All along the road for the last couple days, I had seen these old scarecrows sitting on porches, many of them nursing empty bottles of beer. On New Year´s Eve I learned that they are a Mexican tradition, stuffed (naturally) with fireworks and burned at the stroke of midnight. The group of residents at our hostel joined together in a town square to set off the hotel´s dummy, signifying the old year that was about to pass.
So many burning dummies! So loud!
As usual, I got along quite well with the other hostel residents. In this case, I was living with Miche, a civil engineer from Germany, and Phil, a mechanical engineer from the states. We were joined later by another mechanical engineer. Just like Cal Poly all over again
Resident engineers. So smart.
The next morning I wandered around and helped myself to an enormous plate of ceviche de camarones. Its simply cooked, shelled shrimp, mixed with diced onions and tomatoes, and garnished with cilantro, salt, pepper, lime juice, vegetable oil, and worchestershire sauce. Served cold, and great for hot days. Super delicious, and apparently also great hangover food. The number of people filtering through during late-morning new year´s day was staggering.
Must make more at home.
Valladolid is home to a great number of cenotes in the area. So I saw almost all of them. By bike, and accompanied by a couple more Germans, of course!
Cenote Zaci, in town. It´s wild that this enormous hole (up to 100m deep) fits on a city block and is surrounded by buildings
Zaci
Samulá
Typical Mexican roadside sign: Colonial churches, indigenous handicrafts, cenotes, and food ahead.
New Year´s Day Eve outside of my last cenote of the day.
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