les aventures mexicain de dana

... that i am alive down here and i miss every one of you back in the states.

more updates have been made into a word document for my professors. they will be posted when i get home and/or when i get to san cristobal and have civilization in my life. sorry for the inconvenience haha

love, dana

            We have officially left society and civilization as I’ve known it my entire life. We are now in the semi-deciduous forest of Yucatan, residing in the biocultural reserve of Kaxil Kiuic. What is a biocultural reserve?: a reserve that keeps both biologically important sites – trees, animals, lakes, creeks, etc – as well as culturally important sites. A word I learned today is patrimony: synonymous to culture incase you were ignorant as I was. Anyway, we’re living in “huts” which are also known as “palapas.” They are round, yellow buildings equipped with a bathroom and six hammocks. Emily, Katie, Amanda, Ashley and Caitlin are in my hut; I’ve got a hammock by the window and I’m in love with it already. Who knew sleeping on a hammock could be so comfortable? Not to mention studying in one… very conducive to naps, but I’m getting some serious progress on The Selfish Gene done lounging en hamaca.

            There is a Maya ruin on site (hence the cultural part of biocultural) which we got to visit. Not your average Mayan ruin. No tourists, no huge temples, no decorum, no circumstance. I thought it was beautiful. We were the only group on site, and we got special privileges to see what usually only archaeologists and anthropologists get to see; it gave the site a sense of intimacy that no other site has had yet. James, the director of the site, led us around with Rebecca and the Dawleys of course and he explained the site in a way that truly allowed us to understand the people who had lived here and why they planned their city as they did. The Puuc style was an obvious indicator to the region we were in – the Puuc hills – and the Stephens & Catherwood presence seemed a source of pride for James as he talked about their visits. We stood in the ruins of an ancient Maya house that the two explorers had hung their own hammocks in and spent the night. We saw a building called “the house of diamonds” that they single handedly destroyed effectively. One of the men simply HAD to have a capstone from the building – the final block put in a building, a sort of corner stone if you will – and once he removed it, found it was too heavy to bring back with him. So, he left a note telling whoever found it next to please mail it to him in New York. Pretty pretentious, isn’t it?

            Besides the house of diamonds there were tons of other structures, mostly living and gathering areas. A funny anecdote I thought I’d share: Next to a palace/elite hangout an archaeologist was excavating one day with a team of locals. She started to uncover the dirt and noticed a staircase, of sorts. Two large structures on either side of the protruding step. Let your imagination work here for a bit, go on… This woman and her team had discovered an ancient Mayan penis staircase! It has since been re-covered in dirt again, but that story still made us laugh for a bit. Imagine walking up a flight of phalluses to get where you’re going?

            The house of diamonds was our last stop for Kiuic and we took a long hike on a new trail back to camp before a much welcomed lunch. I’m actually enjoying Kiuic; it isn’t the terror that we all anticipated. Sure, power is limited and the showers are like standing under a FREEZING water hose, and a rooster crows at 5 am, but I am enjoying being a bit isolated. For one, there’s no light pollution so the stars are unbelievable out here. And, you can always hear a different kind of bird singing or a frog croaking. But what takes the cake are the bats: we set up mist nets at night to catch them, and they are inexplicably awesome. There are 3 different kinds here: Vespertillionidae, Mormoopidae and Phyllostomidae. I know that means nothing to you so here are some layman’s terms. Vespertillionidae are the teeny tiny bats found all over the world, mormoopidae have big lips so we call them Angelina Jolie bats, and Phyllostomidae are leaf nosed bats which literally look like what they’re titled. Vampire bats are desmodontidae, and aren’t found here in Kiuic. I remember being little and standing in the Staten Island Zoo staring for ever at the vampire bat exhibit with my dad and now I’m sitting in a classroom examining them up close. Amazing.

Dirty but happy,

Dana

            Another three-site day for the UC Explorers: Kabah, Sayil and Labna were our destinations for the day, and what a long day it was. All three were impeccable examples of the three different Puuc styles: early, colonette and mosaic. They were also all smaller sites which made for quick visits and honestly, easy confusion. All within a small radius of one another, the travel was light and the study enjoyable; it is only now as I sit and try to discern the three am I finding myself blending the three together and reaching for my field notebook.

            Kabah, our first site, was named by a priest. It means something along the lines of:  “lord of the strong and powerful hand”. There is a 22 kilometer sacbeh (roadway) that connects Kabah to Uxmal which starts with an early Puuc arch standing alone. There were two complexes inside the site, both of which boasted Puuc styled buildings. The Palace of the Masks was an excellent example of the mosaic style; it has also been called “Mayan Baroque” according to Hugo which makes perfect sense. Think of a Baroque cathedral in Europe – you never know where to look first, it is way too busy with all the angels and carvings and demons and Latin sayings. The Palace Group was a good example of the other two styles. There was a building with a roof comb and colonette style molding, and another with little decoration at all in early Puuc.

            Our second sight was Sayil, “place of the ants”. Again, a sacbeh connected this site to the distant city of Mirador. We find 9 carved stela here and 7 plain altars, none of which have long count dates on them. The ninth stela was a group favorite for a pretty perverse reason; a giant phallus was carved into it. We actually took a photo-of-the-day with it collectively, which in retrospect was probably a bit sacrilegious. Sorry, Kukulkan.

            Third and final site was a quick one called Labna. It was hot, and we were tired, and so we got through it in record-time. There were really only three structures of interest there: a palace, a Mirador and an arch. The palace was built in phases and so exhibited all three Puuc styles simultaneously. El Mirador was an early classic structure seated atop a mound of rubble with a giant roof comb atop it. The arch we saw actually used to be the most famous icon of the Maya until Chichen became a World Wonder. It was beautiful, with cloud scrolls, witz flowers and lattice work carved into it. It led to a courtyard which had housed residences in its day but now barely hosted a structure with an “iPod glyph” which of course, we named ourselves.

            As you can see, the sites were all very similar and I hope you forgive me for the sparse entry. The take-home message here was that sites within a close proximity generally resemble each other and are generally constructed around the same time as well.

Cansadamente –

Dana

            Today is my brother’s sixteenth birthday; I spent it at the gorgeous establishment of Uxmal. It was another stunningly enormous site full of tourists, but I loved it nonetheless. Upon entering you’re met with the Temple of the Magician. It is a huge pyramid rebuilt a ton of times with a huge excavation hole drilled right in the middle of it. Now obviously the pyramid was not named for this hole, but I found it oddly appropriate. It made me think of a Houdini stunt where he could magically appear after being dropped blindfolded from the summit or something to that affect. Or maybe I just watched too much television as a child. Either way, the back side of this pyramid was carved with lots of Chaaks and witz flowers. Behind that resides the Nunnery Quandrangle, an example of the Puuc Mosaic style. Each side of the quad faced a cardinal point: the west and east structures represented the common middle-world, the north represented the heavens and the south represented the depths of the underworld, of Xibalba. On the east structure we saw our first example of the drum major headdress, poorly named in my opinion because I have never seen a drum major wear a headdress resembling what we saw today. Our guide, Hugo, was very upset at the Nunnery Quadrangle; it has been installed with a laser-light and sound show for tourism purposes. A true nationalist, Hugo saw the show as a disgrace to the beauty and prestige of Uxmal. I cannot say I disagree, but I can also see the country’s need for income and tourism is most definitely a huge contributor to that.

            I enjoyed Uxmal, there were again a ton of structures that I won’t bore you with the details of save the fact that many of them, if not all, had astrological connections that Hugo enlightened us all with. It’s pretty incredible the impact that the smallest details of a building can contribute to a deeper understanding of a culture. Really makes you wonder what anthropologists will say about our culture in 1500 years when the unearth Manhattan Island and Las Vegas. “These were people who obviously worshipped the square: look at the gridlock layout and strictly rectangular buildings they resided in. Perhaps these [casinos] were palaces for the elites and these [football stadiums] where they performed ritualistic ceremonies.”

In jest,

Dana

            Today after school a few of us went to the Museo MACAY (Modern And Contemporary Art of the Yucatan). Now first of all, I was not expecting Merida to even HAVE a contemporary art museum, let alone one that impressed me this much. It was located in an alley alongside El Catedral, hidden away from the ignorant eye, in a building reminiscent of the Palacio. Each room around the courtyard had a different exhibition in it, of which I got a few pictures of secretly ;] There were two exhibits I liked most: one was a black and white impressionistic exhibit full of acrylic and charcoal on canvas, as well as a few color pieces of landscapes – mainly ocean and sunset. But my absolute favorite exhibition was by an artist named Benjamin Dominguez. This man was so offensive that it was pure genius. His first room was a series of oils done in an angel motif; these were not traditional angels by any means however. Each painting had gold leafing and a striped scarf in it somewhere, and all were titled “la angel de musica” or my favorite title “la angel de Polaroid.” The Polaroid angel was painted holding a polaroid of herself in the exact position she was painted in. She wore a camera around her neck and held the striped scarf around it with one hand while the other clasped the photo. The angel of music was wearing a silver half comedia mask, and being a theatre person it makes me think of the symbolism behind comedia masks. I had to wear one this year for A Bright Room Called Day when I played Comrade Traum. This was meant to dehumanize me and distance me from the audience’s sentiment; the purpose I served was to relay a message and a purpose: I was a mockery of the communist party’s inability to unify their thoughts. So why would an artist paint his subject in a mask meant to hide her humanity? Is the point of a painting to evoke emotion or not? Shouldn’t the viewer be able to identify with the sentiment in the media’s message? This artist obviously wanted the audience to see his message rather than think on the beauty of his technique or the sparkle in his angel’s eyes. In my opinion, this has to be the most effective way of presenting art – it forces your audience to think for themselves about the matters you’re presenting. For example, one of the paintings in this series depicted Dominguez’s rendition of Original Sin. It had two surreal nude figures painted against a cloudy black background. “Eve” was presenting “Adam” with a wrought iron chalice while standing her right foot on a clear glass globe. Adam was depicted standing with his feet shoulder width apart looking at the chalice almost longingly, and painted as shadows running from his feet to his head were the signs of the zodiac – Pisces were beside his feet, Capricorn was at his ankle. Above which followed Saggitarius, Scorpio, Libra, etc. until at his head Taurus sat boldly amongst his hair. Behind Eve stood a serpent figure, obviously depicting Satan and his influence in Eve’s decision to offer Adam the “apple”. I stood in front of this painting, utterly amazed at the genius subtleties that Dominguez inflicted upon this work. I really wish the museum would have sold prints or even books of the artist’s exhibited; I cannot wait to find something of this back home to display. His second series was in a separate room: a motif in an old Victorian-style bedroom with a small circular mirror in the background. These displayed a series of events in a couple’s life: it followed their progress from love to the torture of an arranged marriage to adultery to the devil’s influence to the sin and familiar disappointment. There were a few paintings that depicted the subjects getting tattooed. I’m not sure what Dominguez actually meant by the tattooing but a good portion of his painting displayed and romanticized inked subjects. Perhaps he meant something by the coy fish and Japanese style in which they were all decorated in, maybe not. But the statement of tattooed figures in a typically Biblical era made a statement.

            When I thought of Mexican art, I never stopped to think that their art would be along the same lines as ours back home. I never thought that in a country where 75% of the population is devout Catholics, one could find blasphemous art displayed in three rooms of a museum in colonial Merida. Well Señor Dominguez, thank you for opening my eyes to a completely different side of Mexico. Art is something that one can appreciate regardless of language or background, but I really do believe that it takes a certain type of genius to present such controversial specific issues with such perfect exposition. A formal debate could be constructed from these works hung so strategically on the walls of MACAY, I really encourage you all to Google his art.

Siempre

Dana

            We visited three sites today: Acanceh, Tecoh and Mayapan. Yes, I know what you’re thinking “three sites in one day?” but really, it wasn’t as bad as you’d think. These were relatively tiny sites, and all were within a pretty short distance of one another. I like visiting smaller sites, I always feel like I don’t get to spend enough time at a structure to truly appreciate all the little things and idiosyncrasies that the Maya meant for the building to express. So when we rolled into Acanceh and I saw that it was a town square in the shadow of a Peten style pyramid, I got excited.

Acanceh was the most random thing I’ve ever seen. A Mayan pyramid just plopped down in the middle of a modern town, really? It had a forgotten air to ait despite its location though, as if none of the townspeople even cared to look at it anymore. There were 5 stucco masks on the first pyramid we visited, all of which portrayed a Jester god. In addition to the pyramid there was another structure further out in the city. It was an acropolis of sorts, and hosted amazing carvings which of course went ignored as well. Barely covered, these carvings had once stood out brilliantly but because of poor funding and lack of interest in the area INAH has not given the site a big enough budget to preserve its artifacts. It amazes me how a town can stand by and watch such a marvel go ignored like Acanceh has; just because it isn’t drawing tourist attention right now does not mean that with proper support and finances that it couldn’t bring the town a decent income.

            Nearby was Tecoh, a very simple Franciscan (however redundant that statement was) cathedral build on top of a Pre-Columbian mound. If that doesn’t get a message across to the Maya, I’m really not sure what would. Pre-Columbian mound indicates that a Mayan temple pyramid resides there. Basically, the Spanish came and built their temple right on top of a buried temple of a previous faith. They physically, figuratively and spiritually replaced the indigenous faith with one construction. The church was a yellow cathedral located alongside a mud-and-stick bull fighting ring constructed in honor of the town’s patron saint celebration week. The Church of the Virgin of the Assumption was an interesting example of Franciscan churches and their differences from the Roman Catholic churches I grew up around. For one, they’re simple: four white walls, Roman arches, wooden pews – the only extravagant feature in the place was the altar. It was located on the wall opposite the main entrance and was fully covered in gold leaf with cut outs where depictions of the Trinity, Mary and the patron Virgin of the Assumption were seated. The front façade was simple as well: two huge double doors made of wood and three bells near the roof.

            Our final destination for the day was Mayapan. I didn’t like it much at all – it was a miniature Chichen Itza. There was a miniature Castillo, a miniature group of 1000 columns, miniature sacrificial cenote. The Toltec influence was the same as Chichen, and it was obvious that the founders had either come from or revered the Itza. In fact, Mayapan was once allied with Chichen Itza and Uxmal; as the two latter declined Mayapan rose to power. The Cocom family who inhabited the site is believed to have come from Chichen and so the similarities are not surprising. It was an attempt by the family to glorify their past.

            If I had to pick, I’d say that Tecoh was my favorite of the day simply for the contrast to familiar life for me. I have never seen any kind of church besides a Catholic construction and the Franciscan style was an interesting contrast to the Baroque cathedrals in Europe or the stained glass, candle-lit, stone walled churches that I’ve always seen. Acanceh had such a sad air to it, and Mayapan simply brought back memories of tourist infested, disrespected Chichen Itza. However, to give Mayapan a bit more credit than I think I am here, Mayapan was deserted save for a handful of other tourists and I did get a chance to fully enjoy the substructures and murals and views from atop the mini-Castillo. But don’t take my opinion as truth – come visit yourself one day ;]

Hasta,

Dana

            After visiting such an enormous site, Ek’Balam was a welcome travel day for us. It was the polar opposite of Chichen Itza – inside a double wall, Ek’Balam rises to meet its visitors with a corbel arch leading to a functional – not ritualistic – ball court. The site is full of lush vegetation: grass, trees, shrubs, and tons of wild birds singing all around you. The true wonder of Ek’Balam is the Acropolis constructed by Ukit Kan Lek Tok which showcases the first found emblem glyph and the tomb of its maker. The Acropolis towers high enough to see rival cities of the horizaon – a sight I enjoyed for a good thirty minutes before descending. Across from the Acropolis was the oval palace, a shorter but equally impressive that Jon almost fell off of. We also saw out first example of East Coast style in a small structure on a hill. This site was welcome refreshment after the tourist’s nightmare of Chichen Itza. The intricate detail of Ukit Kan Lek Tok’s stucco tomb would have never been preserved at a site like Chichen, nor would we have been able to approach it on our climb of the Acropolis the way we did. This has earned the title of my favorite site so far.

Never thinking I could appreciate trees so much,

Dana

            We’ve been doing a lot of random things this week. Por ejemple: Ashley, Caitlin, Amanda, Shoji and I went to the theater on Friday night to see the Yucatan Symphonic Orchestra perform “Los Bosques de Viena”. The Dawleys went as well, but they had the good orchestra seats whereas we poor students sat in the $8 second-tier seats. It really didn’t make a difference though, the theater was so intimate that no matter where you sat you had a decent view and excellent sound. There were two ballroom dance couples that performed during a few songs, as well as a soprano and a tenor that sang a few accompaniments to the pieces. The show lasted about an hour long and then, after a few photos with Robert and Ellen, we parted ways to wander the Centro and find a place to spend an hour or two. We found a really nice place kind of off the beaten path which will remain nameless because its “our secret” haha It was really nice, open air and intimate and you really could forget that you were in a city while you sat in there. We all grabbed cabs home and then Saturday we took our first adventure as a group.

We visited Oxkintok, a Mayan city which used to be home to three major groups of people. At first we did a bit of birdwatching, where we saw a motmot (or T’oh in Mayan), a tropical kingbird, a tanager (which is in the cuckoo family) and lots a lots of grackles. We moved from the first site to our first set of ruins where we were able to spot turkey vultures circling overhead. But I digress back to Oxkintok. This city was built for presentation so there were a lot of bigger pyramids (which we all climbed, of course) and lots of administrative buildings. Rebecca Hill, our Mayan history teacher, joined us for the day for some light introduction to the Mayan civilization and informed us that the style of Mayan architecture we were seeing was called “Puuc” which literally means “hills” in the Mayan language. Puuc is a lateral style of building with mosaic fronts and a rubble interior; it incorporates wooden door jambs and columns on the corners of buildings, with columnets lining the ground level. One of the pyramids we climbed actually had a doorway on the side of it with a small tunnel by the floor; naturally I wanted to go in. So, Katie, Amanda, Shoji and I all strapped on our headlamps and crawled inside. We bypassed the tarantula in the entrance way without even noticing its presence. When we got to the the third and final chamber we stood up to look around and low and behold, in one of the upper corners we spot a tailless whipscorpion (subclass arachnida, order amblypygi) sitting on a web just sort of looking at us. I’m not sure if you know what a tailless whipscorpion looks like, so let me allude to Harry Potter for a second. In the fourth movie, HP and the Goblet of Fire, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Mad-Eye Moody, demonstrates the three unforgivable curses on a spider which he enlarges. That, my friends, is a tailless whipscorpion. Nasty looking creatures, let me tell you. So we all crawled out of the pyramid and let everyone else go inside, including Robert and Ellen. After that pyramid we went to another pyramid and from there we could see the remains of a labyrinth, a sort of subterranean touch tunnel which was probably used as a representation of the lord going into Sheobulba (spelling?) otherwise known as the underworld. Do not get the underworld confused with hell – they are not the same thing. Hell is punishment, whereas the underworld is simply where you go when you die; good and bad gods ruled the underworld therefore good and bad people all went there alike. After the pyramids and labyrinth we saw one of the Mayan ball courts in which I obtained my first bruise of the day. Once we saw all of that we loaded back on the buses and visited a site that had just recently been discovered – one of the Mayan’s sacred caves. There were hieroglyphs painted on the ceiling which dated to 1,007 years ago and in one of the caverns the archaeologists had found “an offering” which was a carved Mayan figurine of a head and, essentially, a pile of stones which did not match the stone of the cave. The cave then opened to a bigger chamber which was definitely underwater at some point. There were carvings in the side of the stone representing Chaac, the rain god, and there were remains of jaguar fangs and human bones further down in the cave. Let me just note that women were never allowed in the cave during the Mayan time, and thus I do believe most of us were unwanted in the cave yesterday as well. Yes, I am a person of science, but I believe life is more interesting with the possibility of a paranormal existence.

            Anyway, we left the cave and went to a cenote in someone’s backyard. It was really pretty, but you had to climb down a ladder under a well to get into it, and the stalactites were very close to the water. It was just as pretty as the last ones with much clearer water and we didn’t stay as long because we were all exhausted from sun and climbing monstrous steps all day. So after we had all had our fun we loaded the bus again and went home. On the way we stopped at a Mayan restaurant where we were served traditional food – sopa de lima, cochinita pibil and fruit. All in all, a very successful Saturday.

            So today is Sunday and since I’m done with my presentation I have the liberty to lay out in the sun all day, go shopping in el Centro and spend an hour or two at the internet café looking up all the wonderful pictures of my friends back home, updating this blog and with any luck, getting some photos on here even though the connection is horrific. This is the end of Week 3 of 13, and I hope you’re all looking forward to my return.

Siempre,

Dana

27 January 2008

            We’ve been doing a lot of random things this week. Por ejemple: Ashley, Caitlin, Amanda, Shoji and I went to the theater on Friday night to see the Yucatan Symphonic Orchestra perform “Los Bosques de Viena”. The Dawleys went as well, but they had the good orchestra seats whereas we poor students sat in the $8 second-tier seats. It really didn’t make a difference though, the theater was so intimate that no matter where you sat you had a decent view and excellent sound. There were two ballroom dance couples that performed during a few songs, as well as a soprano and a tenor that sang a few accompaniments to the pieces. The show lasted about an hour long and then, after a few photos with Robert and Ellen, we parted ways to wander the Centro and find a place to spend an hour or two. We found a really nice place kind of off the beaten path which will remain nameless because its “our secret” haha It was really nice, open air and intimate and you really could forget that you were in a city while you sat in there. We all grabbed cabs home and then Saturday we took our first adventure as a group.

We visited Oxkintok, a Mayan city which used to be home to three major groups of people. At first we did a bit of birdwatching, where we saw a motmot (or T’oh in Mayan), a tropical kingbird, a tanager (which is in the cuckoo family) and lots a lots of grackles. We moved from the first site to our first set of ruins where we were able to spot turkey vultures circling overhead. But I digress back to Oxkintok. This city was built for presentation so there were a lot of bigger pyramids (which we all climbed, of course) and lots of administrative buildings. Rebecca Hill, our Mayan history teacher, joined us for the day for some light introduction to the Mayan civilization and informed us that the style of Mayan architecture we were seeing was called “Puuc” which literally means “hills” in the Mayan language. Puuc is a lateral style of building with mosaic fronts and a rubble interior; it incorporates wooden door jambs and columns on the corners of buildings, with columnets lining the ground level. One of the pyramids we climbed actually had a doorway on the side of it with a small tunnel by the floor; naturally I wanted to go in. So, Katie, Amanda, Shoji and I all strapped on our headlamps and crawled inside. We bypassed the tarantula in the entrance way without even noticing its presence. We we got the the third and final chamber we stood up to look around and low and behold, in one of the upper corners we spot a tailless whipscorpion (subclass arachnida, order amblypygi) sitting on a web just sort of looking at us. I’m not sure if you know what a tailless whipscorpion looks like, so let me allude to Harry Potter for a second. In the fourth movie, HP and the Goblet of Fire, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Mad-Eye Moody, demonstrates the three unforgivable curses on a spider which he enlarges. That, my friends, is a tailless whipscorpion. Nasty looking creatures, let me tell you. So we all crawled out of the pyramid and let everyone else go inside, including Robert and Ellen. After that pyramid we went to another pyramid and from there we could see the remains of a labyrinth, a sort of subterranean touch tunnel which was probably used as a representation of the lord going into Sheobulba (spelling?) otherwise known as the underworld. Do not get the underworld confused with hell – they are not the same thing. Hell is punishment, whereas the underworld is simply where you go when you die; good and bad gods ruled the underworld therefore good and bad people all went there alike. After the pyramids and labyrinth we saw one of the Mayan ball courts in which I obtained my first bruise of the day. Once we saw all of that we loaded back on the buses and visited a site that had just recently been discovered – one of the Mayan’s sacred caves. There were hieroglyphs painted on the ceiling which dated to 1,007 years ago and in one of the caverns the archaeologists had found “an offering” which was a carved Mayan figurine of a head and, essentially, a pile of stones which did not match the stone of the cave. The cave then opened to a bigger chamber which was definitely underwater at some point. There were carvings in the side of the stone representing Chaac, the rain god, and there were remains of jaguar fangs and human bones further down in the cave. Let me just note that women were never allowed in the cave during the Mayan time, and thus I do believe most of us were unwanted in the cave yesterday as well. Yes, I am a person of science, but I believe life is more interesting with the possibility of a paranormal existence.

            Anyway, we left the cave and went to a cenote in someone’s backyard. It was really pretty, but you had to climb down a ladder under a well to get into it, and the stalactites were very closes to the water. It was just as pretty as the last ones with much clearer water and we didn’t stay as long because we were all exhausted from sun and climbing monstrous steps all day. So after we had all had our fun we loaded the bus again and went home. On the way we stopped at a Mayan restaurant where we were served traditional food – sopa de lima, cochinita pibil and fruit. All in all, a very successful Saturday.

            So today is Sunday and since I’m done with my presentation I have the liberty to lay out in the sun all day, go shopping in el Centro and spend an hour or two at the internet café looking up all the wonderful pictures of my friends back home, updating this blog and with any luck, getting some photos on here even though the connection is horrific. This is the end of Week 3 of 13, and I hope you’re all looking forward to my return.

Siempre,

Dana

            Hoy aprendamos el tenso imperfecto, es muy dificil entender quando mi maestro no puede explicame. Pero yo sobrevivirai, ¿no? En la clase de culutra íbamos al Centro ver La Palacio de la Gobernadora y Casa de Montejo. La Palacio de la Gobernadora es un casa que el gobierno funcione (y es todo para la fluencia hoy). Anyway, the Palacio is essentially Town Hall in Merida; the mayor’s office and such operates out of there and it’s really quite beautiful. It’s set up as a quad with an internal courtyard. Everything is framed in arches and there is a collection of historical paintings that depict the history of Merida and the Yucatan in general – pictures to follow, as per usual. La Casa de Montejo wasn’t anything exciting, save for the really politically incorrect edifice on the outside which had an inscription that read “Amor Vincit” or “love conquers” in latin. There were two conquistadors standing on the heads of natives, scaly natives cowering beside them and more howling Mayan heads below all of this. Flanking the doorway were the heads of Montejo and his wife, and between them laid the inscription “Amor Vincit”. How’s that for irony?

Dana