Costa Maya, Mexico

 

Costa Maya, Mexico                                                                                   Sunday, March 20

Apologies to all of you that we got behind in our journal.  I’m writing this entry about five days after being in Costa Maya, but my notes will carry us through!!!  Luckily, the day-after-day tours and learnings have eased as we are now traveling across the Atlantic Ocean toward Fuchal, Madiera, arriving late morning of April 1.  No fooling!!!  We had never heard of Fuchal.  Please Google funchal, madeira. And its sister islands. You will be as amazed as we!!!

Back to Costa Maya.  For you who already know the name of Mexico’s states, Costa Maya is on the Caribbean coast of Quintana Roo.  Our ship docked in a fairly new port city with population of 1500 that is built to handle the economies of cruise ships:  island transport; shops for anyone still needing jewelry, souvenirs, or local crafts; spices or in Mexico: vanilla; restaurants and bars.    Miles of flat, low lying forests surround this port. 

Coconut was moving today

We hopped on a large comfy bus with Dennis as our tour guide and headed to the rain forest.  Although this area is often hit with hurricanes, the highways were the smoothest we’ve traveled thus far.  During the approx. 45-minute drive, Dennis spoke nonstop about the area we were traversing and teaching more about our destination, Chacchoben Mayan Ruins Chacchoben - Historyand Facts | History Hit






Dennis taught us about the mathematical marvels of this ancient people, beginning with the eureka moment of creating the concept of “zero” that invited the ability to count toward infinity.  The Mayans used a brilliant concept of writing numbers with a series of dots and bars placed above and below lines.  It is believed that there were 800 images or characters in their alphabet. 

The site itself is a city with the foundations of the wall still in evidence peeking through the jungle.  Spread over quite a vast area as the photo shows.  It is believed to be dated 300-800 AD in the Classical Age.  Astrological prowess is evident with beams shining through the notch at top of building #2.  Similar to astrology we saw at Machu Pichu in Peru.

When you see a bump on this flat land it means buried ruins

This "bump" is in the process of being dug out.


Strangle tree beginning to wrap and strangle another tree

Later the interior tree is strangled and dies leaving hollow interior

Sapodilla tree (gum tree) which indians made gum from in pre columbian times.  Chiclets originally made from this tree and come from an Indian word which translated means "sticky stuff"

We were grateful for the tree cover as it was hot again.

When we reached the port area again, we walked through the market area and found two tiny sombreros for our beloved moose.  


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