Travelers Check In

Letter this morning from both PD in the Yucatan and BZ in Kenya (not to mention Mush in MendoParadiso). Mush comes home today, PD on Sunday, BZ...well, not for awhile.

Here's part of the news from Valladolid, Yucatan, Mexico:

"Mayan people are really really small. That´s one thing I´ve learned while we´ve been in the center of the Yucatan. Secondly, there is Mayan being spoken all around us. The old ladies at the markets don´t speak Spanish...

"...We´ve been traveling the last two days south of the city of Merida, mostly in two small towns called Ticul and Oskupsap. Tiny little places...Basically zero foreigners (save for one family we saw at our hotel)... these towns are accessible only because we rented our trusty Dodge. We bought Isabella a beautiful little dress today and Staci got a Huapil style woven scarf from this market in Oskupsap.

"At 4 o´clock this afternoon we went to Chichen Itza, that´s after the crowds and right before a storm...It´s magnificent and as it was (when all the Plotniks traveled to Chichen in 1987), mostly empty, and with a huge storm coming in it was all the more magical. Felt like jaguars were about to walk through the park (but then they turned out to be American families drinking slushies and buying trinkets for ´muy barato´).

"Now we´re back in Valladolid for the night...Valladolid is so cool, we went swimming in a cenote (a natural volcanic pool) in a cave two days back, hiked in jaw-dropping ruins called Ek Balam which weren´t even discovered until 2000 (the main pyramid is taller than the one in Chichen). We got stuck in a rainstorm in Ek Balam and had to take refuge in a room under the ball court for 45 minutes... no telling what that room was used for back when they used captives' heads for balls (take the head, get rid of the flesh and muscle and then encase the skull in rubber. That´s the recipe our guide told us)...

"...So do we go towards the caribbean tomorrow and kick back on the beach or do we head a little north to a place called Holbox on the gulf of mexico where the water is not crystal blue but where there are thousands of migratory flamingos and whale sharks... stay tuned.



Meanwhile, BZ writes that she's in Nairobi, already in a meeting, that it's humid but cool and that she'll write later.



Plot and Duck are in Saint Plotniko. Sheesh.