Akumal, Mexico: January 2006Part II: Thursday-Friday January 5-6
 
    To the left is a yucatan jay - we saw a small group of them just off the jungle trail and our guide said that they were ant eaters. They were fairly noisy so I was not surprised to look them up later and discover they were a type of jay! To the right is a termite nest up in the tree.
Below left is a picture Katie took of a portion of an original Mayan road (a sacbe). It is raised a few feet - hence, what appears to be a small rock wall - and 10 meters wide. They have found 16 different roads in Coba forming a spoke pattern; this extensive road system is one reason it is believed that Coba was a dominant city in the area. This road goes all the way to within a few kilometers of Chichen Itza. To the right is a watchtower along the road that also served as a toll booth! I guess if you've got the only roads on the peninsula you might as well make some money off of them!  
      Below are some more of the ruins that are excavated - these were in the Conjunto Pinturas area. You may be wondering, as we did, how did somebody figure out what the ball courts were for and that the Mayans believed in reincarnation and so on? Well one way is through stellae. Below the pictures of ruins is a stella on the left and a "translation" on the right. These hieroglyphs apparently tell quite a lot about Mayan beliefs and culture, including the prediction that the world will end December 23, 2012. (Hmm, perhaps we will go on vacation early that year.)     Friday night Gail, Katie and Barb (John still wasn't feeling up to eating) had supper at the Lol Ha Snack Bar which I thought one of the best values in Akumal. I had fajitas which were very good. We sat at a table on the beach and watched Bekah and Dave return from their night dive. We browsed a bit in some of the shops after supper, met the divers who stopped for smoothies, then all headed back "home." Click here to go back to Part 1. . . . Click here to return to the Akumal index < |
Thursday Jan 5: Over
the years we've gotten into a pattern for winter vacations of "doing
something" one day then lying around the next. (This is not what
happens when
we go to places like London, e.g., where we try to cram in as much as
possible. But then, there aren't any good beaches in London!) So,
having had a field trip Wednesday, most of us spend Thursday relaxing
and reading. Bekah and Dave went
off to dive in the morning; John, Katie and Gail did a bit of
snorkeling in the bay. Katie saw a sea turtle (left) and a squid
(right) which made her very happy. I walked up and down the beach a
couple of times taking pictures, while John explored the beach and the
Akumal version of "rock piles" which are mostly coral (below), which is
one of his favorite things to do. I walked across the street and got
some more
yogurt and pineapple and made smoothies. Then went back to lie in the
sun! 
Remember
Bekah and Dave went diving today? Here are just a couple of the fun
things they saw - a green moray eel (left) and a Caribbean Spiny
Lobster (right). They went with some dive buddies to Oscar y Lalo for
late lunch/early dinner. It's in the Tankah area on Soliman Bay and
gets good reviews, though is said to be a bit expensive. 
So
Dave didn't come to supper with us at Que Onda; Bekah did but just ate
dessert! Que Onda is known for their freshly made pasta and Italian
dishes - I think we all had good meals, although John suspects that the
"wild mushrooms" in his
dinner were not all an edible variety. Katie had the same dish but she
carefully removed all the mushrooms and John ate them, so he had a
double dose and was not at all well the next day. Our evening
entertainment consisted of things like walking around the condo to
watch the hermit crabs and observed the "wildlife" on the ceiling of
the balcony. The huge moth at the left was one of our favorites; the
little transparent moth (the black part is its shadow
from the ceiling light) was another. On vacation, we are easily
entertained! By the way, the relative size of the two is accurate - the
moth was very big!
To
the right is Katie's picture of Barb taking a picture of the practice
ball court. The left side has been restored, the right still needs to
be cleaned. There are 2 courts at Coba: the real one (next to a temple)
and the practice one. Apparently the object
of the game is to get a small ball through the rings on the sides of
the court (the one on the right is easier to see but it is broken in
half). Players are allowed to use only the knee, hip, and elbow of
their right side. This made it very hard! The winners of the "real"
games got the privilege of being sacrificed.
Since they believed in reincarnation, this was truly considered a prize.