Jade: These are signs about Dzibilchaltun – which was a Maya ruin. The Maya lived here thousands and thousands of years ago. We went to visit the ruins where they used to have their houses, their village and their culture. We walked around and it was beautiful.
Jade: It was very hot, but we went into an airconditioned museum. I got to practice my Spanish when I read things on the wall. There were all sort sof cool things. There was one place that had a glass floor and their was a skeleton and old canons from when the Spanish came, big beautiful shells and pots they used to carry for drinking or cooking.
Mady: This is a long, long temple and it had really long steps across the building. It is the longest temple in all of Mexico and Guatemala where all the temples are. The Maya used to sit on the stairs and watch games on the field.
Jade: We talk about the Maya because it is so interesting. This is a temple with a hole in the middle. The sun shines through the hole lighting it up on March 20th every year which is called the equinox (pronounced Eeek qwa knocks) – so the Maya knew when to plant.
Mady: The temple is called the Siete Munecas which means the temple of the seven dolls. It was called that because they found 7 tiny dolls buried under the temple. The dolls were made out of rock and mud. The Maya have different Gods. There was a death God, a water God, plant God, animal God and when the Spanish took over the Maya, they said “we have one God, and you have to believe in our one God.” And the Maya were forced to believe in this one God even if they didn’t want to. But they believed in their Gods anyway, fought back and felt they should be allowed to believe what they want.
Mady: If the Maya needed water, they prayed to their water God and maybe a couple of days later there might be rain flowing from the sky. And the Maya made these jugs out of natural clay from the earth and they use the jugs to collect water.
Jade: In Maya, instead of writing numbers like we do, they use symbols like one single short line up and down is five, three lines would be 15, circles are one. Three lines and two circles is 17. I counted them out, and my father corrected me if I was wrong. I got them all right. The numbers are so important for the Maya because it helps them know when to plant.
Mady: This is a house from the Maya time and this is where they cook. And they have a different house from where they sleep. And they cook over a fire. The roof is made out of dead palm tree leaves.
Mady: This is a video of my Dad chasing a huge iguana.
Birthday Party:
Mady: This is me and my friend named Silvana. And this is her birthday party she invited us to where she turned nine.
School:
Jade: These are my classmates and they take it easy on me and they speak slowly so I can understand. There is a teacher and her name is Maribel. We decorated flowers for the Spring festival.
Mady: This is my art for the Bienvenido a la Primavera (Spring Festival) which is this week. It is a flower.
Jade: This is us talking to my Mom’s cousin June and we are skyping her grade 3/4 class in Ontario. They are asking us questions about Mexico and we answer them. One said “what is it like to be in Mexico?” And I said “It feels like paradise. It is very very warm and you get to relax.” you know stuff like that. They wanted to skype because they were reading our blog and they were interested in what we were doing.
Visitors:
Jade: This is me and my sister with Mom’s other cousin Nancy and Will. They came for a visit for one week.
Food:
Jade: These are toasted tortillas with beans, onion, tomato and cilantro and it is really good. (sometimes avocado.)
Jade: This is a sopa de lima (which means lime soup.)
Jade: This one is very good cheese – creamy cheese with tortillas which is like a bread, except that it is flat. And you dip the tortillas into the cheese and it tastes really good. We had this in Merida.
Mady: These are really, really, really hot peppers called Habeneros. People here in the Yucatan use them for cooking. They add lime juice to them and put them on their food.
Jade: These are very good nachos.
Jade: This is very, very good fried fish, (Dad adds: Moro, Grouper, and Red Snapper).
Jade: This is a kind of sauce made with tomatoes, cilantro, raw fish, onion (white), and lime juice. It is called Cerviche. I liked it alot.
Cenote: Noc ac
Mady: When I was getting into this underwater cenote I put my hand down on a big wasp and it stung me. It hurt alot. The cenote was awesome because you could go underneath the cave. There was a small hole in the ground away from the entrance to the cenote, you could swim underground and look up at the hole into the sky. There were a ton of ropes in the cenote and you could hold on and swing from them because the water was really deep. And there were some little glow worms hanging from the wall. I liked this one the best because it was deep. The water is agua pura (pure drinking water) because it has been filtered when the rain goes through the rock and filters it into the pool.
And this is the flag of Mexico.
Jade: This is a donut floaty where we play taxi (and we count ten seconds and when I get to one, there is a shallow end, I jump out. And then Mady comes to it because we fall off and scream with laughter. Mady had a green one that was a floaty and it is like a water bed.
Jade: This is a beautiful sunset that always happens like this in Mexico because Mexico is a beautiful country.