Aprovechar

Nov 24, 2024

7 min read

The last few weeks can be summed up with “aprovechar” which basically means to take advantage of a situation, or to enjoy. And enjoyed I have!

Puerto Escondido

Puerto Escondido is a small beach town nestled in the south of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. Since I wasn’t able to visit when I was first in Oaxaca I decided to go back and enjoy. My AirBnb was literally just across the street from the beach, yay! ☺️ I had a few beautiful sunset walks by the water, enjoyed the best ceviche I’ve ever had, took advantage of the pool, and just wound down. I also got to meet up with one of my work buddies from Oaxaca. We stopped by a local history museum, took a boat ride through the mangroves, and had an awesome lunch by the lagoon.

Mérida

Next up was to make it to the Yucatan peninsula with my first step being the cultural mecca of Mérida. The city itself is super walkable with lots of markets and amazing food (tacos for daaaaays!). On my first full day in Mérida I signed up for a free walking tour to learn a little more about the city and its history, followed by a taco tour. Both were so worth it! The guides were extremely knowledgeable, and had excellent tips and suggestions for food and excursions in the area. The taco tour included 4 stops where we indulged in Yucatan specialties:

Cochinita Pibil - pork cooked underground until it’s melt-in-your-mouth tender and ridiculously tasty and probably one of my favorite dishes!
Relleno Negro con pavo - the black sauce is the star of the show! Made with different charred chiles, charred tortillas, and spices. You basically douse the turkey meat in the sauce. YUM.
Chicharron - crispy crispy pieces of chicharron on a bed of pickled onions and tomatoes. If you like chicharron, this is your taco!
Panuchos - these tortillas are fried then filled with beans and topped with a meat of choice. These were nice and crunchy, but lacked a bit in flavor.

After a nice nap I headed back into town to watch an exhibition of the mayan ball game pok-ta-pok and even snagged a seat. It was absolutely amazing to see the skills needed to bounce the 3 kg heavy ball using only hips, shoulders, and knees. And the object being to get the ball into the hoop - which is at least 3 m high… incredible! (more fun facts about this game later)

The next two days I took tours of various Mayan archeological sites. Here some general info about these Mayan ruins:

For many of the sites, rainwater was their main water source. So, they dug huge reservoirs to collect rainwater.
The stones used to construct the various temples and buildings were so heavy, they required about 2 men to carry them.
Pretty much all sites are set up as a compound with a main temple, a few different plazas, a ball court, and then various smaller structures surrounding the main buildings. The only people who were allowed to live within the compound were higher ups/demigods such as rulers, priests, and generals.
All pyramids were built in perfect cardinal direction and have various ties to astronomical events such as equinoxes (sun directly above equator, in March and September. On these days day and night are of equal length) and solstices (longest and shortest days of the year).
Snakes were seen as vehicles for celestial bodies (stars, moon, etc.) to use to cross the skies, as well as a symbol of rebirth and renewal. They carried a lot of meaning and were depicted on buildings, in petroglyphs, etc. *
There are over 8’000 archeological sites in the Yucatan, and only about 600 of those are open to the public.
Around 2’000 archeologists from all over the world are working on these sites.
Each Mayan city had their own government, rules, traditions, etc.
Obsidian (volcanic stone) was used to view the sun clearly, to make weapons, etc.
The Mayan culture did not only have kings, but also queens.

About Uxmal

Was a rival city of Chichen Itza, about 110 m above sea level
The divine temple took around 350 years to build
During our visit we only saw about 6% of the entire Uxmal territory. They know of about 13 plazas/squares, but have not yet been able to unearth them all. The rest of the territory is yet to be uncovered and explored.
Fun fact: in 2020, during Covid, they were using drones to do some research around Uxmal since they were not allowed to be on site. It had rained a lot and the scientist noticed a buildup of water near Uxmal. They knew it wasn’t a lake so went to explore a bit more. They found out the area was quarries where stones were mined to build the various Mayan structures and pyramids in the area. So, in 2022 they came back to clear up the debris and create an accessible archeological site for visitors. How amazing is it that these discoveries keep happening?! The extent of these cities is immense. And here is just so much we don’t know!

About Kabah

Another ruin from 500 AD, discovered in 1835
There is an archway at the edge of Kabah with a road that leads the 20 kms to Uxmal - with an entire third city somewhere in between the two!
Since Kabah has fewer petroglyphs than Uxmal, it is assumed that it was a less important city.

About Chichen-Itza

On 07.07.2007 Chichen-Itza was declared one of the new 7 wonders of the world (very fitting, since 7 was a sacred number in the Mayan culture!)
The main pyramid has 91 steps per side. 91x4 = 364 → this is the only pyramid that represents the days of the mayan calendar
On the two days of equinox, one side of the pyramid is fully illuminated while the other is in complete darkness, causing a depiction of a snake to appear on the edge of the pyramid.
Chichen-Itza is believed to have been a ceremonial center from 550-800 AD
In 800 AD Chichen-Itza was abandoned for unknown reasons and then resettled in 900 AD
Remained a religious pilgrimage site until the 16th century

*side note: in Christianity, snakes represent the devil. So, when the Spanish came and saw all these depictions of snakes, they assumed Mayans were devil-worshippers and decided they needed to be converted.

Part of one of the tours was a visit to a local family’s backyard. Sounds strange, right? Well, a few years ago this family was digging around in their backyard looking to expand their home. While doing so they discovered a beautiful cenote right underneath their property! It was absolutely amazing to experience the cool, crystal blue water after being outside touring the archeological sites in the beating sun. Not to mention being spoiled with more amazing tacos cooked right there just for us!

From Mérida I took a bus to Cancun where I met up with two of the people I had met on a tour in San Luis Potosi (remember that tour with the 9 family members and me? Lol). Huge shout out to Nadia and Darwin who showed me some beautiful views, and took me to this amazing hidden restaurant on the beach!

Puerto Rico

Yaaaay! I was super excited about this leg of the trip. Because going to Puerto Rico meant seeing my bestie, Katie! Puerto Rico hadn’t originally been on my radar. However, after cousin Lenny mentioned we may be able to meet up there, I thought “why not?!”. Unfortunately, Lenny wasn’t able to make the trip. But that wasn’t going to keep me from going, now that it WAS on my radar! So, I had the idea to reach out to Katie to see if she'd like to join... and lo and behold, she was down to join me! We enjoyed a few chill days together, walking through old San Juan, checking out the local (and not so local) crafts and learning a little more about the Puerto Rican culture.

Here’s a snippet of what we saw and did:

Chocobar Cortés: Cortés is a local chocolate brand famous in both Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic that has been around for over 90 years. Their restaurant is known for all its dishes having some element of chocolate in it. The food was ok but the hot chocolate was amazing! And per our server’s suggestion, we tried it with a chunk of cheddar cheese :)
Historic tour of San Juan: we booked a tour through AirBnB and were absolutely delighted with it! Miguel Angel was super knowledgeable, passionate, and did an excellent job explaining Puerto Rico’s history and answering our millions of questions.
Bacardi: we took the ferry over to the other side of the island and had a tour through the Bacardi factory. It was super interesting to learn about the history and science behind the product.
Pool day: we took it easy one day and just enjoyed the rooftop pool at our hotel! From there we also observed a fancy wedding. This was so fancy, they shut down the street, and had a saxophonist accompany the bride! Needless to say, we were interested in crashing said wedding. We did attempt to do so while hanging out at the hotel bar, but due to lack of guts, we failed ;)
Yunque National Park: unfortunately Katie had to leave a few days before me, so I did this tour on my own. Now, imagine driving up a little mountain, parking at someone’s house, then walking down a steep, rocky path, only to end up at a magical river in a jungle setting. Then add a natural water slide and some big rocks to jump off and you’ve got yourself a fun afternoon!

Thank you Katie, for taking the trip and coming to visit! It just hits different when you can hang out with friends and experience things together - no matter how big or small the adventure.

Isla Mujeres

Originally, the plan was to stay in Puerto Rico for two weeks. However, after a week there I realized there really wasn’t much more to see in Old San Juan, and to get anywhere else I needed a car. So, I decided to head back to Mexico. But where to? I know uncle Peter used to always visit Isla Mujeres. That was his go-to vacation spot. So, I figured I’d check it out. Since it’s a short ferry ride from Cancun (where my flight from Puerto Rico landed) it was easy to get to. I was also lucky enough to find a hotel away from the crazy party scene, with palm trees and beach access. It looked so dreamy… and it absolutely was! The days in Isla Mujeres were filled with reading, drawing, relaxing in the hammock, snorkeling, walking, biking, and lots of seafood tacos.