Kun Che Park!

Pat invited me to tag along with her friends to visit Kun Che Park.  It's brand new, so none of us really knew what to expect.  Turns out, it was a real treat! 

Kun Che park just opened this January, in El Cedral, the first town to be established on Cozumel Island.  Pat noticed it last week when she was in El Cedral.  The park operator invited her to bring friends at a discounted rate, to help promote it. 

Wow!  The park includes a network of paths through the jungle with stops that show various Mayan structures including gardens, huts where they made tortillas and chocolate, an altar (right word?) and sculptures.  Our guide, Pedro, explained things super well at all stops.  At some, there were also women in traditional Mayan dress who explained in Mayan what they were doing. 

After the paths, we entered an arena where actors dressed in Mayan ceremonial costumes played "pelote".  The Mayans played this ball game all year long.  But during the 5 days/year when the "good gods" took a break and the "bag gods" might be tempted to mess with people, the teams played for the honour of being the one(s?) sacrificed to pacify the bad gods.  That means, the winner(s) would die.  The costumes and pre/post game ceremonies were very impressive!

Then there was more!  A buffet lunch with panuchos and salbutes (2 types of tortillas with toppings), cochinita pibil (pig in pibil sauce), pollo en escabeche (a chicken dish) and fruits.  There was also horchata (rice water) and jamaica (hibiscus water), both traditional Mexican beverages. We ate while watching a series of traditional Mexican dances.


I was really lucky because the discounted cost for all of this cost about $22 plus a few well earned tips.  The regular price will be about $110!  

Photos:
#1 - Pedro, our guide, telling us about the little creatures in the jungle who sometimes mess with humans
#2 - The healer blessing us before we went into the jungle, to protect us from the little creatures
#3 and 4 - Pelote ceremonies
#5 - The pibil fruit.  Also known as annatto.  Pibil is a cooking technique that involves wrapping pork (or another meat) in banana leaves, marinating it in sour orange and achiote– a sweet, slightly peppery red sauce made from annatto seed, a plant found in the tropics – and baking it in a hand-dug barbecue pit in the ground for several hours.