Solferino: Orchid Museum and Millennium Tree

An orchid close-up

The Orchid Garden of Solferino is home to 32 species of orchids that are on display as well as for sale in a nursery within the gardens.  A few blocks from the town square, we are greeted by Maria Dominguez Garcia, the niece of Gilberto, one of the brothers involved with the project.

A couple of the orchids growing out of branches and trunks

Most of the orchids flower between February and March, so today we're coming learn a bit more this diverse and beautiful family of plants which grows abundantly in the region.   There are more than 20,000 species of orchids, a family of flowering plants which are characterized by their tiny seeds, bilateral symmetry, downward facing flowers, and a lip-like petal that is different from the other petals of the flower.

One of the few flowering orchids

Flower detail - really beautiful

Entire books are dedicated to the topics of the relationship of orchids with their pollinators, which are usually attracted to specific fragrances or shapes/colors of the orchid's petals.  At Solferino's Orchid Garden, the gardeners rely upon in-vitro fertilization of the orchids, in order to maximize production and maintain quality.  Maria tells us that this is difficult given the equipment they have at the moment, and they are hoping to build a better laboratory space to expand their collection.  In addition, the garden has an orchid exchange with a group in nearby Nuevo Durango, to share specimens and growing techniques.

A sampling of the orchid plants for sale

Some white orchids

As we walk through the display of carefully labeled specimens, Maria points out a small bird's nest, filled with baby birds, built in the base of one plant.  Most of the orchids are growing on tree branches,  as they are epiphytes, like other mosses, bromeliads, and cacti, taking in their nutrients from the air, rain, and other sources, rather than the trees that they live in.

We found these stowaways in one plant

Another sight in the garden is two majestic trees.  The first, called the Millennium Tree, because of its estimated age, is a Enterolobium cyclocarpum, more commonly called the pich tree in Maya, Guanacaste tree in spanish, or the Elephant ear in english, because of the shape of its seed pods.  This pich tree is more than 100 feet tall, and is now protected after years of losing parts of its trunk and branches to locals who used it as lumber.

Standing in front of the Ceiba tree

Ceiba roots are huge!

Nearby, a Ceiba tree, nearly 700 years old, towers more than 110 feet in the air.  The Ceiba is the sacred tree of the Maya, who call it Yaxche, or the tree of life.  Its large roots and straight trunk lead to a large canopy of branches. Birds and butterflies flutter in the shadow of this magnificent tree while a egg-sized beetle scurries up its trunk.  This tree of life is flourishing in Solferino.

Orchids growing on pich tree

Solferino: Kayaking Laguna San Ángel

Hostel Inlakech in Solferino

Traveling from Valladolid to Solferino was a bit of an experience. We took one bus to a small town called El Ideal and had to get off at the side of the road to switch to another bus. Lucky for us, we had some musical accompaniment in the form of a man who played guitar and sang and a woman who tried to harmonize with him, with occasional success. The bus driver did not announce our arrival to Solferino – lucky for me, I sat near a kind student who let me know that we were in the town. I got up quickly from the back of the bus, woke up Jenny, who was sitting a few rows in front of me, and we hopped off the bus. Another woman who disembarked with us asked who we’d be staying with and directed us to Beto’s palapa.

Note the tilapia pool in front of the palapa!

Betos' cat, Michi

We began to see some brightly painted signs pointing to his place, Hostel Inlakech, and were impressed to see the three-story palapa made of wood and other natural materials. Check out the facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/hostel.solferino We were greeted by two young ladies, Yvette and Leni, who were working on starting a fire for the stove to make rice. Beto’s property featured a couple of dogs, a cat, and a bunch of chickens and roosters. He also had a large pool filled with tilapia, which Beto later told us he was raising to sell as food to others in the village. Apart from meat and eggs Beto derives from the animals he raises, he also grows a number of plants he uses in food he prepares, including papaya and mango trees.

Dining area, with swing-style seats

After chatting with the girls for a bit, Beto arrived and informed us that none of us would be staying at the palapa itself that night. Instead, we were going to stay in a 25-meter-high tower in the jungle overlooking a lagoon. We prepared and ate some dinner, while explaining the project and purpose of visiting Solferino, and we began to load up the truck with materials for camping. Even though Jenny and I weren’t prepared for a night out in the wild, Beto provided some useful materials – mattress pads, some sheets, and a bit of food for the night and the following morning.

Water meets jungle

Looking up at the tower from one of the lower steps

With the truck packed, we drove for about thirty minutes to the even smaller town of San Ángel, where Beto exchanged some words with an older man. We were a bit unsure of the plan, but he was trying to figure out where we were going, too! The man rode a bicycle down an unpaved road into a forest to show us exactly where he had stored some kayaks. We doused ourselves with bug spray, loaded up the three kayaks and began our journey, seated on the mattress pads. Beto rode with Leni’s dog, Liat; Liat and Yvette rode together; and Jenny and I rode in the third kayak. Liat, a sweet golden retriever with one dreadlock hanging from his neck, decided to jump into the water soon into the ride, which meant Beto had to go back to shore to get the dog back into the boat.

Liat, the water-loving dog

Kayaking back in the morning:  we took turns rowing and resting

The kayak ride across Laguna San Ángel was long – just about an hour – but provided us with a good workout for our upper bodies and a bit of adventure. It was also interesting to see this large lagoon with the moon providing our only light. Beto joked that there were crocodiles in the water, but we only heard a bunch of frogs and insects. Some parts of the lagoon were harder to navigate than others because of a thick, slimy substance (maybe some sort of algae or slime mold) which held up the kayaks and our oars. After some intense labor, we finally arrived to the site of the tower, unpacked the kayaks, and climbed up dozens of stairs to the top of the wooden platform.

A view of the water in early morning light

From that vantage point, we saw the entire moonlit lagoon. We changed into dry clothes and hung the things that had been wet and the ride over. Beto set up a couple of hammocks, and we watched part of a movie (Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet) on my laptop until the battery died. Exhausted, we fell asleep shortly after setting our stuff down and spent the night above the canopy of the surrounding forest. Bugs were not really a problem, thanks to our height and the strong breeze, but shortly before dawn, there was a good amount of dew, which moistened the things we had tried to dry the night before, as well as our sheets and the clothes we slept in.

Lounging in the hammock

Waking up with nature and no coffee :(

Jenny and I woke up before the others as the sun was rising and climbed down the stairs to look at the lagoon and dozens of birds flying around that morning. Apart from the beautiful birds, there were a couple of pretty neat insects nearby, including some large red wasps, spiders, and ants. It was really a pretty magical place, and it was exciting to be among the pioneers of this excursion that Beto is sure to repeat with other groups.

Two of the many yellow birds we saw above the lagoon

A slightly horrifying wasp, about 1.5-2 inches long 

The back of a beautiful spider

The same spider's belly

The Wonders of Blue Agave

Fields of Blue Agave

A couple of miles outside of Valladolid, acres of silver-blue plants line the fields in neat rows.  In these fields are the "Future of the Yucatán," a sign proclaims.  The blue agave plant is cultivated to make tequila, as well as several other products including syrup, natural fibers, and building materials.  In the wild, blue agave is pollinated by bats; however, today we see propagation from shoots of the mother plant, which is more common.

Baby Blue Agave

Today, we're visiting a distillery, Mayapán, to learn about the artisanal craft of tequila production. The blue agave can take up to 10 years to cultivate for tequila production. As its spiky, fleshy blades grow above the ground, a large underground cone which looks like a pineapple called the heart or piña develops.  The piña is what is harvested to produce tequila while the blades are used in various ways or discarded.

Agave Hearts harvested for roasting, look like giant pine cones

The first step of the process is roasting the piña, which is cut into smaller pieces, and placed in a wood oven for 4 days.

Looking down into the wood oven

Grinding the heart, after it is roasted

Next, the juices of the piña, which have a sweet smokey flavor are separated from the waste parts of the plant, using a horse-drawn wheel.  The extracted juices are placed into oak barrel with water for 4 days to ferment.  The juice that is extracted is distilled using a cool/steam process.  The distillate becomes Tequila Blanco, the crudest and cheapest form of tequila.  From there, some tequila is aged for 3 months, and labeled as tequila reposada.  The finest tequila, añejo, will be aged for 1 year in oak barrels.  Although the alcohol content of the drink remains the same, the flavor and the color of this smokey liquor vary significantly.  Tequila is one of several traditional Mexican liquors that is prepared from agave plants.  Other types include Mezcal and Pulque, made from different varieties of agave.

Aging in Oak Barrels

A Visit to a Heritage Garden in Sisbichen

Danny (U Chicago Grad student) ponders the magic of the Saramuyo (sugar apple)

After about thirty minutes of driving on the tollroad from Valladolid to Cancun, we turn down a small dirt road.  We pass Uspibil, then Chechmil, finally arriving in Sisbichen, a town with about 1500 inhabitants, most of whom speak Maya.  Sisbichen is named after the Vanilla planifolia orchid that grows abundantly in the town's jungles, whose pods are used to produce vanilla.  The plant is called Sis bik in the region, which means "the one that moves like a snake in the shade.'  Chen means cenote or well.  

Sis bik growing on a tree

We've come here to meet Don Antonio, a man with great connection to nature and plants.  "Don Oxte?  Is it Don Oxte...Abuelo?" she asks another woman in the group that is gathering.  Several other women walk across the square to see what we're looking for.  They begin to speak to each other in Maya, and Danny and I anxiously exchange smiles with one another, waiting to see what the verdict is.  She tells us that we'll need to go to Rancho Yokdzonot, several kilometers down the main road.  As we pass through the gates, we enter a sort of paradise, home to an unusual mix of plants and animals and a man with a vision for harmony with nature.  

Don Antonio and Cintia

Don Antonio and his wife Cintia direct a non-profit called Jardines del Colibri Dorado (Gardens of the Golden Hummingbird) dedicated to reforestation of fruit and lumber trees, as well as jungle reforestation.  In the town of Sisbichen, they run a teaching project, giving lessons on organic gardening.  Today, Cintia is waiting to hear back from a man who will deliver many gallons of paint, which will be used to paint the local school.

The Entrance to Don Antonio's Ranch

Antonio Oxte is returning from a swim in a cenote when we meet him.  He begins the interview by introducing himself and labeling the small Maya pueblo where he's from on my map.  He's been at the ranch for 7 years, and in this time, has cultivated plants that he brought as plants and seeds from around the world - including the Andes, Greece, Africa, the Amazon, and Canada.  His vision is to have a place where he can grow plants to eat and to cure. "How did you come to travel to so many places?"  I ask.  He chuckles and begins a story that is so far-fetched, you'd need to hear him tell it yourself to believe it. From an early age, Oxte learned of his talents as a healer.  He spent many years walking across the globe, once all the way from Canada to South America, where he stayed for 7 years in the Amazon.

Rare orchids

Papalo

As we walk around the property, their knowledge of plants and their commitment to living off of the land becomes very clear.  It seems that after almost every plant we see, Cintia adds "we eat this almost everyday," and tells us how it is used.  Each plant has a story - where it came from, why it's important, and how brought it to the ranch.  There's a pine seedling from Canada that's struggling in the Yucatan heat.  Don Antonio is sure it will live: "It's already taken to the soil.  A little stressed out from when I moved it, but doing really well now" he reassures.  A bean plant from Peru is thriving, spreading out over a trellis and a nearby tree.  The seed it grew from was hundreds of years old, dormant when found in a cave.  In about a month, the plant will be filled with half-dollar sized beans, half-white and half-black.  There's cucumber growing on a tree, and an orchid yet to be classified, and a healthy bush-like papalo, which Don Oxte uses to treat anemia.  Cilantrillo, a plant with delicate flowers, he tells us is the most powerful antibiotic.  La hierba del zorillo (skunk) (in Yucatec Maya: Payche) can be inhaled or rubbed on the skin to treat bronchitis and muscle aches.

Cilantrillo's small white flowers

Evidence of an earlier ceremony

Walking around the property, we come to a huge cenote, with birds flying in and out of its cave-like walls.  A blue butterfly flutters by.  The cenote is virgin, used only for bathing and drinking water.  Candles from a ceremony the night before form a shape along its edge.  It's a perfectly balanced ecosystem.

One of don Oxte's virgin cenotes

With doña Cintia on the Sac-be

Walking back towards the house, we begin to meet many of the beautiful chickens and ducks that call the ranch home, as well as a deer who was raised from a baby after her mother was killed, and several pets who are half coyote/half dogs, whose coyote-ness becomes evident when they begin to howl at a visitor.  The road we're walking down is a Sac-be, one of many sacred Maya roads which remain perfect preserved after thousands of years.  In many ways, the scene is surreal.

Patricia

The coyote dogs

For the moment, Don Oxte is looking to partner with an organization or university to create a survey of the Flora and Fauna on his property of more than 100 hectares.  "There are so many unidentified species here.  I'd really like to know exactly what I have"  he says.  I'm in agreement.  From green bees to rare orchids, a day on the Ranch leaves me wondering if I've imagined some of things I've seen.

Looking up at a pich tree in amazement

The Yucatán Peninsula: Land of many cenotes

What are you supposed to do when it’s too hot to walk around town, and even sitting in the shade doesn’t provide much relief from the heat? Most inhabitants of the Yucatán would tell you to take a dip in a nearby cenote. Cenotes are natural pools of fresh water that form when the bedrock of limestone collapses and the groundwater underneath becomes exposed. 

Cenote Zaci from a nearby restaurant

The water is usually cool and clear, and diameter and depth can be pretty varied. Because geologists have been interested in these formations for some time now, there is a basic categorization of four types of cenotes, depending on how exposed the water is and the general shape of the surrounding walls and depth of the water. 

Some stalactites hanging from the cenote's ceiling

So far we have visited three: Cenote Ik Kil is near the Mayan ruins of Chichen-Itza; Cenote Zaci is within the city of Valladolid; and Cenote Dzitnup is about five minutes away from Valladolid. Cenotes can also be found in a few other parts of Central America, the southwestern US, and even Australia and Canada, although they may be called sinkholes or something slightly different.       

In the Yucatán Peninsula, there are many cenotes, and some have been made more human-friendly than others, with the additions of artificial lights, ropes which cross through the water and connect one edge to another, stair railings, steps going in and out of the pool, and places from which people can jump.

View from the surface

Here's one way to take a break from treading water!

Humans aren’t the only beings swimming in cenotes though. If you look down into the cenote, you will likely see a bunch of black catfish, between one and seven inches long, near the surface. These and other fish are not harmful – they swim around people enjoying the fresh water and get out of the way when you enter their territory. 

Catfish friends

One of the bigger catfish in the cenote - check out his mustache!

Other critters include lizards like iguanas, geckos, and anoles; frogs; turtles; and bats and swallows flying near the ceiling of the cenote. According to some people we spoke with, the swallows are not native to Mexico, but rather they come to take advantage of the food and weather so they can reproduce, make nests, and raise their chicks.

Some of the pink lights at the underground Centote Dzitnup

All of the cenotes we have seen so far have a lot of plant life all around them. In some cases, there are vines hanging from a higher part of the cenote which almost reach the water’s surface. Despite all the amazing plant and animal biodiversity in the environment in and around cenotes, I never felt threatened. 

Visitors to Cenote Ik Kil, a popular cenote in the region

The most dangerous part of cenotes really stems from a person’s swimming ability–signs saying that visitors should swim at their own risk are common. If you feel compelled to jump (it’s really fun), it’s very important to jump away from the edges of the cenote, where there can be sharp rocks near the surface of the water. 

One of don Antonio's virgin cenotes     

Visiting the Yucatán would not be complete without visiting at least one cenote. Admission is usually fairly cheap (the cheapest was 15 pesos, and the most expensive was 70 pesos), and apart from being refreshing, the cenotes provide a good way to exercise. Treading water, swimming, and balancing on the ropes that lie in the water were just a few of the ways we entertained ourselves.

If you’re astute enough to notice that the style of this entry is slightly different from those that have come before, there’s a good reason for that! I’m Danny, a friend of Jenny’s and a graduate student in the same program (the University of Chicago’s Urban Teacher Education Program) she graduated from last year. After I observed and interviewed her for a teacher study project, she asked me to come along with her for part of her trip to Mexico to help with some documentation and other tasks.

As fun as cenotes are, the floor around the pool can be really slippery! (or slepering, depending on who you ask)