A QUESTION I BET YOU'VE NEVER ASK YOURSELF !!!

Both Jim and I are EMT's. That is we were, but our licensing has elapsed. We took our training in affiliation with the University of Alabama. There, we saw all kinds of problems that humans were facing with health and psychological issues. But I never had to consider this question.

HOW MANY COCKROACH (CUCARACHA) BITES CAN YOU GET BEFORE YOU GET SICK?

Last night while lying in bed awake, along the top of my leg, I suddenly felt a soreness. Hm...need to apply some aloe there tomorrow I thought. Then later my lower leg hurt a bit ...hm...more aloe tomorrow. THEN, I felt a definite BITE on my toe. That's it. On with the light and I saw the large, brown “German” Alabama-like cockroach running across the white sheets. Into the kitchen for a wide mouth plastic glass...and slowly lifting the sheet...there it was again.  Down came the glass, a thin cardboard inserted underneath (yes, I carry several in my suitcase for craft projects with Mexican children), and I've got him.

Again the question about cucaracha bites: Off to the computer to find out:

That part above about sailors in the past having to wear gloves to avoid having their fingernails gnawed is especially concerning...arg.  

I'd like to add that where we're staying, it's about as clean as any house along this dirt road is and no matter how much care you take to keep out varmints, they will come in. I don't seem to have any lasting  problems.

HEALING WITH A MAYA CURANDERA

January 9, 2016

In the jungle just to the east of Puerto Morelos in the Yucatán, Mexican state of Quintana Roo about 40 km south of Cancun, I had  quite an amazing experience with the daughter of a Maya curandero.

About 2 weeks ago, my foot became engulfed in the handle of a shopping bag, and I fell hard at our daughter and son-in-law's home. First I hit my face on the elevated corner of a hard wooden box, then slammed down onto the hardwood floor on my left hip, shoulder, arm, wrist and face again. Two days later, I couldn't lift my arm above my shoulder, had scabs on my face, bruises under my eye. I had to have help even pulling up my pants.

Since my 20's, I haven't had as many people look at me. They'd look, then wonder, and remember to look away. It was rather humorous.

I was reading Christmas cards and two of our friends had recently fallen, broken their hips and were in re-hab/hospital. For me, nothing was broken. In a few days, I thankfully boarded the plane in Seattle for Cancun as scheduled and we arrived to Puerto Morelos.

It was there I notice a deep blue bruise on my hip about the size of an ol' 45 rpm record. Although my face was healing, a 3 inch bruise to the left of my nose and downward was developing more. Worse, my left arm began to ache and my hand was swelling up. Um...Time for a decision. Modern medicine or Mayan.

What was modern medicine going to do? Put me in a sling? Well, Jim made one for me and it helped.

But the swelling increased.

I phoned Sandra who has a Maya non-profit massage therapy center west of Puerto Morelos in a jungle area that she had purchased.

She has 9 Maya women who needed employment and are skilled in therapy. My one and ½ hour appointment turned into 2 hours as the woman chosen for me had a lot to do. She applied warm compresses to my face, and worked mainly above my waist. I was never on my stomach, only my back mainly, and my sides. She worked an half hour alone on my left arm, wrist and hand. She explained that when I fell, my ligaments had strung out like a rubber band and back into wrong positions and that was causing the swelling. She used an aloe vera/avocado mixture that Sandra makes herself. Wonderful!! Not sticky, not smelly, but smooth and comforting.

The next day I looked into the mirror and the blue on my face had suddenly dropped down to about my Adam's Apple area...so strange. (She had also really worked on my face, too.) My arm hurt less but the swelling in my hand continued. We arrived back to the therapy center for the Sunday Market and dance celebration that occurs once a week there in the winter. My curandera therapist looked at my hand, and led me toward some Maguey Morado plants. She picked about 12 leaves from them and explained they were to help bring down the  swelling..one liter of water, 2 leaves, boil 10 minutes, cool and drink through the day. So I kept the leaves, arrived to our house with a kitchen near Mahahual, prepared the brew and drank according to instructions.

 

 For three days more I could type only with my right hand, and protected my left from much activity.

On the 4^th day, major improvement. Swelling was finally going down. Bruises are rapidly fading; I can lift my left arm much higher. My face is still “stiff,” but so much better.

This all has caused me to wonder.

The Maya lady told her story during those 2 hours of massage. She speaks Mayan at home, but learned Spanish at school. She has many older brothers and sisters and is the youngest. Her grandfather was a curandero, and it wasn't until she was 7 years old that he picked a successor.....HER!  She cried and cried, and begged her grandfather to choose another one of her siblings. But he said that he had been told in a dream that she was the “chosen.” So for many years she “studied” with him. She was allowed since age 9 to actually do some help and healing herself. Her family had a “milpa” farm and they raised mainly squashes, pumpkins, and only a bit of corn. Her grandfather also worked in the milpa as she did herself. He was never to take money for his healing, but could accept watermelon, a chicken, etc.

This young Maya lady left her town of Ixpen-Ha, (sp.) went to Puerto Morelos and found employment cleaning rooms in a hotel. She liked the change and the work. Then Sandra, owner of the Ixchel Jungle Spa, found her and asked her to begin healing at her non-profit venture. The Maya lady refused saying she could never accept money for any healing she could do. Some time later, her Mayan's grandfather appeared to her in a dream, sat down and talked with her various times and finally gave his blessing for her to work with Sandra.

She now has 2 handsome sons, 5 and 8 yrs. old. She not only provides healing such as for me, but on Sundays during the winter months dances with her friends to raise awareness for the Jungle Spa and for added income. 

I feel I shouldn't use this Maya woman's name because of the hushed way she shared her story with me. She has a quiet, modest and beautiful spirit. She has taken several courses to have “accredited” papers. One was in Playa del Carmen taught by an acupuncture expert from China. She had no difficulty with the course as the acupuncture points that the Chinese man was teaching were the same ones that she had learned years before from her grandfather. That was so surprising to me. She also used them on me with her therapy.

If you study the Maya people, their pyramids, writings, astronomical accomplishments, and length of civilizations, it is less difficult to accept that they must have achieved major accomplishments in medicine, herbs, etc. also. Here is a photo of an Maya herb shop that I took near Merida in northern Yucatán. 

A bit of humor.  Jim's Maya masseuse put her finger in Jim's belly button and declared that he has "gas."

BACK TO THE YUCATáN IN 2016

We drove from Chelan to near the southern border of the Yucatán last year and that odyssey was never written up. But this year we're flying again and I'll have more time to write.

LEAVING THE RANCH

Snow has stopped. We have our 16' Lund Boat cleared of snow. Waterlines cleared and electricity turned off.  The tractor and 4 wheel drive are up in the llama barn with batteries disconnected and we're ready to leave the ranch.

We were getting our luggage encased in garbage bags to take to the shore and we ran across several of these, quite near the cabin..and then some baby ones up at the garden.

Yes, the cougars are back.

On board our boat, Jim pulled the 9 ½ motor with the rope...oops...rope broke. Now it's time to manually wind around, give a couple blasts of starter fluid, pull the rope and oops. Started but died. Again. Yeah...no, backing up killed the motor. Again...YES....we're off.

Well, 25 Mile Creek State Park where we keep our truck and car were not snowplowed so we used our handy, cracked toboggan sled to pull up the boxes, luggage and finally the motor, gas, into the truck...that we didn't dare drive down the ramp.

Yes, we're off to our daughter and son-in-law's in Seattle for Christmas and then flying to Mexico.

WHY A MEXICAN LADY SLAPPED ME ! ! !

Yes, I was just sitting there, listening to the sermon in Spanish in the Cruz de Cristo Lutheran Church in Mahahual and the lady next to me slapped me on the arm. That was a surprise.

Out of concern for me, she had just killed a TABANO on me.  Those critters are NOT to be ignored and common courtesy here is to help each other by keeping them from biting someone next to you, if you can.

They are of at least three colors:  yellow (I find most common), green and black)

 

The sting/itch usually lasts about 15 minutes and for me, after that it doesn't bother me much.  For others, they get a big welt and it lasts for days. The Tabanos come out of the mangroves.  If there is a strong breeze from the ocean, we hardly encounter them.  But the worst is about five o'clock in the afternoon, especially if little wind is blowing or the it comes from the west, out of the mangroves.  You plan your outside parties at noon or early afternoon.


In English, they are referred to as the Tabanid Fly, one of many members of the Horse Fly family.
This photo from Wikipedia shows the biting mouth well.

TRAVELING TO COMPECHE

 

 

Campeche is a state in the Yucatán Peninsula, and also a city in Campeche.  The city is located on the Gulf of Mexico.

 

Jim and I have just returned from visiting in the state of Campeche for a week.   One of the highlights was seeing the jade mask of Jaguar Claw which had been transferred from a pyramid in Calakmul to the San Miguel Fortress Museum of Mayan Culture. Along with a mask from Palenque, this one was one I had long wanted to see.

 

 

 

 

 As we were driving south from Campeche we were allowed us into the dock of one of the largest fleet of shrimp boats in the Yucatán, located in the town of Lerma. We were met by 6 guards at the entrance to the dock. We explained that Jim had been a commercial fisherman in Washington and were very interested in viewing their boats, etc. We signed some papers, left our driver's license and were told to wear the visiting badges. We were warned not to take photos of the Navy Patrol boats also moored there, and finally we were allowed entry.

Only one boat appeared to be new and most were well used and loaded heavily with fishing equipment, nets, freezers, diesel cannisters etc. for their trips out in the Gulf for up to 8 weeks.

 

Fisherman mending nets.

 

Only one boat had just come in...no shrimp, but a load of Balá, or Raya Blanca...a kind of ray.

 

 

 

Farther down the coast at Champotón, we saw many, many fishing boats but they were much smaller.  See the white nets?

 

 

 

BET YOU'VE NEVER SEEN THESE BEFORE!!

Part of the fun of travel are new adventures and finding things you've never seen before. Being in the Yucatán allows for lots of those. Here are two examples.

Here's the first.  What are those four white things below?  I had never seen them before.   They are future animals. Make a guess? (That's my pen there to give you an idea of how small they are.)

 

These are the eggs of the Common House Gecko of the Yucatán.  Their gestation period is 60 to 120 days, far longer than I had guessed.  Last year I had a bad time sleeping due to what I had thought were crickets.  I was temporarily sleeping in my anti-gravity chair in the kitchen at night because of my recovering hip.  The sound was really loud and shocking...over and over again with pauses in between. 

Krrrk krrrk krrrk krrrk krrrk krrrk!

 

Now I learned it is the male mating call and the owners of the house where we were staying decided to totally eradicate them after they arrived.  We haven't had any problems this year with the noise although I have found 2 in the bathroom. I don't know if the following is true about the Common House Gecko but this is true for some geckos:   Sex is determined by temperature. This means that you can determine the sex of hatchlings by incubating at a specific temperature. Incubating at 85 degrees Fahrenheit will give a good balance of male to female hatchlings. Incubating at around 82 degrees Fahrenheit will give you mostly females and upping the incubation temperature to 88 degrees Fahrenheit will give you mostly males. It is thought that the temperature determined sex is only within the first 21 days of incubation, after this period of time the sex of the hatchling is locked in.

 

Hm...I wonder if that could ever apply to humans?

 

Common House Gecko of the Yucatán

Ok, here's the second.

 

 

 

 

Well, you probably guessed this one.  It's the head and neck of a chicken I bought.  I found it totally amazing in  how did they EVER skin the HEAD so well.  I have never tried to do this and totally appreciate their ability to extract the windpipe, etc, so neatly.

 

Jim is leaving tomorrow for awhile to work with some other men in the neighborhood.  They will be fixing the jungle dirt road, holes, rocks, etc. a few kilometers away from us.  Many have already repaired the road near their own property.  Also, the rains have lessened and the roads are becoming more passable again.

 

We planted 6 small Royal Palms on our property last week, saw the Super Bowl with friends in Mahahual bar and restaurant El Padrino.  I especially enjoyed Renée Fleming, the fine soprano who sang the National Anthem, and also Bruno Mars.  Manning just seemed to be always studying his plays with the papers in hand. Way to go SEAHAWKS !!!!!

 

 

Floods Are Changing Animal Behavior Here

I went out walking between rain storms yesterday and feel like I finally have arrived back..  It just isn't the same without getting "tabano" bites...mangrove grown yellowish flies BITE and leave welts. No mosquitoes, though. Too much rain I guess. But I now have 4 "tabano: bites. Yes, I've "arrived."


Jim just left with two other men to go to the Rio Indio cut off with shovels, a McLeod tool, crow bar etc.  They plan to make culverts and drain some water on the road so cars can pass.  (It has rained inches since we've been here.) Pedro living down that road to the left as you turn right to Rio Indio has water up 15 " in his house, and many caimans were swimming around the house, got his cat and his 20 chickens drowned, too. He left temporarily for Mahahual.  The local government doesn't seem to have much money for road maintence out here.   Men along the road just get together and do some individual projects. A concept dating back to much earlier times in the U.S.

Caiman,  a Caiman crocodilus. Colloquially known as the spectacled caiman, after the bony ridges that encircle its eyes. Caimans belong to the same family as the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis); they're more distantly related to crocodiles, which belong to a separate family under the order Crocodylia.


The spectacled caiman is found throughout Central and South America, while the American alligator is confined to the southeastern portion of the United States. Crocodiles tend to have V-shaped noses, while those of caimans and alligators are more rounded and resemble U's. The other most noticeable difference is size, as male caimans rarely exceed 7 feet in length; alligators, by contrast, regularly grow to double that size.

 Snakes, , too are coming out of the mangroves which have the tannic acid water (brown) overflowing onto the road.  Even raccoons, usually nocturnal , are coming around the houses during the day for food. A park ranger next door saw a TAYRA.  I had never heard of it before. (check out the tail)




 A Rare white Tayra.
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Along the roads the garzas (white egrets) are FISHING in the road, and lots of people have seen caiman along the road.  Last week some Mexicans were also fishing in the road, but what I saw were just ones fishing in the gullies at the side of the road.

Well, remember this photo from the last post?

It was just a come-on to get you back to read another post.  We have rented for 6 years now from the same local, small rental car company just outside the airport at Cancun.  They know us pretty well so I ask for "deals."  We were able to rent a larger car for the same low negociated price and thought, why not.  At the very least, we should have less trouble with getting robbed, because they certainly won't think we are tourists. And yes, we did take lots of pictures of it before we left the rental office...:)