The advertising for tourists reads TICUL - Referred to as the Pearl of the South, this bustling city is located 60 miles south of Merida... Ticul is a producer of all the wonderful red clay planter pots that you see in the area. It is also known for fine leather shoes that are designed and made here in town. Most of these businesses - clay and shoes - are home-based workshops where you will find the entire family working. http://www.yucatantoday.com/destinations/eng-ticul.htm
This picture that we saw in one of the shoe stores gives an idea of the early days when that was true. We had our own up-front view of Ticul today. Last Saturday, Pres. and Sis. Oropeza had asked Gerhard for 3 hours of his time on Monday, so early this morning they "kidnapped" us and drove south. If we need to justify the trip, we can say that some very faithful workers and patrons come from Ticul and we wanted to learn about their town.
Entering Ticul (35,000 inhabitants) we stopped to admire a pillar and kept walking to see more Mayan art that led us to a "Gallery Maya."
The proprietor invited us to come in, and we spent a couple of very enjoyable hours listening to his explanation of the creation of reproductions of artifacts for museums, universities, and other cultural displays.



In the center of the small town we gave ourselves a walking tour of the cathedral of San Antonio and many shoe stores.

Something memorable about Ticul was the "taxi" stand. This is a town that really practices reduction of pollution :) Actually, these man-powered taxis are for tourists. For $10 pesos you can be taken on a tour of the shoe shops or driven around town. We were told that almost every home has more than one bicycle taxi for use by the family, and for making a little extra income.

When we turned a corner there was the easily recognizable "Mormon" chapel.We wanted to find the family of temple workers, so asked a woman walking by for directions. To our surprise she was a member that we had met in the temple.

As we returned to the car, an old-time Mayan home caught our attention.
We were glad to be inside the car, as a typical tropical rain began before we left Ticul and continued for about 10 minutes. It was something else to remind us that "we're not in Chihuahua any more."