Caye Caulker, Feb 1, 2009

Caye Caulker was beautiful when we arrived on Friday after spending 3 days with our friends in El Placer, a little town north of Mahahuel, Mexico on what is called the Mayan Riviera. There we snorkeled, walked on the beach, ate some delicious home cooking and had a chance to catch up with friends we met in Chile. They then delivered us to the bus terminal early in the morning on Friday, and we got on our way to Belize.
As we rode in the bus, we could tell we were getting to a different landform, as the rocky limestone soil gave way to a lush, more tropical area with sugarcane, papaya, orange trees and other agricultural crops.
Crossing the border wasn't the problem we thought we might run into, but it went smoothly and quickly (nothing like crossing from Chile to Argentina). After going through some small outlying villages, we got into the town of Belize City, jumped out of the bus, grabbed a taxi, and caught the very next water taxi for Caye Caulker.
Caye Caulker is a pretty laid=back town on an island about 1 hour's boat ride from Belize City. It has sand streets, lined with little wooden, very colorful houses and stores. Many are on stilts to withstand the high tides in bad weather. Vendors sit behind makeshift stalls, barbequing lobsters and fish, or selling handmade jewelry, shirts, dresses, or bathing suits. Everybody speaks to you as you walk by. They may ask you to see their wares, but they don't pursue you if you say, "No, thanks." If you don't want to walk, you can flag down a golf cart taxi or rent a bike. We walked almost every street, just peering into doorways or back yards, admiring the flowers, or looking for a place to eat. It seems that so many people decided they would earn a little extra money by turning their front porches into a restaurant or cafe, So, there are plenty of places to have a snack, a drink or a whole meal, some with one or two tables, others with 10 or 20. The Caribbean is an amazing blue, and we were very eager to get in it, but the day after we arrived, we had a very long and hard rainstorm. We grumbled but it did no good.
The next day, the wind was still whipping up white caps, but we decided we'd take a water taxi to the next island Ambergris Caye about half an hour away. It was a cute place, too, but much more built up than Caye Caulker, so we stay only long enough for lunch and a latte.
Today was beautiful, and we were glad we stayed an extra day. We had wanted to snorkle the reef here, and finally got the chance. We went out on a sailboat that took us to the reef in 3 places: Coral Gardens, Shark Alley and Hol Chan Marine Reserve. The coral was interesting, but it was not as colorful as the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Shark Alley was pretty incredible. There were sharks around the boat, but by the time we got in the water, the sharks were gone (whew). But we did get to swim with some sting rays, snapper and grouper. When we got to Hol Chan, we got to see tarpon swimming below us and so many very large fish. We saw trigger fish, more grouper, parrot fish, and some brilliantly blue ones. Actually, there were so many that I can't remember all of them. It was a very successful day with an underwater symphony of fish and a very beautiful sailing cruise as well. We ate well, also, with fish sandwiches, fruit and on the way back to port a delicious punch and ceviche which I will make when I get home.
Tomorrow we are on our way to Guatemala. I hope the border crossing goes as smoothly. I think the experiences there will be exciting, too.

Chichen Itza

We had seen plenty of photos of the largest pyramid called "El Castillo" at Chichen Itza, but to see it in the flesh was truly an amazing moment. After walking through the gauntlet of vendors, our guide Felipe and we came to the base of the huge and intricate structure. It´s made of stones, set in specific places and in sequence determined by the calendar. In short, it is set up to parallel 18 months (of 20 weeks each) with a 5 day month at the end and an extra step at the very top to equal 365 days in their calendar year. This, one of the seven wonders of the world, has 9 levels, divided into two sections by an enormous and very steep set of 91 stairs. We stayed for the light show in the evening which showed how the pyramid looks during the equinoxes in March and Sept. The sides of the stairs on the north side have large snake heads at the bottom, and when the sun hits them on the days mentioned, the light and shadow forms the tail of the snake (looking like triangles set side to side) which reaches the top of the pyramid. It´s really hard to imagine; I had trouble with it at first, until I saw how it worked with the lights. It´s a fantastic work, for sure, especially considering how much planning went into the design, and all this in the years around 900 AD.
But El Castillo isn´t the only beautiful structure; there are many, many others including an enormous ball court, an observatory, a throne room, a place where sacrifices were made, and a temple of 1000 columns. And, added to this, archaeologists aren´t even finished with it. They have uncovered only about 10%. Our guide was excellent and took us around every inch of the area. By the end of the day, we were exhausted but had to wait for the evening light show.
When that ended, we then had to find a taxi to take us to a little town called Piste where we, fortunately, arrived just in time to catch a bus the hour back to where we were staying in Valladolid.
Today we are in Tulum, but it is raining, so, rather than be on the beach in the rain, we are going to continue south and return to Tulum at the end of our trip at the end of Feb. I hope we can shake the rain!

Chichen Itza

Chichen Itza

Merida, the city of art & music

To leave the rain and land in a place of bright sun and cloudless skies is truly a marvel. Flying over Cancun in an arc that took us out over the Caribbean Sea, looking out the window and seeing the beautiful turquoise water below us made us eager to see the rest of this beautiful landscape.
By the time we caught our bus to the center of Cancun, the sun was almost down, and we quickly found our hotel and asked for a recommendation for a place to eat. We were guided to a lovely restaurant called Labna´ where we both had specialties of the Yucatan. Terry had grouper baked with peppers and a herb that tasted like it had anise in it. Mine was grilled with a lemon and butter sauce. Both delicious and it remains our favorite dinner, so far.
Next morning, we caught the bus to Merida. We passed 4 hours through scrubland that went on forever! Then, finally we entered the city and took a taxi to our hotel Luz en Yucatan. I love to enter places that have a very plain facade and a big surprise when entered. Once we opened the door, we could see through the outdoor square, filled with plants surrounding an oblong tile walkway, almost like an outside hallway, back to a second house which was the office and several of the rooms. There was tile everywhere, and farther back, we glimpsed another courtyard with a pool. Beautiful. Our room was large and cozy with a double bed, single bed, hammock (which we tried and found to be very comfortable) and a huge shower.
We set our suitcases down, and off we went to the main historic area, Plaza Grande. Along the way, we passed many buildings of colonial architecture, painted pink, green, coral, all trimmed in white. The cathedrals that were close to the square were beautiful. The oldest one in the state was San Ildefonso, and it was very stark, no tiles or paintings but enormous and austere. A huge cross hung at the front altar. The next one was Inglesia de Jesus which was the opposite. It was small, with beautiful hand painted murals of various designs and colors, all with gold trim. The altar was piled with white flowers. We ate at Villa Maria, a restaurant that had a huge skylight through which we could see stars as we dined. That evening, as we returned to our hotel, we passed by Parque St. Lucia where there was a fiesta featuring bands and dancers. Very entertaining and fun.
The next day we took a walking tour and saw some more of the colonial architecture, ducked into some museums and art galleries, and took in the ballet which had a full symphonic orchestra. Everything is far less costly than it would be at home, which is a wonderful addition to the enjoyment.
On Sat we went to our first ruins. Uxmal is one of the most important sites in the Yucatan. It is oriented to the North Star so that it casts special shadows and light at the time of the two equinoxes in June and December. There are four major structures one of which they allow you to climb. So, we took the opportunity to climb the pyramid up to the top. I wish I could add a photo here to show the angle of the stairs. Pretty steep and narrow and very amazing especially considering it was built around 800 AD. We then went to a second ruins called Kabah which was a smaller version but also with some amazing carvings of Chac Mool the rain god of the Maya.
Now we are preparing to catch a bus to Valladolid which is also a colonial city with much art and music. We´re eager to see some more of this beautiful architecture.

Adventures in Central America

Our next cultural adventure (we don’t call them vacations anymore since we’re retired and don’t need vacations as such) will be to Central America in just 3 weeks. So, we are busying ourselves with reading about the Maya and all the architectural wonders, their religion, the food they ate, their lifestyles, etc. that have been attributed to them. It’s an amazing period of time that spans thousands of years, and we are excited about seeing a tiny portion of that time period.
We are also hoping to catch some sun in that gloriously warm part of the earth, especially since we’ve just experienced the most snow in this part of Washington in many, many years, certainly the most since we’ve lived out here.
Happily, we will be able to celebrate the inauguration of our new president, Barack Obama, before heading south the very next day. What a happy occasion to send us on our way; we hope that people we meet will greet us with a different view of the US. I have positive feelings about our new and improved standing in the world.

Istanbul--one more time

We are back in Istanbul and have been here for another three days. We got caught up on what we missed the first time as we began our trip here three weeks ago.

The ride on Turkish Air from Antalya was smooth and enabled us to see some geography that we wouldn't have otherwise been able to enjoy. There are some beautiful mountains here, but what really struck me was the use of agricultural land. Along with the many sightings of water, the patterns really are quite lovely from the air. The view of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean was breathtaking (we were too early to land and had to fly around for about 15 minutes) There are many islands in both bodies of water, but the Black Sea is very dark and the Mediterranean is a not-to-be-missed blue. The Bosphorus Strait that connects them is filled with vessels, mostly oil tankers from Russia, we understand, but many small fishing and pleasure boats as well.


The flight lasted only one hour and before we could eat our breakfast of bread, tomato, cucumber and lettuce, followed by chocolate mousse, we were landing.

We took the metro from the airport which is quite a ride with the thousands of passengers, many of them standing, and our luggage. We found our connection, recognized our stop, and disembarked to another beautiful and sunny day. We threw our luggage in our room and headed out for the area of Istanbul which lies across the Golden Horn (a very large finger of water that divides Istanbul into yet another section). We got back on the metro and since we didn't quite know what connection to make, we asked two girls and lucky for us, they were going to Taksim Square in Beyloglu area, too. We climbed aboard the funicular, got out at the top of the hill and joined the thousands of people walking along Istiklal Caddesi, the great walking boulevard on which you will periodically find cars trying to weave through all the bodies. It is lined with restaurants, cafes, ice cream shops, bakeries, stores and some embassies.

We stopped to eat dinner at an outdoor cafe (almost all of them are outdoors--my favorite) and witnessed a three ring circus accompanied by a terrific trio of guitar, dulcimer and drum. What a show! The ringmaster was a short guy who was almost a blur in his movements of enticing people to stop and eat, ordering his staff to bring samples of starters, and making sure people were happy with their meals. Amazing to watch! After dinner we progressed down the street and stopped at an ice cream store, watched another 5 piece combo, looked in some beautiful store fronts, and tried to deter people from almost dragging us into their restaurants. It started to get dark and lights blinked on. Since we were up high, we could see the Bosphorus below us and much of Istanbul spread out like a web of a million lights. Fantastically beautiful.

We made our way down through very narrow streets past people who were eating, visiting with friends and enjoying the evening, over the Galata Bridge with several hundred people fishing with long poles, lines hanging down past restaurants on the second level and farther down to the water. We continued walking up the opposite shore of the Golden Horn past hundreds of rug shops to the Blue Mosque and to our hotel. It was almost midnight and still bustling with strollers.

The next day was Saturday, and we decided to go to the Grand Bazaar. It was far more organized and sophisticated than I had imagined. There were many small stores (4000 to be exact) all connected under one roof, and, although we tried, we were unable to see them all. We enjoyed just walking along and seeing all the colors, sparkles of jewelry and people in and around each one.

On Sunday we took it easy, getting our suitcases ready for our trip home the next day. We wandered around the area close to the Bosphorus and stopped in a rug store that we had visited at the beginning of our Istanbul trip. The owner invited us to stay for lunch and when it arrived, he spread out two beautiful Persian carpets, covered the center with newspapers, and set the lunch down there. The picture of the colors in the rugs and the colors in the Kiramet (a clay dish with chicken, tomatoes, and peppers), big puffy bread and pide, and the beautiful salad of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, and cheese looked like a rainbow spread out under our bare feet.

On Monday we got up early, zipped our luggage and caught our ride to the airport. We took one last look at the beautiful Mediterranean and the amazing Turkish geography from the air and then headed off toward Europe, across the English Channel, landing in London before taking off again for the US. Sitting beside me was a woman from India who was coming to Seattle to be with her daughter when she gives birth to their first child. She told me we should consider visiting her country. I think we should.