Excursion 1: San Jose Oriente, Kimbila, and Izamal

So our first excursion (levels 2 and 3) was last Saturday. We first went to San Jose Oriente, a pueblo of about one thousand people, then to Kimbila (my teacher Ismael's town), and then finally to Izamal. I enjoyed the day apart from the horrific humidity. Really, once you're out and about, you just have to accept the weather as is, and as we all know, complaining about it doesn't change a thing! Again, I do not understand this new blogging template because my pictures are out of order! The first four pictures are of these three boys (somehow related to Ismael, but I'm not sure exactly how) with whom John and I played for about an hour. While everyone else was enjoying Ismael's aunt's cooking (and the several fans in the room), John and I became friends with Alejandro, Isidoro, and the third kid's name (lol! I cannot remember his name!!). Anyways, they were entranced by John's phone which takes pictures and then, because it's a touchscreen, you just swipe from photo to photo (something they just loved). Isidoro loved showing me each and every single toy that he owns. We played catch the flying toys for awhile before I became so sweaty that I had to take a break. These boys were so much fun and it was nice to take a break from trying to speak Maaya and talk with them in Spanish.

 These next three pictures are of San Jose Oriente. This was quite a revealing experience because some of the Maya people here told me that they (in San Jose Oriente) do not speak "real Maaya." But of course they do! It's fascinating how certain people devalue their own language! Anyways, we split up into two groups: one group stayed with a nice family to practice their Maaya, while my group went to speak Maaya with a little, tiny Maaya woman who never left her hammock. I only understood like half of what she said, and I didn't feel comfortable asking her to take her picture; so, that conversation (what I understood of it!) and experience will remain only in my mind (sorry!). Her little granddaughter kept bringing me one puppy after another (there were 8 of them!) and they were all so very cute, but you're never sure if they have any diseases or fleas or whatever else, so I would just say hello to them and then put them back on the floor. After we left her house, I stopped and spoke with two gentlemen outside of the little 'tienda' in San Jose and our conversation was in Maaya and Spanish (so I understood everything! hahahaaa). It was a great way to begin our day and it was nice of the people of San Jose Oriente to open up their homes to us (Ismael knows a few of the families so he was our way into the town--some towns are so conservative that you would not be allowed in without knowing someone in the town).

The final place we visited last Saturday was the beautiful (and so yellow!!) town of Izamal. Now, I've been here before, so I didn't take too many photos and I refer you to my earlier post about Izamal from a few years ago. It was such a humid and hot day, so I was surprised when a small group of us decided to do some yoga on top of the pyramid here in Izamal. I suppose no one else does yoga on a regular basis because they all wanted me to lead our little 15 minute session. I have to say, I felt really good about instructing my fellow students and perhaps this could become a side project for me (to become a yoga instructor!). Anyways, Izamal is known for it's mustard yellow color; almost all buildings in the centro are of this same yellow color (in fact, I think it's a law that ALL of the buildings must be yellow). The Senora de Izamal has reportedly performed a few miracles, so Pope John Paul II visited in the early 90's (there's even a statue of him in the church's courtyard--again, I refer you to my post from a few years ago; it was so humid and hot that I had to sit in the shade while half of our group visited the church; I just wasn't up to it). Overall, it was a fun first excursion with Levels 2 and 3!