Scott in Malaysia: CHRISTMAS 2010--YUCATAN, MEXICO!

SEE BELOW FOR THE ALWAYS POPULAR PRETTY PICTURES SEGMENT!

Well, 2010 has passed. For Christmas the family went to Mexico for 2 weeks. And it was fantastic.

We started in Isla Mujeras, where Jessica and I spent the first half of our honeymoon. We all met at the Cancun airport on the evening of the 17th, took a taxi to the port, and a ferry over to te island. It’s still quaint, maybe even nicer in some respects. They’ve closed off a street to traffic, and it’s full of shops and restaurants and nite life. We stayed at a nice little hotel Called Na Balam. Great beach! We ate lots of good food too—I guess my favorite place was an unassuming little spot called “El Patio,” that had a lovely little outdoor patio area in the back. I also liked a little coffee shop called “Café Hidalgo” (I think). It too has a little patio in the back—just one table! Lovely little spot with brightly colored walls and plants and the type of clutter that only comes with time. One day we rented a golf caret and drove around the island. It’s a bit more developed than I remember (of course, it’s been 22 years!), but still nice. It’s long—about 5 miles—and thin—about 5 blocks wide.

We spent most of our time sunning on the beach and splashing around in the water. And of course the girls shopped. There were times over the last couple of weeks when I thought that shopping would be my primary recollection of this trip—good grief did they shop! But it was good to lounge around all day and stroll around in the evening. One nite we woke up late and watched a lunar eclipse. It started pretty slow, and we began to wonder if we’d gotten some misinformation, but after a while (and maybe the information we had was for a different time zone)--wow! It was pretty cool.

After a few days, we took the ferry back to the mainland, rented a car, and headed west to Merida. Merida is an old Spanish Colonial town in Yucatan. After picking up the car, we headed down the road, but it wasn’t long before I decided that the car was a piece of junk, so we turned around, and exchanged the car for something nicer—a Volkswagen Crossfox—a cute little (!!) car, with SUV styling. And a much newer car—my confidence was much improved! So then it was off again—a 3 hour drive thru the monotonous Yucatan: flat, flat, flat.

Arriving in Merida was a bit of an experience. The town is laid out with even number streets running one way, and odd number perpendicular to them—and every other street in each direction is one-way. The street we came in on quickly deteriorated into a little one-way passage between old single story buildings—we began to wonder if we’d made a serious wrong turn somewhere—tho we hadn’t turned at all. Well, we ended up in the center of town, which was where we wanted to be, and learned that little narrow one-way streets is just the way it is. We found our hotel, the Casa de Balam. Like the Na Balam on Isla Mujeras, it was again named for the leopard, “balam” in Maya. It was a lovely old hotel, and we got 2 adjoining rooms that were very homey. And it was right on what we would come to learn was one of the “main drags” in town—which was ok, as it wasn’t so busy, but connected us to a lot of places in the city. 2 blocks one way was a lovely little square, and 2 blocks the other was yet another, with a beautiful old church. 2 blocks further along was the Grand Plaza—the main square with the cathedral, and arcaded buildings surrounding it. All the building were very old, well cared for, and delightful Spanish architecture.

The first nite we ate at a lovely outdoor café, and the food was fantastic. We walked down to the main square, and window shopped, and just steeped ourselves in the pre-Christmas atmosphere. The streets were lit with lites and the windows shown with gifts.

The next day revealed an interesting view of the city rooftops from our 6th story room. I really found the colors, the shapes, and the mix of old and new intriguing. Claire wasn’t feeling well, so Jessica, Sophie, and I went to the local anthropology museum, which was packed with Mayan artifacts and history. It is housed in an old Beaux Arts mansion built by own of the founding fathers, and is a wonderful space. There was also an interesting exhibit of photos of Mexican revolutionaries: Zapata, Villa, etc. The country, starting even with the Maya, has had a rather gruesome history. And of course, we shopped. That evening, Claire was feeling better—nothing like a good sleep—and we went out for dinner once again.

The next day we took a short side trip to Progresso on the Caribbean coast. Sadly, there’s not much to report. They have built an incredible 4 mile pier for cruise ships, but it’s closed to visitors in these post9/11 days—sad. But really—how far am I willing to walk to see a big darn ship? The town has developed a nice waterfront walk, but it was all torn up for remodeling, and the rest of the town is a little more what one might expect from Mexico—a little sad, a little rugged, and frankly squalid. So we headed east along the coast, “just to see.” I had hoped we would see some flamingos, as the area is famous for hosting large flocks of the birds in the local tidal marshes. Claire said she saw some as we drove along, but no ne else did. Rats. We stopped at a large “all-inclusive” resort (again, “just to see,” as this type of place is typically not our cup of tea), then headed south thru a few humble little towns. We got back in time to explore Merida a bit more as well, and ate at Chaya Maya—authentic Mayan food, and delicious—and very reasonably priced as well.

The next day was Christmas Eve, and the hotel had a Christmas dinner—or at least they tried. It was nice, if unexceptional. They had a raffle, and Jessica won a lamp—hereafter known in the family archives as “The Lamp.” God, it was hideous! About 16 inches tall, with a brilliant gold crown, from which hung glass rods that formed the shade. I got to hand it to Jessica, she was a courteous winner, even tho we, and those at the tables around us, all knew it was just awful.

Then we went to mass at the smaller church down the street. It was lovely, if a little hard to follow in Spanish. But one thing about ritual—it’s the same in any language. And the choir, echoing of the high ceilings of this little cathedral type structure sounded marvelous.

The next morning we had the most humble, and wonderful, little Christmas in our hotel room. We exchanged gifts that we’d purchased since our arrival, and Jessica had even brought a few things from home. Compared to our usual gift-giving orgy, it was very nice, and hopefully will set a simpler, more meaningful, tone for Christmas’ to come.

After breakfast we set off for Uxmal—one of the premier Mayan archeological sites. It was great! There is even a temple, called the Temple of the Magician, which is not square and stepped like most Mayan pyramids, but rounded, almost like a man-made volcano. Very different. It was also nice because, unlike Chitchen Itza (the most famous Mayan site) you didn’t have to “run the gauntlet” of trinket sellers noisily hawking every kind of crap imaginable. It was….serene. It was definitely a different sort of Christmas day.

The, the following day, it was packing up the car and heading off to our favorite spot in the area—Akumal. On the way we stopped at another little Spanish colonial town, Izamal. It boasts a convent and a church, built on the site of an old Mayan pyramid. There is a long ramp up to the cloister, reputed to be the largest outside of St. Peter’s in Rome. And the church, the cloister, the entire town is painted yellow ochre—it’s striking. There are 2 plazas adjacent the cloister, and a lot of care has been lavished on the town—it’s really something!

Akumal hadn’t changed much, and hasn’t since the first time we went, which is nice when so much of what is now called the Riviera Mayan has been developed, and not always too tastefully. Jessica and I had been there about 17 years ago, and again with the kids at Spring Break a couple of years ago. We stayed in the same condo as last time, and it was great. Nothing better than days of lounging on the beach, evenings of nice meals, and of course—just a bit more shopping (of course!). We read, and snorkeled, and slept a lot—very laid back. We stay in an area called Half Moon Bay, just north of town (hamlet is probably a better term), and several times snorkeled right along with sea turtles—very cool. There is also a lagoon that is filled with beautiful fish.

And, as is our tradition, Jessica and I got one dinner out on our own (god, it’s so great that the kids are older and we can leave them for a while!) at our favorite beachside restaurant, La Lunita. The food is always excellent, and it’s nice to actually sit on the beach and have dinner, tho it was a bit windy.

In fact, it was fairly windy the whole time we were there, which didn’t help the visibility while snorkeling, and even scared the girls a bit as the wind whistled thru the condo at nite. With the winds came clouds, but that didn’t stop us from all tanning ourselves to a luscious golden brown. And it didn’t put a damper on our New Year’s Eve celebration either. We went to Lol Ha, the main restaurant on the beach at the center of town, and had a fantastic meal, followed by dancing to Caribbean-flavored music. At midnite they counted down, dropped balloons, and we all showered each other with streamers. It was fun. The people watching was pretty good too—a mix of tourists, aging hippy-types, and locals.

UXMAL