VINTAGE VENTURES: I write my travel journals to look back and remember our ventures. A secondary reason is to allow me to organize all my trip photos. I have thousands of photos. Organizing them into a cohesive story makes sense.

Yet another great breakfast served to us by our terrific Airbnb hosts.

DAY 14 – Friday, February 16, 2018

PARK OF THE AMERICAS, ZOO

Today I practiced my guitar until 1 pm. It was the first time I played since the St. Croix Casino band gig. I have a folding electric travel guitar that, when placed in its travel bag, looks a lot like a gun. It has raised a few eyebrows in security lines, but it always gets through in the end.

I also have a tiny Vox practice amp that isn’t much bigger than a guitar jack. In fact, the whole tiny unit plugs into the guitar jack and just sits there, taking up hardly any room. The amp has effects and a small earphone jack (it’s way too small for a speaker). There is also an input jack where I plug in my iPod with the tracks of the songs I have to practice. What’s nice about these tracks is that all the guitars have been removed while the rest of the vocals and instruments remain.

At 1 pm, we walked to the Park of the Americas. This is a four-square block park built in 1945 with replicas of Mayan sculptures of gods and other artworks. Reaching the park involved a four-mile walk through some very nice middle-to-upper-class neighborhoods. Even here, however, we noticed several abandoned houses, including many former mansions. It is odd that in Mexico, or at least in the Yucatán, there are so many houses and buildings just abandoned to rot away. Doesn’t anyone take them over or repossess them for resale before they completely deteriorate? Apparently not.

Built in 1945, the Park of the Americas, featured recreated Mayan architecture and statues. The large park took up four city blocks and offered a lot of cool shade to relax in.

The square faces with elephant-like noses were a typical Mayan design. They were called 'godheads'. We never did find out any details about the godheads.

Mayans loved their snake heads.

We walked from the Airbnb to the Park of the Americas through some pleasant neighborhoods.

After visiting the Park of the Americas we headed south to the zoo. We had heard that it had been recently renovated so we were expecting something kind of nice. The zoo was located on a large well-shaded plot of land that had lots of kiddy playground equipment. There were also many vendors, typical of every Mexican commercial area. After miles of walking in the 90-degree sun, we were ready for some paletas. First, we tried a Mamey paleta. Mamey is a pinkish-orange colored tropical fruit the size of a small coconut. It was good, but I liked Nance better. Then we tried a chocolate-covered coconut paleta. Both were wonderfully cold and satisfying on such a hot day. 

The zoo itself took up about 1/3 of the park. It was OK at best. It was nicely landscaped and provided a terrific dense shade. They had some nice monkey displays and a bunch of colorful tropical birds with their huge beaks. But there were lots of sad small caged pens with the animals hiding behind rocks, bushes, trees, or hiding in their shelters. I was spoiled by our visit to the San Diego Zoo last year with their transition to large open-air free-ranging animal displays.

After the zoo, we headed back toward downtown. We bought a whole mango on a stick that was cut in a way that resembled a flower. It was a perfect mango, and the stick idea worked out great for snacking.

This street vendor's carved mangos were delicious.

The street food carts in the Yucatán were not as good as in the Puerto Vallarta area. All the small mom-and-pop restaurants, however, were terrific.

Every neighborhood was anchored by a church.

Next, we walked to the TAME bus terminal to buy our Ruta Puuc Ruins bus tour tickets. Ruta Puuc has five separate sites of ruins ranging from the tiny Xlapak Ruins to the spectacular Uxmal Ruins. The sites are spread out over a 25-mile area, so a car is usually needed. However, the Oriente bus line has a Sunday-only Ruta Puuc bus tour of all five sites.

It isn’t exactly a tour in the traditional sense with a tour guide. Instead, Oriente takes you to each site and gives you time to roam each area. You get 35 minutes at small sites like Labna, Xlapak, and Sayil. 50 minutes are allotted to the larger Kabah, and 2 hours are given for Uxmal, which is just about perfect for each site. The bus ticket is less than $10 US each. There are entry fees at most of the sites, which total up to a tad bit over $20 US for each person. So, for $30 each, you get a great all-day tour.

With our tickets in hand, we ate at El Trapiche, another blog-recommended downtown diner. We had beef tacos (piles of beef chunks, guacamole, black beans, and a zillion white corn tortillas to wrap it all up in); two tamales with tomato sauce, salsa, and a green chili sauce; washed down with horchata (the delicious cinnamon rice drink) and Jamaica (a pleasant hibiscus flower drink). 

We walked over 10 miles today, and my Rockport walking shoes were starting to hurt. I hiked all over southern Spain last November with them without a problem. I think they were just getting worn out.

We pre-purchased our Sunday ruins tour bus tickets.

These un-fancy mom-and-pop restaurants always served terrific food.

Dave and Wanda

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