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)

Mexicos (1)

We have visited three Mexicos: the Tourists's Mexico, the real Mexico and the Mexico that was.

The Dreanland, Gran Bahia Principe Akumal, one week, all included and everything at will, in a gated compound, where honest hard working Mexicans toil for 400 pesos per week, 40$US, plus tips (reportedly included in the all included), taking no chances we tipped and added many por favors for good measure. A pair of jeans or shoes costs upward of 500 pesos.

The Akumal lobby

Villa 68

The view from our rear balcony.


The Mexico seen outside the gates is much different than the scenes pictured above. Our biggest surprise: heavily armed police checks points (filtros) everywhere but the tourist buses breezed through so fast that  I could not snap a picture of them; cars and trucks were pulled over and searched. -Locale and federale policias- and the army were involved. See Mexico (2)

Hobo is gone

No one believed it but our daughters have given Hobo up for adoption.  They had put the pictures on our SPCA site some weeks ago.  Five people called while we were in Mexico last week.  Friday a credible candidate came...and Hobo (Esmeralda) is now living elswhere and has become companion of a 4 years old she cat.
It will not be final before another three weeks to see if she adapts to her new environmemt but if all  goes as it did here, no doubt, the adoption will become permanent.
As Le Capitaine Bonhomme would have said: "Les sceptiques seront confondus".