the traveler. Here, in the ruins, my sense of connection to nature and spirit was enhanced.

It’s some sixty years later and I am still fascinated by this region. Most recently, I visited Xel-Ha archaeological site with Robert. I wrote a blog post about Coba with photos here. I plan to visit more of the sites. Although I earned my master of arts degree in Cultural Ecology by doing scholarly research on the region, my visits now are strictly for my own enjoyment.

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Coba Archaeological Site

Coba Archaeological Site was our choice for our third day trip in the rented Nissan March. This important Maya site was not new to me. When I worked on my master’s thesis in Anthropology, years ago, I read many journal articles about Coba and the findings there, particularly in regard to Coba’s food crops and its urban settlement patterns. Robert and I then visited Coba shortly after I finished my thesis in 1990. During that visit, my memories of what I learned were very fresh. Alas, my recollections were not as clear this time.

At the site entrance, we hired a guide!

We hired a guide for a two hour tour and slowly walked the path from one pyramid to the other. Coba archaeological site is big and the featured pyramids are spread about. Though we walked with our guide to the furthest of the ruins that we planned to see, our guide encouraged us to hire a pedicab for the return to the site’s entrance. He told us that the fares for the rides help his ejido. So we rode in a pedicab back to the starting point at the entrance to the site. You can enjoy our view from the pedicab here!

During the walk, Robert asked if we could see the lake from the path. The guide led us to a spot where we had a glimpse of the lake. Robert remembered viewing the lake on our visit to Coba in 1991 from the top of the pyramid.

Our guide told us that since the last big hurricane the lake has had crocodiles, which washed in with the hurricane’s waters. He told us that prior to the hurricane, the lake had no crocodiles, so the people of the ejido used it for swimming, but now it is dangerous.

During the walk, our guide showed us copal trees and how the sap is taken and processed to make into a hard resin. Copal is the incense of choice for all the ceremonies around here and was during pre-Colombian times, as well.

Mayan Bees Are Tiny!

Our guide pointed out the Mayan bees on one of the trees. I read about these bees when working on my thesis, but I had never seen one close up. The tiny stingless bees make honey that is more syrupy than the honey of European bees. They live in trees. I was fascinated to see them up close. Later, at an store at the site’s entrance, we purchased a tiny jar of it!

The surprise that I enjoyed on this visit was the opportunity to walk among the trees along the path. The heat of the August didn’t seem to penetrate the canopy of foliage. It actually felt comfortable. Out in the sunlight, away from the cover of trees, though, it was challenging to stand and look at the archaeological ruins! A couple of days before, during our drive through the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, I had been disappointed that we couldn’t really walk through the forest. Here, we did walk and it was surprisingly pleasant. In the photos above, which are scanned from slides that Robert took in 1991, you can see how dense the foliage is in this part of Quintana Roo.

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Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve day trip from Playa del Carmen was our first day trip since moving to our apartment here in Playa.  Though we had other places in mind as well, the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve topped our list.  Up until recently, the comfy buses were great for travel between cities and withing cities, but we knew we would see more if we rented a car.  The car we rented was a Nissan March, a smallish simple 4 door hatchback.  Robert did all the driving.

From Playa del Carmen, we headed south to Tulum.  The main beach road in Tulum, Avenida Coba, is also the highway that heads south into the biosphere reserve.  Robert’s goal for our day trip was to get as far as the Boca Paila bridge. 

The unpaved road was a bit rough.  Since the car was small, Robert drove slowly and very carefully.  That way, he managed to avoid bottoming out in holes, ridges or gullies on the road’s surface.  The road obviously had endured some rainstorms since the last grading, but recent days had been dry, so it was a perfect time to explore.  Although it isn’t that far from Tulum, it took about two hours of driving on the unpaved road to get to the bridge.  The foliage of the reserve is beautifully green, deep and dark.  I would have loved to walk a bit in the forest.  It appeared to me that the plants were bigger there, the fan palms had enormous fans, the pinnate palms were tall with deep green fronds.

Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve is not exactly as I expected, but lovely nonetheless!

I expected a park where we could get out and walk among the trees along the road and access the beach.  But through most of the zone, at least as far as the Boca Paila bridge, there was fencing near the road.  The fencing demarcated private or off-limit property, so that we could not access the beach on the one side nor the lagoon on the other.  Some of the properties had signs indicating they were lodges or guest houses of some sort.  There is a rustic restaurant in the reserve a few kilometers from the entrance.  We did go there.  At the restaurant, though we didn’t access the beach, it appeared that we could have walked down to it.  The picture below is of the beach from the dining area.

Since we had planned only a day trip, I hadn’t done research on staying in the Sian Ka’an biosphere reserve.  We do plan to visit Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve from Playa del Carmen again, but not for a day trip.  We will stay at Punta Allen, the end of the road settlement that offers various levels of lodging to visitors.  Next time, to get there, we will take public transportation, a tour, or rent a much sturdier vehicle.

The Puente Boca Paila was the turnaround point of our day trip. We stood on the bridge and took some photos.  It was a very hot afternoon. Although Robert would have gladly walked to the ocean on the nearby path, it was too hot for me to attempt it and waiting in the car would have even been hotter.  Next time we hope to choose a cooler day for our visit!

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