Stannous Flouride's Book of Truthiness

A bit taller and paler than she should be.

I just posted 17 more pictures of the strange store I discovered over on my G+ page. Using my stupid Android tablet I can only load ONE pic at a time here and each one takes FIVE steps.

Over there I can click on all at once.

Santa and his bimba are full sized.

I’ve been passing the Museo de los Ferrocarriles de Yucatan (Train Museum of the Yucatan) as I go to and from downtown for over a week and today I dropped in for a visit. To get a small idea of how loud this first thing is I suggest you crank up the volume:

Here’s some of the many photos I took there today:

This is the oldest train car in Mexico. Admittedly, it needs a little work:

Row after row, every car type is well represented. By Pullman and GM and GE. And by Canada’s Hawker-Siddely.

A couple, including the one behind the oldest one above, have been primed and due to get a new livery.

(some day)

I decided to take one for a spin

so I opened the throttles all the way

but then got a look at the other side of the controls.

Some of their insides are accessible too. Including this old beauty by Pullman:

:

Others, in various stages of decay and restoration:

And a look at a First Class compartment that reminded me of “North By Northwest” (though I hope theirs smelled better):

those sinks and toilets used to fold up and a folding wall would open divide that into two compartments.

And few random items in closing:

And amidst the debris and decay, life and beauty:

I decided today to share the colorful beauty that surrounds me by recording only the flora that I pass on the few blocks from the bus to my guest home.

Every one of these was taken today along the sidewalk but I skipped the roses as too mundane.

I spotted this strange Mayan or maybe Olmec relic of the past here today.

I have an idea of what it might be. Perhaps some sort of primitive device for speaking with Cha’ac, Kuku’l Kan, Mab El or one of their other gods.

Joined to Uxmal by a 5m wide 18 km long pedestrian causeway with a large portal at each end, Kabah is the second largest city in thethe hilly Puuc region.

Restoration of the site began in just 2003 and is ongoing. So it is possible to see the various stages of the rebuilding process.

Atop the above ediface you can see one of the first steps, the separation and organization of the various architectural elements:

This the ear whorl of a Chaac (the rain god) mask:

Before that the pieces are roughly sorted in the area around the structure where they were found:

Some of the elements found in situ have legible glyphs on them:

These panels, unfortunately hard to see clearly in photos taken with my phone, show two warriors executing a captive (shown between them at their feet). In roughly sequential order:

When doing reconstruction the modern standard is to use a visually different element. Often it is a red mortar as seen here:

I am definitely coming back in 100 years to see the progress!

After the nearly overwhelming encounter with 100s of vendors selling crap at Chichen Itza, the beauty and tranquility of Uxmal was a welcome respite.

Though I was greeted by this in the men’s room:

Front and rear views of the Pyramid of the Magician.   That king was a small person so the stairs on the front, or sunrise side, are much shorter than usual.

Those on the reverse are of the usual height and steepness.

Lots of birds around there

And other feathered creatures like Kuk’l KanKan:

Or that owl next to him.

And mm lots of signs that this little cutie has LOTS of friends.

Fair warning. I often feel this way in the morning.

What looks like a wall is steps:

About a third of the way up:

I made it to the top:

And was rewarded with this view:

And then had to make my descent…

Unfortunately, this Android pad makes me load each picture individually which takes clicking thru five windows for each one. So here’s a few more, sans captions:

Once used for grinding corn:

After visiting Chichen Itza and stopping for lunch we stopped off at the 60m deep cenote Ix Kil and went for a swim. Unlike many of the people there I did not have a water proof camera so my only two pics are from before my descent aand after.

I did get up the gumption to dive off that platform.

I have swim in water deeper than that in the ocean but it was a strange feeling to know that you were in a hole with nothing but water underneath you for almost 200 feet.

Since I was a kid reading about it in National Geographic magazine I’ve imagined visiting Chichen Itza.

despite the overwhelming number of vendors saying “$1 Mister.” and  “$1 señor” it is as fantastic as I imagined.

The study group’s truck broke downdown so no outing today. That meant dividing the leaves & flowers by species and weighing them.

hose are mangrove flowers in the left fore ground and the rest are leaves of various species of trees that live in and around mangroves.

Pretty mundane until this critter dropped out of the bag of leaves:

Quite inert, the little thing made the ultimate sacrifice for science. The little things in front of it are caracolito (snail) shells.

I have sort of figured what is going on there but the many questions I have are beyond the conversational level of my Spanish. As I mentioned before, I’ll be there for 5 more weeks.

I expect to know by then much, much more.