miercoles in merida

so today I lectured in class and then went to lunch at Hacienda Teya with Carlos, Allan, and Alicia. This is from their website:

The Hacienda “San Ildefonso Teya was founded in the year 1863. Raised in the Colonial times, devoted for two centuries to cattle ranching, corn and other agricultural work, until the XIX century, when they oriented it’s work to Henequen.

This is the place where my cookbook of yucatecan cooking comes from. I had the queso relleno and the flan de casa. The photos on the right are of the queso relleno (on top) and the flan (bottom). Yum.

I also met with the students today and have now spent too much time in the internet cafe. Tomorrow I am going on a field trip to Uxmal and Ticul and will be back in Merida on Saturday, to leave early Sunday to come back to Florida. Alas. Back to reality!

cemetery and other Merida excitement

Today I went to the general cemetery with the students and we looked at the various gravesites and such. It is part of their anthropology project. Note that this link is to a UF University Scholars project of a student who was on the study abroad a few years ago!

Before that I went to the mercado and looked at the crazy stuff that is there: fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, live birds, spices, chili sauces, candles, and so much more. I ate dinner at the Italian restaurant pane e vino and that was yummy as always. Tomorrow I am giving the lecture on Mexico´s government and politics. I learned that the governor-elect, Ivonne Ortega Pacheco, is 34 years old and she is the first elected female governor of Yucatan! She has big hair. It´s worth a search on Google images.

Excursion to the Caribbean

This past weekend we spent three days going east to Quintana Roo (the neighboring state east of the Yucatan). We visited 3 Maya ruins: Ek Balam, Tulum, and Coba. All were wonderful.

We stayed at this dive hotel at Playa del Carmen called ¨Phantom Paradise¨and it had these Casper-looking ghosts on the sign and I couldn´t stop laughing about it. Was it supposed to be scary? Haunted? Playa del Carmen reminds me of going to Panama City Beach for spring break in college.

We stopped at a prison and bought hammocks made by the prisoners. We also went to Punta Laguna and saw spider monkeys but not the howler monkeys. I also did the night frog walk with Mark and the students and we saw a tarantula and many, many frogs. I also saw the huge crocodile in the lake! We also went to Akumal and the students snorkeled and saw the reef and many sea turtles. Also we stopped at the Grand Cenote and I swam in the spring and saw lots of fish and turtles. The water was very cold!