mayan days, yucatan nights
i can understand why american frat boys and their prey jump on planes to make the short hop across to cancun for inhibition free fun and japes, but i don´t understand why anyone would bother sitting through an eleven hour flight across the atlantic for a brits on tour beer and beach frenzy which is available much closer to blighty. still people do it, and it was without a heavy heart that vicki and i got off our cramped charter flight in cancun to leave some of the dregs of english society to do exactly what they do every friday night in london suburbs around the m25 for seven whole days a couple of time zones away.we however had headier plans, despite being consigned to spend the night in cancun: we hadn´t arrived particularly late, but by the time we left the airport dusk was settling in and received wisdom, reflected in mexican bus timetables, is strongly against nighttime travel on the long but empty roads. still we left first thing in the morning and were at chichen itza by midday.
chichen itza is the site of the remains of an ancient mayan city, most tangibly represented by a honking great pyramid and the ruins of a number of other temples. impressive on paper, impressive in photos, but sadly a bit disappointing in the flesh. the first problem was that a recent edict means that you are no longer allowed to clamber up the 364 steps to the top of the pyramid (it is structured to mirror the mayan calendar), despite various pìctures suggesting this was the first thing to do on arriving. of course the reason for this restriction may well be the second problem, the huge swathes of huge americans panting around the site exclaiming in their well meaning, but ultimately cringeworthy, manner. for me ruins like this should to an extent be about quiet contemplation, but this experience is simply not possible for a site this accessible from the cancun ghetto... it´s the perfect half day dose of culture to legitimise seven days of corona and sleaze, and sadly the whole experience suffers as a result.
of course angkor wat was busy, giza was busy, but sadly the pyramid and ruins at chichen itza are simply not awe inducing enough to paper over the flaws in the atmosphere. as such we left glad to have seen it, but largely disappointed: a number of our plans over this fortnight were centred around the mayan experience, and chichen itza had me stumbling through a number of alternatives in my head.
the third problem at chichen itza had been the rain, which is unheard of in mexico in january: so much for global warming, it looks like all received wisdom on climate change is reversed to give me a global wetting as a punishment for my travel snobbery. this meteorogical freak show continued in merida, a pretty colonial town in the yucatan, as we managed to get completely soaked on a hunt for an atm. disaster.
the strange thing about mexico is that it may seem like a desolate backwater in comparison to its neighbour to the north, but it´s certainly no asian third world experience. this relative affuence manifests itself in an excellent infrastructure and high (for me certainly: no one dollar meals and three dollar rooms here!) prices, but it´s still no first world country. it makes you realise how overly simplistic the manner in which we seek to categorise different countries is: there´s the west and the rest, but the variations in the developing world run much deeper than we can be bothered to imagine.
we set off the next day for uxmal, another mayan site just south of merida. if chichen itza made me doubt my plans, uxmal reconfirmed them. glorious stone structures set amongst verdant hills with various blissfully peaceful corners in which to digest the surroundings. the mayans may not have matched others in the scope of their constructions but their own take on pyramids, steeply stepped and intricately carved, are worthy of any traveller´s itinerary.
heading into belize in the next few days for some rainforest time before continuing on for a brief foray into guetamala. this entry has been written sat next to an elderly mexican gent who´s been blasting latin rock out of his headphones, whilst simultaneously air guitaring/drumming/keyboarding (unless the dramatic sweeps were just an excuse to stroke my hand...) so apologies if it´s a little distracted.
posted by bicrom @ 12:22 am
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