Countryside, Izamal to Ek Balam

Around Izamal, the countryside is very calming and easy to navigate. There seems to be an easy, comfortable pace of life, and very community based. One does meet people on these roads, and you sometimes wonder how long they've been walking, & where they originated from....
Riders on horseback too,  or bringing horses to town on their bikes!

Izamal did have a lot of those carriages for hire, like you see in Merida.
So, maybe this boy is taking the horse in for carriage duty.
This other horse was grazing at the foot of the Pyramid Kinich. 
I've always wondered if carriages would go over very big on Isla...
but, I suppose not...
with the traffic already congested with taxis and golf carts, another very different mode of transport might not fit in very well....
but just recently on Isla, I have seen a couple horses tethered on the cross ride through La Gloria...outside the gates of the cemetery...
And one evening, I saw someone galloping, yes galloping!! along the seafront down the path from our house.  That sure looked scary to me... may find a pic later of that...

Also, around Izamal and Motul, there were fields full of blue agave.  I suppose they are destined for tequila.
But, as we learned from touring the tequila factory near Valladolid  (pics, next post) ,  the word 'tequila' is limited to use only in the area of Jalisco, where tequila was originally manufactured ) and named after the pueblo, Tequila, located in that area.
So, here, it can be used for Mezcal, which I once tried in Oaxaca and recently found some bottles on sale at Chedraui in Cancun, but it was very bitter (and maybe not such good quality?).  The tequila we had in the factory near Valladolid was much smoother, altho it is named 'Mayapan' not tequila, but is for all practical purposes, also tequila, made from the blue agave plant.

One odd thing we started noticing, in Merida and around the area, were these treadle sewing machine bases.  In our hotel room in Izamal, this one was being used as a support for the microwave on top of it.

Very clever.

We surmised that all the surplus treadle bases are leftovers from the glory days of the Hennequin boom, and were used to process things, ropes or whatever, from the fibers of the hennequin plant.
Would love to find out more about this...

No doubt, all those blue agave fields we saw used to be planted with hennequin, or sisal.

On my list is a visit to the town of Sisal on the gulf coast, which I hear has a lot to offer.



An hacienda, just a few miles beyond Izamal, where we considered staying (where 'I' considered, as Sr. would not be liking those prices)...and luckily, for him, it was not an option, as they were closed (acc'd to the help) for the Independence holiday.

The grounds & building looked very nice though.   I like to imagine how it must have been used, back in the day...
(well, good & bad, I'm sure...
it's hard to have a good feeling knowing how they abused their Mayan labor pool...

Again, just more walkers and bikers.

Coming right alongside the pyramid wall.

And here comes another horse to town.