Back to Cancun

Back to Cancun

We took a last look around Merida and headed toward Cancun. There was much we hadn't seen--but unfortunately time was limited. We had to leave. I hope to go back one day.

Instead of taking the four-lane back to Cancun we opted for a more scenic route. I worked more on road signs in between keeping an eye out for those sneaky topes!

Many signs I could decipher fairly easily. For example, "Precaucion Zona Escola" I knew right away meant, Caution School Zone. "Despacio" (slow) I already knew. Not from road signs, but from begging locals, "Despacio, por favor," (slow, please) when I couldn't understand their rapid speech.

I also nailed "Ceda El Paso" (yield right of way), but that was just a lucky guess, and I got half of "Poblado Proximo." Proximo is enough like approximate that it was no problemo--you know that one! What I couldn't get was Poblado; it means small village or town. 

Sometimes I hadn't a clue. "No Rebase" left me cold. Kerry told me it meant no passing. There we many more I had to ask about, but slowly I was picking things up and felt more comfortable.

We stopped in one village and Kerry bought a plant for his balcony (balcon) at condo. It was a large plant in a big pot. He paid about $3 US (40 pesos). The same plant would probably sell for $10-20 in the US.

A we drove into Cancun Kerry showed me that the mile markers had both Arabic numbers and Mayan numbers, so I learned to write one to twenty in Mayan! I can't reproduce the symbols on my keyboard, but just in case you want to amaze your friends and neighbors, here is a table I found online:

The number system is based on twenty--not ten as ours. The symbol for twenty is their zero with one dot above it.

Once archaeologists decoded Mayan numbers it allowed the current batch of doomsayers to predict the end of the world this year since the Mayan calendar doesn't go any farther than that. My advice? Don't give your stuff away just yet!

I couldn't find a thermometer to check exactly how hot is was, but it was plenty humid. I told Kerry that his first job the next day was to take me to his barber. My hair (the bit that grew around the edges of my bald spot) had to go!