Coconuts for Sale

Palm Trees © 2008 Bo Mackison

Palm trees offer such a magnificence of wonder: the horizontally striped bark; the giant fronds, dipping towards the earth; a peek-through of the sapphire sky through deep green slivers of windows; a shady spot to sip coconut milk from the real thing, if you’re lucky enough to find a guy willing to haggle a bit over the price of the coconut.

“Twenty bucks for a coconut? What? No way?” That’s more than half my spending money for the day, and I’m feeding two kids plus me. Then I feel guilty; I have so much. But at the same time, I sure didn’t have that much in my pocket. I found a boy selling his fruit for eight bucks which still seemed expensive, but a better deal nonetheless. I couldn’t resist the experience. And even if I did overpay, I still go home to luxury and money enough for what I need plus a lot more. Handing those dollars to this sweaty kid sure seemed like a good enough reason to drink the luscious milk of a just-picked coconut at least once in your life. Ah, the real thing was quite grand.

Photograph taken and coconut eaten at Tulum, Mexico on the Yucatan Peninsula. January 1, 2008.

Temple of the Wind

Temple of the Winds © 2008 Bo Mackison

Photographed at the ruins of Tulum, an archeological site of the Mayans dating from 650 AD. It is located on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, just south of Cozumel on the mainland.

The “Temple of the Wind” is perched high over the Caribbean Sea. It was designed by the Mayans as a lookout for marauders and more importantly as a hurricane warning system. When the hurricane winds headed for a direct hit on Tulum, the winds whistled through a specially designed hole at the top of the temple. The Mayans would hear the signal and then know to leave the walled city and seek protection near the outer wall. (12 feet high and seven feet thick).

The temple whistled when Hurricane Roxanne reached hurricane force winds in 1995.