Yesterday afternoon I went to Cenote Calavera with my friend Gabriel for a swim, and ended up having an amazing, dreamlike experience I want to tell you about. If I ever had any doubt about the cenotes being magical, holy places, I don’t anymore!
Cenote Calavera, in January 2008
After jumping into the big opening and getting totally refreshed by that amazing water, we sat up on the rocks in the shade, just looking around at everything. Almost immediately, Gabriel spotted a bird just a few feet away in the jungle behind us. It was a fairly large bird, brightly colored in turquoise, green, red and white with a long tail like a pendulum, very distinctive-looking. When it spread its wings and flew, it revealed gorgeous turquoise wing feathers.
Soon there were a pair of them. Gabriel explained that they’re called Tocs, because of that tail, which really does look like a pendulum and which they move in a very tic-toc motion.
This photo of a toc (not mine) does not show the brilliance of the colors!
They were really incredibly beautiful with their rainbow colors against the backdrop of lush jungle foliage around the cenote. We spent a long time just watching them. At one point there were a total of six of them.
But this was the really cool thing. Gabriel said that the Mayas say that they’re the guardians of the cenote. As soon as he said that, I noticed how guardian-like they were behaving. They flew from perch to perch, but most of the time they perched close to the cenote, looking directly at it, just as if they were in charge. Often two would sit side by side, or even three, and at times they would strike exactly the same pose, in all their beauty, and even move simultaneously. I got the feeling they knew how gorgeous they are.
But they definitely acted as if they were watching over the cenote. At one point, four 20-something guys came and stayed at the cenote for a while, swimming and hanging out on the rocks. It was during that time that the other 4 Tocs came, and they stayed the whole time the young men were there. When the jovenes left, 4 of the Toc birds left. The rest of the time we were there alone, 2 Tocs were with us. Do they call for reinforcements when the cenote is crowded, and assign one bird to each human? It almost seemed possible.
They make their nests inside the cenote cave, Gabriel explained, so of course they were also watching over their babies. But lots of other birds were flying in and out of the cenote, likely having nests there as well, and none of them seemed to feel the responsibility to keep watch the way the Toc birds did.
Just to add to the experience, the jovenes were speaking in Maya the whole time they were there. At certain moments I thought I might have time-travelled!
It seemed like a dream, but I swear, it was real!
Ominous and depressing…
That Aldea Zama project - a massive multi-use community they’re building in the jungle between the beach road and town - is apparently well under way. Yesterday on my bike, I stopped and read the big glitzy color posters they have hanging at the entrance to the site and looked at the artist’s renderings.
From the web site (which I’m purposely not linking to): this “luxurious community of 532 single-family home sites and 1,023 golf villas will also include condominium and apartment residences, hotel accommodations, Town Center commercial entities, spa, restaurants, and cafes.”
Sigh.
Yesterday I rode my bike out the beach road in the heat of the day. My system during the summer is to either go early in the morning, or late in the afternoon, so that either way I only have one long ride in the 95 degree F heat.
The beach road - apparently its real name is Carretera Tulum-Boca Paila, which I didn’t know until now - is not the most fun of bike rides. At least there’s a bike path, and along its 2 miles of absolutely straight roadway in the relentless sun, there are a couple of little shade trees, where I usually stop. Stretch for a minute, take a slug of water, breathe.
By the time I got to the hotel zone, I was ready for a swim, so went to the beach at Cabañas Copal for a while. Then, back on the bike and out to the cenote at the arch. I was really craving that cool cool cenote water! The ocean isn’t even really cold right now. The cenote was full of people, but I had a good swim.
On the way back, I stopped at another spot of beach to pass the time until the sun got a little lower. The beach is so lovely at that time of day; the light shifts and changes and the colors are beautiful. A kite-boarder was ripping up and down the shoreline with a dog chasing him along the beach. Birds were diving for their dinner.
Then the long haul back to town, but much easier in the cool of twilight.
A cold shower, wine at Don Cafeto’s, dinner of salbutes at Los Chiapañecas, and then sat on the balcony under the stars for a while. A good day in Tulum!
Here’s what I have for lunch or dinner almost every day lately. If I could, I would post a nice, sexy photo of it here. But my camera is broken so you’ll have to imagine them.
Avocado Tacos
1 nice ripe avocado
3 medium-small flour tortillas
A few spoons of pico de gallo (”a fresh condiment made from chopped tomato, onion, and chiles”)
- Cut open, scoop out, and slice the avocado.
- Toast tortillas on both sides on a hot hot surface (dry griddle or frying pan) until they have some nice brown-black spots, but before they get stiff.
- Divide the avocado slices up among the three tortillas.
- Using a fork so that you don’t get too much of the juice and wreck your tortillas, put some pico de gallo on each.
- Roll them up.
- Open iTunes and watch an episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart while you eat them.
I had about the best day in the world yesterday, the kind of day makes me truly happy to be in Tulum, and just happy to be alive, amazed at how blessed I am!
We went out and swam and lounged at the cenotes near Hotel Uno out at the beach yesterday - Ricardo, Emily, Gabriel and me. (Not their real names.) (But that’s a lie.) It was a hot day, but in that spot the weather was perfect, and the cenote water is rapture to me, clear and cool, que rico! We sat with our feet in the water and drank cold beer and talked and laughed, listened to stories about Tulum Back in the Day, watched the wildlife and admired the jungle plants.. rode back into town in the trusty VW bug, bought food at San Francisco market and cooked it up in no particular hurry at my house, moving slow in the heat, listening to reggae, drinking white Cuban rum and grapefruit soda.. sat out on the balcony in the breeze to smoke and talk.
I love it when I really know what happiness is.
