¡Progreso, Uxmal, and Cenotes!

What a weekend! This Friday, I finally made it to the coastal town of Progreso for an afternoon at the beach. Progreso is really only a half hour drive from Mérida, but by the time I walked to meet up with classmates, took a city bus downtown, and then caught the Mérida-Progresso bus, it had taken closer to 2 hours. Mérida's bus system is...interesting; I've tried to explain it to a few people by comparing it to the "Knight Bus" from Harry Potter. There are virtually no official bus stops. Instead, you just stand on the side of the road and fling out your arm when your bus goes by (which is about every 15 minutes). Flagging down the correct bus can be tricky, since the route numbers are often hand-painted on the windshield in chipped, peeling letters. Grab ahold of something as soon as you step aboard, though, because the driver will step on the pedal the instant you've climbed the steps. He'll then take your bus fare and make change while simultaneously navigating Mérida's narrow streets and seemingly optional traffic lanes. And did I mention that all of the buses are stick-shift?

The long commute was absolutely worth it, though. What with the sunshine, the sea breeze, a good book and my Coke, I couldn't have been happier:

On Sunday our group took a day trip to the Mayan ruins of Uxmal and Kabah: 

Main quadrangle

Governor's palace

Temple of the Turtle

Group picture

So many stairs...everywhere...stairs...

Top of the world?

These next two pictures are from Kabah. One of the things I love about studying at UADY's School of Anthropology is that it's made me very aware of how discoveries about the Maya are still ongoing. The white stone portion of the building in the above picture, for instance, was uncovered by archeologists just six months ago. Before, it was covered by the earth and rough stones you see towards the top of the picture. 

This wall is covered in carvings of faces with elephant trunks for noses.  

After the ruins, we headed to a restaurant for lunch. My favorite part was dessert: crema española!

Next we headed to a Mayan village about an hour outside of Mérida to swim in a cenote.

Cenotes are underground pools of fresh water that were sacred to the ancient Maya.  They believed they were entryways to the afterlife. I know it looks dark and spooky, but there was plenty of light and the water was perfectly clear! It was also nice to swim out of the hot sun.