Mar26: Palm Sunday and drive down memory lane

The Mexicans celebrate Semana Santa (Holy Week) big time but there is no sign of it anywhere here. We did see some of the members in a Catholic Church last week weaving palms like crosses preparing for services this day. Our room maid tells us her village will be celebrating. We are now having breakfast at the nearby Mayaland hotel, where we stayed 46 years ago. There is a magnificent view through the archway entrance of the “caracal” observatory building at the Chichen ruins, which glints in the sun in the morning and with sunset behind it at night. Magical!

  Breakfasts are really good overlooking the pool and tropical gardens, and made to order with really friendly staff to chat to and improve our Spanish, and their English. 

  Today we set out on the Rita Puuc, a drive of about 3 hours to visit some of the lesser-known ruins. There are 1000 year old temples on lands inhabited for 7000 years. There are few others at the sites. At Labna, you can climb all you want, but we don’t do much of that any more. Labna has great rain god Chaac masks, with many pillars intact and lovely details of flowers and decoration in good shape still.  

  At Kabah, the beautiful filigree comb is still in situ at the site.  Memory tells us Jim George, the young Californian we adopted on our travels 46 years ago, made it to the very top of one of the friezes along the top! (When we get home, I look up the 2000 slides I scanned last year and find that photograph again!) All the important pieces have been removed to museums but some of the best glyphs (Mayan writing) remain here, and are being painstakingly excavated and reconstructed. The Labna arch at one end of a long causeway to other major ruins is still intact and impressive.

  Finally we come to Sayil, where we got stuck in the tracks in our VW Bus all those years ago. It is now a good-enough road to a 3 level main temple, pink in the midday sun with lovely flowers and orchids and gorgeous Chac masks in good shape.. 

  Sweating and exhausted, we return to Santa Elena for beer and yogurt then to the hotel to strip, shower, change and return to La Finca Puuc in a nearby town for guacamole, veggie chimichangas, Pina coladas, beer and BBQ chicken salad.  

  Home by 7 we enjoy sitting on our terrace with beers, books, writing and enjoying the bats, butterflies, geckos and amorous frogs. We have had several mini power cuts here but not an issue. Infrastructure in Mexico is not robust.

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