A little bit of Mayan ...
On Wednesday, with no further sign of the tiles my builder heads off to Cancun. He expects to be back mid afternoon but it is late evening before he finally returns. He travels to Cancun first by ferry from Cozumel to Playa del Carmen then by bus from Playa to Cancun. He returns via cab with the heavy boxes of tiles to the Cancun bus station, then by bus to Playa, then catches the return ferry to Cozumel.
His trip is long but fruitful – he gets the full order, two whole boxes of glistening Paradise luminescent tiles! I pay for his trip but know it is a great deal of effort on his part ... others would probably leave the getting of the tiles to the property owner, but when I ask how the trip was he just smiles graciously and says it all went fine.
A brief translation pause …
Playa del Carmen, which is only a 40 minute ferry trip from Cozumel, is also more commonly referred to here as just “Playa” (playa also meaning beach). When I say voy a playa (boy-a ply-a – I’m off to the beach) ...I do go occasionally when the esposo is around, they always tend to think I am off to catch the ferry to Playa del Carmen. I have still haven’t found out how one differentiates between the two, but when I do I’ll let you know!
Cancun is a ferry trip to Playa and then about an hour in the bus from here. It’s a very nice bus though by all accounts with movies, drinks and …uhmmm …facilities! (you know …loo’s).
Cancun is also spring break central for US college kids on the loose, (apparently they are trying to go upscale … Cancun that is, not the college kids). Anyhoo … Cancun is a Mayan word which some say translates to golden snake. The majority however says it is Mayan for a “nest or den of snakes”. I suspect it depends on your individual experience of Cancun but it seems to me that one translation is more appropriate these days than t’other … I’ll leave you to go figure for yourself.
Cozumel itself comes from the Mayan Cuzam (swallow) and Lumil (land of), which form the word Cuzamil (land of swallows). The Mayan word changed over time to the more Spanish name of Cozumel. (Hence all the little swallow shapes in the pavements downtown)
Other places on or around the island that have names derived from Mayan are
Chankanaab: little sea
Tulum: wall
Holbox: pronounced Holbosh - black hole (?) Nice place – shame about the name.
La Choza: the hut – a great little Cozumel restaurant
zonot: (we now use the Spanish derivative cenote) a natural hole in the ground or well, often a sacred place
Boxito: pronounced Boshito - the hardware and fittings store where I spend so much of my time – little black one - a cross between the Mayan box black and Spanish ito ending for little.
These is by no means all ... do feel free to add further to this list
The stonemasons have also now arrived and make a start and our cortina de agua (curtain or water) fountain wall. The large chunks of vista maya rock are cut then shaped and fitted together like a heavy-duty jigsaw (see below). (vista maya - a hard stone/beige coloured rock with embedded fragments of small shells that has a rustic Mayan appearance).
The cutting process produces strong burning smell, a great deal of noise and a cloud of "smoke like" dust around the whole garden.
We also make a start on the new housing for my washing machine, which is now to be situated below the deck.
Since I have decided I do not want any view at all of my washing machine spoiling my nice new sun deck I have come up with a plan to house the machine opposite the entry to the pool equipment area. The plumbing we installed on the deck above will probably not go to waste though ... I have confidence it will come in useful at some point.
His trip is long but fruitful – he gets the full order, two whole boxes of glistening Paradise luminescent tiles! I pay for his trip but know it is a great deal of effort on his part ... others would probably leave the getting of the tiles to the property owner, but when I ask how the trip was he just smiles graciously and says it all went fine.
A brief translation pause …Playa del Carmen, which is only a 40 minute ferry trip from Cozumel, is also more commonly referred to here as just “Playa” (playa also meaning beach). When I say voy a playa (boy-a ply-a – I’m off to the beach) ...I do go occasionally when the esposo is around, they always tend to think I am off to catch the ferry to Playa del Carmen. I have still haven’t found out how one differentiates between the two, but when I do I’ll let you know!
Cancun is a ferry trip to Playa and then about an hour in the bus from here. It’s a very nice bus though by all accounts with movies, drinks and …uhmmm …facilities! (you know …loo’s).
Cancun is also spring break central for US college kids on the loose, (apparently they are trying to go upscale … Cancun that is, not the college kids). Anyhoo … Cancun is a Mayan word which some say translates to golden snake. The majority however says it is Mayan for a “nest or den of snakes”. I suspect it depends on your individual experience of Cancun but it seems to me that one translation is more appropriate these days than t’other … I’ll leave you to go figure for yourself.
Cozumel itself comes from the Mayan Cuzam (swallow) and Lumil (land of), which form the word Cuzamil (land of swallows). The Mayan word changed over time to the more Spanish name of Cozumel. (Hence all the little swallow shapes in the pavements downtown)
Other places on or around the island that have names derived from Mayan are
Chankanaab: little sea
Tulum: wall
Holbox: pronounced Holbosh - black hole (?) Nice place – shame about the name.
La Choza: the hut – a great little Cozumel restaurant
zonot: (we now use the Spanish derivative cenote) a natural hole in the ground or well, often a sacred place
Boxito: pronounced Boshito - the hardware and fittings store where I spend so much of my time – little black one - a cross between the Mayan box black and Spanish ito ending for little.
These is by no means all ... do feel free to add further to this list
The stonemasons have also now arrived and make a start and our cortina de agua (curtain or water) fountain wall. The large chunks of vista maya rock are cut then shaped and fitted together like a heavy-duty jigsaw (see below). (vista maya - a hard stone/beige coloured rock with embedded fragments of small shells that has a rustic Mayan appearance).
The cutting process produces strong burning smell, a great deal of noise and a cloud of "smoke like" dust around the whole garden.
We also make a start on the new housing for my washing machine, which is now to be situated below the deck.
Since I have decided I do not want any view at all of my washing machine spoiling my nice new sun deck I have come up with a plan to house the machine opposite the entry to the pool equipment area. The plumbing we installed on the deck above will probably not go to waste though ... I have confidence it will come in useful at some point.
On Thursday we finally start the pool tiling.
We now have three boxes of luminescent tiles instead of the two originally ordered. I take full advantage of this and decide to have luminescent steps, cinefa and lower edging of the pool. As so often happens here, things have worked out well in the end. Of course, I do now have two extra boxes of non-refundable, Acapulco (plain light blue) pool tiles … but take it from me … something will crop up and I know these will become useful too.
All in all it’s been a very productive week!
posted by casaolivia at 5:41 PM
3 Comments:
Hi. I'm enjoying your blog. Thank you for sharing the meaning of the Mayan place names. I'm sure Cancun must mean "nest of snakes," LOL.
A tip: To differentiate from going to the beach as opposed to going to Playa del Carmen, you should say "Voy a la playa," and when you mean Playa del Carmen: "Voy a Playa."
thanks for dropping by suzanne ...
and for the gem of info re playa ... yeh! it makes sense now.
I was actually born on Cozumel, and the swallow imprints in the pavement has always been one of my favorite unique things about Cozumel.
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