At the same time, Amy and I had been dying for a vacation. Except for our trip to the UK that summer, neither of us had travelled internationally for 10+ years. So! Off we go to Mexico, both for tourism and for research. Hopefully we'd get to meet some real Mexicans and get knocked off our assumptions about life South of the Border. Amy knows a little Spanish, and for the rest we'd rely on arm-waving and our Spanish phrasebook. Click the right arrow to begin. Click on any photo for an enlargement.

Mexico City, the obvious destination, was right out because of travelers' advisories warning about theft. And we didn't think a resort place like Cancun or Tijuana would be a good setting for the book. We wanted someplace more remote and gritty, less touristy.

We decided to go to Merida, located in the State of Yucatan to the southeast, and to Oaxaca city, in the State of Oaxaca to the south. Later on, I ended up going to San Cristobal in the State of Chiapas, high in the mountains between Yucatan and Oaxaca.

Arriving in Merida

Johnny Monsarrat: An interesting car we found on our walk around Merida.

Strolling the streets, we came across these students with a dance performance.

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The poorest people live in huts or adobe houses in the villages outside the city. We saw many on Saturday as our tour guide drove us to the Chichen-Itza ruins.	These kids all clustered aroud the car when we stopped, asking for a handout. I paid them for permission to take this picture.
A typical village market. Adobe and stucco. I think the Mexicans are are 'stuck' on stucco. Coca-cola advertisements have invaded everywhere.	These people are pilgrims! It is a truck full of teenagers heading for the Festival of the Virgin of Guadelupe. They take turns running with a torch while the others sit in the truck.
Me at the ruins of Chichen-Itza. My favorite of all the ruins on our Mexico trip.	Amy & me in front of the \'observatory\', where the ancient Mayans are thought to have stargazed
The noses on these ugly creatures have something to do with praying to the Rain Gods

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Doesn't this look like a basketball hoop? That's what it is! The ancient Mayans used to play a ball game in this court.	Our guide, Jorge, with Amy in the 'ball court'. The ancient Mayans played a kind of basketball here. Also, they performed human sacrifices. Would the gods be more satisfied to receive the winner of the game, or the loser?
A really huge pyramid.	On top of the really huge pyramid. In this photo, we're smiling, but actually we're scared to death of falling off the ledge right behind us.
It looks even bigger when you're climbing up it like this. It's steep. We had to go down by sitting down and shuffling one step at a time.	Snakes were very important in the Mayan mythology

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An indoor cooking area.	A small backyard
I'm getting the idea that poverty isn't a straightforward 'pity us and give us money' deal. Many people are happy living in conditions like this. Others want out but can't get out. Many just don't have contact with the outside world at all, so they don't know a more comfortable way of life exists.	Our guide says the walls are white so they can see snakes crawling on the walls more easily. I wonder if he's kidding us.

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They had Boy Scouts letting people into the church one group at a time for mass after mass after mass.	Pilgrims arrive at the church, chanting 'Maria! Maria!' or (in Spanish) 'M! A! R, I, A!'.
The pilgrims snuff their torch at the front door of the church and then go inside to take part in mass. The cultural lesson here is that Mexicans take their religion very seriously.	Behind the church, there was this drop poster of the Virgin of Guadelupe, so that people can get their pictures taken in front of it.

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Everybody is eating and having a great time. Notice the intrusion of the Coca-Cola logo again. It's everywhere.	Selling stuff in front of the church, mainly religious icons.
Meanwhile, across the street in the small park, carnival games and food vendors have set up. The kids especially are having fun and chatting animatedly.	What is this machine? I think this guy is making fried dough.

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Fresh vegetables outside the meat market	Amy's buying a hat. We're a little afraid about trying any of the food or drink, for health reasons.
This lady is selling 'horchata', a frothy light brown drink sold in old soda bottles. It's a drink made from rice, very thick like syrup. You mix with with cinnamon and sugar (or honey). Not for gringos like us who worry about Montezuma's Revenge.	Plenty of religious icons. Guess who's in the middle of the yellow 'star rays'.

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You guessed it! They are really wild about the Virgin of Guadelupe. Here are more pilgrims.	It's hot and there's unrefigerated meat indoors. Our guide says the meat won't go bad, because most of the meat is animals freshly killed this morning and will get sold today.
One of the many churches hovers over the marketplace.	To one side of the market, there's a 'tortilla' shop. It's like an Internet cafe, except these women don't come here to sip coffee and read email. They're here to rent the machines that grind corn and make tortillas.

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The big pyramid. No climbing allowed. We saw some tourists got caught up there and get thrown out the park.	A tree ruins what would otherwise be a nice photo. Same pyramid.
Old & New. The ruins on the right, and way in the back on the left middle, that's a modern office building.	Great fun climbing up and down and around the stonework.
What an amazing sight this is! It's hard to convey through a scrapbook. You just sort of feel the vibrations of the ages here.	These ruins are extensive. My #2 pick for ruins we saw in Mexico.

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more noses for rain	Amy in front of one of the Mayan arches, an architectural theme we see from time to time in the city also.
Can you believe this ornamental stonework is over 600+ years old? At one time, it was painted, and must have been even more impressive.	This was the most impressive area: an arena of some sort. We just sat here for a while and imagined the ancient Mayans going about their business. In the evenings, they have 'light shows' here with colored spotlights.
Me in the ball court. Right behind me is the 'hoop'. I'm not making this hoop thing up, I swear.	More pilgrims. We saw them on the road every ten minutes!

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The nearby college.	We visited the computer center and met a nerd, Mexico-style! This fellow was tremendously nice to us. He is a system administrator and had many funny anecdotes for us. I asked him strange questions like, if James Bond broke in here, could he accomplish something exciting that I could write about. Those loco Americans!
These guys are biologists working in agriculture and food technology. We learned a lot about how science is done here in Mexico. The most frustrating them for them is not having rapid access to lab supplies. The Mexican government places limits because they're worried about chemicals being used to process illegal drugs.	One of the University's labs. In Mexico, it's hard to compete with researchers in the USA for new discoveries because in Mexico lab supplies always take too long to arrive, and the Mexico peso can't buy much.

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These are the oldest ruins we've seen yet. Really amazing. Repair work is underway.	The surrounding jungle hasn't been cut away, so we're right in the thick of it. Unlike the other ruins we've seen, they are not mobbed by tourists. It's quiet and peaceful here.
Our guide, Jorge, with Amy. I think he thinks we're crazy to be taking so many pictures. I want to catch the visual flavor of these places so I can write about them more accurately.	Archeologists have marked all these stones so they can move 'em around during the renovation.

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Note the mountains in the background. Oaxaca was cleaner and more upscale than Merida.

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