Coba

So here I am at the archaeological site of Coba. Coba is located in the northeast of the Yucatan peninsula, in the state of Quintana Roo, about an hour away from Valladolid (where the program was based). Coba is an enormous site! It surged into being the dominant city in its region, along with Chichen Itza, of the Yucatan peninsula during the Terminal Classic (from the late 9th century onwards). Coba was Uxmal's (another site located on the other side of the peninsula, about 137 miles from Coba) contemporary, counterpart site in the peninsula. During the Classic period (250-900 CE), Coba follows the general pattern of other Maya sites of this time period (they seemed to all have a close relationship with sites in the Peten region). At the end of the Classic, Coba asserted itself as the regional capital. Coba was a set of neighborhoods sprawled around a cluster of lakes. Coba has several clusters of civic-ceremonial architecture, and we were only able to see a few of these. I wanted to include a few pictures of Kati and Maggie because they were my Coba buddies. After our brief tour (given mostly in Maaya), Kati, Maggie and I rented bikes (for 35 pesos) in order to cruise around this enormous site (I have never had to ride a bike around an archaeological site before!!). It was a lot of fun and Kati had been here before so she gave us the little tour (including a stop at this stela that supposedly has some glyphs relating to 2012). Coba's area by the Terminal Classic covered 70 sq. kilometers (about 28 miles) with about 20,000 structures and a population around 55,000. Anyways, it was an incredibly hot and humid day, but I liked Coba and found it to be quite impressive.

I wanted to include a few pictures from around the site of Coba because it's such an enormous place! We were only able to see and experience a small fraction of the site because of time constraints. But I've included here pictures of a small tunnel that we traversed, one of the ballcourts, and a picture of one of the most picturesque buildings that I've ever seen at an archaeological site in Mexico. Despite the extreme heat and humidity, I did enjoy Coba (I usually do enjoy visiting these 'ancient' archaeological sites).

Here are a few pictures of me starting to climb the largest pyramid at Coba, called the Imoja temple. It is rather large (79ft), but it isn't the largest that I've ever climbed. Kati was nice enough to take a few of these pictures of me. The day was just so hot and humid! It made it extremely difficult to enjoy the site (and sights!).

We had to hurry (because of the small amount of time we were given to explore the site on our own) to get to the largest pyramid at Coba. It was an intense climb, but I always try to ascend these pyramids as quickly as I can. Going down is another story! I, of course, was completely drenched in my own sweat from the very beginning of the day as we left Casa Quetzal in Valladolid. As we stepped onto the archaeological site of Coba, all of us were already sweating profusely. Needless to say (or write), Yucatan is not my favorite place in Mexico because of its nasty humidity and heat combo. Anyways, as we got to the top, we looked at the tiny structure with a diving god in the center of it. The diving god still has some (supposedly) original paint on his legs. I then turned around and was able to see for miles in all directions. It was quite a sight.

The very last thing we did was go down into the cenotes right outside of the archaeological site of Coba. Here are pictures of Stephanie (with the kids) who was the program coordinator in Yucatan. It was potentially a treacherous descent into this particular cenote as you can see from the picture. The stairs were completely wet and extremely slippery, but luckily we all made it down safely. It was kind of eerie to descend into the earth's depths (it really wasn't too far down underground), and only a few people actually got into the water. I had to include a picture of Rosi, Tiana and me as we sat by the water's edge down in the cenote. It was an interesting way to end our day at Coba.

Isla Mujeres

A group of us decided to spend our "long" weekend (Friday-Sunday) at Isla Mujeres. I agreed to go, but I was a little anxious to be around so many tourists!! There were things that I liked about our visit to Isla Mujeres, but the overall experience did not instill in me the desire to go again. However, the beach was beautiful, and the water was so refreshing; not too cold and not too warm. We stayed at a hostel and it was my very first (and hopefully last) experience at one. There is absolutely no privacy at a hostel!! There were only two things that I liked about the hostel: this cat that accompanied me to the bathroom in the mornings, and the flowers that were right outside our room (the room had three sets of bunkbeds, no air conditioning and no windows! there were screens instead of windows and it seemed like all the bugs on Isla Mujeres came to our screens to die! hahahaha, part of the experience I guess). I did have a relaxing weekend, despite the cacophony of noises until 3am at the hostel, because we spent all day at the beach, resting and swimming. But I don't think I'll ever go back to Isla Mujeres. Been there, done that.

It was really hot and kind of humid during the day, but at night, it was absolutely beautiful! There was a slight breeze on the beach and we were all excited to be on Isla Mujeres! The weekend that we were there (July 15-17) was the famous whale shark weekend. There was a big festival that celebrated the whale sharks that come swimming by Isla Mujeres. They are the largest fish of the ocean and are docile, peaceful creatures. I had the opportunity to swim with them but it was so expensive! Plus, I heard that there were a lot of people swimming around the whale sharks so I'm glad that I didn't do it. I've included a picture of our weekend crew: me, Maggie, Kati, John, Andy, and Abby (another level one student who became my good friend!). I'm the only one who opted not to buy and wear the whale shark hat that this little 10yr old kid had made and was selling. But I did have a fun time regardless!

The six of us broke up into two groups during the day on Saturday; Abby and Andy went swimming with the whale sharks while Kati, Maggie, John and I rented a golf cart and cruised around the tiny island. Kati is my friend from the art history department at FSU; she's the only other Mayanist/Mesoamericanist studying with Dr. Carrasco (well, until this fall semester! we're getting two new PhD students who will be studying Ancient Mesoamerica as well). Kati is on the left, Maggie is on the right. We stopped at this private beach club which was just preparing to open; we saw the view from their beach so we decided to stop and take a few pictures. This guy Antonio who works there immediately approached us and told us that we could take some pictures. It was a beautiful private beach as you can see!

As we were driving around the very tiny island, we stopped and enjoyed the vista of the ocean. The water is amazing! It really is quite a beautiful place. I've included a picture of Ix Chel, the Maya moon goddess (also midwifery- the sign at this place says that if a woman wants to get pregnant, she only needs to touch the statue! so if a woman doesn't want to get pregnant, she shouldn't touch the statue! hahaha). Anyways, when we stopped at this mirador, across the street there was a cute little family selling "coco frio" which is, of course, coconuts that are split open by the guy, and then his wife gives you a straw and voila! Ice cold coconut juice straight from the coconut! It was pretty good and really cheap, and afterwards, the man cut out the "meat" of the coconut and cut it up into pieces so that we could have a second treat and enjoy all of the coconut. It was delicious. I have also included a picture of me and Maggie; I stayed at her house in North Carolina with her husband, Austin. Then when our level went to Mexico, I got to meet Maggie and we got along so well! She's really funny and we loved riding around the island in our golf cart, singing and having fun!

I had to say goodbye to Isla Mujeres (which wasn't too hard for me! hahaha). Both Saturday and Sunday morning when I went to take a shower, this cat would follow me into the bathrooms! He was so sweet and it seemed like he was waiting for me both mornings. Even though I didn't really enjoy being in the biggest tourist spot that I have ever been to in Mexico, I do have to say that the water was beautiful and it was a relatively relaxing weekend all things considered!

My Family in Xocen

I loved my family in Xocen (pronounced Sho-kem by the people who live there). They were so sweet and willing to help me try to learn their language. When I really needed to communicate something I was able to speak to them in Spanish of course, but the whole point of the program was to use the Maaya T'aan that I could and hopefully to build on my vocabulary. But I think that the main part of the program was also to, inevitably, share this experience with other human beings, to connect with other human beings through the study of their language and culture. I hope that Dona Jermina (my host "maamaj" or "na") realized that I truly enjoyed being in her home, being surrounded by her family (u laaksilo'ob), attempting to speak her mother tongue, and engaging in a learning experience. If I am able to do the second level next summer, I would love to be assigned once again to Dona Jermina and her family! They didn't seem to mind that I was very tall ("jach ka'anal") and commented on it several times a day (I felt very tall there as I usually do in Mexico but even more so in Xocen! Hahaha, it was pretty funny!).

One of my favorite activities of the days that I spent in Xocen was being able to "pak'ach" or "make tortillas." Although potentially humiliating, I think that I did ok; the first day, three of the five tortillas that I made from the "masa" or dough were not circular or really very aesthetically pleasing at all; we still ate them though because the dough itself (after being cooked of course) was really good! But I think that I got better at it the more I did it. However, Dona Jermina and her daughters were pros! Their tortillas, every single time, were perfectly round and flat! They were soooooo goooooooood! My mouth is watering right now as I'm remembering how good the tortillas were. It was really the experience of sitting in a modern-day Maya family's kitchen, making tortillas as we conversed in Maaya, that I will treasure for the rest of my life.

I had to include a picture of the road that we walked down everyday in order to arrive at Dona Jermina's house. Even though she is 34 years old, Dona Jermina was my host mama. At first she was a little taciturn, but after a few hours of continually asking questions, I think she started to like me and open up to having me in her house. One day we all got to attend Victoria's end of the school year dance where a lot of people from Xocen gathered to applaud the various dances performed by the different grade levels. Victoria looked so nice in her very best dress. It was a highlight for the people of Xocen and definitely a highlight for all of us.

One of my absolutely favorite people I met in Xocen is Angel (or Angelito). He's two and a half years young. I cannot express how much this little kid stole my heart!! He was always smiling and so happy to just play around the house. He loved to swing in the hammocks with Ricardo (one of my Maaya instructors) or with me. The very first day that we met, Angel and I played with a little ball in his house for like an hour and a half! He just made me smile and laugh constantly. No one really knows what language he speaks (the few words he knows sound like a mixture of Spanish and Maaya T'aan) but he is just about the cutest kid I've ever met in Mexico.

And here are a few more pictures of me with Angel, my host sisters Eugenia, Josefina and Victoria; I've also included a picture of my host mom, Dona Jermina, making the most delicious "waajo'ob" or tortillas (just "waaj" in the singular).
Anna, the other student in Level 1 who was assigned to Dona Jermina, took a lot of these pictures with her camera. I love the picture of almost all of us walking down the road we walked down everyday in order to arrive at Dona Jermina's house. Even though it was so hot, I usually enjoyed our brief and often funny conversations as we walked (funny because of Anna's and my own limited Maya vocabulary!).