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Related pagesSpring Street International School Excerpt 9 - Calcutta and Mother Theresa’s Home |
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Spring Street International School "Dispatches" from the fieldSpring Street International School Travelers Kai Wilson, Chelsea DeCouteau, Alex Freeman, Sonja Anderson, Ingrid Carlson, Evan Anderson, Zack Milkis, Gabe Colburn and Grant Schwinge Experiential Education journals and tales from afar... Dispatch Ten: Dispatch from Izamal Yesterday we returned from a two-day trip to the ruins of Uxmal, the Loltun Caverns and the walled city of Campeche. Loltun and Uxmal are in a region called the Ruta Puuc, which has a lot of ruins but not much in the way of towns. We took the wrong turn at one point and wound up in the middle of a huge finca full of orange, lime, mango, banana, guava, mamey, and avocado trees. Alex climbed right up a mandarin tree like a monkey and started throwing fruit down at the rest of the students. They were delicious and some of them were as big as naval oranges. The Loltun Caverns are the largest in the Yucatan and go in about 6 kilometers, 2 of which are open to the public. After walking for a kilometer or so underground you come to a spot where the light is shining in through two big openings in the cave ceiling about 50 feet above your head. Trees and vines grow up through the openings and it is very impressive. The caves were used by the Maya for religious ceremonies. They believed that caves and cenotes were passageways to the underworld. Uxmal is one of the major sites in the Yucatan. Its construction was influenced by the Maya and the Toltec and the site includes dozens of buildings. The main pyramid here is one of the largest in the world. The students all said that this was their favorite ruin site so far. Campeche looks like it was taken straight out of Pirates of the Caribbean. Its walls were, in fact, built to defend against pirates and most of them are still standing. The cobblestone streets within the walled area are very narrow and are lined with Spnaish colonial buildings all painted in pastels. Its easy to imagine what it would have been like in the 17th century. We were there on Tuesday of Carnaval and most of the museums and stores were closed, but just walking on the street or along the sea wall was a fun experience. On our way home from Campeche we stopped in Chochola, a town just south of Merida, to swim in a cenote. We had done this before, but this cenote was a true cave with a narrow, jack-hammered tunnel as the only access into it. Inside you found yourself in an open cavern filled with crystal-clear water. We guessed that at its deepest the water was about 15 feet deep. Light bulbs were strung along between the stalactites on the ceiling, giving the whole experience a very unique, and slightly claustrophobic, feel. Carnival took over the entire peninsula for the last week. In the evenings there were dance contests in the plaza put on by Izamal school children. Local organizations and businesses drove around the streets throwing candy to the kids waiting in front of their houses. There was a huge party wagon full of people--basically a motorized set of bleachers--that played loud music while circling the neighborhoods. We arrived Tuesday afternoon from Campeche just in time for the city-wide water fight. It actually involved much more than just water--oranges, tomatoes, motor oil, paint and an itchy fruit called Pica Pica. Our students thought this was about the best thing they had ever seen and began making plans for a similar festival in Friday Harbor. Yesterday was the first day of Lent and last night they burned Juan Carnival in effigy in the main plaza. That’s it for now! We will be leaving on Sunday morning so the next group email will likely be from Akumal.
Un fuerte abrazo, |
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