February 10, 1996

Hi gang

This is the last letter of a 5part Mexico series.

I ended the last letter in Valladolid, just before we went to Chichen Itza, which is the most famous and bestrestored of the Mayan ruins. We tried to log onto the internet from the hotel, but were thwarted by the phone line, which was pulse, not touch tone. We were able to dial to the computer in Merida but we couldn't get it to work after that point and we didn't know if it was supposed to or not. Anyway, Chichen itza...People started living at that sight well before there were Mayans and it was still an important, if decrepit religious site at the time of the conquest. It was a halfhour drive from Valladolid, two lane road through Mayan villages and over "topes." We hired a guide named Adrian, who told us that he has been doing this for 13 years. Adrian, who appears to be in his 40's lives in Merida and takes the bus back and forth (2 hours each way) every day. Chichen Itza basically comes in 2 parts. The old part, which dates from the Mayan classic period, looks a lot like Uxmalthe architectural style is almost the same. Some time after 900 A.D., Mayan society fell apart. It was always a very authoritarian system and one of the theories of its demise is that new ideas began to come in and the lower class rebelled. About 50 years later the Toltecs arrived from another part of Mexico and combined with the Mayans. It was this combined civilization that built the newer part which dates from 1000 to 1200 A.D. As before, all kinds of pyramids and temples and ball courts were built and rebuilt, but the amazing part it that they truly combined the cultures. Thus, the primary god of the Mayans had been Chaac (remember the rain god) and they had a lot of rattlesnakes and jaguars. The Toltec's primary god was Quetzalcoatl (had to look up the spelling!) who was simultaneously portrayed as man, serpent and eagle, and I think was the corn god. On the building built during the later era, both sets of symbols are given equal time. Everywhere, one could see where the cultures were simply put together. The Toltec, on the other hand, are really famous for stepping up the human sacrifice aspect of the Mayan culture. Human sacrifice was considered essential, especially during droughts. It took various forms. On the ball court, as clearly depicted in murals on the walls, a sort of game was played with 7 men on a side and a rubber ball. Hands could not be used to know the ball around. The object of the game was to pass the ball to one of the captains who was on a wide ledge on either side of the ball field (think basketball courtsized or a bit bigger). The captain tried to get the ball to go through a vertical stone hoop which was perpendicular to the wall on the side of the court. The game may have taken days, and there was ample space for spectators above the walls of the court. The captain of the winning team by virtue of his victory, had the honor of having his head cut off by the captain of the losing team. There was a special place for this too, on a platform built on a stone foundation. All of the top stones of the foundation had human skulls carved into them. The platform itself was huge (perhaps 50 ft long and 15 feet wide) with tshape (the base of the t coming out perhaps another 30 feetthat's where the nobles sat for the ceremony). The skull of the "winning" captain was buried in the platform and by the limited number of skulls found, it is believed that this wasn't done too often. They had another ritual involving tearing the heart out of nobles who were captured in battle (or something like that). I won't describe itthe curious can see it portrayed on a mural and also see where it was done. The third method involved a sacred cenote (place filled with water) at Chichen Itza. There were several cenotes there, but this one doesn't have fresh water, so it wasn't used for drinking. Instead, it was considered the home of Chaac and the entrance to the underworld. So if someone wanted to offer something to Chaac, they simply (or perhaps, actually there was a great deal of ceremony to it) tossed it into the cenote. It is known that one of the remedies for drought was to provide Chaac with a wifean elaborately dressed virginI think you can imagine the rest. The cenote still has religious significance for Mayans. A very small part of the cenote was dredged in the late 1800's and yielded all kinds of pottery, jewelry, rubber balls and human bones. The mud at the bottom is several feet deep and apparently they are still trying to figure out a way to dredge it. Adrian said that the Mexican government tried to pump all of the water out of it, but they pumped it onto the nearby ground and it came right back. Divers were unable to deal with the mud.

Also, more than at Uxmal, there a little bits of the original pavement (everything was paved and painted) and original stucco over the carvings. You can see bits of color and try to imagine the rest. It was fascinating, yet at the same time frustrating. It was like one of those dioramas (sp?) at the museum where you see the indigenous family in some typical family activity, only you don't see the human forms, only the skeletons, and there is no color. It is clear that Chichen Itza was an almost psychedelic city filled with people dressed in equally psychedelic costumesbeautified by flattened foreheads, crossed eyes and objects stuck into noses and ears and whatever else they could think of and teeth inlaid with jade (or in the case of women filed into a sawlike shape). Our tour lasted 3 hours and we were totally exhausted by it. We didn't even think about climbing the pyramids. We did ask Adrian is the Mayan religion is still practiced, and he said it was, but "Not in the churches, it the fields." People still pray to Chaac when they feel the need."

After lunch we went back and shopped. There are at least a hundred vendors just inside the entrance to the grounds. We knew it was our last opportunity to shop, so we went at it. I didn't realize though, that when you get things home they look even neater than they did when you bought them. We had fun.

Back to Valladolid in time for dinner. Meanwhile, the owner of the place we were staying was in crisis. The bank was suddenly refusing to honor his visa and mastercard charge slips and he was $9000 in the hole. He said it was because the politicians control the banks. He wanted to know if we had an American Express card with us. Well, I do, but it was at home. Also, we had spent virtually all of our pesos and needed at ATM. According to the owner there was only one in Valladolid (Bancomer) and we already knew it didn't take anything by Bancomer ATM cards. We had about 23 US dollars, which could have sufficed for our needs but we didn't want to have to worry about money. Back in the room, I went through the phone book and found that there was a branch of the Banco Sureste in town, about 34 blocks away. I insisted on walking, because it seemed close on the map. Poor Vally, that was the last thing on earth he wanted to do. Happily, we found it and it did have an ATM (cajero automatico), so we had pesos again. We went to a different restaurant and ate a lot of cheap, passable food. Total bill around $7 for both of us.

Apparently the school show only happens on Mondays. There was kid noise and the male voice on the PA, but I think I could have slept through it. We went to the "bazaar" on the corner for breakfast. It is like the food court part of the mercado, but there is no mercado. We quickly discovered that they only served instant coffee, so we retreated back to our hotel (25 feet away) and had coffee before returning to the bazaar for breakfast. I had a licuado (banana and milk shake) and Vally had chicken tacos (we started to consciously avoid the fried stuff which is all cooked in lard). We decided to help out our host by going back to the ATM to get our bill in pesos. When we got there, it was not working. We waited for about 20 minutes until the bank official (who looked totally Mayan in his features, except his skin was white not brown) and found that it would not be operational until that afternoon and also that there was absolutely no way to obtain money using a Visa card, as one can in the US, except by using the ATM. On the way back, we decided to give the owner as many pesos as we could spare. We wound of paying about 3/4 of the bill in pesos and the rest on Visa, which, we assume, he will be able to redeem at some point. A lesson about the third worldyou can count on things being there when you need them. A lesson we got to learn again later in the day. Anyway, we packed up our purchases and the shells and I put what I wanted on the plane in a little bag we purchased on the way back to the hotel.

We left for Cancun. The plan was to get there about 1 1/2 hours earlier than needed and drive around to see the beaches. We set off on the second part of the noaccess, noexits toll road. As we passed the sign that said "next gas 152 km" (actually it was a cartoon of a gas pump and the number), Vally glanced at the gas gauge and realized, for the first time that it was nonlinear. The needle stood at 1/2 full but in a VW, the needle stands at 3/4 when the tank is 1/2 full. At 1/2 you have a quarter of a tank. Vally was shocked. We realized that there was the strong possibility that we didn't have enough gas to make it to Cancun. Probably we should have turned around and gone back to Valladolid, but it was one of those thinks that kind of sinks in slowly and with each moment that passed we were further from Valladolid. We had no idea what kind of gas mileage the car got, so it was just an idea at that point. About 15 minutes later, I realized that the gauge was dropping FAST and I told Vally that in VWs, the gas mileage drops really fast over 60 mph, so he decided to slow down. Later, I suggested that he not accelerate to maintain speed. Probably, if we had done both things from the beginning, we would have made it, but by the time we instituted preventive measures, the needle was well into the red, reserve zone. Eventually, it went even below that and we were still going. We stayed amazingly calm, basically waiting to see how far we would get and what would happen next. We got down to the sign that said next gas 14 km, and we began to be optimistic. Then we got to a fork in the roadone fork went to Cancun and the other to the airport. There was no indication which one was 14 km from the gas station, so we decided to go towards the airport, since that is where we needed to return the car. The next sign said "next gas 28 km." Oh well...

We ran out of gas about 1 km later. It was a new experience for Vally knowing you're out of gas because you press the gas pedal and nothing happens! Actually it was a good place. We were off the toll road, and on a two lane road. On the toll road, getting gas and getting back to the car would have been a major logistical problem. The first car that came along (which was 10 minutes later) stopped. I went with them to get gas an Vally stayed with the car. They were so nice. They lived near Mexico City and were headed to Cancun for a vacation. They did not speak English, although the woman said her mother is North American and her sister lives in the US. They had performed a similar rescue for a German couple about 6 months before. The basic rule in Mexico, previously unknown to us is, if you go anywhere, ALWAYS fill your tank before you leave. The man, it turns out, it an administrator for the Mexican FBI (PRG) and they were driving a "company" car. I thought they were going to drop me at the airport and that I would try to get a cab there, or persuade AVIS to help me, but no, they took me to the gas station (yes THAT one). Our savior was treated with great respect and he had no trouble getting a gas can with 2 gals of gas in it from the security people at the station. Then they drove me all the way back and helped us put the gas in the car. They were so incredibly generous and turned the whole thing into a wonderful adventure. The whole thing took 40 minutes. We returned the gas can, filled up the car, experienced the most thorough windshield cleaning I have ever know, drove back to the airport and returned our dusty car to AVIS. The flight left on time and all was smoothexcept we had a houseguest coming in from LA at 8:27 and I had to go directly to the terminal to pick her up while Vally was driven home by his student who picked us up, turned on the heat and got the car to come and get us.

A few random things I left out.

1) I was reminded by my sister that I forgot to mention that the Mayan women still all wear the traditional huipitilswhite dresses, smocklike, with beautiful bright embroidery, at least at the usually square neckline, sometimes more elaborate and flat sandals. According to our guidebooks, this is the same dress that Mayan women wore in ancient times.

2) I forgot to comment on how different it is to be in a place where there is never any cold weatherso many buildings that have no way to be sealed up.

3) Finally, I forgot to mention the bicycles. The bicycle is a major form of transportation in Mexico but the bikes are of the old type in generalballoon tires, no gears, beat up. It looks like all of the old bikes that we used to see in the US picked up and headed south. I never saw anyone riding a bike in any position except vertical.

Well, we had a lot of fun and we think we will returnmaybe even for a short getaway if the fares are right. We also found out that there are cheap flights from Merida to Havana, and since I have been invited to speak there and Vally should be soon, it may be that the next series of letters will have a Havana dateline.

Love

Phyllis and Vally

P.S. Our picture is now at two websites. At El Diario, it is on the spanish side (until I translate the article). You have to click on the part of the menu that says something about "St. Luis, Misuri." Remember the address is http://www.yucatan.com.mx. Also it is on Vally's website http://www.umsl.edu/~vally.(The periods at the ends of the web addresses are just the ends of the sentences, they are not part of the address).