Rick Rambles – A blog

2009-05-19 Chitzinitza
So we yesterday we traveled across the world and today we are going to travel across Mexico.  The plan is to get up early, like 6:30 early, and spend 10 hours to tour Chitzinitza.  Ralph and Doris (Marlo’s father and step mother) have planned the excursion.  The word is that Ralph spent some time getting just the right tour…  So we are to meet in the lobby at 7:50.  We set the alarm and discuss and confirm that it is 7:50, not 6:50, etc…  we get up EARLY and get a bite to eat.  We are in the lobby where we were pretty sure where we were supposed to be.  They are nowhere around…  I ask if they are usually on-time people.  Marlo senses something wrong.  I now realize it is the same feeling we got doing the boat tour in Lake Titicaca.   Well 7:50 has come and gone.  No one has a clue.  Marlo and I make sure that we can call each other’s cell phone and start to make a plan of how to proceed…  poof there they are…  I had worries of one more screw up on our part on this trip.  It was not a good feeling.  Turns out that the tour called and said that they would pick us up later…hmmmm
While we are waiting I talk to some people about Riviara Secret.   It sounds interesting.  The woman that performed the wedding said that it was awesome.  The woman that was selling the tour said that she just took her daughters three days ago…  we may have to go…
In the van we go.  There are six of us from the hotels taking the van to the bus…  the van to the bus you ask, how does that work.  It works in a bit of an unsettling kind of way…  the bus was sitting on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere and our van met is.  It felt like a hostage swap.  It did not help that the tour director immediately started to identify Americans…  ok, he was just working the crowd as to where everyone was from…  I MAY be a little paranoid about the whole Mexico thing, maybe a little….  The fact that I am posting this after the fact give you a hint that things did not turn out terribly or anything, but we did drive by a Mexican jail… Marlo was nice enough to rip me out of a book-reading trance and show it to me…
So we get on this bus.  It is nice.  It is air conditioned.   That is good!!!  They give us some juice and a roll for breakfast.  Our tour is to last 10 hours…  yup, that is a LONG time.  We are going to ride the bus for 3 hours, go swimming in a sink hole for a hour, lunch for an hour, drive another hour.  Tour Chitzinitza for 3 hours and then drive back to the hotel for 3 hours… is that 10???  Well it was something like that.  I have a book, so riding the bus doesn’t bother me.  Marlo got board several time and required some amusement, but overall the ride to the sink hole was comfortable.  But the tour guide went on for HOURS about every little thing in two languages and repeated himself over and over… ouch…
Now the sink hole was very cool.  It is caused by the underground river wearing away the limestone to a point that the top collapses and leaves this deep cave like structure complete with a deep body of water that is still flowing.  This particular sink hole has the added benefit of a tunnel carved in and around it to allow access to water level.  Not only that but the continued the steps up around the edge to a height of 25-30 above water level.  This is great for doing silly things like jumping high off the stairs into the water.  Well of course I had to do that complete with pictures and what not.  Jumping that high into water hurts the bottom of my feet.  Marlo and Ralph jump from the stairs as well.  It was fun.  The water was temperate and clear and there was a bunch of fish swimming around.  There was this girl at the top of the steps that kept wanting to jump, but never got up the nerve.  I would try to help each time I went up to no avail.  Others tried to convince her and even hold her hands…  it dot not happen.  A bunch of people were jumping from the top.  A few even dove.  Well this is all well and good until someone get hurt.  This guy, John thought that diving off the top would be fun.  He was also on the second day of his honeymoon.  He had plans of scuba diving tomorrow and horse back riding and zip lining.   Well all of that is at risk because he ripped his sholder out of joint diving off the top steps.  Apparently when he landed the force of the water caught his arm just wrong and dislocated his shoulder.   It took a while for everyone on bus 31 that we had a man down.  He managed to get over to the ladder (that was a rung short) and just hold one.  The man was in pain.  He could not haul himself out of the water.
So now we have a full-fledged medical problem.   Marlo told the “life guards” that there was a problem…  they assisted in getting John out of the water and then stared at the situation.  Some people were helpful, but the heroes of the day are John wife and Marlo.  Now remember we are in the middle of Mexico somewhere and this guy may have to go to a Mexican hospital.  Not as bad as the Mexican jail, but not a good plan either.  So Marlo gets him to lie down on a towel and then his wife and Marlo give it everything they have to get this shoulder back to where it is supposed to me.  Now john is not a small guy so moving shoulder joints around is not an easy task.  I keep asking if I can help to really yank it, but Marlo says that would not be helpful.  They give up and call an ambulance.  Then they decide to give it another try with the wife wrapping a towel on one part of his arm and Marlo using another towel to yank a different direction.  Now the wife is an orthopedic nurse and Marlo is a PA, so this is right up their alley…  one bug shove and a twist from John and the shoulder is back in place!!!!  Yea Marlo!  We get him slung up best we can and start the long walk up all of the steps to the bus.  We are supposed to be on the bus by noon.  We are a little late already.  The life guards called off the ambulance, but they came anyway.  We got the man to the top and the emt’s were there.  They gave him some meds and a proper sling.  He continued the tour!!!
Lunch was next.  It was an unspectacular buffet very like the one at Mochu Pichu.  Also no drinks were included.  Not even water.  I thought drinks were $12.  Turns out they were only $2.50…  might have been pacos  I was looking at.
Now, it has been 3 hours of bus, and hour of swimming (and medical attention), an hour of lunch and NOW we are off to Chitzinitza.  It seems like we have been going all day… cuz we have!!  We have actually been non-stop for two days…  the good news is they have free beverages on the bus.  So here we are.  Touring and listening.  Our guide, the same guy from the bus, does the same annoying and repetitive style of narration….  We learned a lot, but it was painful…  we saw the ring stadium where they would watch people play to tell the future and unfortunately the future was sort for some because after the game they got sacrificed… bummer… then we learned all about the snake and the eagle and the jaguar and how they all fit into Mayan culture…  we toured and toured… then we got to the pig guy.  The pyramid.  You have all see it, it is cool, BUT you can no longer climb the steps!!!  Major bummer.  I climb everything!!!  Actually since four years about they have roped off all of the ruins.  You are not allowed to walk on any of them!!!  I was not happy about this.   I wanted to simply walk under the rope and prance (ok, maybe stomp would be better) right up those steps!!! What would they do, it’s not a big deal… then the two words came into my brain….  Mexican Jail.  People have been telling me my whole life that if I went to Mexico I would end up in a Mexican jail.  We I ruled out the big steps (although I did not see any policia) but the whole natural treasure and what not won over for the most part..  there was a few minor rope infractions.  I even got Doris and Ralph to climb under once…  we did not get arrested…
Every 5 feet there was someone trying to sell us cloth patches, mask and carvings, and obsidian knives…  I almost bought the knife…  it was hot.  We saw a really big iguana.    It was getting late and we were getting tired.  My peeps wanted to go to the bus as soon as it opened…  I think it was the beer and the AC that drew them in…  who am I to argue…
The ride back was uneventful; I finished the book that I had started at the beginning of the bus ride…  we asked if we were going to take a van back to our hotel or would the bus take us.  The question was quite clear, but this is a foreign land so the 50-50 rule apples  (1/2 of what you say, they don’t understand, and half of what they say, you don’t understand.  It takes 4 iterations to actually get an accurate answer).  He told us that the bus would take us to the hotel.  Then we stopped shortly after to meet the van that would take us to the hotel.
We got back, showered cleaned up and met Ralph and Doris for dinner…  nope we had not gotten sick of each other.  We actually had a quite pleasant time.
We ate a Tapaz.  Lots of little dishes.  Very nice.  And considering we are at ground 0 of the big pig fly, we had the restaurant almost to our selves.  We had bread, potato something, empanadas (not like the Puru ones), and beef and chicken on a stick (we really liked that so we got more), then pasta, and a few other things.  We should not have ordered more meat.  I thought it was almost the last course… it was not.  We were stuffed…  then there was desert…  the beer and wine glasses never emptied and we stayed there until almost 10:00.  After that… we crashed… hard…

2009-05-19 Chitzinitza
So we yesterday we traveled across the world and today we are going to travel across Mexico.  The plan is to get up early, like 6:30 early, and spend 10 hours to tour Chitzinitza.  Ralph and Doris (Marlo’s father and step mother) have planned the excursion.  The word is that Ralph spent some time getting just the right tour…  So we are to meet in the lobby at 7:50.  We set the alarm and discuss and confirm that it is 7:50, not 6:50, etc…  we get up EARLY and get a bite to eat.  We are in the lobby where we were pretty sure where we were supposed to be.  They are nowhere around…  I ask if they are usually on-time people.  Marlo senses something wrong.  I now realize it is the same feeling we got doing the boat tour in Lake Titicaca.   Well 7:50 has come and gone.  No one has a clue.  Marlo and I make sure that we can call each other’s cell phone and start to make a plan of how to proceed…  poof there they are…  I had worries of one more screw up on our part on this trip.  It was not a good feeling.  Turns out that the tour called and said that they would pick us up later…hmmmm
While we are waiting I talk to some people about Riviara Secret.   It sounds interesting.  The woman that performed the wedding said that it was awesome.  The woman that was selling the tour said that she just took her daughters three days ago…  we may have to go…
In the van we go.  There are six of us from the hotels taking the van to the bus…  the van to the bus you ask, how does that work.  It works in a bit of an unsettling kind of way…  the bus was sitting on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere and our van met is.  It felt like a hostage swap.  It did not help that the tour director immediately started to identify Americans…  ok, he was just working the crowd as to where everyone was from…  I MAY be a little paranoid about the whole Mexico thing, maybe a little….  The fact that I am posting this after the fact give you a hint that things did not turn out terribly or anything, but we did drive by a Mexican jail… Marlo was nice enough to rip me out of a book-reading trance and show it to me…
So we get on this bus.  It is nice.  It is air conditioned.   That is good!!!  They give us some juice and a roll for breakfast.  Our tour is to last 10 hours…  yup, that is a LONG time.  We are going to ride the bus for 3 hours, go swimming in a sink hole for a hour, lunch for an hour, drive another hour.  Tour Chitzinitza for 3 hours and then drive back to the hotel for 3 hours… is that 10???  Well it was something like that.  I have a book, so riding the bus doesn’t bother me.  Marlo got board several time and required some amusement, but overall the ride to the sink hole was comfortable.  But the tour guide went on for HOURS about every little thing in two languages and repeated himself over and over… ouch…
Now the sink hole was very cool.  It is caused by the underground river wearing away the limestone to a point that the top collapses and leaves this deep cave like structure complete with a deep body of water that is still flowing.  This particular sink hole has the added benefit of a tunnel carved in and around it to allow access to water level.  Not only that but the continued the steps up around the edge to a height of 25-30 above water level.  This is great for doing silly things like jumping high off the stairs into the water.  Well of course I had to do that complete with pictures and what not.  Jumping that high into water hurts the bottom of my feet.  Marlo and Ralph jump from the stairs as well.  It was fun.  The water was temperate and clear and there was a bunch of fish swimming around.  There was this girl at the top of the steps that kept wanting to jump, but never got up the nerve.  I would try to help each time I went up to no avail.  Others tried to convince her and even hold her hands…  it dot not happen.  A bunch of people were jumping from the top.  A few even dove.  Well this is all well and good until someone get hurt.  This guy, John thought that diving off the top would be fun.  He was also on the second day of his honeymoon.  He had plans of scuba diving tomorrow and horse back riding and zip lining.   Well all of that is at risk because he ripped his sholder out of joint diving off the top steps.  Apparently when he landed the force of the water caught his arm just wrong and dislocated his shoulder.   It took a while for everyone on bus 31 that we had a man down.  He managed to get over to the ladder (that was a rung short) and just hold one.  The man was in pain.  He could not haul himself out of the water.
So now we have a full-fledged medical problem.   Marlo told the “life guards” that there was a problem…  they assisted in getting John out of the water and then stared at the situation.  Some people were helpful, but the heroes of the day are John wife and Marlo.  Now remember we are in the middle of Mexico somewhere and this guy may have to go to a Mexican hospital.  Not as bad as the Mexican jail, but not a good plan either.  So Marlo gets him to lie down on a towel and then his wife and Marlo give it everything they have to get this shoulder back to where it is supposed to me.  Now john is not a small guy so moving shoulder joints around is not an easy task.  I keep asking if I can help to really yank it, but Marlo says that would not be helpful.  They give up and call an ambulance.  Then they decide to give it another try with the wife wrapping a towel on one part of his arm and Marlo using another towel to yank a different direction.  Now the wife is an orthopedic nurse and Marlo is a PA, so this is right up their alley…  one bug shove and a twist from John and the shoulder is back in place!!!!  Yea Marlo!  We get him slung up best we can and start the long walk up all of the steps to the bus.  We are supposed to be on the bus by noon.  We are a little late already.  The life guards called off the ambulance, but they came anyway.  We got the man to the top and the emt’s were there.  They gave him some meds and a proper sling.  He continued the tour!!!
Lunch was next.  It was an unspectacular buffet very like the one at Mochu Pichu.  Also no drinks were included.  Not even water.  I thought drinks were $12.  Turns out they were only $2.50…  might have been pacos  I was looking at.
Now, it has been 3 hours of bus, and hour of swimming (and medical attention), an hour of lunch and NOW we are off to Chitzinitza.  It seems like we have been going all day… cuz we have!!  We have actually been non-stop for two days…  the good news is they have free beverages on the bus.  So here we are.  Touring and listening.  Our guide, the same guy from the bus, does the same annoying and repetitive style of narration….  We learned a lot, but it was painful…  we saw the ring stadium where they would watch people play to tell the future and unfortunately the future was sort for some because after the game they got sacrificed… bummer… then we learned all about the snake and the eagle and the jaguar and how they all fit into Mayan culture…  we toured and toured… then we got to the pig guy.  The pyramid.  You have all see it, it is cool, BUT you can no longer climb the steps!!!  Major bummer.  I climb everything!!!  Actually since four years about they have roped off all of the ruins.  You are not allowed to walk on any of them!!!  I was not happy about this.   I wanted to simply walk under the rope and prance (ok, maybe stomp would be better) right up those steps!!! What would they do, it’s not a big deal… then the two words came into my brain….  Mexican Jail.  People have been telling me my whole life that if I went to Mexico I would end up in a Mexican jail.  We I ruled out the big steps (although I did not see any policia) but the whole natural treasure and what not won over for the most part..  there was a few minor rope infractions.  I even got Doris and Ralph to climb under once…  we did not get arrested…
Every 5 feet there was someone trying to sell us cloth patches, mask and carvings, and obsidian knives…  I almost bought the knife…  it was hot.  We saw a really big iguana.    It was getting late and we were getting tired.  My peeps wanted to go to the bus as soon as it opened…  I think it was the beer and the AC that drew them in…  who am I to argue…
The ride back was uneventful; I finished the book that I had started at the beginning of the bus ride…  we asked if we were going to take a van back to our hotel or would the bus take us.  The question was quite clear, but this is a foreign land so the 50-50 rule apples  (1/2 of what you say, they don’t understand, and half of what they say, you don’t understand.  It takes 4 iterations to actually get an accurate answer).  He told us that the bus would take us to the hotel.  Then we stopped shortly after to meet the van that would take us to the hotel.
We got back, showered cleaned up and met Ralph and Doris for dinner…  nope we had not gotten sick of each other.  We actually had a quite pleasant time.
We ate a Tapaz.  Lots of little dishes.  Very nice.  And considering we are at ground 0 of the big pig fly, we had the restaurant almost to our selves.  We had bread, potato something, empanadas (not like the Puru ones), and beef and chicken on a stick (we really liked that so we got more), then pasta, and a few other things.  We should not have ordered more meat.  I thought it was almost the last course… it was not.  We were stuffed…  then there was desert…  the beer and wine glasses never emptied and we stayed there until almost 10:00.  After that… we crashed… hard…

So we get up way early in attempt to actually get on our flight… we manage, we should be good at this by now.  The flights are uneventful.  There was some really pretty water, and a huge rainstorm that we flew into as we were landing.
The room is AWESOME! The place is great, we made the wedding….  More details later.  We are going to Chitzinitza tomorrow.  We heard that you can’t climb it anymore… bummer…  lots of pics to come..
So we get up way early in attempt to actually get on our flight… we manage, we should be good at this by now.  The flights are uneventful.  There was some really pretty water, and a huge rainstorm that we flew into as we were landing.
The room is AWESOME! The place is great, we made the wedding….  More details later.  We are going to Chitzinitza tomorrow.  We heard that you can’t climb it anymore… bummer…  lots of pics to come..

Mexico take two…
The first attempt ended in utter failure…  ya see, I picked up the travel docs, our travel agent pointed out that we got the later flight that Marlo wanted.  2:40…  that works…  so we are cruising to the airport all fat dumb and happy around 12:30.  Plenty of time for a 2:40 flight.  So I am in the back seat, Mr. Roller was kind enough to drive us to the airport….  I decide to read more of these travel docs, see cuz these are our second set because the first plan fell about due to the pig thing…  so we are about half way to the airport and I read that our RETURN flight was at 2:40, not our departure flight…  that was at 6:55, we were about 8 hours late…  major ooops…  so now what…  we continue to the airport to see what is available…  nada…  we have to go home and wait for the next day…  much unhappiness…  we missed the rehearsal dinner and a day in Mexico that we paid for…  the USAir people did NOT help much, they did change our flight for free, but would not change the end date.  Our hero Ann at AAA handled all of the heavy lifting and got everything straightened out.