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Transcription: [00:02:11]
{SPEAKER name="Jeanne Porterfield"}
This certainly didn't look like most other Mexican towns we'd visited. This seemed more like some tropical island in the Caribbean, or a colorful resort town in southern Europe. It was certainly easy to see why the Mexican tourists said that this felt like taking a trip abroad.

[00:02:28]
{SPEAKER name="Jeanne Porterfield"}
We were equally surprised to find ourselves on a wide spacious boulevard surrounded by many opulent mansions. The mansions were built with the wealth derived from raising henequen, a fiber used in the manufacturing of everything from ropes and rugs, to hats and hammocks.

[00:02:47]
{SPEAKER name="Jeanne Porterfield"}
And here we felt as though we were on a boulevard in Paris, even to a French chateau.

[00:02:54]
{SPEAKER name="Jeanne Porterfield"}
Not only did the wealth contribute to building the beautiful houses, but also to the building of parks, plazas and monuments, such as this impressive one, commemorating Merida's history from Mayan to modern times.

[00:03:08]
[Pause]
{SPEAKER name="Jeanne Porterfield"}
Our driver continued on, taking us to the city's open air market, bustling with its daily activities. Here we noticed how all the market women wear the typical Mayan dress. Also, we became aware of the natural warmth and friendliness of the Mayan Indians.

[00:03:27]
{SPEAKER name="Jeanne Porterfield"}
They're an ancient people, and as I said, mystery still surrounds their origin. However, their faces do seem to confirm the theory that, somehow in eons past, they managed to migrate to this continent from the Orient.

[00:03:44]
[PAUSE]
{SPEAKER name="Jeanne Porterfield"}
The shadow of our horse seemed to fade back through the centuries to other great Mayan ruins, those of Chichen Itza. Here a sacred serpent symbolically guards its ancient temples.

[00:03:59]
{SPEAKER name="Jeanne Porterfield"}
Chichen Itza is much larger in area than Uxmal, although its origins and history are very much the same.

[00:04:06]
{SPEAKER name="Jeanne Porterfield"}
It's only 75 miles north of Merida. Yet, it's a city that stretches back in time, or ruins rather, that stretch back in time, over 1500 years when the Mayans first built these structures.

[00:04:19]
{SPEAKER name="Jeanne Porterfield"}
Atop the temple of the warriors is the figure of Chac Mool, their rain god, still guarding his vanished domain.

Transcription Notes:
mandc: henequen = agave. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agave_fourcroydes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Maya_sites FYI, "Chac Mool" is a reference to the statue vs. Chaac, the rain god. https://www.thoughtco.com/chac-mool-sculptures-of-ancient-mexico-2136309 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaac