Author: Ed Armstrong

Travel to Valladolid

/ Ed Armstrong
This afternoon we traveled from the hacienda to Valladolid. We made a stop at a cemetery and our group leader described the current Mayan way to bury people is to put them in the ground for 5 years (to decompose), and then the family claims the body and places them in a mausoleum. Over time, a family may add additional family members to the mausoleum.

Some mausoleums are well cared for and others are more rustic. A skull from a family member may be seen in this mausoleum.

This beautiful plant as growing wild in the cemetery and we all thought it was beautiful!

When we arrived in Valladolid, we first went to the church and adjacent monastery. The church grounds covered the city’s water supply at the cenote.

La Hacienda!!

/ Ed Armstrong
We stayed 3 nights in this beautiful, but rustic, hacienda!! It was quite isolated and a great place to make as base camp for daily visits to different sites. Our room was in this building. It formerly was a working farm to make rope from the henequen plant. This was a major export for the entire Yucatan and made it a wealthy state in Mexico.

It was beautiful to see the grounds as the hacienda was converted into a boutique hotel.

The patron room was where the hacienda owner used to live.

These are other guest rooms. They do not look fancy from the outside, but they are quite nice inside. The air conditioning works great!!

In the tops of the trees, several green white breasted parrots can be seen!! These are native birds to Yucatan.

These are several plants placed near the entrance. I liked seeing the culture in Yucatan.

I enjoyed seeing all the flowers around the hacienda!!

This is the henequen plant that was formerly used to make rope. It is in the agave plant family.

The flowers were beautiful!!

This outdoor bar was situated near the pool.

This is some of the farm equipment on the hacienda that reminds guests that it used to be a working farm.

The large pool was spectacular and thoroughly enjoyed after a hot day seeing the sites of Yucatan!!

These cement chairs were great to use when you want to relax in the pool on a hot day.

The hacienda has its own private cenote!! This is an underground cave system that fresh water continually flowing through a network of tunnels and limestone. It was an amazing aqua color!

The hacienda’s cenote was amazing to see!! We needed to climb down a series of steep steps to get to the water.

Kabah, Labna, and Mani

/ Ed Armstrong
Our first stop of the day was to see the massive number of Mayan ruins at Kabah. These buildings were very dramatic and in amazing shape!!

This Mayan structure was the palace for the king.

This photo shows the intricate detail in the buildings at Kabah.

This detail shows how the wall was made before the facing stones in front of it to decorate the wall.

This was one of my favorite sections at Kabah!! The Mayans carved statues of two kings, one male and one female. The females are also called kings.

This shows half of a Mayan arch holding up the stairs used to climb to a higher section.

This Mayan carving shows three warring men. One is Mayan and the other is possibly an outside group. In the lower section, you can see the guy on the right about to cut off the head of the man on the ground.

This shows the series of masks used to depict people. The circles are eyes and the square boxes with holes are the overlapping ears. They have very scarry looking teeth.

Next we drove to Labna. This is the famous Labna arch. It is the best preserved Mayan arch from the entire Yucatan region.

This shows an alligator mouth with a man’s head inside.

We drove to Mani and had lunch. I loved the colors in this storefront.

This depicts the Spanish colonization on the Mayan people. This is book burning in the lower left, and rape in the middle of the left and murder of many Mayan people.

I loved the colors in this fun Yucatan sign!!

This Mani town sign was clever and colorful!!

This church was in the Mani main square!!

I loved seeing people riding in these motorized cycles. This lady was very friendly and enjoyed having her photo taken!!

Learning About Mayan Archeology!!

/ Ed Armstrong
Today we drove into a Yucatan jungle and learned all about archeology!!

Dr. Tomas was a superb instructor for our group ant taught us all about how they have been working on Mayan sites for more than 25 years at this site. He has also worked on a number of other Mayan locations. It was very fascinating how they approach a ruin and ways to identify what occurred at the site. I could have listed to him for many, many hours.


He described this Mayan site as a “palace” and the number of features within different levels of the ruin.

They also have worked extensively at this Mayan pyramid. He described how they carefully tunneled into the doorway seen on the left and that the passage ran deeply into the pyramid.

We learned about repair work at a ruin. The researchers were concerned that the whole roof my collapse and inserted the four stones that are whiter to support the roof.

This is the current Mayan pyramid where they are working. You can see stakes in the ground and identified artifacts that are now placed on the steps. It was amazing how carefully they are examining the site and learning about the Mayan people!!

We showed us a bowl that he found at another Mayan site. Construction workers were building a road and when they located some items, he was contacted and he found this bowl. It was an amazing story to hear how he found such a pristine piece of pottery!!

Uxmal Ruins!!

/ Ed Armstrong
We started the day driving out of Merida. On the way out of town, we drove through a cemetery and our guide described how the community cares for their dead. He said that today it is becoming more popular to cremate someone when they die because it is much less expensive than burial.

Some of the plots in the cemetery are quite elaborate and carefully groomed by family members.

This is the famous Uxmal ruins!! This is the backside of the pyramid. It has been restored and now is in much better shape than the ruins we have seen the previous few days. It was incredibly impressive to look at this massive pyramid!!

This photo shows the number of steps that the Mayans needed to climb to get to the top of the pyramid!!

It is unique to have pillars in a Mayan structure. Some researchers hypothesize that the pillars may have been added at a later time.

This is the front side of Uxmal that faces a courtyard. It is an amazingly impressive ruin!!

This side of the courtyard had quite a few pillars!!

This is an adjacent building within the Uxmal ruins. There were buildings on all 4 sides of this courtyard!!

This is the north side of the courtyard buildings and it was the tallest of the 4 buildings.

This is an original Mayan sculpture that is an owl. It is amazing to see the detail in all the buildings!!

This sculpture is designed to look like lattice work. The red color behind the lattice is original Mayan colors of paint.

The snake is a recent addition of Mayan history of a “cult.” This sculpture shows two different snakes that are intertwined. There is a face of a man coming out of the mouth of the snake which had “mystical” meaning. The rattlesnakes tail and rattle are shown above the head.

This is the third day in a row that we have seen an iguana crawling along a ridge of Mayan ruins!! This guy is much smaller and has a black coloring under his mouth.

This is the Mayan arch. The Mayans are famous for their capstones seen in the top of the arch.

The corner of this building shows many Mayan glyphs. This are original to the Mayan architecture. They represent mouths and eyes of creatures depicted by the Mayans.

This another Mayan ball court. This is larger than the one we saw a few days ago in another Mayan ruin. This court shows the large ring on the right panel that was used in the games.

This shows a house of a wealthy person (usually royalty) living on the compound of the Mayan king.

This is the massive house of the Mayan king. It is enormous!! We can climb these steps today, but the large pyramid is now off limits for tourists to climb.

This is an original Mayan drawing on the ceiling of a Mayan house on the Uxmal compound. A parrot can be seen in the lower right section of the drawing. This is one of the capstones of the building.

After a fantastic time exploring the Uxmal ruins, we next drove to the nearby Mayan chocolate factory!!

A woman provided a demonstration how they went from the raw cacao plant to make the final product. Here, she is mixing the the chocolate to make a drink that we were able to sample. I thought it tasted much better after adding sugar and cinnamon!! John added everything, including chili powder and allspice.

I bought two chocolate bars made at the facility after testing some of their samples. One was dark chocolate and another was milk chocolate. I passed on the coffee and chili flavors.

Merida Christmas Decorations!!

/ Ed Armstrong
After eating dinner, John and I walked down to the center square in Merida. I really like this town. It is clean and quite different from most other Mexican cities I have visited. It was fun to see some of their Christmas decorations!

The population here loves their city!! It has about 1.4 million people.

I thought this 3 dimensional star was quite beautiful!!

I loved all of these lights!!

It seems to be common in Mexico for many towns to have a colorful sign with the city’s name!! I enjoy seeing them!

Ake Ruins and Izamal

/ Ed Armstrong
After breakfast in Merida, we drove to see the Ake ruins. These were massive and impressive Mayan ruins. Over time, some trees have started to grow from the ruins.

This shows the number of levels the Mayans used as these structures were built. It also shows the brewing storm clouds that were moving in!

These columns built by the Mayans were very impressive that they were still standing! I was surprised because most ruins do not have columns like these. It also shows the dark clouds becoming more foreboding!

Right after I took this photo of another Mayan ruin in Ake, the clouds opened up and we had a major rainstorm. I brought a rain coat, but it was warmly stored in my hotel room and not available when I needed it. Despite the storm, we gathered under a large tree and continued listening to a lecture about the Mayans and learned more about the site. Everyone was completely soaked. It was sort of refreshing because it had been warm and humid throughout the morning. I protected my camera under my big hat. The Yucatan is quite an interesting and surprising place!

The next agenda was lunch in a nearby town. This was shredded dear meat cooked in yummy spices. I has some wonderful slices of avocado too! The small bowl on the plate was filled with very hot habanero spices! These spices were extremely hot!! I sprinkled only the liquid in the spice bowl onto my food. The spices added a nice zest to the meal.

Next, we drove to Izamal and enjoyed seeing everyone celebrating Our Lady of Guadeloupe. These embroidered dresses were an important local custom of the celebration. I absolutely loved the colors!

All kinds of vendors were setup throughout the community!!

I was not able to identify the role of this woman, but she appears to have been honored as part the celebration. She saw me looking at her and welcomed me to take her photo! She grabbed the purple sash and ran it along her arms so that it would be included in the photo. It was quite fun to take her picture!

This is the top of the church in the town. There is some controversy because it was built on top of one of the main Mayan ruins.

I enjoyed watching these ladies leave the church wearing their beautiful dresses!

Inside the church we saw a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

As we left the church to walk to another famous Mayan ruin, it was fun to see the colors and festivities of the celebration!!

I enjoyed how this horse and carriage were decorated!!

Vendors were setup everywhere throughout the town!!

The locals were relaxing on the curb!

I loved the colors on this lady’s dress! We was walking down the steps from the largest Mayan ruin (by weight) the Yucatan region.

I climbed up one series of steps on this Mayan ruin, reached this plateau, and could then see another series of steps to the top of this pyramid. I decided to forgo the final series of steep steps and instead enjoy watching people climb up and down the ruin.

Merida Market, Xcambo Ruins, and Progreso!!

/ Ed Armstrong
I loved going to the Merida market!! It is huge and so colorful!! It covers more than 10 blocks!! It was amazing all the spices available!!

The fresh fruits and vegetables were everywhere!!

There were beautiful leather crafted shoes as well as every other possible leather product!!

Merida is famous for its embroidery. I loved the colors on these bags!!

Every spice you can imagine is available at the Merida market!! Ajo is garlic and cebolla is onion.

These radishes were massive and so colorful!!

These green chilis are habanero chile and they are extremely hot. In the restaurants were we have eaten our meals, they have always added one habanero chile on our plates. I had one small taste and my tongue still burns!! No more habanero chiles for me!!

Fresh meat was readily available! Our guide told us that everything would be sold today.

The red sacs in these chickens are unlaid eggs!!

There was a whole area for poultry in market. I could not believe the size of these turkeys!!

These tomatoes were so colorful and beautiful!!

I loved all the colors and textures of so many different vegetables!!

The bouquets of flowers were so beautiful!!

One of the main experts from Merida is honey!! I was amazed to learn that it is one of the largest money makers for the city of Merida. It was available to buy in both large and small containers.

Merida is famous for its embroidery and these shoes were so beautiful and colorful!!

There are many religions icons sold in the market.

There are also superstitious icons sold in the market.

Good quality jewelry is available in the market!

There was a large section of fish for sale at the market too.

After the seeing the market, we drove to Xcambo to see these Mayan ruins. They are famous in the area.

The Catholic church built a chapel on the Mayan ruins.

This massive male iguana was enjoying sunning himself on the Xcambo walls. I guide warned us to not get too close as they can bite!!

I really enjoyed seeing this Mayan structure!!

As we left Xcambo and were driving to Progreso, we say wild flamingos in their natural habitat!! I have never before seen flamingos in the wild!!

In Progreso, we ate lunch and had a great view of the beach!! After lunch we changed into swimming suites and enjoyed cooling off in the Gulf of Mexico!!

I loved the colorful sign for Progreso with the water behind it.

Ek Balam Ruins and Cenote

/ Ed Armstrong
Ek Balam Ruins are very old Mayan ruins that were a series of different buildings. This is Juan and we was a superb guide telling us everything about Mayan culture and history that you would ever want to know! I really enjoyed learning from him!!

This huge iguana created us as we arrive at Ek Balam. As soon as he heard my camara click, he quickly ran under the sidewalk.

The was a gateway into a series of Ek Balam buildings.

This shows the huge size of the Mayan ruins.

This shows the number of layers as the structures were built.

These stairs were well constructed and I climbed to the top!! Climbing down is much more difficult than climbing up! No one in our group fell as they climbed down!

The Mayan craftmanship was amazing. This photo was taken from the top after I climbed the stairs.

This is a ball stadium were participants used a rubber ball made from the rubber plants that grow in the Yucatan region.

This is an enormous staircase at another Ek Balam building. It is very steep and our leader did not want our group to climb up because of the risk of falling. Most people that tried climbing needed to either use their hands when climbing down, or to sit on their bottom and slowly scoot down. It was amazing to see everything that the Mayas built here!!

This is a photo of the cenote at the Ek Balam ruins. It is basically a very deep sink hole down into the limestone. The water is a deep turquoise and there is fresh water that continually flows into it. At the surface, the water was refreshing, but it quickly became much colder the deeper you go. The catfish in the cenote are blind because they swim in the caves associated with the cenote.

Old Spanish Days Santa Barbara – Fiesta!!

/ Ed Armstrong
We had an incredibly wonderful time in Santa Barbara celebrating the Old Spanish Days Fiesta!! There was never a dull moment throughout the weekend!! It was fantastic for Charlene and I to enjoy the time together with Elizabeth, Dennis, and Rachel!!

We started out the weekend by enjoying flamenco dancers of all ages! These girls were excited to show me their festive dresses when I asked them if I could take their photo!

On the stage were all kinds of colorful dresses spinning and turning to the music!! It was so much fun to watch!

Ladies getting ready to dance were excited to showcase their dresses!

I really loved all the colors in these dresses. Flamenco dancing is serious business!!

These colorfully dressed young girls were getting ready to go onstage and dance!!

The Spanish colors were flying everywhere around Santa Barbara!!

Charlene met a good friend she wanted to bring him home!!

When you go to Santa Barbara, it is a requirement to taste their spectacular wines!! Here Rachel and I were enjoying a glass at our favorite wine tasting location!!

Charlene and Elizabeth found this great dolphin as we were tasting wine for this special photo!!

As we were enjoying our wine, this wonderful mariachi band stopped and played some great songs!! I simply love listening to their music and watching them play. There were a number of mariachi bands playing around the city!!

I especially love this photo of Charlene and Elizabeth as we were enjoying our wine!!

People celebrate Old Spanish Days by sprinkling confetti on each other!! We had such a wonderful time!!

The following day, as we were waiting for the fiesta at Loquita restaurant to begin, these horses walked by to get ready to be in the parade.

Loquita had an unbelievable fiesta!! There was unlimited sangria and all kinds of tapas plates of foods to enjoy! They gave us these festive flowers as we entered the restaurant!!

This gentleman was carving a jamon (ham) to serve on the tapas plates. It was cooked to perfection!

An especially wonderful treat for me was to see Rachel!! She is quite the impressive professional!!

It was fun to learn about mezcal and try a number of shots! This is a great product and very smooth!!

We especially enjoyed eating the paella!! It required quite a while for it to be prepared, but it was well worth the wait!! We received a ticket for the paella as we entered the fiesta and enjoying it was one of the highlights of the fiesta!!

This couple was at the table next to us and I told the woman that I especially loved her hat!!

In addition to the unlimited sangria, their bar was in operation for making various cocktails. It was such a fun fiesta!!

While we were at the bar ordering drinks, I enjoyed talking with this woman. I especially liked both the confetti and the beautiful white flower in her hair!!

These are the special negroni cocktails that Elizabeth ordered! They were a delight to drink!!

Everyone was enjoying the fiesta celebration!!

A special highlight of the fiesta at Loquita were the flamenco dancers!! It was incredibly fun to enjoy the music and watch the dancers!!

It was amazing to watch the moves and grace of these two dancers!!

Mother and daughter were impressively moving to the music too!!

Brother and sister also had a wonderful time dancing together!! The Loquita fiesta was so much fun!!

These wonderful ladies were dancing near us and it was wonderful to take their photo! Everyone had a great time Old Spanish Days!!