September 30, 2002

"The Hurricane Isidore"

I'm honestly not sure where to begin telling this story, but like everything else, I guess I'll just start at the beginning.

Saturday morning, (September 21) was the equinox, as I'd mentioned earlier, so Phyllis, Davis Cherry, Tori Kleffman and I decided to try to catch the sun shining through the doorway at Dzibilchaltùn. We were there all ready to see the big event, only to be foiled by clouds from the approaching hurricane Isidore.

Not a little disappointed, we returned to Mèrida just in time to hop in a van as we left for our anthropology field trip with Professor James Callaghan. Our first stop was the biological reserve/Maya ruins named Kuiuc, still mostly covered with trees and debris, giving it a very untouched feel.

As James was lecturing on the technique the Maya used to create their arches, thunder rolled in and our class was cut short due to Chac's (a Maya rain deity) impatience. We continued on our way to Tabi, a colonial hacienda, since we were unable to visit with a modern Maya family.

Now a State Park, Tabi dates back to some of the first conquistadores who decided to settle on the Yucatan Peninsula. Here we learned some more about Maya civilization in the Puuc Hills, as well as how to sleep in hammocks, a must for those who wish to have the full Mexican experience.