2006-12-06T20:57:00.000-08:00

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I start my trip from Campeche, which is 2 hours from merida, and is a colonial city with its own athmosphere. During my trip I meet Uli and Ina, who are students from Germany who came to Mexico for learning spanish. I have met a lot of people who are doing the same thing. Apparently Mexico is a popular destination for europeans who wish to learn spanish.

After that I head for the Mayan museum in Fort San Miguel, which is retransformed to a museum after the days of ironclad ended.
This is a view from the colonial streets of Campeche.

I wander around the town center again and again getting lost soo much that I decide to take its picture...

Finally I am back from Campeche ready for some more action... I start with Cathedral on Plaza Mayor, which is the oldest in whole north America. Merida is in the central region of yucatan which is a middle point for many important ancient mayan city civilizations. Gorgeous Palenque is 4 hours south, it is only an hour from Uxmal 2 hours from Chitchen Itza.

From the city, I go to another large Mayan City, Dzibilchaltun... This city is relatively smaller compared to other Mayan Cities, yet has one interesting property. It is the only mayan city, in which mayans and spanish have lived together after conquest. You can see that the primal church is built from mayan stones in the middle of the ancient city.

This is the temple of seven dolls, and me and 2 american girls, who helped me a lot in learning more about the mayan culture. Apparently they are studying mayan culture in Mexico and they even had their exam on mayan language the day after!!!! Am I lucky or what??? =)

This is the cenote of Dzibilchaltun. Cenotes are small lakes of fresh water which comes mainly from under the ground and provides fresh water supply to its surroundings. As rivers are relatively rare in this yucatan area, the early cities were built around cenotes for water supply ("kuyu" in Turkish). This particular cenote is 33 meters deep (no I

didn´t dive in this one mom =) , and apparently there were some artifacts and skeletons found in the bottom (someone did dive =).

This was another good surprise for me, I was able to catch another demonstration for the poverty levels and government´s ignorance in taking action. You see the government official confidently walking in, but his words were not as satisfactory as his walk as usual !!!!

And the other fun aspect of travelling,,, meeting the coolest guys in the world!!!! Meet Steven and Robert, they were travelling around central america (Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Mexico) for more than 3 months when we met, and I asked them how they knew each other... Guess what,, Father and Son!!!!!! His father is 50 years old and he is still travelling without fear or tiredness. I am telling you, I will be like that too.. No way I am going to feel like the old retired guy in my 45s.... And also another neat surprise is that Turkey is one of the countries that really effected and amazed Robert the most. And definitely the one that taught him the most. Robert was mugged once in his lifetime, and in Istanbul!!!!=)... I guess we need to go a little easier on tourists =)... Talking to Robert I also found a lot in myself and sparked the fire a little bit more about why on earth we shouldn´t be what we see but what we believe and feel... He is a perfect example, every week his friends check each other if he is dead or not while trying to play golf.... They think he is crazy, I think they are boring.... By the way, my future wife should accept me taking out my son on a trip like that, no other way =).... If she wants she can join too =P

I spend the night having fun with some spanish Serenade. Merida is a very cultural colorful city with a lot of free activity going on during the nights. On first picture you see mexicans turning and doing a dance similar to "oyun havasi",, but in addition they have bottles of tequilas on top of their heads =).

Slightly after the serenade, I go out on the streets and notice a small art cocktail with free entrance in general for the "elite" who is willing to pay muchos muchos pesos for the arts local artists make.. I personally check them, I am not impressed that much personally, I am not the one with muchos pesos anyway =)... Still why not taste the food and talk to girls there, el Turco with Mexican Art =) !!!!!!

The next day I spend walking on the streets of Merida... I decide to take another picture in front of the oldest cathedral in north america hidden by trees =). And then I head for the Palacio Gobernador. The mural here depicts a scene from "Popol Vuh", the mayan book of creation. According to this book, the human beings are created by god

from corn... And then I head for the salon where historically very important and valuable mexican paintings depicting history are shown. As you can see they are very tough guarded!!!!! (The guard
on the left has been sleeping throughout my entire visit he didn´t even notice me!!!!=)

And I finally end up in anthropological museum in Merida, much less impressive than its sibling in Mexico City, still it has some interesting knowledge for me about mayan history (check My Mexico, "cultural part"). An interesting fact shown in this picture, is mayan beauty criterias... Mayans actually used to find women that were cross-eyed ("sasi" in turkish) and with sharpened teeth ("sivriltilmis disler" in turkish) more beautiful, and they actually did sharpen their teeths and used exercises for cross eye-ing their women!!!!!!! God bless me I am Turkish!!!!! =)
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My Merida