Dentistry as good as it gets in Mérida, Yucatán - Dr. Rudy Mendez Santos

Besides being smiling, jovial and gentle, Dr. Rudy Mendez Santos practices painless dentistry and never sells his patients anything they do not need.

This is my testimonial after living in Mérida for twenty-five years and having a wide variety of dental experiences, some good, some bad and some so slow it became unbearable.
For more of the article, click http://bingsbuzz.blogspot.com

Open Wireless (WiFi) Parks in Mérida, Yucatán

Open wireless is widely available in Mérida, Yucatán.  Click here for a list of the open wireless parks..

TICUL, DZAN, MANÍ AND OXKUTZCAB OCTOBER 2010 by Bike and Bus

With our folding bicycles loaded for an unlimited get-away sojourn, we pedaled to the TAME bus terminal in downtown Mérida. Jane and I weren’t coming home until we felt like it.
At 9:30 AM on a blue skied Monday morning we boarded our Mayab bus and rolled across Yucatán’s seasonally green out-back. This was good!

 Read more:
http://bicycleyucatan.wordpress.com/2010/10/18/ticul-dzan-mani-and-oxkutzcab-october-2010-by-bike-and-bus/

Huevos Motuleños

                                                                   Huevos Motuleños
This tantalizing strictly Yucatecan breakfast creation built of toasted tortillas covered with refried black beans, fried eggs, tangy tomato sauce, green peas, chopped ham and grated fresh cheese and often accompanied by French bread to soak up the sauce, has become a national favorite. To finish, sweet fully ripened plantains (a type of banana) fried to a golden brown are served.

The originator of Motuleños is the Restaurant Siqueff and they are located on Calle 60 in the center just south of the Hotel Hyatt. Excellent quality and lovely ambiance are made even better by the fact that they are bicycle friendly. 

ECO TIENDA & CAFÉ YA’AXTAL

ECO TIENDA & CAFÉ YA’AXTAL is a newly opened ecological everything store on Prolongación de Montejo (Calle 30, No. 9) between 23 and 25 in Col. Buena Vista on the west side across from Blockbusters.  This is also a coffee shop with hot and cold food plus snacks.

Featuring ecologically friendly organic foods, cleaners, coffees, seeds, snacks and even locally produced compost. They are bicycle friendly.

Clean, neat, nice, new and friendly…check them out!

www.yaaxtal.com 

Tel. 999-926-4989

Rómulo Rozo, Heart and Soul, Yucateco

Rómulo Rozois in the news in Mérida.  I have written quite a few posts and articles about him over the last couple of years.   Below I am republishing part of a blog that pertains to his work in Ticul.

Perched atop a prominent hill overlooking Ticul is this distinctive Mayan style arch that was constructed by the internationally famous sculptor Rómulo Rozo back in the 1950’s
The president of Mexico even arrived for the dedication
Carved into a corner stone of the Ticul Mayan arch is the name of the stone carver, Rómulo Rozo, who left his distinctive creations all across Mexico.
The distinctive pink stone of this arch and the “Monumento de la Patria” (Monument to the history of Mexico) on the prestigious Paseo de Montejo Boulevard in Mérida came from a quarry on an adjacent hilltop on the road south to Santa Elena. The stone for the monument was transported to Mérida on the old narrow gauge railway train.
The Ticul Mayan arch is so famous it is plagiarized in wall painted advertisements.
A view looking away from the Ticul Mayan arch and into the rolling hills of the Puuc region will give you some idea of the narrow back roads and isolated open spaces of this semi-arid tropical forest region of northwestern Yucatán.
At age seventy-five Arturo Gutierrez actively works in his shoe manufacturing business and even made a splendid repair of Jane’s shoes while we waited. The remarkable thing about Arturo is that he as a little boy recalled Rómulo Rozo the famous stone sculptor, how he dressed and his stone cutting shop where he trained area men into the sculpting trade. Most amazing of all is the fact that the stone cutting shop of Rómulo Rozo was in this very same building.
This is the shoe manufacturing shop of Arturo Gutierrez where Rómulo Rozo previously did his stone cutting. The bicycles belong to the employees of the shoe shop.
One of Rómulo Rozo’s most widely plagiarized works of art is this little figure that they refer to here as “Pancho”. The sculptor originally named it El Pensamiento or “The Thinker”.

Above: El Pensamiento photo from Wikipedia
Sculpture by Rómulo Rozo displayed in the Museum of Art in La Paz, Bolivia.This is the image that was plagiarized after it was shown in an exhibition in the National Library in Mexico City in 1932.When it was on exhibition, somebody placed a bottle of tequila in front of it, took a photo and it was widely circulated in newspapers around the world as the drunken or sleeping Mexican…an image still thought of today.

The variety of paint jobs and size of “Pancho” seen endless…all the shops sell them.

For more of his work in Mérida, check out a couple of links to my website:
Monument in Mérida Cemetery         Rómulo Rozo

A close up look at Rómulo Rozo’s creative stone relief work in the amphitheater in Chetumal.

For more of his work in Chetumal:    http://www.bicycleyucatan.com/chetumal

BICYCLING FINNMARK IN EXTREME NORTHERN NORWAY

    At 69 degrees north latitude deep within the Arctic Circle where the borders of Suomi Finland, and the Russian tundra converge just off the road to Nordkapp, (North Cape) this curious adventure begins.
    Here is the land of the midnight sun, Midnattsol, where inquisitive adventurers journey north from May until July to the northernmost point in Europe on Norway’s rockbound coast of the Arctic Ocean to witness days with no sunset.
    This is the land of the Lapps, Norway’s dogsled and reindeer people, who have adapted and evolved to thrive in this frigid forlorn terrain of arctic isolation.

 Read the full story on John's new blog: Bing's Buzz.

FAVORITE BIKE

DAHON FOLDING BICYCLES

Barcelona, the most bicycle friendly city in Europe, Jane & our Dahons.

Our Dahon bikes ready to board the airport train in Barcelona, Spain.

Northern Germany; a typical biking road. Jane with her Dahon and gear.

Quaint northern Germany is perfect for Dahon folding bikes where you have the convenient option of bus, boat, plane or train when the spirit moves you.

If you are going to own just one bicycle, make it a 20 inch, seven speed Dahon folding bicycle. It will turn out to be the best deal you ever made, and you will be able to throw your car keys away.

Fun to ride, fast to fold, and easy to store.

I don’t like to endorse any products but my wife Jane and I after forty years of biking in Canada, the US, Mexico and Europe have discovered that our all-time favorite is the Dahon.

Our Dahon bikes are fully adjustable and I can fold mine in twelve seconds.

Riding in Germany with our friends on their 28inch bikes, we must brake going down hill or we overtake them and on the flat our gearing allows us to pump in cadence.

We take them by bus, boat, airplane and train. In city traffic for shopping or cross-country excursions they open up new travel horizons and are also ecologically friendly.

Read about our bicycle travels on our web site; www.bicycleyucatan.com.

Today, living in Mexico's Yucatan, they travel mostly by bike

This article by John Lundy appeared on the front page of  Duluth News Tribune, today, June 4, 2010.
 

Back in 1972, folks hung the nickname “Noah” on John Grimsrud.

It was a bit off the mark. John and Jane Grimsrud, both Superior natives, were building a 46-foot boat in the backyard of their Billings Park home. But they weren’t expecting a flood, and they didn’t plan to carry livestock.

Like the biblical sailor, though, the Grimsruds attracted skeptics, scoffers and the just plain curious.

It might have had something to do with the fact that they were using cement to build the boat. And that they planned to live on it.

“People couldn’t believe anybody’d be crazy enough to build a 46-foot boat and then have plans to go off and live aboard,” John Grimsrud said in a telephone interview from Mexico’s Yucatan, where the Grimsruds live today. “Two ladies came by in a car one day and wanted to report us to somebody because they thought we must be absolutely nuts to be going to live on a boat.”

John Williams, who lived next door and still lives in the same house on Wyoming Avenue, didn’t think the Grimsruds were crazy.

“No,” Williams said on Thursday. “A lot of people did, but I knew the guy. The man was very clever.”

His daughter, Julie Williams Le Bard, remembers the boat growing in the backyard between their houses. “That was the biggest thing in my childhood,” she said. “We talk about this all the time.”

It took three years for the Grimsruds, with help from the Williamses and others, to build the boat. They learned about building with cement — they’re called ferro-cement boats, or ferroboats — in a boating magazine.

“It is quite reasonable to build, but it’s very labor-intensive to build these things,” Grimsrud said. “We built everything. We … made all of our own fittings and we put the hull together ourselves.”

The Grimsruds called their boat the Dursmirg — Grimsrud spelled backwards. While they were building the boat, the Grimsruds also took classes from the Duluth Power Squadron to learn the ins and outs of boating.

Suffice it to say, there was interest when the Grimsruds launched their boat on June 22, 1972, from the Superior Shipyard. Barney Barstow, who was part owner of the shipyard, urged the Grimsruds to launch their 20-ton boat in a place that wouldn’t make it a navigational hazard when it sank.

“Over 2,000 people showed up to witness the sinking,” Grimsrud said. “And a lot of people were disappointed, I think (that it didn’t sink), because the wagering was pretty heavy.”

Not only did the boat float, but John and Jane Grimsrud lived on it for the next 15 years, traveling across the Great Lakes, to New York City and to the Florida Keys. They’ve written about their adventures at length. Their “Travels of Dursmirg” runs to four volumes, with the first two volumes available at Amazon.com.

John and Jane were 32 and 28, respectively, when they began their voyage. John Grimsrud was in the wholesale grocery business, and they were debt-free by the time he was 28, he said. Every spare dollar went either into the boat or into the bank. Once they launched, there wasn’t much overhead, he said. They never considered turning back, although one time during a bad storm on Lake Superior they returned to port.

The Grimsruds continue to travel today, but now they do it by bicycle. They have a website devoted to bicycling the Yucatan. “Now I am 69 and Jane 65 and still dreaming,” Grimsrud said.

And what of the Dursmirg? They sold it to a London stock broker who in turn sold it to a Canadian veterinarian. The Grimsruds don’t know where it is now.

All three books are now available on Amazon.
Travels of Dursmirg, Volume 1 
Travels of Dursmirg, Volume 2, Summers at Daufuskie
Travels of Dursmirg V-3, Volume 3, Down in the Florida Keys

52 Years of Newspaper Delivery by Bicycle - Streets of Mérida

  Eligio Chi Perez, pictured below, begins his day before sunrise by riding his bicycle seven kilometers from his home in Colonial Bojorquez to the Diario de Yucatán office in downtown Mérida to pick up  newspapers to deliver.

  Each day his delivery of 175 newspapers takes him as far north as the Grand Plaza area, eight kilometers north.
  Still smiling, seventy-one year old Eligio has faithfully made his rounds for the past fifty-two years.
  Amazingly, he has only worn out two bicycles in the process and not burned a single drop of gasoline.
  Congratulations to one of Yucatán’s most ecologically friendly citizens, Eligio Chi Perez.

Mérida South by Bike on Calle 42 – Revisited

   An early morning pit stop for a snack and hydration in the tranquil little town of Timucuy finds Ken Scott with his high-tech go-fast recumbent bicycle.   This is angel gate at the entrance to an old colonial style mamposteria church. Fresh air and tranquility abound.

   At the peaceful little town of Tecoh where motor vehicles are scarce and bicycles dominate the quiet clean unhurried streets, we took our morning coffee break in the shady central plaza. Ken fits in with the people powered bicycles and tricycles at the municipal market.
   After cycling out of Mérida at 6 AM south on Calle 42, we completed our leisurely fifty kilometer back road tour by 11 AM in the picturesque city of Acanceh.  
   This gem of historical structural monuments of the past contains several Mayan temples.
Interspersed throughout the city are Spanish colonial buildings unchanged over the centuries.

   Above the two ladies are returning from the market. One dressed in western attire known as catrina style and the other lady in the traditional Mayan hand embroidered dress known as huipil. All speak the Mayan language and most also speak Spanish.
Note the conspicuous lack of motor vehicles, and this is the main street.

   A church and chapel sit nestled amongst the ancient Mayan temples in the city center of Acanceh. Those temples provided the materials to build not only the church and chapel but the rest of the town buildings.

    It is turn around time. A happy and satisfied Ken Scott is fresh as a daisy after our lovely 50 kilometer back road bike ride.Here he is pictured with the jovial kitchen workers at the cocina-economica where we stuffed ourselves on the generous portions of traditional Mayan style cooking.
   This restaurant is adjacent to the bus terminal on the central plaza and buses and colectivo taxis depart for Mérida every few minutes.

For maps and more information on cycling on Calle 42, visit our website at: http://www.bicycleyucatan.com/Calle42.html

Postscript: John L. Stephens in his epic book; Incidents of Travel in Yucatán,  describes his
departure from Mérida and journey south on the same road that Ken and I traveled to Timucuy and Tecoh.
See pages 65, 66, 67, 68; subject 1842 trip to Tekoh 8 leagues from Mérida.

Our Bicycle Story - 40 Years

This story began when Jane’s doctor told her she had to change her life style.

Jane had a painful leg condition complicated by her job. She spent her workday at a computer terminal. The prescription was to find work that would let her move around without too much standing. The best recreation would be bicycling and tennis.

This is where the story gets interesting.

It turns out that at this time our ambitious five year boat building and escape plan was nearly complete.

With Jane’s last paycheck, she headed to the bicycle shop and I tagged along with no intention of a purchase. That evening we both came home with new Schwinn bicycles equipped with lots of bolt on extras.

This prescribed therapy opened a door to a wondrous world neither of us had envisioned.

In 1972 Jane and I set sail.

Our worldly positions including our new bicycles were aboard our new floating home Dursmirg. You can read about that adventuresome epic voyage of escape in the recently published books.

Travels of Dursmirg Volume 1 by John M. (Bing) Grimsrud

   This true adventure story is told in the first person. It began as an idea and unfolded into a rich and fulfilling dream come true.

   A lifelong obsession of escape materialized in 1972 with the building and launching of the dreamboat Dursmirg when the five year bailout plan was consummated.

   John and Jane went over the horizon and out to sea on a voyage of escape.

  Departing Duluth-Superior on the western terminus of the St. Lawrence, they crossed the Great Lakes, the Erie Canal and Hudson River to New York City. Then they headed south to Florida, stopping at Annapolis, Chesapeake Bay and Savannah along the way to the Oldest City of St. Augustine. In an active winter of exploration; Jacksonville, Marineland, Daytona, Disney, Miami, Key West, Tampa and Tarpon Springs were a few of their diversionary side trips. 

   This love story began with desires and aspirations and was molded into reality.

Highly recommended for all those free spirited dreamers out there that have the drive and desire to live life to the fullest. This is one of four volumes in a series.

Travels of Dursmirg, Volume 2 by John M. (Bing) Grimsrud

Summers at Daufuskie

   Beyond their wildest expectations a new life of independence laced with exciting discovery and good fortune opened a wealthy world there to be savored by those who take the time to enjoy it to its fullest.

   John and Jane spent their first season living aboard Dursmirg in the Old City of St. Augustine and found more fascinating attractions, new friends, southern cooking and exciting diversions than they could be packed in. They were enticed to return again and again.

   Springtime arrived and the Sea Islands beckoned. Fernandina Beach, Brunswick, Savannah and Charleston were visited. Living at anchor opened a new realm and they learned to live out of the sea.   Exploration took them to places Cumberland Island, Daufuskie Island and more.

   Discover the best southern cooking from the Sea Islands, humorous encounters, tricks of harvesting seafood and living with nature that were all part of a dream come true.

   This book is recommended reading for determined adventurers yearning to find a place in this world to live free. This is the second of four volumes in a series.   

 Travels of Dursmirg V-3, Down in the Florida Keys, Swinging in a Summer Breeze, Volume 3

“I am going where the wind blows, when the spirit moves me and the price is right.”

  These were the driving forces, the goals and aspirations that would be fulfilled beyond their wildest expectations. Quality of life and standard of living were to be far above anything imaginable. Yes, they did it!

   Using the Oldest City of St. Augustine as a home base, winter sojourns south always included the Indian River where lifelong friendships were cemented, bountiful seafood harvested and anchorages a slice of paradise.

Miami and Biscayne Bay was a cruising boaters dream come true. Anchorages abounded at Dinner Key, Biscayne Key plus Sand, Elliot and Rhodes Keys in the Biscayne National Park. Venturing south the Hawk Channel took you to Marathon, Boot Key, Non Name Harbor, Key West the Marquesas and Dry Tortugas were part of the best cruising, fishing, and exploring to be found anywhere. 

   Dodging the bullet that wounded the nation and slipping off into a utopian paradise while the world was in turmoil and upheaval, they migrated together with like-minded sailors into a new dimension.

   More than a life story this was a love story where husband and wife were also the best of friends and pals.  This is the third of four volumes in a series.

Martyrs of Chicago and May Day.

    On May 3, 1886 after a strike protesting for an eight hour working day held at the McCormick reaper works in Chicago, several workmen were killed by police.

   The next day, May 4, 1886, at a rally held in support of striking workers in Haymarket Square, an unknown person hurled a bomb into the crowd as the police were breaking up the public meeting.
   The international anarchists took credit for the bomb. The anarchist’s objective was to protest against police violence. The bomb killed eight police and injured twenty-seven other people.
   Eight protesters at the meeting were arrested, charged and four were hanged.
   The workers rights protesters that were charged became known as The Martyrs of Chicago.
   The Haymarket affair is generally considered to have been an important influence on the origin of international May Day observances for workers.  May Day is celebrated through out the world as an official worker holiday. May Day is also a traditional holiday in many cultures.
   In 1958 U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower proclaimed May 1, which was previously known as May Day or International Workers' Day, as Law Day. Eisenhower considered groups associated with workers rights as communists.
  In Mexico, El Dia del Trabajo or International Workers Day  is a celebrated event. The Martyrs of Chicago are still remembered for their efforts in behalf of workers.
   In the Yucatán port city of Progreso, the henequen workers union has built a school commemorating The Martyrs of Chicago.  

ESCUELA MARTIRES DE CHICAGO or School the Martyrs of Chicago built by the henequen workers union of Progreso, Yucatán, México.

   May Day is also a traditional holiday in many cultures.

Link to more on Haymarket and the Martyrs of Chicago.

Link to more on May Day

MÉRIDA SEA FOOD TACOS AND SANDWICHES

Ever smiling owner of El Negro taqueria Sr. Buenaventura Couoh makes his clients happy and eager to return to his exquisite seafood mini-restaurant.   

Located in Mérida’s city center on calle 64 between 59 and 61 is this little restaurant with a well deserved reputation built over twenty years for fresh “mariscos” or seafood tacos and sandwiches. Reasonably priced with rapid service and top quality, they have the recipe for success. Open from 7 AM to 3 PM every day.  They also feature turkey, pork and regional dishes.  Catering is available on request. Tel. 924-44-45

Irresistibly tempting for all seafood lovers; this presentation is pleasing to the eye.

Happy friendly waiters make El Negro taqueria  a good choice.

The no frills atmosphere is offset by fresh quality and friendly prices.
New Yorker’s Pat and Dave  fill up on shrimp sandwiches for breakfast.

CHETUMAL, IN SEARCH OF GONZALO GUERRERO, Father of the First Mestizo

 (In Yucatán, Mexico, a mestizo is a person of mixed Spanish and Mayan parentage.)
         

Monument in Chetumal, Quintana Roo dedicated to Gonzalo Guerrero, his wife Zazil Ha and their children

   This fascinating story actually begins with the birth of Gonzalo Guerrero back in the early 1470’s at Palos, Andalusia, Spain.
   Trained as a military combatant he fought to drive the last of the Moors out of the Iberian Peninsula by 1492 ending eight centuries of Islamic occupation. Then he took up his next position of soldier/sailor on Columbus’s first ocean crossing expedition aboard the small open carvel vessel, Niña.
   This soldier of fortune’s story did not reappear in the annals of history again until 1511. Gonzalo set sail in good weather from the Gulf of Darien on the Colombian coast of South America north bound with looted treasure and slaves.
   What happened next is one of the worst nightmare stories that could happen to anyone.
   Forty year old Gonzalo was plummeted into the sea aboard a makeshift raft with no food or water, one of eighteen men and two women to survive the wrath of a hurricane that dismasted his ship and sunk it.
Only eight lived to make landfall, having to resort to cannibalism in order to survive.
   Salvation did not happen. The group of eight survivors were apprehended and enslaved by their Mayan Cocom captors on the Yucatán coast.
   Four of these survivors were sacrificed and eaten immediately. The others were caged and fattened for a future festival of flesh feasting. The fattening gave the remaining four the strength to escape to the Tutul Xiues tribe of Mayas who were enemies of the Cocom’s.

(An interesting fact of logistic history; in the recorded accounts of the first encounters of these Europeans arrival in Yucatán it was noted that hammocks were in use by the natives.)

   Tutul Xiues made slaves of these surviving Spaniards. Due to extreme hard work and exhaustion only Gonzalo Guerrero and Geronimo de Aguilar survived.
Geronimo de Aguilar kept his religion and cultural ways but Gonzalo Guerrero took up the Mayan ways and became a military advisor and trainer teaching the Maya the combat tactics of the Spanish.  It has been speculated that this Spanish combat training gave the Mayan people of the eastern jungle part of the Yucatán peninsula the ability to drive out the conquistadors. The Mayan of the Quintana Roo region, (eastern jungle) have never been completely subdued and it wasn’t until Méxican federal forces put down the protracted Caste War in the early 1900’s that this area became a territorial part of México.
   Gonzalo Guerrero left a lasting legacy with his newly adopted countrymen.
   Next Gonzalo kills an alligator attacking his master and gains his freedom from slavery. He then engaged in ritual mutilation and tattooing that included piercing his ears and cheeks. These acts assimilated him into the Mayan way of life.
Gonzalo next took a Mayan princess named Zazil Ha as his wife and was given the temples of Ichpaatún north of Chetumal, presently designated on maps as Oxtankah.
   Chetumal Bay has been a major route of commerce since the days of the ancient Maya because it linked sea-going trade routes to rivers incorporating man-made canals. Lamanai is one of the three most prominent Mayan settlements that remained continuously active through the post-classic period and even after European arrival that is linked by river/canal to Chetumal Bay.
   In 1519 Hernán Cortez arrived at the island of Cozumel and attempted to rescue the two Spanish survivors, Geronimo de Aquilar and Gonzalo Guerrero from the Maya.
   Gonzalo Guerrero replies; “I married a Mayan woman, have three children, am chief and captain, taken their ways with tattoos, pierced ears and scared face…this is my place.”
   Gonzalo’s daughter was rumored to have been sacrificed in the cenote at Chichén Itza to end a locust plague.
   He eventually met his fate in battle against the Spanish invaders. 
   Geronimo de Aguilar went with Cortez and took a job as translator.
   For centuries Gonzalo Guerrero was despised by the Spanish for being a traitor, defector, and renegade. He was a man, who had fought against his countrymen, turned his back on his land of birth, society, renounced his faith and denied Christ.
   After the independence of Mexico a change took place; strangely some Mexicans descended from the conquerors now began to feel a real passion for the Mayan culture. From the Maya one name that symbolizes the struggle in opposition to colonial imperialist power and a struggle for freedom was Gonzalo Guerrero.
   Ultimately Guerrero would go from villain to hero and from traitor to a champion of freedom.
   The Mayan ruins and Church at Oxtankah in the jungle north of Chetumal, Quintana Roo, Mexico have been restored and memorialize this extraordinary man and his wife, Zazil Ha, the parents of the first mestizo. An adjacent lagoon in the area of the Oxtankah ruins near Bacalar bears his name.

   On the prestigious Paseo de Montejo in Mérida a monument now commemorates his memory. Donated to the city of Mérida by the founder of Akumal, Pablo Bush Romero who was also the president of the Explorers Club of México this bronze monument sculpted by Raul Ayala is perched atop a stone pedestal at the north end of Paseo de Montejo.  

 

   Remarkably this monument to one of the most noteworthy Spaniards to ever venture to the New World, Gonzalo Guerrero, his wife, Zazil Ha and their three children sits between eight lanes of bustling traffic.

There is no sign of recognition or plaque of explanation and few people if any that pass here are ever aware of the incredibly fascinating story behind this first Spaniard to integrate into Yucatán.

   The symbolic sculpture of Gonzalo Guerrero attired in his Mayan clothing with his wife Zazil Ha behind cradling one of his infant children while another of his three mestizo children plays with a Spanish conquistador war helmet tells much of this epic story.

This sculpture of Gonzalo Guerrero is a part of the monument in Chetumal dedicated to the Cradle of the Mestizo.
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John M. Grimsrud ©2010

Faces of Carnival - 2010

 

http://www.bicycleyucatan.com/merida2010carnival.html

Click on the link above  to view our web page: Young Faces of Carnival - 2010              

Ticul Plus Muna, Dzan and Maní

We first came to Ticul by narrow gauge train in the early 1980’s and little did we know at the time that this relic of the past narrow gauge train, one of the last remaining in the world was soon to vanish. At that time we saw pottery works and countless ladies shoe shops where the shoes were made and sold.
On our many return trips over the years we have gradually discovered the numerous fascinating treasures that Ticul and its friendly people have to offer.
Ticul, 82 kilometers south of Mérida or about 50 miles is known as; “The Pearl of the South”. Besides a number of strange and interesting things in the city, Ticul also has its unique geographical position adjacent to the remarkable monuments of the past depicted in the above oil painting.
From left to right across the top of the painting; The Puuc Route (Puuc is the name given to the hills in the region) with five distinct Mayan temple sites and also the Grutas de Loltún, “caves of Loltún”; next is Ticul’s pink marble Mayan style arch built by the notable stone carver Rómulo Rozo who also built Mérida’s Monumento a la Patria on the prestigious Paseo de Montejo boulevard; next is one of the most impressive Mayan temples ever built, Uxmal.
Depicted across the center of the painting are; Ticul’s main church started in 1591 that took nearly fifty years to complete, in the center are the town craft people, the shoe maker and potter, on the right is one of the many area Mayan temples.
Across the bottom is the huge hacienda of Tabí, one of the most prestigious of Yucatán and it is flanked by typical Mayan clay figures of the pre-Columbian era.
On the north side of Ticul at the city entrance is Arte Maya with probably the best quality Mayan reproductions to be found anywhere. The showroom there is well worth the stop; it is simply extraordinary.
Arte Maya began here back in 1974 and has produced reproductions of indigenous sculptures of such high quality they are used in the nations leading museums.
The same family has continuously produced the very best class of workmanship here with the ultimate in attention to detail. Above is the entry to the showroom.
Naturally talented Lourdes Gonzalez is a big part of this family operation at Arte Maya and proudly continues reproducing the very finest in Mayan art.
Down the street from Arte Maya is the shop of Señor Mena where bigger than life statuary is sculpted that ultimately finds its way to the local street corners around Ticul. Fifteen years of dedicated work by Señor Mena has made Ticul a photo-op attraction not to be missed.
This night time exposure photo is taken from the plaza looking at the 1591 church.
Art is everywhere in Ticul. Dance rehearsal in the decoratively painted plaza band-shell tells a lot about the city pride of this very clean and prosperous city.
Perched atop a prominent hill overlooking Ticul is this distinctive Mayan style arch that was constructed by the internationally famous sculptor Rómulo Rozo back in the 1950’s
The president of Mexico even arrived for the dedication
Carved into a corner stone of the Ticul Mayan arch is the name of the stone carver, Rómulo Rozo, who left his distinctive creations all across Mexico.
The distinctive pink stone of this arch and the “Monumento de la Patria” (Monument to the history of Mexico) on the prestigious Paseo de Montejo Boulevard in Mérida came from a quarry on an adjacent hilltop on the road south to Santa Elena. The stone for the monument was transported to Mérida on the old narrow gauge railway train.
The Ticul Mayan arch is so famous it is plagiarized in wall painted advertisements.
A view looking away from the Ticul Mayan arch and into the rolling hills of the Puuc region will give you some idea of the narrow back roads and isolated open spaces of this semi-arid tropical forest region of northwestern Yucatán.
At age seventy-five Arturo Gutierrez actively works in his shoe manufacturing business and even made a splendid repair of Jane’s shoes while we waited. The remarkable thing about Arturo is that he as a little boy recalled Rómulo Rozo the famous stone sculptor, how he dressed and his stone cutting shop where he trained area men into the sculpting trade. Most amazing of all is the fact that the stone cutting shop of Rómulo Rozo was in this very same building.
This is the shoe manufacturing shop of Arturo Gutierrez where Rómulo Rozo previously did his stone cutting. The bicycles belong to the employees of the shoe shop.
One of Rómulo Rozo’s most widely plagiarized works of art is this little figure that they refer to here as “Pancho”. The sculptor originally named it El Pensamiento or “The Thinker”.

Above: El Pensamiento photo from Wikipedia
Sculpture by Rómulo Rozo displayed in the Museum of Art in La Paz, Bolivia.This is the image that was plagiarized after it was shown in an exhibition in the National Library in Mexico City in 1932.When it was on exhibition, somebody placed a bottle of tequila in front of it, took a photo and it was widely circulated in newspapers around the world as the drunken or sleeping Mexican…an image still thought of today.

The variety of paint jobs and size of “Pancho” seen endless…all the shops sell them.
This Mayan lady with her white as snow clothes asks for help for food. We have found that in the Mayan villages when we take a break for a rest stop, the generous people are always offering us food. They will rarely take money for the food.
Mayan food is mostly vegetation, nutritious and delicious like these salbutes.
We had lunch at a “cocina economica” (Economy kitchen) – the pork was delicious and the price was right!
Considering that this Ticul church was begun back in 1591 and took nearly fifty years to complete, it has been kept in remarkably good repair.
The old church is spotless like the rest of Ticul.
Moorish style arches and architecture were brought to the New World by the Spanish.
Ticul sets a high standard for cleanliness and preservation.

We next made a side trip west to Muna, a small market town dating from the 1600’s that was a cross-road with straight Mayan sacbe roads leading off in four directions. The elevated stone work of these Mayan roads is still plainly visible in and around Muna.
This colonial hand carved pulpit pictured above has miraculously survived the centuries.
The Muna market is traditionally Mayan and this lady is the local medicine vender with a herbal cure for nearly all ailments.
A view from a municipal building in the central plaza contrasting the old and the new.
Our next bicycle trip took us east on a lovely and quiet road to the small town of Dzan.
Winter time in the Yucatán countryside is ablaze with vibrant wild flowers that supports a huge honey industry.
Bicycling on the quiet road to Dzan is literally like taking a breath of fresh air richly scented and perfumed by flower blossoms.
With an overcast sky the multitudes of wild flowers seemed to be ablaze with dazzling luminescence.
We arrived in Dzan in time to see a very noisy pageant leave the church with sky rockets exploding as they went.
Down the road at Maní we stopped at one of seven chapels there and across the street was a tortilla shop or molino that lured us with its inviting roasted corn aroma. We had our morning coffee and sprinkled salt on the hot tortillas.
Sitting on the altar of the little chapel is this neatly decorated work of art of unknown age.
The chapel was impeccably clean and well maintained like the rest of the area. We had no competition for seats and the shelter came just in time because a cold rainy drizzle settled in.
No gold or rich adornments are found here but the Mayan people are the treasure.
At the chapel corner in Maní we left the pavement to visit this new development. Under the roof are wood logs that house the hives of small black stinger-less Mayan bees that produce a much prized honey.
Padre Luis is making a Mayan style village that is soon to be finished.
The 1547 church in Maní is getting a major make over of paint and plaster and does not look its age any longer.

The rain persisted. A truck came along and offered us a ride to Oxkutzcab and we happily loaded our bikes and climbed aboard. It was still raining in Oxkutzcab so we folded out bikes and caught the next bus to Merida. Two two hours later we were home in Mérida in our warm dry house. …the pleasure of biking and busing in Yucatán…it is great!

John M. Grimsrud ©2010