Search results matching tags 'Events', 'Family Life', and 'Yucatan'

The End of the World?

435836 — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 00:54:00 GMT

You read all the hype about the Mayan calendar, the end of days, the impending apocalypse... right? Well, so did we and watched with much amusement as everyone outside of the Mayan world made their preparations. Some prepared for the end, fearing the worst, stocking their war chests and food pantries. Others traveled to sacred spots to celebrate the end of an era, unsure about what might come. Down here in the heart of the Mundo Maya, those who weren't somehow profiting from this whole phenomenon passed the day quietly, business as usual. Our Maya, or at least the Maya I know were pretty nonplussed about the whole thing. For our part, while we certainly weren't running out to be blessed by Shamans or watch the sun rise over sacred ruins, we did want to recognize the transition from the last Baktun into the next in some small way. At the barn, we decided to welcome the new era by acknowledging our hopes and dreams for the future. Some of us wrote down some personal thoughts on a small piece pf paper, let them on fire and allowed the ashes and our dreams to fly up into the sky. Others signed their wishes and desires on two Mylar balloons and set them adrift on the wind. It was quiet and nice and exactly what we all needed to start the new year off right.

How did you usher in this new era?

Travels in the Yucatan - Tizimin and the Feria de Caballos

435836 — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 13:59:00 GMT

In addition to visiting the Merida Zoo, we had a special day trip planned for the kids, a road trip to the village of Tizimin to see the Feria de Caballos (horse fair) during the Festival de los Reyes, one of the 5 largest annual festivals in Mexico. Birdie's trainer, Paco, had mentioned the fair to me a few weeks back, thinking it might be fun for all of us to see now that we were reentering the horse world. Tizimin is located north of Valladolid but even though we were traveling back west from Merida, the trip turns out to be about equidistant (time-wise) from Playa del Carmen. Taking the road that runs parallel and to the north of the Cancun-Merida cuota was fast and easy and only took us about 1.5 hours. Once in the town of Tizimin, finding the fairgrounds was not difficult. There was a LONG line of cars all headed (at a snail's pace) in the same direction and hundreds of buses bringing visitors from across the country. It is fair to say the town was filled to capacity!

Once we finally got in, we made a beeline for the covered arena where an equine exhibition was taking place. Ranchers had brought their finest breeding stock to show off and hopefully capture the interest of other top quality breeders and equine enthusiasts. Right away, we ran into a friend and fellow horse-nut from Playa and the only other gringo in attendance. She has kept horses in Cancun and along the Riviera Maya for some years and knows a lot of the breeders and trainers. One of the horses she had once considered acquiring, a feisty Friesian, was on display this day and we had the opportunity to meet him and his handler. There were so many beautiful creatures there.

Feisty Friesian

Look at the beautiful markings on this unusual wall-eyed Quarter Horse.

Pretty Palomino

Handsome Arabian Stallion

It was love at first site for me and this fine fellow. It's difficult to show the scale but let's just say this horse could easily manage Rob.

Prize winning bulls

Lisa found another friend!

"Life's a Beach" readers certainly know by now that I have a very adventurous palette. I am a true devotee of the nasty bits and all things offal! There is almost nothing I won't try, but here, I was faced with a real W.W.M.D. moment. There were things on la parilla that even I couldn't find appetizing and I am not referring to the whole head slow roasting over the hot coals. Rob snapped a few choice photos on his iPhone to send off to our friend Mike in Chicago, showing him all he was missing. Next year Mike....Kinnon-Lopiano culinary road trip to Tizimin! You in?

Ultimately, we ordered and shared a large mixed grill (over cooked and over priced) with frijoles charros and queso fundido and hurried back to the festival to check out the rides!

Yup. They're cute.

More standard carnival food.

Cute carousel.

This is Birdie's very favorite carnival ride, as you can probably tell by the look on her face. As if it isn't fast enough, the ride operators run from car to car and whip them around randomly. Huge fun!!

After the first ride, Cole has already had enough. Birdie is just getting warmed up. Where does my daughter head next? The horrible, plunge-to-your-death roller coaster. Super.

Stop.

Think.

Why am I the only one in line for this?

Even the ticket-taker looks skeptical!

Off to certain death.....

Can you hear me screaming?

Grateful to have escaped with our lives, we passed on "Angelo the two headed baby" and made a b-line for the always popular bumper cars. This was by far the best set up we have seen so far in our Mexico-Central America travels. The cars were in great shape with only a minimal amount of sparks raining down from above. There were lots of other drivers dashing and smashing about making big fun for everyone. Of course, the kids took several turns!

Another favorite, the Himalayan Plunge made even more exciting when the safety bar kept popping open!

Uuum. Barf. No thanks.

Going to have to pass on this one too.

Carnie folk, Mexican style.

Back in the arena, a riding demonstration was going on for a standing room only crowd. These were very good riders and very well trained horses. Birdie was amazed as the "cues" given very practically invisible. These "dancing horses" were a huge attraction for this crowd. I took a short video of some of the antics.

After the demonstrations, we made one last pass through the rides so the kids could try out this attraction. Brilliant actually, this was probably the most fun they had all day and the guys running the show seemed to be having just as good a time!

I am totally getting one of these!

One last look at the livestock on the way out.

This is NOT how you want your day to end.

By the time night fell, we were tired and passed on the rodeo and other night time activities as we had to drive all the way back to Merida. It was a great day and a great "authentic" experience, the kind that seems harder and harder to find at least on the Riviera Maya. The Feria de Caballos is already on our calendar for next year!

Go to: Day 5 - More Merida Real Estate Adventures

Daytrip to Valladolid - Part 2 (The right place at the right time!)

435836 — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 17:07:00 GMT

Well lubricated with tequila and sangrita, we wandered out into the square where hundreds of people were seated, dresses in their Sunday best, waiting patiently, staring at the enormous stage that had been constructed at one end of the street. Apparently, today was the day of the "Matrimonias Colectivas" a mass legal wedding ceremony performed free of charge for the poorer members of the outlying Yucatan villages who could not afford the process on their own. 250 couples, Mexican and Mayan, had traveled by bus and by foot from their pueblos to participate in this grand event. As they had opened the Cathedral of San Gervasio for the use of these special visitors, we took a quick peek inside, making every effort to be respectful to the worshipers inside.

We returned for a walk through the zocalo, sampled some marquesitas and watched the wedding ceremony take place. There was an "orchestra" of sorts entertaining the crowds and a raunchy stand-up comedy team doing an R-rated Mexican version of Desi and Lucy (maybe more like Dan and Rosanne). Judging by the lack of response from the crowd, I think most of the attendees spoke only Mayan. Maybe they were all just really uptight. I thought it was hysterical, but then again, I am a heathen.

Oh yeah. We blend.

Ceremonies concluded, the celebrants were treated to a toast of what would likely be their first and last taste of sparkling wine. We retired back to Las Campanas for a bite to eat. Plans for an early fishing expedition had been called off by our friends back in Playa and the decision was made to stay for the night and enjoy the festivities. We were close to the end of our meal when an explosion of some kind erupted from the far end of the zocalo followed by the distinctive "pop" of fireworks going off. Jody and I made off running for the far end of the park and were surprised to see another large crowd had formed along this street. As it turned out, we happen to be in Valladolid in time to celebrate the 465th anniversary. This was the first night of a week-long celebration and the big kick-off party! Caballeros on horseback, Mayan ladies in beautiful huipiles, costumed men with machetes and a small band of Spanish soldiers all lined up to play their part in the reenactment of the history of this colonial city. This was really too good to be true!

Thrilled but exhausted, we returned to Hotel Meson del Marques and checked into our rooms. We all took a quick dip in the pool to wash away the grime from the bonfires and fireworks (and some of the effects of the tequila) and retired to our rooms for a good night's sleep.

Our simple daytrip had turned out to be a full day of cultural immersion. We were in the right place at the right time with open minds and a flexible schedule. Not only was this an amazing experience for our friends but a real treat for us as well. Valladolid is charming and full of history and well worth a "daytrip", no matter how long it lasts.

Click here for access to all of our Valladolid pictures in our Photobucket album.

A Daytrip to Valladolid - Part 1 (What we planned to do)

435836 — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 03:16:00 GMT

Early this week, our friends Dean and Jody flew in from Minneapolis to spend a week on the Riviera Maya. We met four years ago, while we were planning our move to Playa del Carmen. We have seen them again just one time since but we all get on quite well and were really looking forward to this visit. I wanted to plan a fun day for all of us, a day full of seeing new sights and doing new things. As Jody had put her foot down and declared it would be a "ruin free" day, I settled on a day trip to the quiet colonial city of Valladolid. We chose to make the drive via Tulum and Coba rather than go up into Cancun and out the cuota road. The sticker on our imported car had expired in February and we figured, on this route, we would meet with less resistance at the state line. In fact, we did encounter a small road block but they seemed more concerned with the fact that our car has no front license plate. Two hours flew by quickly and soon we arrived in Valladolid and located the picture perfect zocalo.

Finding food was the first order of the day and we quickly found a spot in the courtyard at El Mesón del Marqués, a beautiful building originally erected in the early seventeenth century. Later, after serving as a private home to the Escalante family, it opened its doors as a small hotel in 1967. Since then, the hotel has expanded to include 90 rooms, overlooking a beautiful restaurant and delightful pool. We had heard such glowing reviews of the hotel yet, on our one previous trip through Valladolid we had somehow missed this landmark. I was glad to finally be able to experience it myself.

All four of us starving, we launched into our menus and had a difficult time choosing among all of the wonderful regional dishes. I started with Gazpacho Divorciados, a soup as beautiful as it was delicious. Rob polished off a plate of "not so regional" nachos and Dean, the traditional Sopa de Lima (Lime Soup). Our entrees included enchiladas with mole, a bit too sweet for Rob's taste, chicken tacos finished with queso fresco and a chicken and masa (corn flour) stew topped with a tangy salsa of tomatoes, capers, olives, almonds and raisins. Dean, an adventurous eater like me, couldn't help but order a regional specialty called "Baby Shark Pie". I'm not sure I tasted the shark but the accompanying bean sauce was very flavorful. Served with warm corn tortillas, it was a very satisfying meal.

Having stuffed ourselves silly, we decided a bit of exercise was in order to we set off in search of one of the cenotes close to town, Cenote Dzinup. With a bit of direction from the front desk at the hotel, we easily reached our destination just outside of town off of the free road to Merida. Dzitnup is actually two separate cenotes, Xkeken and Samuyil, the first being the most popular and well known. The site has plenty of parking, the usual vendors in their stalls and bathroom facilities. This was Dean and Jody's first cenote experience and I was glad we chose this one. Xkeken is accessed by a steep flight of stairs with a rope to hang onto. The steps were quite slick and at times, we had to double over to pass through to the underground cavern. The interior of the cave was remarkably spacious and eerily lit by a narrow shaft of sunlight coming from a small hole in the ceiling. Additional artificial lighting has been added over the years for the safely and viewing pleasure of the tourists who visit this site. Fortunately, this did nothing to detract from the electric blue glow of the water. There were just a few other visitors enjoying the cool water and the beauty of the cave, one of whom was nice enough to take our picture.

This was my very first sighting of the elusive Mot Mot, a tropical bird often found near cenotes. It's not a great photo but I was pleased.

After a refreshing swim, we went off to investigate the second and newer of the two cenotes, Samuyil. Dean and I went in to snap a few photos. This cenote is equal in scale to the first but not nearly as dramatic or inviting.

Curiosity satisfied, we returned to the town square for some sight-seeing a bit of shopping. The boys didn't make it too far before finding a comfortable corner pub and settling in for a few cold ones. Jody and I visited a few of the small shops that surround the zocalo but quickly succumbed to the beers calling our name. The last time we were in Valladolid, Rob and I spent a lovely evening in this same restaurant, Las Campanas, drinking margaritas and listening to music. We were happy to see the place hasn't changed a bit.

Half a dozen rounds later, we noticed an unusual level of activity in the streets. Police blocking off the intersections hundreds of people migrating into the zocalo and a large stage being erected outside of the restaurant. We paid up and wandered outside to see what all the commotion was about. This is where my plans for the day go out the window and the wheels fall off the bus. Check in tomorrow for Part 2 of our "Daytrip" to Valladolid.