Confusion in Costa Maya

Our first stop was Costa Maya. There were a bunch of shops with a bunch of things, but we weren't that interested because of all of the people trying to convince us to buy from them. We waited for our tour for a while because the bus was late and then ended up in a van with about ten other people instead because of different issues. The ride was a long one and our tour guide did a great job giving us information about the area. The telephone arrived to these people within the last year and there is no running water. Water is delivered daily to each home and then pumped from the side of the house to a black tank on top of the home. That's all the water the family will get for the day. If they use all of the water, then they will have to go without until the next day. The starter homes have roofs made from the leaves of nearby trees just as their Mayan ancestors build theirs three thousand years ago. These roofs last up to twenty years, withstand wind and rain, and allow air to ventilate through the home. The better off people build their roofs out of aluminum or tin. You can distinguish the middle class from the lower class by whether a family has a satellite dish or not. That's the second thing they buy after a television for the home. Shows can be watched in some stores, but you have to pay to watch them. Most of the people still grow their own food and travel to the store to get some things if they have money. They may walk or bike miles to get there if they don't have the money to pay someone else to take them. There were only two paved roads and they intersect each other at one spot. The rest of the roads are really dirt or limestone and provide a bouncy ride most of the time. The Mayan ruins we visited were about thirty minutes away by van and as soon as we climbed out into the open, the humidity slapped us with heat. Instant sunburn occurred and the ruins were rather impressive to view as we surveyed them, but after looking at one set, you have just about seen all there is to see. I got bored after the first two hours of the four hour tour. We saw tree roots where the Mayans would hide to stay safe from the hurricanes, the stone foundations which they attached the large roofs composed of layers of leaves, different medicinal uses for the bark and leaves of certain trees, and how the temples were used to help the leader see if his people were about to be overrun by invaders. After all of this was done, we were supposed to go to a nearby village to have a traditional Mayan meal would be prepared for us, but no one else in our group requested this, so we didn't get to try the meal and discover whether we would get really sick or not. We could have still gone to the village, but by the time we left we were starving because we were actually supposed to eat at the halfway point, but it didn't happen. My wife did get some beautiful dresses, but we were disappointed that we didn't get to do what we had planned. The truly amazing thing about the Mayans to me was that they knew how to use what God had given them in nature to help them survive. I am referring to the plants and trees being used to help cope with injury and to improve health. We ate the leaves from one tree and found our tongues to be numb. Our guide then explained that the leaves are the source of novocaine. Scientists actually travel (have traveled) to places like Costa Maya to study the plants and how the chemicals in them affect receptor sites in neurons. The chemicals are then either taken from more plants and put into a medicine or are synthesized from chemicals that work similarly on receptor sites and then put into medicines for sale to the public. This is another good reason to keep rainforests around for the future.