Nos marathonniennes

Hier, le 5 septembre, avait lieu le Marathon international de Montréal. Au volet professionnel s'ajoutait un volet populaire et amateur. un peu plus de 22 000 personnes y ont participé. Le volet populaire comportait des étapes de 20,10, 5 et 1 kilomètres (pour les 3 à 12 ans). Notre belle-fille, Nicole, a couru le 10 kilomètres en un peu plus d'une heure pendant que notre petite-fille, Ariane, 4 ans six mois, courait le kilomètre sous la surveillance de son grand frère, Alexis, bientôt 15 ans. Ariane nous assure n'avoir pas arrêté de courir pendant tout le parcours. Nos fières coureuses ont toutes deux reçu une médaille commémorative de leur participation. Le grand frère, vu son statut d'accompagnateur et non de coureur, n'a rien reçu mais n'en est pas moins méritant.
On les voit ici le lendemain, endolories mais heureuses.
Toute la famille leur offre ses vives félicitations.

Surprise

While visiting Chichen Itza a photographer asked to take our picture, we agreed. On the bus to and from Chichen we had open bar for all save our 14 years old grandson who could have soft drinks. On the way back Gustavo, our devoted bus waiter, came up the aisle distributing tequila bottles. To our amazement we saw our picture on the label, same for all the other passengers, labels had been printed bearing each one's picture. So for 200 pesos (20$US) we got our very own personalized tequila souvenir bottle on the last day of our trip.

No Hoch 2

No Hoch, Xel Ha, Coba village and even Chichen Itza (as administrators for the government) are all part of "Alltournative Imagenative" born in February 2001 from the fusion of the communities, as an ecological, creative and sustainable project that favored an economic development and created both educational opportunities and employment for the people in the communities, using clean and alternative sources.
The people we met there were happy and proud of their accomplishments.

This is the Unimog, a monster of a truck. It bounces on that rocky road for maybe 5 or 6 minutes that feel like an eternity. You sit on narrow unpadded lateral seats holding on to a center railing in the box. My neighbour told me do as if you are riding a horse? That I never did so I did what I could







The cenote was a refreshing experience. We spent the better part of one hour swimming through a maze of caverns amongst bats and other creatures and watching not to hit stalagtites nor stalagmites. Here I am with my grandson and my daughter Nadia. We had floating vests so we only had to propel ourselves without worrying about floating, much less exhausting.








In another cenote we gathered in a circle around a Mayan "priest" for a small prayer ceremony in honor of the Rain and Sun gods. It was very simple and even moving as we were given some copa and later invited to participate through putting our copa pinch in the copa burner and then blessed with it. Everybody, even the three adolescents in the group were very respectful. Here we could not swim but had to walk barefoot along the path partly water, wood and rocks. Those about 100 feet almost killed me, I have fragile feet.




We rode bicycles to the tyroleans. The bike path was a bit rough with some small hills along the way. Took about thirty minutes round trip. A teen age girl stopped at the top of a hill and almost caused a pile up...but we all braked on time without spill.





That was the No Hoch experience. Not easy but not as extreme as it may look. I would do it again...but with beach shoes this time and pad my behind for the Unimog ride.

No Hoch

The worst part was the Unimog ride. The tyrolean (or zip line), the bicycle, the walking, lots of it, the cenote and the caverns were a cinch. But I'm still aching and blue from the Unimog.

Coba Mexico (4)

Coba exists for educational purposes. It is owned by a non-profit company, all the inhabitants work for it and it provides health and education services...and an income for the families. My wife and our daughter Nadine went there While Nadia, Alexis our 14 years old grandson and I risked out neck on a jungle trek. See No Hoch.

Mexico (3)

Can you imagine, the Mayas built these structures from about 900 AD to 1300 something. There are still Mayas around and Mestizzos very proud of their culture and even resurrecting their language.

These ruins are in Chichen Itza. I will post a Mexico (4) for Coba.

Mexicos (2)

This is the Mexico that is

Follow up on Mexico (3)