Alice in Wondermilpa

After our Maya post-final today, and the last of the ecology presentations, we visited a Mayan milpa. The visit was something out of Alice in Wonderland, with Angela, our host and white rabbit, leading us through the milpa at the mercy of Hugo, our Cheshire cat, and her small, seven-year-old-daughter, whose name means hummingbird, as our Mayan Alice. We explored strange vegetation, ate unfamiliar fruits, touched things we shouldn’t have, and did battle with ants near a stream before colliding with the Red Queen: our beloved and treacherous Coca-Cola, which tempted us on our way out.

Where to begin with yet another unique adventure? It began in a functional maize field, or milpa. In addition to the maize, they also grew several types of leafy greens and kilabasa (sp?), my favorite of the new vegetables that have entered my diet. It’s about the size of an average grapefruit, green and has a texture someone like a cooked zucchini when its boiled or in soup, which is the only way it has ever been served to me. After the milpa, we entered a zone known as acahaul, which is a second-growth milpa field inhabited by the local forest vegetation as a reforestation effort. As we passed through this area, we were shown large, black legume seeds which are used in local handicrafts. Someone special out there has a necklace waiting with one of these on it. When we were finally through the jungle, we spotted our white rabbit and the innocent Alice.

For someone who is certainly still young but our standards, Angela looked like the sun had aged her. If she had aged at all, however, it was only her skin because this woman had more energy than me! She zipped us through her backyard orchard, identifying papaya, pineapple and yerno, a kind of sweet potato, among other herbal agents and seasoning. Of the leaves I heard about included two antibacterial agents, one used in tea and another in bathing, achiote which is used in cochinita pibil, a dying agent for clothes, and a type of orange tree, which was identified only by its smell. The woman also made a point to dig several small but energetic holes in the ground, implicating a mole for making her papaya trees fall down. Additionally, we were treated to a strange red fruit, which cracked open like a hard shell of a banana and revealed a sticky, mushy white stuff in the middle with semi-large black seeds for a pod about as long as my pointer finger. I acquired a good sense for its taste because there was larvae in my sample of the many she physically shook down from the tree and collected off the ground, but it was sweet like a banana but without the distinctive banana smell.             

She led us into the forest once more so that we could examine the fruits the kinkajous favor, and additional herbal agents including an anti-coagulant, we found ourselves assaulted by a long stretch of ants which led immediately onto a two small branch/stick bridge into the season’s milpa farm. While I was not among the initial small group to fall into the hormigas vicious grip immediately by following our white rabbit innocently, I was nevertheless a victim to a few assaults even through my sneakers. After dodging through their territory, through the stick bridge faster than I intended, I arrived at the destination I expected to see when I was told about the milpa trip: more maize. Amongst the maize were landmines of chives, which we had to dutifully watch our feet to avoid trampling on, and occasional nuclear silos of squash. Our Alice led one of our unsuspecting classmates to touch one, and the white rabbit made herself available to scold Alice because the squash don’t grow if their touched.

We worked through the landmines, crossed the stick bridge, rebattled the hormigas and traipsed through the jungle again to return to her orchard. We took a break to rest from our lively visit before heading out, only to be tempted by Coke just when we thought we were safe. I won’t lie, I gave in. I bought a Lift (carbonation, high fructose corn syrup and apple juice!) and gummy bears, but I earned it.

We wound down our day to a bonfire and charades, saying our ceremonial goodbyes to the jungle, our semester guide Hugo, our faithful driver, Cesar, and our Mayan professor, Rebecca. It’s hard to believe that this trip can continue without them, but it will, and our next month will be as amazing as the last two, although they will surely be missed.

Another amazing day in Mexico comes to a close, and I still have to pinch myself to convince myself that I am really here, and things are really this great. I will be sad to leave.