Big Bike Trip!: 10-19-08 Malaria, Dimonbacks, Bullfights and the Ruins at Tabasqueno

This morning I got up to help Manuel with cutting grass for his cattle. He cuts grass next to the dump on the edge of town.

The dump. Tons of dogs and vultures live here.

This is a hand made machette used for cutting grass. Machettes come in different sizes of the classic shape, but also a rainbow of other designs. This type is pretty typical and is good for light brush and grass.

Two days ago I was speeking with a guy in town, and I asked him how bad the snakes are, and what snakes to watch out for. He said Dimondbacks were the worst, not fatal though if you get a shot. He said they are grey, about 2 feet long and have a diamond pattern on thier back. While cutting grass Manuel came acrossed a snake and asked me if i thought he should kill it. He had not seen this type before, but it fit the exact description of a diamond back, and it was my opinion that is should be killed since we were working in the area.

A dead diamodback.

Next we set out for more ruins. We went over to northern Campeche to the Bolochen district. There is only one big ruin in the area that i will visit soon, but we were looking for some of the many small ruins around the countryside. Asking around, many people were aware of the ruins, but that all the roads you have to take were in terrable shape because of the flooded roads. Unlike southern Yucatan, where we were yesterday, Campeche is dryer, and the increased rains have made their crops grow very well. It seems thier soil drains better too, because there was no standing water. In the end, we only made it to one ruin, a well marked one open for tourist, El Tabasqueno. To bad, but worse I fear the forest roads further south will be a big problem for me, and i may not get to see many of the ruins I am hoping to see.

El Tabasqueno is a small ruin, notible for a single standing building with a monstermask facade, other than Ek Balam, this is one of the best preserved. The style is Chenes (Chenes is a spanish word for wells, wells are the only way to get water in this region), but like Xkichmook, the masonry is almost totally Puuc in style.

The facade of the main temple at Tabasqueno. The temple at the palace at Xkichmook almost certainly once looked like this, but is now totally collapsed.

Stacks of masks on the corner of the temple like at Xkichmook.

Red and blue paint still can bee seen on the wall. This is a soffet in one of the rooms where a blue strip of paint can be seen.

Last night Manuel asked me if I remembered the large misquittos at the ruins yesterday, and i had. I had never seen them like this before and they neither had Manuel. They were at least twice as big as a typical misquitto. He tolded me a Maya field worker who was showing us some of the ruins said they were the type that make you sick. I said how sick, he said very sick. I asked if you ever get better, he said no, a lot of times you die. So when i got back to town, and after a bit of a difficult covnversation, i picked up some anti-maleria meds and started taking them, because the south were I'm headed will be much worse.

In the night we went out to Yucatan bullfight. The bullfights come in three types. First, the typical type where they kill the bull. They do this first so they can sell the meat. We missed this and showed up for the second time. The bull gets released in the ring and runs around for a bit, then a whole bunch of horses enter the ring and the bull trys to hit them. Apparently the horses can be killed this way, but nothing like that happen. The third type is more with the matadors putting on a show, then the first cowboy to lasso the bull gets a prize. Lots of fun. The most remarkable thing are the stands that get built. All wood for the forest, tied together with reeds, looks like they must have been building them like this for 1000's of years. It was very dark, so the pictures are not the best but here are a few: