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Electronic Course Reserve and Program Materials
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Sleeping in Hammocks
In Yucatan the hammock is the traditional sleeping method. In cities and especially among urban middle classes who have air conditioning, fammilies use western style beds. During the summers, where you do not live in air conditioning, which is every where in the countryside and in Maya communities, you will not ever want to sleep in a bed.
Sleeping in a bed in the Yucatan in the summer is like sleeping in an pizza oven at best, more often like a sauna all night.
The hammock is cool and luxuriously comfortable to sleep in. There are of course a few tricks.
1. A hammock must actually be a hammock that is made for daily use. Virtually all hammocks that are sold in tourism destinations, such as the handicraft markets of Merida, Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Tulum and by street venders in these locations are 100% unuseable for daily sleeping. They are hardly useable to sit in.
2. A hammock made for daily and nightly use has specific qualities in terms of number of threads and length of the arms, the tightness of the weave, the type of weave, the number of threads on the border edge, the type of the eye-hook for hanging, and the material and brand of the thread. Cotton hammocks are too hot and stretch out quickly. Synthetic threads are the best, specifically there are some silky-synthetics brands that are the highest quality for comfort, temperature, durability-strength. A hammock must me at least 2 meters long in the body alone; add another meter per arm for a total of 3-3.5 meters long. All the threads must be nicely tied up and not flailing about.
You should not be able to push your fingers through the body of the hammock if you are just holding the hammock in your hand and are testing how tightly woven the body is. Thats right, hammock is full of holes and yet the test of a good hammock is that you cannot push your fingers through the holes. If you bought a hammock somewhere, check it out and see what happens.
3. When sleeping in a hammock you must not ever lay your body in line with the hammock itself. Rather you must be anywhere from 15-20 degrees to 90 degrees off the axis of the hammock. If you lay in line with this axis it will only take 2 nights before you have unbearable back pain. Otherwise, by sleeping at an angle, you can sleep on your side, stomach, curled, extended, and legs akimbo or any way that is comfortable. You will sleep like a queen or king.
4. You will not fall out of the hammock. Of Course you have to learn how to get into the hammock and then thats that. The hammock will not slip the knot and crash. There are very specific and simple ways to tie the know to the wall hooks so that the hammock will not ever slide off the rope. Yes, there have been occassions where Mayas have hung their hammock badly and crashed -- most of these are the result of inebriation. The lesson to be learned: Do not hang your hammock drunk! :-) and all will turn out fine.
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Sleeping Gear
During the summer you will be in a hammock rather than a bed. This you will love because they are COOL! and out of control comfortable. Now, the problem is that sometimes at 4-6am you can get COLD in a hammock in Yucatán. Yes, its true. Especially in June. This means that when we go out at 5am for the rain ceremony you will want to have a sweater, a hoodie, polyester gym clothes, fleece or something that is very very light and yet WARM.
For sleeping you will want to have a “pajama” outfit of full length pants, long sleeve shirt that covers your neck and socks … this is to protect you from the mosquitos at night. however you dont want to FRY in bed either, so this outfit needs to be light and loose yet all covering!
Alternatively, what you can do is go the more minimal route of pajama wear – ie. not all covering! – and use a light double or queen size sheet. Preference is cotton, that will sweat and breathe but not allow mosquitos to pass through. You throw this around you with it flapping over your head and then get into the hammock. Once inside you situate the sheet all around you to cover yourself up. You can use an additional handerchief or towel to cover the majority of your face as protection. In Yucatán, heavy big towels are used also as blankets.
Airplane Pillows are a MUST! If you have the opportunity to get two airplane pillows and 1, maybe 2 airplane blankets these will serve you VERY well in terms of sleeping in your hammock and gettting comfortable. Some people like pillows and some do not. If you are one of those persons that need lots and big pillows, then bring one of your own. Otherwise, borrow an airplain pillow, or two perhaps, on the trip down and use it. Alternatively you can always use a rolled up towel (I have always found that to be too hard) or other such clothing. The airplane blankets are also very useful for all sorts of things such as this or for traveling in buses in Yucatan.
Buying Hammocks
On the first or second day of the program, all participants will go to visit a community to buy hammocks. Medium priced hammocks that are of medium quality are in the 300-400 peso range. In previous years, these hammocks have not had sufficient quality necessary for daily use.
Historically we have gone to buy hammocks from the prisoners of the Ebtun jail. The quality is superior and more costly. Estimate 800 pesos for the purchase of your hammock.
  
Buying hamacas in Ebtun below (2010) and in San Francisco
above (2013)
 
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