Slept with the fan on. When I removed my earplugs I realized how loud it was. Oh well, nobody else switched it off either. Fitful sleep of bits n pieces. No dreams again. As usual, I woke up just before 5 am. Kind of clumsy still, I grabbed my shower gear, banging around more than I wanted to. Nice, hot n soapy shower, what a treat. Tried to make a coffee but there weren't filters. Made a cup of instant that I just couldn't stand. Spoiled brat dumps it in the sink. Go quietly back into the room to get a change of clothes, and get out of the quiet place. The light of the sun has finally caught up to me and the street, Calle Des Frailes is lovely, clean, colorful, bright, and quiet. I consider going to church at the cathedral, not because I buy religion, but have never been to a service in a cathedral like this and dig the rituals sometimes. I just could not make myself enter in my boom-boom shorts. I walked past four different entrances, feeling wrong. I walked all the way around it slowly like a monk, then walked up the four or five blocks to the other, the Iglesia de la Candelaria. Sat in the square there, looking at the bright block of buildings and made my decision to go to Ek Balam after all. Caught a collectivo from a corner. I was the third person they were waiting for. We stopped in Temozon, on the way out of town at a market where I grabbed a muffin and a banana for a dime. Then back on our way. The gates were shut, we were 20 minutes early, so I used my spanish to ask if I could just walk on in. Yes, but its one kilometre. Yeah, no problem. It was just opening as I arrived, and I practised my Mayan on the walk. When I tried it at the ticket booth, the man seemed pleased. He started going off in Mayan- damn! My enunciation must be spot on if he thinks I can understand him!
Ek Balam is massive and it looks like there were maybe more cenotes here that caved in or dried up. The ground is really unusual around the entrance.There wasn't a soul there yet to rent bikes from, so I walked a ways. There was a short guy at the ticket booth whom I greeted with, "hola, beesh a bail?" He licked his lips and stood back, giving me the ornery up down. He spoke for a bit, I don't think it was spanish, but he kept on eating me up as he spoke. I told him I was well, ma-lobe and thanked him for finally stamping my ticket, dyos bowayteek. Then walked into the crazy huge complex. There was NOBODY here. I imagined doing it inside any one of the cool little hallway nooks. But I figured the little Mayan must have stayed in his booth jerking off. As I left I saw him laying inside it on the ground, just his legs sticking out from under the shower curtain that covered the door, feet twitching. Kind of big boots for such a little guy, I thought...
I climbed up the first towery thing. I seem to like to think that the rounded towers belonged to the women and the square, imposing ones were men's. I set off after to climb the giant one. I was scared of it so I had to. Very cool, very large and tall! I've kind of lost interest in Chichen Itza now that I've gotten to climb all of these. What was trippy was that partway up, not quite halfway, was a huge stone platform extending out both sides from under the pyramid large enough to house several families. One side with a round stone well built into the floor so high above the jungle.
I guess I was playing with some sort of dice, but I decided to walk the perimeter of the pyramid like at the church this morning. I wondered briefly about my safety as I was certainly alone here, on the third side of the pyramid, but then I encountered this tiny, lame creature. He would take some steps, the slump down. Then a few more, then slump again. He had clawed little feet, a long flat tail, coarse black and stiff yellow hairs. He was heading down the road, certain of his direction. He had kind of a beaver's face and was very old and bedraggled. He walked alongside me so I spoke to him as we walked toward the front of the pyramid. Who are you? I asked him. He might have even been blind. It wasn't until I leaned in to see what he was that he hissed and raised what was left of his quills. Those stiff yellow things were his spikes! What a sad state he was in, and he looked like he put up a damn good fight. I wished him well, pa ateek keen been, and went on my way. He followed me for a second, then turned back and followed along the road again. I left the complex to go to the cenote. This one looks deep like to the centre of the earth deep!
When I paid my entry and rented my bike, he said to pick any bike, so I pointed to the fast lookin, red Honda sportbike and said "le-lo", that one? The seven or eight dudes sitting around waiting for the tour buses had a laugh but then looked a lil nervous til I picked a nice little rusty red rocket. I rode fast, just ahead of a dump truck of tree poles that wrecked the canopy behind me. I felt like I was in LOST running from the invisible jungle monster thing.
It was neat to see an open cenote, to have it all to myself, and the solid steps that clung to the side were steep as hell, more like a ladder. And it was magical the way the roots reached all the way down to the water from the rim. But the water was dusty on top, full of leaves, and buggy. Spoiled brat. I went around the boardwalk that clung to the sides of the pit, just above the water, and hung out with an iguana where there were no bugs. Meditated under a tree for a bit with the stillness and dripping, black dogfish being cool, and water so dreamstate blue.
When I was done I got up and stomped on the submerged part of the walkway to startle those too cool bastard fish who were just hanging out sitting on it. Thought about having a swim, but there were those tiny waterskippers. I think for less than a second, what if they skip on into my vagina? and then I can't get past that thought. Vaginaskippers. I climbed out of the hole and walked back to the changeroom. I had a cool shower to get rid of the stickiness of the climb. I left my wet shirt on but took off my shorts. I'd be getting sweaty on the long bike ride back.While I was in the hole, the truckload of poles had arrived, along with ten or eleven workers who were waiting around to start their day. As I left in my swimming panties and wet t-shirt, trying to act like that is a normal thing to wear, I then tried to not trip on anything or fall off my bike as 22 eyes lasciviously followed my exit.
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