After staying home most of the year, we headed to New Jersey this week to visit with friends and family. On the way, we made a one day stop in Wilmington, Delaware to see what the other Wilmington was like. Our main destination was the Nemours Estate, site of the mansion built by Alfred DuPont for his second wife, Alicia. The mansion was built in the late 18th century French style that Alicia adored and was named Nemours after the French town that his great-great-grandfather represented in the French Estates General. The estate contains the largest formal French gardens in North America.
We had a very pleasant lunch on the sidewalk in an older section of town where the streets were lined with row houses. We had smoked salmon on a bagel. Yum!
We had dinner at a seafood restaurant on the water front. While this Wilmington had the better mansion and art museum, our Wilmington has the better waterfront. I can’t say enough about how nice the weather was!
It has a Moorish double arch entry gate.
The main residence building was a series of long rooms with high ceilings for ventilation.
Like many wealthy Spanish people they had their own chapel at the back of the residence building.
They even had their own theater in a building behind the house. The roof of the theater collapsed so it is only a facade today.
The gardens had a lot of beautiful old trees.
The sisal factory was located behind the residence. At one time the hacienda had 22,000 acres of land to grow the sisal agave and raise cows. Today the property is less than 3% of that.
This is the machine that extracted the sisal fibers from the leaves.
Uxmal is a purely Mayan design and construction. Chichen Itza on the other hand has the influence of other cultures. The edges of the pyramid have rounded corners. The Mayans believed the world progressed in 52 year cycles, so every 52 years they built a new pyramid on top of the old pyramid. The site was active for over 250 years, so you can see five layers to the pyramid.
The other side of the Pyramid of the Magician faces a courtyard. The stairs lead up to a chapel with a large doorway.
This is a close up of that chapel. Notice all the intricate shapes and designs on the blocks that make up the chapel wall.
This gives you a good idea how steep those steps are. I was very happy that we weren’t allowed to climb them! Notice the twelve heads that line the edges of the stairs.
This is a close up of one of the heads. They have noses shaped like the number 2.
There were numerous rooms in the buildings forming the courtyard in front of the temple. All rooms had a ceiling like this one.
I found it interesting how the ceiling bricks were shaped with an internal arc so that stones could be placed on the arc to hold the brick in place. Considering how long it has lasted, it seems to work pretty well.
The Nunnery Quadrangle was named by the Spanish because it reminded them of a convent. It consists of four buildings forming a square surrounding an open courtyard. Each building has numerous small rooms opening to the front. Each building has different decorations.
This building had human faces over the doors with a representation of two headed snakes on either side.
This building is known as The Palace of the Governors. It is believed to be one of the last buildings constructed on the site (about 987 CE). I did climb the stairs to the platform with the doorways.
From the right end of the platform, you have a nice view of the site. From left to right is the House of the Turtles (there are turtle decorations around the top; and, yes, the women heading toward it is Susan), the ball court with the Nunnery Quadrangle behind it. and the Pyramid of the Magician on the right.
Behind the Palace of the Governors is The Great Pyramid which has only been partially restored on this one side. You can see vegetation on the top and the other side.
We saw numerous iguanas on the site. We were very happy with our decision to visit Uxmal. I would rate it as the top Mayan site I have seen with many unique features compared to the others.
Ours was in a shallow cave with crystal clear water about four to five feet deep. There were a few fish in the water. The water comes from rain draining through the shallow soil and the limestone on the top of the cave. The cool water felt really refreshing after exploring Uxmal in 95 F heat!
There is a small and simply decorated church a few doors from our hotel.
The most decorated church in the area is this one another block up Calle 60. Note the two white chairs in the top picture that are attached to each other and face each other. These are a symbol of Mérida and are scattered all over the public plazas. They are unique in that a couple can sit in them and look at each other as they talk. I will try to get a picture illustrating this in a future blog.
Finally the Cathedral is four blocks from our hotel. It is also a very simple design inside, but it is distinguished for having the tallest cross inside a building in the world. That is what our guide said and I am sticking to it.
Banamex Bank is notable in Mexico for its efforts to preserve Mexican heritage. As part of their branch on Plaza Principal, they have Casa de Montejo open to the public at no charge. The home was built in the 1540’s. The Montejo’s were the “conquerors of the Yucatan”.
The home was furnished with unique accessories.
There was also a display of fanciful creatures carved from wood of the copal tree and painted in colorful detail by a family owned workshop in the Yucatan.
There are lots of shops to browse and plenty of Catrina dolls to choose from. The problem is they are very fragile to attempt to bring home.
There are plenty of attractive buildings. This one is presently abandoned.
The Yucatan government building on Plaza Principal featured murals of the history of the peninsula. The central theme was how the Mayans fought valiantly for many years to protect their culture from the better equipped Spanish invaders.
Many of the buildings could easily pass as French chateaus.
I saw someone entering this building, so I went in to check it out. It’s a bank.
This home is still privately occupied by an 87 year old woman who lives primarily in Mexico City. She has her home open to visitors to help cover her maintenance costs.
The dining room featured Tiffany glass doors and windows. I particularly liked the ornately carved buffet.
The Mayan museum is a very modern structure well outside the historic Centro area of town. Maize, or corn, was the most important part of the Mayan diet. They even believed that they were descended from the pulp of corn. The museum had a section on the milpa system of agriculture developed by the Mayans. After a section of land is cleared for agriculture, a crop of corn, beans, and squash were planted together for two years; and the field was left fallow for the next 8 years before the cycle was repeated. The system requires no pesticides and no fertilizers. From Wikipedia: “
The museum also had many artifacts from the Classic Mayan period.
This is a ring from one of the Mayan ball courts. While putting the ball through the ring is clearly the object of the modern game, there is much debate about whether it was the objective of the classic Mayan ball game. I know when I was a docent in the preColumbian collection of the Mint Museum in Charlotte, the curator of the collection firmly believed that it was not the object. The museum visit was preparation for our visit to a Mayan archeological site on Wednesday.
After a day of walking around town and visiting museums, we like to return to our pool in the heat (95 F this week) of the day. The pool is surprisingly cool considering how hot the air is.
In the evening we saw a folkloric ballet with a live orchestra on the street by Plaza Principal. It was a more professional version of what we saw Sunday afternoon.
The games began with a lot of ritual and explanation that was all in Spanish so it meant little to us. While the rules of the game are unclear to me, the main objective is to hit the ball through a hoop using only your hips. It is very difficult to do and was not accomplished that I could see. There seemed to be secondary objectives such as advancing the ball as deep as possible into enemy territory. After playing the game for about twenty minutes, they then set a ball on fire and tossed it around before spiking the ball through the hoop in a classic basketball move. For a brief video of the ball game and the playing with a burning ball,
Sunday morning many of the streets were closed to traffic so bicyclists could take over the streets. We took a free walking tour of the historic area in the morning. I will cover that tour in a future blog. On Saturday night, the area in front of the cathedral was set up for the ball game. On Sunday it was set up as a giant covered food court. 
We each had two Yucatan style pork tacos and a coke for less than a total of $5. So far we have both survived!
We then had Marquesitas, a Mérida street food treat available in sweet and savory versions. We elected for the sweet version. The shell is made in a special griddle over a propane fire.
Once the shell is cooked, Nutella and cheese are added.
Despite the fact that the shell is rolled, it is very crisp and really tasty. Of course, you have to like Nutella to like this one. I can’t wait to try the savory version. There are Marquesita street stands all over town.
On Sunday afternoon, there was live music and the seniors in town were dancing in the plaza in front of our hotel just as our guide said they would.
Meanwhile, in Plaza Principal, the children were being entertained by Superheroes (you can see two of them in the background). The little girl in blue was having a grand time!
After the children, Mayan dancers took to the streets.
They twirled and danced with bottles of beer on their heads. 
They then upped the ante and danced with a trey holding a bottle and several full glasses on their heads.
As you can see, it is a beautiful pool surrounded by palms with mountains on one side and ocean on the other side.
Unfortunately, this is us on day 1 with everyone wearing a fleece and huddled under a towel for warmth under a totally cloud covered sky. Day 2 was similar with a high probability of rain, which didn’t arrive until after dark. Day 3 was an all day rain. Fortunately, we brought a pirated DVD of Knives Out from Juan’s in SMA for entertainment. Day 4 had a gloomy forecast and the sky looked threatening when we awoke. By the time we finished breakfast, there were patches of blue; so we bravely headed for the pool. The sky cleared, and it was a nice afternoon. Day 5 and 6 were sunny as expected but a little chilly until afternoon. Fortunately, we had our Minnesota friends, Jean and Ron and Lynn and Jim to talk to and keep us entertained on the cloudy, rainy days.
It was a beautiful sunset with birds flying around.
The. view of Puerto Vallarta from our room. Saturday we fly to Merida on the Yucatan peninsula. This will be a new location for us, so the blogs may be more frequent.
Another highlight was this native of Jamaica who now resides in Canada. He had a wonderful smile and engaging personality to go along with his repertoire of Caribbean music. He was joined in the second half by a San Miguel guitar player who had never played with him previously and was not familiar with the music. He plays a nine string guitar. They played together beautifully and both seemed to enjoy playing together. 
There were also free concerts in a nearby park area . . .
. . . as well as in the Jardin.
There is a very special expression in town that you never see unless that person has just discovered the perfect pair of San Miguel Sandals.
We don’t see a lot of wildlife in town, but we did see this exceptionally large caterpillar on a tree outside our gate.
We also had a small dove nesting in this thorny tree on our roof top patio. We were proud grandparents by the time we left.
Walking around town you might find an interesting door or an exterior wall decorated with plants. It pays to look inside any open doors, because you never know what you might find.
A deep canyon runs through the gardens and most of the plants occur naturally.
This is the Plaza of the Four Winds where the indigenous population performs ceremonies, particularly at the equinox. It also features The Holy Cross of El Charco del Ingenio.
There are a few sculptures in the gardens.
There are viewpoints overlooking San Miguel where you can see landmarks such as the Parroquia. I am pretty sure that the large white building by the reservoir on the far right is the new hotel, Live Aqua, I featured in an earlier blog. It didn’t show well in the pictures, but the reservoir wall was at the rear of the property.
There was a “rescue” area where endangered cactus were relocated from construction sites to save them.
The canyon through the property is very steep and narrow. You can see the dam in the center background of the picture.
In a few spots you could see water supplied by a perennial spring at the bottom of the canyon. You can also see an old, rusty water line near the rim on the right side. Fabrica Aurora built the dam and the waterline to power their textile mill. The mill is now home to a large number of art galleries.
This is a part of the lake created by the dam.
There is also a section where the garden has been planted.
These were two of our favorite cacti in the planted garden.
Most of you probably recognize the second speaker, Sam Donaldson, reporter and anchor for ABC from 1967 to 2013. He shared many interesting experiences in covering and interacting with presidents for 46 years. While he was the primary reason we were there, I felt the story Alison had to tell was more moving and more compelling. Plus, she had some beautiful pictures to share.