Propogating Palapas

Mayan man building a small palapa at Instituto Chac Mool

From our limited and biased perspective, Instituto Chac Mool made a wise decision to open a second school in Tulum.  During our time here, we haven’t seen or heard of any other Spanish schools in the immediate area.  While we were studying at the Instituto, two Mayan men (palaperos) were building a new palapa to handle more classes and there are plans for one more.  It was interesting to see it constructed with basic hand tools.

The roof of the palapa is designed to keep cool air in during the hotter months and warm air in during the colder months.  In Tulum, palapas are essential as air conditioning is not a readily affordable option.

The techniques used to build palapas have not changed, but the materials have. Historically, the roof was made out of palm leaves.  The Mexican government outlawed the use of palm leaves for palapa roofs to save them from extinction.  Now sacate grass, a more sustainable building material, is used to thatch palapa roofs.  It is harvested by hand with machetes, bundled, dried and ready for thatching without any processing.  The grass grows quickly so harvests are generated regularly.

We were told that the roof must be changed every two years or so.  We know that over time the water no longer runs off the grass.  It soaks through, as was happening to the palapa roof at Nelly’s house.
-Eydie

In Tulum, the only things that are frequently stolen are bikes.  Therefore whenever you rent a bike it comes with a lock and key.  When we returned to Tulum from our bike tour in Sian Ka'an we found out that we were missing two keys and one lock.  Marco told us that we could look through our stuff while we were at Dreams.  When at Dreams we found one key and realized that the lock we were missing was on the bike that we rented from Nelly but we were still missing one key.  It took 11 days for us to find it in the pocket of the shorts Mom was wearing on the day we started our bike tour!
- Brook