Today I left Ticul for Mérida. On the road, there are several pottery places –– which Ticul is famous for. It is where they make the ranas (frogs) dressed in huipils (the traditional mestiza dress of the region) and other such objects — for local consumption and export. The last place I stopped was the beautiful Galeria Maya where there are no ranas but beautiful and creative reproductions with artistic interpretation of ancient Maya artifacts. It is certainly worth visiting.
It was raining all morning. Because I did not follow my usual plan of picking up my bag and pulling the keys out of the ignition and attaching them to my bag, I ended up locking the car doors with my keys in the ignition. Lourdes, the owner, came out to say hello. I get a feeling that not many people stop. Perhaps because they have high end art objects and not the usual assortment of ranas. I mentioned I locked my keys in my car and she was concerned — and I told her i wasn’t worried — I mean what else am I going to do? Scream? Curse? And the point of either resulting in nothing. She later told me she would see many people focused on that and was [my words] impressed with my calm. In the end, I called my friend Juan’s brother Sergio in Mérida who told me two ways of opening up the little alita (wing window). The easiest instructions were what worked. Bang on the little alita and eventually the lock will move and unlock. This worked fabulously. While I don’t have stretchy arms to reach all the way to the door lock, I used one of Lourdes’ tools to pull up the door lock. On one hand, I am thankful for simple design. On the other, I see just how easy it is to get into my car. I still think these volkswagen bugs are amazing cars.
Meanwhile Lourdes asked me where I was from. I said Florida and then she asked me to be more specific. I responded that she “had probably never heard of the place” since everyone instinctually assumes Florida = Miami. The small world effect reared it’s beautiful head. She’s been to Gainesville many times and has several good friends there. Through this happenstance, I have made another friend — she’s incredible. She made me a nice cup of coffee and showed me around both galleries she has. They do incredible work and it is authentically Maya. I think there were two happy points — that I was not so preoccupied about my keys because I discovered this place of incredible beauty — and that I was so excited not to see the ranas (frogs). I hope this is the start of something good.
