Veracruz - Costa Esmeralda and El Tajin

 (text in ENG)

  We had an extra holiday on the first weekend of February, so decided to take Zorro to the sea again - this time to Veracruz. We reserved a hotel in Costa Esmeralda, a highly recommended beach by the locals. Costa Esmeralda is located on the coast of the Mexican Gulf, about 200kms from Veracruz city. Although to Veracruz city there is highway all the way, to Costa Esmeralda the main road was curvy, one laned serpentine path, so although the distance was about 300kms, finally it took 6 hours to get to Costa Esmeralda. As it took sooo long, we decided to take a break on the way, looking around at the ruins of El Tajin.

  Although El Tajin is an important part in the Mexican history, it seemed not so crowded and fortunately (although usually you can`t take dogs into the runis), we were exceptionally permitted. (Turned out, there are hundreds of stray dogs inside.) So, we took Zorro and looked around El Tajin. This city was populated by the totonas around the 10th and 12th century. What I liked in this place is that it is relatively compact (about 1 square km) and you just don`t know where to look, there are so many buildings and pyramids here. This ruin had two levels, an upper and lower level, and climbing up to the upper one, there was a nice view to the buildings of the lower lever. In the upper level, there was an intact part of a building under a roof, where you can still see who the buildings looked like in their time: the walls were molted and painted to white, and had paintings on the walls with vivid colors. However, even today, the contrast of the (today) brownish pyramids to the green grass looks very nice.

  That remembers me, that my impression going to Veracruz was "green". As soon as we left Mexico and descended the mountain, everything was green, green and green. The grass, the trees were all green although, in Mexico City the trees (except fro the pine trees) are still without leaves. Also, on the way, the we saw a lot of trucks carrying oranges - to be precise, every second truck was carrying oranges! Yes, Veracuz is the orange country. But not only orange, we saw many small shops on the roadside that sold every type of bananas - small, big, brown, yellow, red, green... compared to Mexico City, this part of the country was again a whole other world.

  After El Tajin, we arrived to Costa Esmeralda in a short time. Unfortunately, the weather was cloudy, so the sea that should be turquoise blue, was greyish...and sad. Even though, after checking in, we went to the beach for a walk. Our dog loves open space, he really enjoyed himself on this infinite beach - running around, jumping into the water, digging holes in the sand. Although there were a few people brave enough to be in the sea despite the gloomy weather, I didn`t feel it hot enough to play in the water, so we just took a walk and headed back to our room.

  The hotel where we stayed was very nice, the rooms were simple but nice, and the staff was very kind. It was quite big as well, with a big garden and there was a nice restaurant on the beachside as well, so you could see the pelicans flying over the waves during dinner! And the restaurant was very delicious! Mainly Mexican and seafood, but the cook was amazing! Compared to the price (both the hotel and the food), it was excellent! (And for us it was a great plus that they accepted dogs, too.) The only bad thing was the weather... the day we arrived it was only cloudy, but the next day we woke up to see rain... it got quite cold as well, so we had to put on our clothes we brought from Mexico City (jeans and sweaters) although only packed summer clothes and swimsuits... our receptionist told us, it is very rare that it rains in this time, usually it is hot and sunny. So, I guess we had to come the only day when it rained. (We had the same experience in Los Cabos, where it usually rains once in a year - and this one time was just the time we went to Los Cabos.) Unfortunately (I guess because usually you don`t need it) the air conditioner had only cooling function but not heater, so we finally decided to go home early on that day (although we were planning to stay for 3 days). So, we headed to this 6 hour drive back again. As we left it started to rain heavily, so we stopped by a local steakhouse (it was very interesting, on the side there were every kinds of animals - turkeys, horses, geese etc. so it seemed to be a farm/restaurant). We had a huge steak there and by the time we finished, fortunately the rain also stopped, so we could continue our drive more easily. As we got to the border of Veracuz, the rain completely stopped and as we got back to Mexico City, the weather became warm and sunny - just as it should have been in Veracruz! Anyway, we got known how nice Veracruz is, and will definitely go back (but with a pre-check of the weather!).

To see more pictures, click on the link! → El Tajin and Veracruz

Merida and Uxmal

 (text in ENG, HUN)

  Meridába december 3O-án érkeztünk, az év utolsó előtti napján. Már késő délután volt, mire a hotelbe becsekkoltunk, ezért egy kis pihenés után elsétáltunk vacsorázni, és a nap már véget is ért. Másnap kicsit izgultunk, hogy nyitva lesz-e Uxmal, mivel szilveszter volt. Szerencsére nyitva volt még ezen a napon is, és mi Meridából kb. 1 óra alatt le is értünk. Ide is már kora délelőtt megérkeztünk, ezért még volt parkolóhelyünk is, és a jegyeket is gyorsan meg tudtuk venni. (Itt hála istennek már a két jegyet két, egymás melletti ablaknál árulták, ezért gyorsabban is ment a vásárlás.)

Iguana sunbathing in Uxmal

  Uxmal nekem személy szerint jobban tetszett, mint Chichen Itza. Először is a sok iguána miatt, ami a félsziget jellegzetes állata, de Chichen Itzan egyet sem láttunk. (Tulumban is hemzsegnek egyébként.) Bár turisták itt is sokan voltak, mégsem érezte az ember olyan zsúfoltnak, talán a hely nagysága és a szuvernír árusok hiánya miatt. Nekem az épületek is érdekesebbnek tűntek, itt sok díszítés marad meg az épületeken, jól láthatóak voltak a maja jellegzetes, fordított V alakú kapui is... egészében véve, érdekesebb volt, mint Chichen Itza.

Motmot in Uxmal

 Ahogy belépünk, az első, ami a szemünkbe ötlik, itt is a fő piramis, a Varázsló piramisa. Érdekes, hogy ugyanaz a maja nép építette Uxmalt is, míg Chichen Itzaban a piramis lépcsőzetes alakú, itt szépen legömbölyített. A piramis melletti kis ligetben nagy ritkaságot láttunk: egy fekete torkú motmotot. Ez a madár szinte minden képeslapon szerepel erre felé és nem véletlenül - bár a Yucatán félsziget dzsungeleiben vannak paradicsommadarak, papagájok, kolibrik, tukánok és még sok-sok más, színes madár, a motmot sem törpül el mellettük. A motmot legkönnyebben a farktolláról ismerhető fel, ami olyan mint egy evező. A madár türkizkék és emeraldzöld színekben pompázik, igazán gyönyörű látvány volt.


Motives on the wall

   Amint szem elől tévesztettük a motmotot, most már tényleg a romokra figyeltünk. Uxmal legalább akkora kiterjedésűnek tűnt, mint Chichen Itza. Nekem a legjobban az ún. apácazárda épületcsoport tetszett: ez egy négyzet alakban körbefutó épület. Az épületek homlokzatain szépen megmaradt motívumok díszítik. Az apácazárdán és a fő piramison kívül természetesen itt is volt labdajáték-pálya. Ezektől az épületektől kicsit elkülönítve van az ún. Kormányzó palotája, ahol a maja király lakott régen, állítólag. Az tény, hogy erről a dombra épített épületről szép kilátás nyílt a fő piramisra és a környező dzsungelre.

  Uxmalban rettenetes meleg volt, 3O fok felett lehetett a hőmérséklet, ezért az úton vissza Merida felé betértünk egy "helyi" cenotéba megmártózni. Tényleg helyi volt, ugyanis semmi nem volt kiépítve, egy jó 1O perces zötyögés után eljutottunk a cenotéhez. Egy odavezető lépcsőn és egy kis öltözőhelyiségen kívül semmiféle "civilizáció" nem látszott, és bár a víz kicsit piszkos volt, nagyon jó hangulata volt a helynek. Egy rövid fürdőzés után visszatértünk Meridába a szilvesztert eltölteni. Mivel a legtöbb étterem partit rendezett (előzetes foglalással), egy amerikai családi étteremben köttünk ki, az éjfélt pedig csendes videonézéssel vártuk.

New Year`s cheers at Chili`s

   Másnap, újév napján indultunk vissza, és már az év első napján egy kis kalandba keveredtünk - a gép ugyanis kb. 1 órányi repülés után valami zajt hallatott (mintha nekiütköztünk volna valaminek), majd kb. 1O perc múlva szólt a pilóta, hogy visszatérünk Meridába biztonsági okokból. Mivel nem süllyedtünk vagy mentünk "féloldalasan", én nem gondoltam, hogy nagyobb baj lenne (csak az bosszantott, hogy direkt egy reggeli gépre szálltunk, és tessék, nem lesz időnk pihenni otthon), a mögöttünk ülő lány viszont elkezdett bepánikolni (érsd üvöltött, mint a fába szorult féreg), hogy ő látta, hogy kigyulladt a szárny és kifolyt a kerozin és mind itt fogunk meghalni! Ez a bömbölés egész úton visszafelé tartott, úgyhogy rányomta a bélyegét a visszaút hangulatára. A leszállás után nem sokkal bejelentették, hogy a motort nem lehet megjavítani, meg kell várnunk, amíg egy másik gépet küldenek. Merida egy viszonylag kis reptér, úgyhogy tennivaló sem igen volt, de a 4 órás várakozást valahogy kihúztuk. Végre délután 5 körül megjött a gépünk, és hazarepülhettünk. A légitársaság viszont korrekt volt annyiból, hogy a hazafelé úton ingyen kaptunk üdítőt, szendvicset, vagy amit akartunk (mivel a fapadoson ezért fizetni kellene). Sajnos így is este 9 körül értünk haza, a végén az egész nap elment a hazatérésre, pedig jó esetben az út 2 óra lenne csak. Lényeg a lényeg, hogy e kis kaland után épségben megérkeztünk és másnap már kezdhettük is az új évet a cégnél.

További képekért kattints ide! →Uxmal

  We arrived to Merida the 30th of December. By the time we arrived, it was already late in the afternoon, so by the time checked-in the hotel, all we did that day was walking to a nearby restaurant to haver dinner. The next day, we were a little nervous if the ruins of Uxmal would be open as it was New Year's Eve. Fortunately, it was still open to this day, and we took the road from Merida to Uxmal in about an hour. We arrived early in the morning, so there was a parking space, and we were able to buy our tickets quickly. (Here, thank God, the windows for the two tickets were side by side, so we didn`t have to line up twice.) 

Iguana in Uxmal

  I personally preferred Uxmal to Chichen Itza. First, because of the many iguanas, which are the typical animal of the peninsula, although we did not see one in Chichen Itza. Although there were many tourists here, too, it didn`t feel so crowded, maybe because of the size of the place and the lack of souvenir vendors. I also liked the buildings with their many decorations that remained (or were renovated) nicely. On the whole, to me it was more interesting than Chichen Itza.
 



As we entered, the first thing met our eyes was the main pyramid, or the the Pyramid of the Wizard, as they call it. It is interesting that the same Mayan people built both Uxmal and Chichen Itza but the  shape of these two pyramids are totally different. In the bush next to the pyramid we saw a great rarity: a motmot. This bird is on almost every postcard here, and not by accident - next to the hummingbirds, parrots, touchans, motmot is one of the many beautiful colorful birds of the jungles of the Yucatan. The easiest way to recognize a motmot is to look at its racket-shaped tail feather. The bird is turquoise and orange and emerald green, all in one, it is beautiful.


  As soon as we lost sight of the motmot, we went back to observe the ruins. Uxmal is at least as big as Chichen Itza. For me, the one I liked the best was the so called "Nunnery" - it is a square-shaped building surrounding a huge open space. All on the surrounding buildings you can see well-preserved (or renovated) motifs. Addition to the "Nunnery" and the main pyramid, there was ballgame court here as well. A bit separate from these buildings is the so-called Governor's Palace where the king had lived in the Mayan era. As the building was built on a hill, there was a great view to the main pyramid and the surrounding jungle.

view from the hill at the Governor`s Palace

Cooling down in the cenote

  There was awfully hot in Uxmal, so on the way back to Merida we stopped by at a "local" cenote. It was really local, because there was not much "civilization" around this cenote. (Was much different as Ik-Il.) After we got to the cenote, there was only a small changing room and stairs to the cenote, but nothing else that would have been "artificial". Although the water was a little dirty, it was a very good atmosphere around. After refreshing in the cenote, we returned to Merida to spend New Year's Eve. Since in most restaurants there were only organized parties (with prior reservation), we ended up in an American family restaurant, and spent the time until midnight with some movies in the hotel room. It was a calm but nice New Year`s. 

 

  The next day, we went back to Mexico City. Or at least tried, as on the first day of the new year we had a little adventure. After about an hour on the plane, we suddenly heard a noise (as if the plane had hit something), and then some 10 minutes later, the pilot said that we had to return to Merida due to security reasons. I did not think there was any bigger problem (was annoyed though that we were not able to get back to the city in time), but a girl sitting behind me began to panic - she screamed, and cried saying she had seen that the engine caught fire and spilled kerosene and we were all going to die! This lasted all the way back to the Merida airport, so you can imagine the atmosphere on the plane on the way back. Shortly after the landing we were announced that the engine couldn`t not be repaired, we had to wait until another plane to be sent. Merida is a relatively small airport, so I did not much to do, but somehow finally spent the four-hour wait. Finally our flight arrived around 5 pm and could go home. The airline was fair, as on this flight we got free soft drinks, and sandwiches. Unfortunately, we spent almost all day in the airport and/or in the plane, and was already around 9 pm by the time we got home. But finally we got home safe and sound after this little adventure, and we could get back to normal life the next day.

For more picuters, click here! →Uxmal

 





Chichen Itza and Ik-Il cenote

  (text in ENG, JPN)



  The next day we departed from Valladolid to Merida (about 150kms). On the way of course, we had to stop by Chichen Itza, the famous Mayan ruin. Chichen Itza is about half way to Merida, and thanks to my parents-in-law, who get up early in the morning, we were at the ruins at around 10 in the morning.   You can catch the importance of Chichen Itza from the entrance - there are hundreds of souvenir sellers even there, selling hats and water for quite a price (just for comparison, at Teotihuacan you can buy a hat for 25 pesos (even without negotiation) and here they sell for 50 (and no way you can negotiate!).) Well, after having a hat for my father-in-law we headed to the entrance - the strange thing at these ruins in the Yucatan is that you have to buy 2 tickets: one for the local authorities and one for the ministry (? I am not sure), but the strangest of all is that the windows for these two tickets are different. And it is not like the windows are next to each other, so you would pay one and pay the other right next to it, no! Once you bought one, you have to line up for the other! I cannot think of a reason why it is good for the Mexicans to make people line up twice. Maybe this is a way to reduce the number of tourists?
  We were lucky because at that "early" time, there were only a few people queuing, so we got the two tickets in a few minutes. Entering the ruins, the whole place seemed very nicely maintained. Although these ruins were found in the middle of the jungle, there are trails for the tourists, the trees are nicely thinned in order to be able to see the ruins...and there are millions of souvenir sellers, even within the area of the ruins! This, and the fences at the ruins (in order to avoid climbing up or touching the ruins) were so disappointing, Chichen Itza became the least interesting place to visit in Mexico. Which is sad, because the place itself is amazing.

Ball court in Chichen Itza

  There are hundreds of pillars as remains of a building, an observatory, a big ballgame court (where the "goal" which was a stone ring at that time, was so high above, it would be rather a "basketball" than a "soccer" court), even a cenote where the human sacrifices were thrown, and of course the main pyramid among others. Unfortunately, the hive and noise of the souvenir sellers ruined the illusion. Not to mention the tourists, whose number just grew and grew. By the time we exited the ruins (around noon) there were so many people lining up for tickets, it seemed like Disneyland in Tokyo (where you have to wait for hours to get on a ride). We were still lucky to enter in the morning and still might have had a restful time.
  As it was noon, we had lunch in a restaurant next to the ruins (it was delicious but expensive) and decided to visit the Ik-Il cenote before heading to Merida.

  Ik-Il is about 15 minutes from Chichen Itza by car. On the way, we saw a huge line of cars and buses waiting to enter to the parking lot of Chichen Itza, which made us affirmative again that we were right to come early. Anyway, Ik-Il was crowded as well, but not as much as Chichen Itza. It is a cenote which (I guess) everybody visits when coming to see Chichen Itza. It is a beautifully round and very deep cenote, which already very "touriticated" as well (life jacket is obligatory, the plants around and the "waterfall" falling into the cenote seems artifically placed), but seemed nice. The weather became cloudy by noon, it wasn´t that hot anymore, so we skipped swimming (usually cenotes are quite cool (even cold)). However on the way back we saw some beautiful birds that ate mamey - we saw such birds in all Yucatan (Uxmal and Chichen Itza as well), they are yellow or blue, orange, red - any way, they are bright colored birds!


Can you see the orange bird?


For more pictures, click on the link here!→Chichen Itza

翌日はバッラドリドから西に約150キロに離れているメリダへ向かう途中にある、チチェンイツァというマヤ遺跡に寄ってきました。チチェンイツァはバッラドリドから約60キロの所にあって、早起きの義理のお父さん達のお陰で、割と早く着きました。
　チチェンイツァの雰囲気はすでに駐車場から感じられます。遺跡の切符売り場から帽子や水、お土産を売っている露店が並んでいます。そして、お土産品が高いです。例えばテオティワカンでは麦藁帽子が交渉なしで25ペソなのに対して、ここは50ペソです。（しかも、交渉しても下がらない）50ペソは、350円程度ですが、同じく有名な遺跡なのに、ここは倍の値段が付いています。（殆どの観光客はカンクーンからやってくるようです。カンクーンの物価は高いから、こっちも同じような値段が付いているのでしょうか？）とにかく、義理のお父さんはあまりそんな事には頓着せず帽子を買い、その後、入場券売り場へ向かいました。
　ユカタン半島にある遺跡でユニークなのは入場券売り場です。入場券は2枚必要で、1枚は国に（？）もう一枚は地方自治体（？）のための切符だそうです。よく分かりませんが、とにかく2枚必要。しかし、2枚を買うのに2回違う列に並ばないといけない。同じ窓口で2枚を買う事は出来ず、1枚を買ってからすぐ横の窓口でもう1枚を買えるような配慮もない。2枚を売っている窓口は全く違う場所にあるから、もう一度お並びください、というスタンスです。その理由は未だに謎です。（2回も並ばされ、うんざりして、観光客を遺跡から足を遠退かせる以外、理由は考えられないです。）
　私達は朝10時ぐらいに着いたので、まだそんなに混んでおらず、すぐに遺跡に入れました。入口に入ったら、まず、遺跡が綺麗に管理されている事に気付きます。他のマヤ遺跡と同様、チチェンイツァもジャングルの中で発見されました。今は木々が整えられ、広いスペースに芝生が敷かれ、道も綺麗にメンテされています。しかし、この綺麗な風景は遺跡敷地内にいる数百人のお土産を売っている人によって雰囲気を損なわせているような気がしました。至る所にお土産を売っている人がいて、うるさく寄ってくるので、遺跡をゆっくりと楽しもうとしてもできません。

それを除くと、チチェンイツァの遺跡自体は興味深いものがあります。もちろん、ここもメイン広場に大きなピラミッドがそびえたち、その他に大きな建物の遺跡として残った数百本の柱が立っている場所や展望台、大きなボールゲーム場があったり、広い敷地に多くの建物が見られました。
　お土産売りの喧騒以外に残念だったのは、どの遺跡へも入れないし、登れない事でした。メキシコの多くの遺跡はピラミッドに登れたり、建物の中を覗いたりできますが、ここはどこもフェンスが張られて、歩いて遠目から見る事しか出来なかったので、面白みが半減してしまいました。正直、私はこれまで見たメキシコの世界遺産の中で、ここが一番残念だと感じました。観光客の数やお土産を売っている人の叫び声が気にならなければ、ぜひ見るべき場所だと思いますが、私は（上記の理由で）あまり遺跡の雰囲気を味わう事が出来ませんでした。12時頃にそろそろ引き上げようとしたころで周囲を見渡すと、メイン広場ではピラミッドの足元が見えなくなるほど観光客が増えていました。入り口の切符売り場も、東京ディズニーランドの新規アトラクションかと思われるほど大勢の人が並んでいました！朝早く来て本当に良かったです！昼から見学しようとすると、２枚の入場券の為にたぶん1時間ぐらい売り場に並ぶんじゃないかな？

The entrance around noon

そんな残念な人々を横目に、私達はすでに見学を終了したので、ゆっくりと入り口の隣にあったレストランでご飯を食べました。本日の最終目的地であるメリダに向かう前にチチェンイツァの近くにあるイク・イルというセノーテにも寄って行く事にしました。チチェンイツァを出ると、駐車場へ入るのを待っているバスや車が行列を作っていました。改めて早く来ててよかったぁと思いました。駐車場に入るのを諦めて、路駐している車が何キロも並んでいました！とにかくチチェンイツァは、人気のある観光地である事を実感します！

イク・イルはそこまで込み合っていませんでしたが、それでも人でいっぱいでした。イク・イルはガイドブックに必ず載ってあるセノーテなので、チチェンイツァを訪問する人はだいたいイク・イルも訪ねるでしょう。このセノーテはほとんど完璧な丸い形をして、壁も高くて、セノーテの代表とも言えるでしょう。しかし、ここもチチェンイツァ同様、かなり観光地化され、ちょっと人工的なところがあります。例えば、セノーテの周りにある植物やセノーテに落ちていく「滝」は自然に出来たものには見えない。セノーテに入るのにライフベストの着用も義務化されています。セノーテは地下水なので、かなり水温が低いです。当日の午後は曇ってきて、それほど暑くはなかったので、ここではセノーテに入らず、雰囲気だけ楽しんだ後、メリダへ向いました。


他も写真を見たい方はこちらをクリック！→Chichen Itza