Adventures in Yucatan, Mexico

This morning we continued our exploration of Merida, but ventured a bit farther out of the touristy downtown. We spent the morning shopping for our cooking class tomorrow, which meant a trip to the market! Before we head inside the market, Maria gives us a little bit of history. The Lucas de Galvez marketplace has been here since the late 1800's and offers a huge variety of fruits, vegetables, meats, kitchen equipment, pets, plants, traditional sweets, hot food stands and is also a place where you can find cobblers, watch repairmen and other tradesmen.  The goal of the day: buy all the ingredients we need to make some delicious tamales tomorrow! We found Carly and Mary walking around near the candy aisle They were in search of banana leaves, but weren't sure where to find them, so they asked a vendor and he pointed them in the right direction. In the outside area we spotted the Reiley, Lilly and Jeremy looking for the last ingredient on the list Cha...

     Our group got in around 8:40pm last night and we had a nice dinner of tacos al pastor , guacamole, nachos and local aguas frescas . After that the students had a chance to explore downtown with their chaperones before bedtime.      This morning we had breakfast and then headed out for a tour of the historical district, the plaza grande which takes up a full city block and is surrounded by 4 important historical buildings.     The first building we saw was la catedral , a catholic church built in the 1500's using the stones from the Mayan city of T'ho that conquistador Fransico de Montejo found when he arrived.  During the revolution, the cathedral was looted and all the gold adornments and paintings were taken or destroyed. After that time, they were never replaced and instead the church has sparse, simple, but still beautiful decor.  Our next stop was the home of the conquistador, Casa de Montejo . This wealthy ho...

During our week away, we spent an entire day cooking with a local family. We made tamales, starting with preparing the banana leaves, buying the chickens, grinding the corn into dough and harvesting the fruit that we used to make juice. It was a full day, but our hard work paid off when we finally got to taste the finished product: fresh, steaming hot tamales! 

We began our week-long adventure at 6am on a Saturday morning. We loaded up the van and headed east toward expert artisans, Mayan ruins, ecological reserves and small communities. Working with a third-generation potter whose specialty is making clay whistles. The family uses clay that they make themselves from a mixture of mud, rock, red and white soils found in local caves.  Showing off our silvatos  (whistles) in front of the oven Entering the Mayan ruin of Ek Balam and stopping for an introduction under the great ceiba  We made it to the coast! Floating around in the salt flats The natural Mayan spa In the evening, we put on art workshops for the children in the community After our workshops were finished, we went to learn from the master hammock weavers After a few days of traveling around, we arrived to the community that we would call home for four days and met our host families. Here is Cata with hers!...