Suddenly the End of Summer

Cue dramatic music. This means it's time to turn my thoughts away from research and back to teaching and writing syllabi. But, as a reward for a little work, I thought I would post a bit about Mexico.

We went to a ruins site, Ek-Balam, about 45 minutes from Valladolid. It's only 30km but there are lots of topes, which are giant Mexican speed bumps, and those can slow down a trip quite a bit. The landscape is wild and lovely, punctuated by some villages, subsistence farming, and federale stations.



We had to hire a Taxi ($300 pesos plus tip at 12 pesos to the dollar, so it was pretty darned inexpensive). Ek-Balam is off the tour bus path, so the site was amazingly empty -- just a few archeologists and some other adventurous travelers.







We thought we could see Chichen Itza from the top of the tallest temple, but only if it's a clear day and you squint.



There's some terrific restoration going on there, with lots of work on the main structure and one of the living spaces. The base of this gallery half way up the main pyramid is a giant Jaguar mouth, with many large teeth and some fantastic figures.







There were some dogs, lounging around in an effort to stay cool and some workers moving huge amounts of dirt and rocks to uncover more of the site. Ek Balam is worth the effort to visit because of the rich restoration and opportunity to explore the various structures.

I put some more pictures of Ek Balam http://picasaweb.google.com/lauraammon/EkBalam via Picasa.