Quiet Yucatan

 

I have often been asked where to find quiet places in Yucatan.

I always find this question amusing: “You have got to be kidding. Have you ever been to Yucatan before?”

I love Yucatan, but after forty plus years here quiet is something that has nearly eluded us. The locals love their lifestyle, and if you have a good positive attitude you will too.

At times it seems to me that the Yucatecan mentality holds two things sacred above all else: smoke and noise. Their ultimate success in life is an ear-splitting motorcycle emitting a cloud of impenetrable smoke. Do they possess a genetic predisposition to racket and an aversion to silence?

Vehicles rattle, clatter, squeak, and incessantly honk their horns while mufflers seem to be a superfluous annoyance.

Petite vehicles marauding city streets sporting enormous megaphones powered by mammoth amplifiers relentlessly blast deafening clatter that will vibrate the fillings out of your teeth.

Ear-splitting fireworks are incessantly detonated for festivals or business promotions, day and night. Dogs desperately try to cover their ears and escape.

In most places in the world this sonic trash would be prohibited…not so here; the government happens to be the major delinquent.

If ultra high decibel racket drives you to distraction beware of the salon de fiestas, also known as party palaces. I swear these all night establishments are capable of shaking you out of bed even from several blocks away.  Many times they magically materialize in hotel lobbies around midnight.

You may locate an upscale restaurant to enjoy a special occasion in tranquility. The waiters are sure to turn on a giant screen TV even if you are the only clients. A Mariachi band is liable to trumpet their way through and an industrial strength blender will be revved up that cannot be screamed above. Coffee grinders are sure to pick up when noise generating is slack. 

One day I went to the neighborhood grocery “tienda” and had to scream in the owner’s ear. A large bank of mighty speakers left from a previous night’s fiesta was terrorizing the neighborhood. I asked if they had requested the volume to be turned down. The owner replied yes and was told he was too nervous and if he listened to the music he would like it. The next retort was “if you don’t like it, you don’t have to listen.”

Looking for tranquility we have stayed in a typical Mayan hut down a dirt road located far out in the jungle and with no electrical service. Before the first glimmer of dawn crowing rosters broke the relative silence. They were joined by squealing pigs, barking dogs, trucks honking and screaming with bullhorns selling bottled gas and coconuts. We didn’t know if we should laugh or scream.

If you can hear dogs barking it is considered quiet.

We travel with 33 db foam ear plugs. Dampen them, roll tightly, and press into your ears. Allow them to expand slowly and their effectiveness is increased.

We happen to live in a relatively quiet neighborhood with a canopy jungle ecologically friendly home where we can actually hear birds singing in our fruit filled trees and crickets chirping.

This is the real Yucatan. Arm yourself with a positive attitude, be happy and if you don’t like the noise, don’t listen!

Mayapan

The ruins of Mayapan.  A quiet place in Yucatan. 

Comment from Jim Grafsgaurd

Right on Bing! You might miss all this racket if you didn't have it around.

Here is a note I posted on FB:

SOUNDS of Merida we will miss..

On leaving Merida for Minneapolis, these are some of the SOUNDS we will miss:

the loud playfully varied chirps whistles and responses of the Quiscal Mexicano (Great-tailed Grackle), the dog-choirs yapping and barking in all ranges of voice thru-out the neighborhood at night, los gallos (roosters) crowing at all hours, the particular calls and identifying signals of the many street vendors who pass by the house on motos or triciclos or horse-drawn carts (!TIERRRRAAA! (selling bags of soil for rocky Yucatan gardens) !ORQUETAAAAS! (selling long forked sticks to support clotheslines) or the panflute arpeggios of the afilidores (knife sharpeners) and the rubber honky horn of the panaderos (bread vendors) just to mention a few, and finally the karaoke, cumbia, salsa, mariachi, banda, danzon, current latin pop and classic rock Mexicano amplified on the cool late-night breezes from outdoor parties around town

Mayan temple ruins near Mérida - seldom visited - quiet Yuc