Is it sweaty here?

Even though I'm not feeling particularly witty this morning, I figured I should write about my adventures this weekend. I'm sure my sarcasm will be sure to make someone laugh. And if not, I get a kick out of it. So don't mind if I do.

We went to some more sweet Mayan ruins this weekend. A little place called Uxmal. First sarcastic remark. Uxmal is not small. It's about 1,200 square meters. And the entire place is covered with Tolocs.

Tolocs, as you can see by Audrey clearly indicating, are iguanas. They're actually all over Mérida too, but a little more prominently at Uxmal. 

Let's have a little pronunciation lesson before we get too ahead of ourselves. Uxmal=Ooshmaul.

Moving on. 

The most famous thing (since I'm an ignorant American, that's all I care about. Clearly.) is a temple that is known by a couple different names. Most prominently "The Pyramid of the Sorcerer". There is a pretty sweet myth behind it. One of the girls in our group, Marie, studied Mayan culture before we came on this study abroad and wrote out the legend for us before we went to Uxmal. 

"There was an old woman who lived in a hut that was located on the exact spot where the finished pyramid now stands. This old woman was a witch who one day went into mourning that she had no children. One day, she took an egg and wrapped it in cloth and placed it in a corner of her small hut. Every day she went to look at the egg until one day it hatched and a small creature, closely resembling a baby, came from the enchanted egg.

The old woman was delighted and called the baby her son. She provided it with a nurse and took good care of it so that within a year it was walking and talking like a man. It stopped growing after a year and the old woman was very proud of her son and told him that one day he would be a great Lord or King.
One day, she told her son to go the House of the Governor and challenge the King to a trial of strength. The dwarf didn't want to go at first but the old woman insisted and so to see the King he went. The guards let him in and he threw down his challenge to the King. The King smiled, and told the dwarf to lift a stone that weighed three arrobas (75 pounds). At this the dwarf cried and ran back to his mother. The witch was wise, and told her son to tell the King that if the King would lift the stone first, then he would lift it also. The dwarf returned and told the King what his mother told him to say. The king lifted the stone and the dwarf did the same. The King was impressed, and a little nervous, and tested the dwarf for the rest of the day with other feats of strength. Each time the King performed an act, the dwarf was able to match it.The King became enraged that he was being matched by a dwarf, and told the dwarf that in one night he must build a house higher than any other in the city or he would be killed. The dwarf again returned crying to his mother who told him to not lose hope, and that he should go straight to bed. The next morning the city awoke to see the Pyramid of the Dwarf in its finished state, taller than any other building in the city.The King saw this building from his palace and was again enraged. He summoned the dwarf and ordered one final test of strength. The dwarf had to collect two bundles of Cogoil wood, a very strong and heavy wood, and the king would break the wood over the head of the dwarf, and after that the dwarf could have his turn to break the wood over the King's head.The dwarf again ran to his mother for help. She told him not to worry and placed an enchanted tortilla on his head for protection. The trial was to be performed in front of all the great men of the city. The King proceeded to break the whole of his bundle over the dwarf’s head, one stick at a time. The King failed to injure the dwarf and then tried to bow out of his challenge. In full view of the town’s great men, though, he knew he had no choice but to go ahead and let the dwarf have his turn.The second stick of the dwarf’s bundle broke the Kings skull into pieces and he fell dead at the foot of the dwarf, who was hailed as the new King (Ranney 80-1)."

It really is an amazing sight to see. Though most of these buildings were reconstructions, we were not able to climb them.....There goes my interest. Obviously I'm kidding. It was an amazing experience and we had a tour guide that has studied these sights extensively and he was telling us all about the significance. Most of the representations on the facades and on the frieze (you can thank Humanities 101 for those handy terms) were of the Mayan rain god, Chaac. There were many sacrifices to him pleading for the blessing of rain. 

The reason we couldn't climb to the top of the temple was it is just too dangerous. The stairs you can see in this picture up the middle of the temple are probably about 6 inches deep and 10-12 inches tall. This was so when people would climb to the top they could not look up directly to the top into the eyes of the gods. And when they were coming down, they could not turn their backs directly to the gods either. You have to go down those suckers sideways. We did get to climb to the top of another building, but it was a little intimidating coming back down. 

I'm living with a couple of 6 year olds.

After exploring, then having some lunch/dinner and swimming a bit in the restaurant pool, we went back to the Nunnery Quadrangle and watched what is called "Luz y Sonido". It's a killer light show (sarcastic comment alert). Not so hot. It would have been cool, if you could understand what was being said. The narration was played over some speakers you would likely find playing Blink 182 at a middle school dance and the lights just faded from green, to blue, to red. When we got real lucky, the lights outlined the serpent along the wall of one of the buildings. That actually was pretty cool. Overall the coolest thing about that was there were fireflies all over the courtyard. I had never seen a firefly in real life. Cute little things. 

Life continues to be wonderful. I laid out in the sun for a solid half hour today after a quick dip in the pool. I was telling Morgan, that's the first time I've done that since I found out about my chronic disease that limits my sun exposure. Experts like to call it "fair skin". It's a hard life. But sometimes I like to live life on the edge. I'll only put on SPF 55 instead of 70. And I'll only reapply ONCE. There's no stopping me, I do what I want.