Dancharthos : Yucatan

Another Yankui in Yucatan

3 February/Febrero 1999
Get Really SICK... stay in town.

Yes. I wake up with runs and the cold worse than ever. Definitely down for the count -- probably at least another week, now, it'll be occupied like a body under attack by enemy armies. Yuck. Captain Congested head and chest. Major Diarhea. General Cold.

Stumble over to the bus station to refund my ticket to Coba. Goodbye splendid isolated ruins. Hello a few days more here in Valldolid.

I do force myself to take some exercize. Go to the old Cenote in the park behind the center of the city -- a big huge cave hole in the ground with water down there -- ancient Maya holy site and reason why the town was built here. Then to a pleasant little hole-in-the-wall cafe under the arches on the main plaza -- this city is so colonial -- for tea and fruit. Home for an early afternoon nap.

People tell me that on Friday -- day after tomorrow -- the ruins at Chichen (only forty some miles west of here, remember) will be free because it will be a holiday -- Constitution Day. If I feel better I'll definitely catch the bus over for a third day of visiting. A slight compensation for missing my stay at Coba.

But I'm upset that I'm missing it. Still, I just don't feel like going too far away from my room. Something protective about staying within the walls of this city. My neocolonial security blanket. Stephens and Catherwood came to this city, during their explorations of ruins a hundred and sixty years ago. That was two years before the Maya rose up and slaughtered every white and most mixed bloods in town. That's all over now, of course, and I know there are doctors here. Just in case this cold and diarhea are really cholera. But they ain't.

The city is unbelievably charming and old both in architecture and lifestyle. Everyone takes siesta. Even the internet cafe closes. Shops all shut down between 2 and 4. After my nap I go walking at 4 and pass by a barber shop. The door is open, I can see the barber and his assistant are stretched out asleep in the barber chairs. I will soon sit at a table in the library and read and scribble notes. You may pretend that this is they what you are reading, instead of their distant descendant. Shortly I go out into the town plaza at sunset and watch the rosy light kiss the cathedral towers goodbye, until tomorrow.