Day 6 Monday; Uxmal Kabah, Maya family, chocolate museum , sound and light

The entrance to the ruins of Uxmal is about 2 blocks from our hotel.  So convenient!  We climb up a small hill and when we get to the top --- Pyramid of the Dwarf.

Legend has it that it was built in one night by the Dwarf king. But when we look at it from an archaeological point of view, we see 3 distinct times of being built.  Uxmal means 3 times in Maya and all of the main structures have 3 different times of construction.  Everyone  can understand why this is one of my favorite sites.  There is beauty and gracefulness to the design of the structures.  Susan said she felt the structures supported community.  Maybe, that’s what I like about it. 

We spend about 2 hours in the ruins. 

As we leave, we enjoy some nice, sweet, cold mango juice.

Our next stop is the ruins of Kabah.  They are about 10 miles down the road.  In the days of the Maya, they are connected by a sacbe (white road).  The arched gate way to Kabah has been reconstructed.  The main structure of Kabah is a long, low temple with representations of the rain god, Chac, covering the entire front façade.  This site is much smaller than Uxmal so only takes about ½ hour to visit. 

We go to a nearby village to visit a traditional Maya family. The wife makes us the best, handmade tortillas. One sign of a good tortillas is that when you cook it, it puffs up.  All of hers puffed up so beautifully. 

The husband demonstrates how to prepare the henequen to get the fibers, which they dry and make extremely strong rope and twine. 

We also see several fruit trees, herbs, etc. 

Lunch is back towards Muna.  The restaurant is big to accommodate tour buses but we are the only ones there.  It is a family run place and of course, Juan knows the family.  The matriarch of the family is there sporting a beautiful hand embroidered huipil.   I compliment her on it enough that she brings out the one she is working on.  The band of embroidery on her huipil is much wider than many.  The one she is working on is full of red roses.  

We enjoy lunch starting with sopa de lima, a chicken based soup with vegetables, tortilla chips and a slice of lime.  It is this soup that gave me the idea of adding lime to my matzo ball soup.  Then we all have the combination of chicken and pork pibil.  It is slowly backed in banana leaves with sour orange and anchiote.    Yummy!

The chocolate museum is next to our hotel.  We decide to go directly to the museum rather than stop at the hotel.  If we make a stop at the hotel, we might all opt for a siesta instead of the museum.  The museum is less than a year old so I hadn’t seen it before.  It is well done.  They have a family of spider monkeys that were fun to watch, a demonstration of a chocolate ceremony from the Maya times, a demonstration of preparing the chocolate along with a taste test opportunity.  You know we all took advantage to the taste test! 

We’ve had a busy day and relax beside the pool with a glass of wine.  Several groups have come during the day so it isn’t as quiet as the previous night but still very nice.  We talk with a  friend of Juan, (actually, everyone is a friend of Juan’s)  who grew up in the same village as Juan.  They learned English together by listening to music such as the Beatles and Cat Stevens. 

Susan and Julie go to the Sound and Light show at Uxmal.  When they return, we enjoy a late dinner at the restaurant at the hotel. 

We all turn in for a relatively early night.