| The Flycatcher Inn |
| A Yucatan B&B Bed & Breakfast Boutique Hotel Inn Accommodation |
 |
Not long ago we were in Portugal, in a small rural area in the far eastern central part, where a fine white dust seems to cover everything. The small
village of Dzitia just outside of Merida here on the peninsula, is the same. Fine white dust covers just about everything: trees, cars, streets, houses.
Marble dust. In both places, marble is cut and shaped, and it appears that almost everyone is involved in this activity, from simple tiny shops to large
fabricators. Cutting, sawing, grinding, and shaping one of the earth’s treasures – marble.
In Portugal, even mundane common items are made of marble: steps into tiny village houses, the floor in a small café that also serves as the local bus
station, balustrades, Churches. Marble is used everywhere, and has been known there for centuries. This is not so in Dzitia. The marble of the Yucatan
Peninsula is a relatively recent discovery. Marble here is mainly for those with money, or new government building facades or hotels, accent pieces.
There are various kinds of marble found on the peninsula, ranging from the pure white in color, to cream and mushroom tones, to a lovely
cinnamon/peach combination coming from Ticul. One color combination is known by the Spanish name of “Venado”, meaning deer, and very much
resembling the hide of one. The marble is mainly found in the hill ridge that runs roughly west to east across the peninsula. Slowly but surely the hills are
being reduced as the marble is quarried out.
Not all of this is what we would consider “marble”, as it is really sort of a limestone/fossil type of stone, with pockets that are quite soft. It looks like age old
creatures and creations have been trapped within the stone, like a miniature sea that you would like to wander through if you could.
Some harder pieces have veins of darker colors, more like European marble, and some very hard pieces look like creamy Ivory Liquid Detergent has
been trapped and solidified in pockets along with foam bubbles and maybe worms, or centipedes, forming lovely muted patterns when sliced and
polished. This last, called Tok’ in Mayan, comes out of the earth on construction projects, and one would never know the beauty it hides, so ordinary is
the rock. The Ticul marble is one of the more vividly colored and patterned, much having small crystal formations running throughout, along with veins of
dark chocolate brown and cream.
I am continually fascinated by the rocks that the earth holds. Some, when broken apart, have matched patterns that look like ant trails colored cinnamon
on a beige background. Some are crystal quartz formations shimmering like tiny diamonds. It makes me want to see what is inside of each rock, stop
each big flatbed truck carrying some of these huge stones and beg to see what is inside.
And then there are cenotes, those wonderful pools of water trapped in bubble-like caves, sometimes connected by subterranean rivers with stalactites
and stalagmites. All of it formed thousands of years ago, and hidden from sight. Many times these cenotes form sanctuaries for various beautiful birds
such as the Mot-mot, and tiny lizards, living in cracks and crannies within the walls of the cenotes themselves, safe from predators. It is a rare privilege to
be able to see these incredible small bodies of water, or to swim through them like prehistoric fish.
Ruin sites are the same. How many sites do we see and think it is just a hill? How many do we walk over, not knowing it is there? And how many are
homes to various creatures, from the birds to the iguanas? We have hundreds of these sites on the Yucatan Peninsula, from teeny tiny ones to huge
soaring structures like Uxmal and Chichén Itzá.
We find arrowheads, pottery shards, fragments of carved stones and old grinding stones, sometimes even jade-like beads and shaped incised pieces. All
buried under the dirt, or in caves, caves which also hold tiny blue crystals that leach out of the walls. The the potters of this area collect and grind them
to make the lovely blue color of their reproduction Mayan ceramic pieces. Clay that the earth holds to make these pieces, and the silica sand used to
harden that clay to make it more durable. Small pebble-like formations that are really manganese, ground to make the charcoal black tones to color this
pottery, found in the roots of reeds that grow in the “aguadas”, the temporary ponds that form in the wet season in the forests and low areas. All of this is
hiding under the surface.
And more. The beautiful flowering vines that so suddenly spring to life when it rains, to form canopies of color in the trees by the roadside and in the
forests, their roots sunk deep in the earth to survive.
We don’t always think of all these things as “hidden treasure” but they are. Treasures of the Earth. Treasures of the Yucatan.
Kristine,
Flycatcher Inn Boutique Hotel, Santa Elena
10 minutes southeast of Uxmal, Yucatan, Mexico
village of Dzitia just outside of Merida here on the peninsula, is the same. Fine white dust covers just about everything: trees, cars, streets, houses.
Marble dust. In both places, marble is cut and shaped, and it appears that almost everyone is involved in this activity, from simple tiny shops to large
fabricators. Cutting, sawing, grinding, and shaping one of the earth’s treasures – marble.
In Portugal, even mundane common items are made of marble: steps into tiny village houses, the floor in a small café that also serves as the local bus
station, balustrades, Churches. Marble is used everywhere, and has been known there for centuries. This is not so in Dzitia. The marble of the Yucatan
Peninsula is a relatively recent discovery. Marble here is mainly for those with money, or new government building facades or hotels, accent pieces.
There are various kinds of marble found on the peninsula, ranging from the pure white in color, to cream and mushroom tones, to a lovely
cinnamon/peach combination coming from Ticul. One color combination is known by the Spanish name of “Venado”, meaning deer, and very much
resembling the hide of one. The marble is mainly found in the hill ridge that runs roughly west to east across the peninsula. Slowly but surely the hills are
being reduced as the marble is quarried out.
Not all of this is what we would consider “marble”, as it is really sort of a limestone/fossil type of stone, with pockets that are quite soft. It looks like age old
creatures and creations have been trapped within the stone, like a miniature sea that you would like to wander through if you could.
Some harder pieces have veins of darker colors, more like European marble, and some very hard pieces look like creamy Ivory Liquid Detergent has
been trapped and solidified in pockets along with foam bubbles and maybe worms, or centipedes, forming lovely muted patterns when sliced and
polished. This last, called Tok’ in Mayan, comes out of the earth on construction projects, and one would never know the beauty it hides, so ordinary is
the rock. The Ticul marble is one of the more vividly colored and patterned, much having small crystal formations running throughout, along with veins of
dark chocolate brown and cream.
I am continually fascinated by the rocks that the earth holds. Some, when broken apart, have matched patterns that look like ant trails colored cinnamon
on a beige background. Some are crystal quartz formations shimmering like tiny diamonds. It makes me want to see what is inside of each rock, stop
each big flatbed truck carrying some of these huge stones and beg to see what is inside.
And then there are cenotes, those wonderful pools of water trapped in bubble-like caves, sometimes connected by subterranean rivers with stalactites
and stalagmites. All of it formed thousands of years ago, and hidden from sight. Many times these cenotes form sanctuaries for various beautiful birds
such as the Mot-mot, and tiny lizards, living in cracks and crannies within the walls of the cenotes themselves, safe from predators. It is a rare privilege to
be able to see these incredible small bodies of water, or to swim through them like prehistoric fish.
Ruin sites are the same. How many sites do we see and think it is just a hill? How many do we walk over, not knowing it is there? And how many are
homes to various creatures, from the birds to the iguanas? We have hundreds of these sites on the Yucatan Peninsula, from teeny tiny ones to huge
soaring structures like Uxmal and Chichén Itzá.
We find arrowheads, pottery shards, fragments of carved stones and old grinding stones, sometimes even jade-like beads and shaped incised pieces. All
buried under the dirt, or in caves, caves which also hold tiny blue crystals that leach out of the walls. The the potters of this area collect and grind them
to make the lovely blue color of their reproduction Mayan ceramic pieces. Clay that the earth holds to make these pieces, and the silica sand used to
harden that clay to make it more durable. Small pebble-like formations that are really manganese, ground to make the charcoal black tones to color this
pottery, found in the roots of reeds that grow in the “aguadas”, the temporary ponds that form in the wet season in the forests and low areas. All of this is
hiding under the surface.
And more. The beautiful flowering vines that so suddenly spring to life when it rains, to form canopies of color in the trees by the roadside and in the
forests, their roots sunk deep in the earth to survive.
We don’t always think of all these things as “hidden treasure” but they are. Treasures of the Earth. Treasures of the Yucatan.
Kristine,
Flycatcher Inn Boutique Hotel, Santa Elena
10 minutes southeast of Uxmal, Yucatan, Mexico
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| YUCATAN TREASURES: What the Earth Hides Below the Yucatan Peninsula |
