Back in mid-March, I went on a trip to the Mayan peninsula of Mexico. I posted some pictures from my trip in an earlier post, so I thought I would show more photos from this wonderful trip. These were taken when my sister and I went on a guided visit to a Mayan village. This is one of the homes we visited. It was very simple - only a few rooms inside and no electricity or running water.
We were welcomed to the village by this man - who was the head, or chief - and his wife. We were told how many children they had and it was a very large number - more than a dozen (I have forgotten now). I guess no birth control.
The Mayan are not a very tall people. In this picture they are standing beside our guide, who was himself not a tall man - about as tall as I am.
The village comprised about a dozen houses, all made of wood with thatch roofs. We did not visit them all but we walked around the village and looked at how it was laid out. It was much like any small village anywhere.
We were invited inside this home and our guide talked to these two women, who were cooking food. No stove - just a charcoal fire. They invited us to eat with them but our guide explained that we had already had lunch earlier.
Outside the house there were a number of beautifully-coloured birds in cages, including this one. There was also a pet monkey but he was too fast for me and I couldn't get a good picture of him.
When we left the village, these children came to say goodbye. Aren't they beautiful?
The first week of March, my sister Marilyn and I went on vacation to the Mayan Riviera area of Mexico. While we were there, we went on an expedition to Coba, which is the site of some spectacular Mayan ruins. The highlight of the visit was seeing Ixmoja, which is the tallest pyramid in the Yucatan peninsula. Here is yours truly standing in front of this pyramid prior to trying to climb it.
It really is steep. There was a rope to hold on to, for climbing up or down.
I wanted to climb all the way to the top but made it up only about a quarter of the way. Then I experienced vertigo and decided to be sensible and climbed down - very, very carefully. My sister took this picture of me coming down. That's me, circled in red.
There were a number of other beautiful temples that we saw, such as this one, which is called La Iglesia.
At the end of our visit as we were walking back, we saw this lovely temple. I enjoyed the whole experience very much.
After one of the longest, hardest winters we have had to endure in a long time, I decided I needed something happy to look at. So I bought a bright, colourful bouquet of flowers to look at after coming in from the bitter cold. Cheers me up! And it is fun to do quick little sketches of them - like this one I did recently.
It was another snowy day and I had come back to the city early. I went to the National Art Gallery and was wandering around when suddenly, I heard some lovely music. I followed the sound and entered an open area looking down onto an indoor garden. At one end of the garden, a person was playing gorgeous music on a piano while people sat or stood nearby. I settled on a bench and pulled out a small sketchpad while I was listening. It was such an unexpected treat on a nasty, wintery day.
Going to the National Art Gallery on a snowy Sunday afternoon can affect how one sees the world afterward. Everything tends to look like Art! For example, This view of a couple of people walking down a corridor looks like a mid-Twentieth Century minimalist painting - or something like that!
This endless-seeming scaffolding which surrounds the part of the National where they are making repairs - seen from inside the Gallery looking out a window - looks like some elaborate, participatory sculpture. Very post-industrial!
In the evening, walking down a snowy Ottawa side street, one can appreciate the blue and white and grey landscape, like something by an impressionist painter. Beautiful!
From long ago and far away, this picture was taken when I was a child and includes my brother (with the drums), me in the middle, and my sister on the right. This is always a wonderful time of the year to be a child. Happy holiday, everyone!
We had a big winter storm in Eastern Ontario over the past couple of days that left great piles of snow everywhere. The Byward Market, in downtown Ottawa, had a very Christmas-y feeling this afternoon. The snow was still gently falling when this horse-drawn wagon went by with a load of people enjoying the ride.
There were a number of market vendors selling Christmas decorations. At this stand, one could buy green boughs and wreaths with red ribbons.
Later in the evening, hundreds of Christmas lights were turned on and sparkled on the fresh snow. This tree was so pretty, standing at the end of a street in the Market.
