swans sculpted from towels

swans sculpted from towels

by the young boy who mops floors,

smiling shyly

On the first day of our stay in Hotel Alhambra, we are greeted with an intricate sculpture made of bath towels, hand towels and wash cloths laid out like a white hibiscus at the foot of our bed. As usual, whenever I see anything beautiful, I take a photograph. 
          The next day, when we return from our outing to Isla Mujeres, we find an even more elaborate towel sculpture, in the shape of a swan with a red hibiscus tucked in its breast. We are reluctant to destroy the sculpture in order to use the fresh towels. How on earth did the artist, who must be the person cleaning our room and changing the sheets and towels, manage to get the swan's neck to stay upright with that graceful curve? Curious as to how it was constructed, I carefully take the swan apart and then try to reconstruct it, but to no avail. A little sign by our water pitcher says that our room is being cleaned by Rebeca, so she must be the secret artist. 
          The following day, we leave the coconut I bought on the island along with a note, written with the help of the man at the desk: "Muchas gracias por el cisne, Rebeca. Está muy hermoso. El coco es para usted." After we return from our trip to Tulum, we find not one but two swans, their heads touching, the arch of their necks forming a heart shape. Nestled between their breasts are a yellow gladiola, a white gardenia and a note with a smiley face: "Disculpen pero no soy Rebeca sino Ricardo. Disfruten su estancia. Gracias." We show the note to our Spanish-speaking friends and they translate: "Pardon, I am not Rebeca but Ricardo. Enjoy your stay. Thanks." So our "secret admirer" is a guy, not a gal. How is he going to top two swans? And how can we top the coconut?
          The next day is a rest day. Before we go out to explore the town, we make a clumsy version of sheet and pillow art: three pillows in a pyramid, the sheets as twin sphinxes and an artistic mimosa pod in the middle with another note: "Nos gusta muchismo! Maraviloso! Usted está artista!" When we leave, there's a pile of sheets on the table outside our room and the young boy with the spiked hairdo is mopping the stairs. We've seen him every day, busily mopping and cleaning. "Ricardo?" I say, and he smiles shyly. When we come back, we find a dove with a green branch in its mouth. This young boy with the hidden talent, mopping floors! You just never know.
          Here is another mystery. None of the other members of our group are being graced with Ricardo's towel sculptures. Why us? We are not newlyweds. We are not a pair of pretty young girls. Perhaps it's because, from the first day, we always took the time to greet him with a smile.
          Another day there's a white elephant, its trunk curved up, and finally, on the last day, a "family" of two adults and a child, each holding a red hibiscus and a small seashell. We like to think this represents the two of us with Ricardo, who has become like our son. We leave him an extra big tip, along with my photographs of his towel sculptures and our hopes that he have a long life filled with beauty.

Paz para todos

Paz para todos

Amor para todos

Luz para todos

On our first night in Playa del Carmen, we wander out to experience night life in this seaside resort on the coast of the Yucatán. The message above the door of Hotel Alhambra says, in Spanish and English, "Peace to all, Love to all, Light to all." The trunks of the palm trees, wrapped in cords of light, glow softly. Their reflections in the large windows of the hotel across the street appear to hover inside, doubling the light.

peeking through the rainbow

peeking through the rainbow

of a handwoven hammock,

beautiful dark eyes

When I was 8 our family made a road trip to central Mexico. It was the first time I had been to another country and it made a deep and lasting impression: handmade tortillas, handmade dolls, handmade silver jewelry and handmade hammocks. We brought a wide white hammock back with us and it hung swinging between two trees in our backyard for many happy summers.

In March this year I travel to the Yucatán for the first time. This is the home of Mexican hammocks and they are still handwoven. Hammocks in rainbow colors and pristine white hang in gracefull curves along the pedestrian streets of Playa del Carmen, a seaside resort, in a little shop in Nohoch Nah Chiich, a Maya village way back in the jungle, in a hammock haven in Xel Ha, a popular water park, and in every Maya home throughout the Yucatán.

Hammocks were not part of Classic Maya civilization, but are thought to have arrived in the Yucatán from the Caribbean some two hundred years before the Spanish.

Originally made of bark and sisal, today they are woven from cotton or synthetic thread. Woven by hand on looms, by men, women and children, the quality of the hammock depends on the number of threads used.

Hammocks are used for sitting, sleeping, rocking infants (and adults), as in this hammock haven at Xel Ha.

And sometimes they're great for just fooling around!

raw shrimp with lime juice

raw shrimp with lime juice,

red onion, chili peppers, 

avocado, mango

Dinner at a pizza restaurant with a band from Bolivia, who play three songs from Chile for our Chilean twins. Because we're in Mexico, I don't want to eat pizza. Ceviche, a regional Mexican dish, is on the menu, but I also don't want to get food poisoning from eating raw seafood. I ask Gabe if it's safe to order the ceviche camarón and he assures me that the shrimp is fresh. 

          Ceviche, popular along all the coasts in Central and South America, is raw fish or seafood marinated in citrus juice. My shrimp is marinated in lime juice, liberally spiced with chili peppers and red onions, and topped with avocado. I order fresh mango juice to tone down the hot spices. The combination is as beautiful to the eye as it is delicious to the taste.

back to a blue wall

back to a blue wall

a man in blue jeans reads

the morning paper

Early morning, Calle 8 Norte, half a block from the beach -- a man in work clothes, quietly reading his paper, looks up at a tourist looking back at him. The smiling tourist reflected in the glass door seems to be thinking, "What a colorful local character." The man's resigned expression seems to say, "La temporada turistica." 

still life with green oranges

still life with green oranges,

pineapple and three bottles

of Mexican beer

I imagine Gauguin or Matisse painting this still life -- a shiny aluminum pan piled with green oranges, one ripe pineapple and three bottles of Mexican beer arranged carefully against an orange wall and table on a street in Playa del Carmen.

a pair of gold bells

a pair of gold bells

in the white church tower below

the moon, above balloons 

Our first night in Playa del Carmen, we walk the main street, a pedestrian street running parallel to the beach. At one end, near the ferry dock, we pass a beautiful little church, Nuestra Senora del Carmen, with its twin golden bells lit up in the white triple arched tower. A wedding is underway inside, while outside a balloon seller hawks his wares and the veiled moon looks down on the white sand beach, the white church and the wide street full of people.

young face, ancient eyes

young face, ancient eyes,

a girl in a Disney dress 

leans on her father's back

In the lobby of Hotel Alhambra, a man holding a baby on his shoulder chats with the hotel clerk. The lettering on his white shirt reads "Excellence Playa Mujeres Mexico." His daughter, wearing a Disney princess, stands with upraised hand and downcast eyes, as regal as the first ruler of the Maya.

sugar sand, silver

sugar sand, silver

waves, brown pelicans diving,

blue and yellow ferries

Our first sight of the beach at Xaman Ha' (Maya for "waters of the north") is on a cloudy afternoon in early March. Xaman Ha', renamed Playa del Carmen by the Spanish, was originally a small fishing village and rest stop for travelers from the great Mayan cities to the island of Cozumel. Today, Playa is a busy balneario, a seaside resort on the Caribbean coast in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. It's a popular tourist city, though not as crowded as Cancún. We're staying in Alhambra Hotel, right on the beach, so naturally the first thing I do is walk in the lapping waves, laugh at the antics of brown pelicans diving for fish, and watch the blue and yellow Cozumel ferries pulling in and out of the dock.