Mexico
Mexico
Woken by the alarm at 5 am and then off to the airport. Flew out from bright skies in Edinburgh to rainy Amsterdam arriving in time for an early lunch. Our flight to Mexico City left at 2.35pm and started with a northerly route which took us out, after an hour or so, over the North of Scotland and on to Iceland and Greenland, with glimpses of sea ice and mountains through the clouds. One effect of the route was that we chased the sun setting, seeing the sun disappear and reappear. Good food on the plane and a good red wine and cognac to drink, even an ice cream during the flight. The route then took us down through Canada and the USA into Mexico. We arrived at about 7.15 pm, very tired. So an early night for us (going to bed about 5 in the morning UK time!)
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A city tour of Mexico city
A cool start to the day with some light rain in the morning. Our hotel is in the heart of the historical centre of the city. A few steps from the hotel took us to the main square and the Cathedral. This is the largest cathedral in Latin America and it took almost 300 years to complete. A service was in progress so we could only see half of the building. The cathedral and many of the surrounding buildings were built on the soft clay of what was once a massive lake, consequently there has been a lot of subsidence resulting in sloping floors and walls leaning out in all directions. Remedial work has prevented the collapse of the building. Next to it was a baroque church – the Sagrario Metropolitano.
Our next stop was a few yards away and was the Templo Mayor. A great temple built by the Aztecs and largely destroyed by the Spanish. The site was chosen because the saw a significant sight for them – an eagle sat on a cactus and devoured a snake. A chance discovery in 1978 led to excavations which uncovered the complex which we saw today. There was a sequence of building the temple complex resulting in 7 stages of construction as the temple was enlarged. This served as an introduction to the history of Mexico and some of the archaeological sites we will visit in the next few weeks. Originally there were twin temples on the top of the site dedicated to the god of war and the god of rain and water, both gods apparently are associated with human sacrifice.
A couple of minutes walk took us to one of the other sides of the main square for us to visit the presidential palace.This is built on the site of the Aztec emperor Montezuma and after the conquest, became the home of the conquistador Cortes. Our time here was spent in viewing a series of large murals by a famous Mexican artist – Diego Rivera. These paintings give a comprehensive history of the country from pre- conquest to more recent times. They are very colourful and full of interesting stories and references.
A short drive showed us more of the city and some of the impressive historical and modern buildings. The morning tour finished at the Chapultepec Park, where we chose to spend the rest of the afternoon visiting the National museum of Anthropology. Here we must make an apology for the number of photographs which we are attaching here, but we did get carried away (and there are plenty more if you are interested). The ground floor of the museum is a series of rooms with exhibitions of sculptures, pottery and other artefacts from different areas and cultures of ancient Mexico. Upstairs galleries had displays related to people, costumes, life and culture. There were many very colourful and elaborate costumes from various ceremonies and fest
Journey to the pyramids
Today started dry but misty in the city, but has we left the city the skies brightened and it soon became quite warm. Our main visit today was to the pyramids at Teotihuacan, about 30 miles from Mexico City. However on the way we made a short stop to see the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe.This is a major site of pilgrimage for Catholics from all over the Americas. The site consists of a number of churches of which the two largest which we visited are the 18th century Basilica and its modern counterpart. We visited the modern building first where we were just in time for the start of the 9am mass. The building is very impressive and can contain about 10000 people, a fraction of the number of people that arrive in December each year for the Feast of the Virgin Mary. The reason for the Basilica is that in the 16th century a brown skinned Virgin Mary miraculously appeared to an Indian man called Juan Diego. She told him to go to the bishop and tell him that she wanted a church to be built here. Juan passed on the message, but the bishop wanted proof, so Juan returned to the Virgin and gave her the bishop’s response. Suddenly roses appeared and she told him to gather them up in his cloak and take them to the bishop, showing them to no one else. He returned to the bishop and laid out his cloak and the roses rearranged to form an image of the Virgin on the cloak. In the crypt of the church a travelator whisked us past allowing us to view the image on the cloak. (The travelator is used because otherwise some of the pilgrims spend too long praying in front of the image stopping others from getting to see it).
One of the many features of the building which we liked were the colourful doors. The older Basilica Is a beautiful building,but which is subsiding at the rate of 1.5metres in 50 years, so it leans heavily and the floors tilt in all sorts of directions. A further brief stop was made to see the uses of the Agave cactus and sample one of its products – Tequila. From here it was on to the highlight of the day, the visit to the pyramids of Teotihuacan (the place where men become gods). The site was originally an ancient city which fell into disuse around 650 AD. Later the site became sacred to the Aztecs, who named the long central road the Avenue of the Dead because they thought, erroneously, that the buildings on either side were tombs. There are two main pyramids, the pyramid of the moon and the pyramid of the sun. We climbed as far as we were allowed up the steep stairway of the pyramid of the moon and to the top of the pyramid of the sun, which was quite hard work in the midday heat. After lunch we returned to the city where we revisited the cathedral to see the areas we had missed yesterday, such as the high Altar and a giant pendulum which is used to monitor the movement of the building as it sinks into the mud.
Travelling to Oaxaca
Started out this morning at 8.30 on the road to Oaxaca. Our first stop was in Cholula where we visited the site of the largest (in terms of the sizes of the base) pyramid in the world. There is not much to see from the outside as the remains of the structure are buried under a hill topped with a church, but we were able to walk through some of the tunnels which the archaeologists had dug to explore the structure. Emerging from the tunnels we saw the rest of the archeology of the site. This had been a large city in its time (again flourishing pre-Aztec); we saw the remains of various courtyards and decorated walls. It was also here that the more adventurous amongst us had the opportunity to sample a local delicacy – deep fried grasshopper. A few minutes drive took us to a small church, which is probably one of the most beautiful ones, the interior completely covered with clay sculptures of angels and saints all modelled on Indians. A further drive took us to the city of Puebla where we visited the cathedral, a Dominican church which houses the glittering gold clad Chapel of the Rosary – a contrast to the church we visited earlier. We had a lovely lunch in a local hotel restaurant – the chicken mole was excellent ( a thick chocolate based sauce). A short walk through the local market and then a 4 hour drive along twisting mountain roads and we arrived in Oaxaca at about 7.30pm.
City tour of Oaxaca
A cloudy but warm day today. We started a tour visiting a relatively modern fountain with figures representing the different regions which make up the state of Oaxaca. Over the course of the day our guide told us of the 16 different languages of the region (48 different languages are used in Mexico). The main theme of the day’s tour was the competing ideas of the different strands of Catholicism in the time of the Spanish conquest, largely whether the Indians should be killed, educated or treated as slaves. The discussion continued on the way the balance changes between liberalism and religion. The next stop of the morning was the church of San Domingo. The church was begun in 1572 and completed 200 years later. At some point, it and the adjoining monastery were cleared out and used by the military, with the side altars of the church being used as stables for horses. The church is now again functionally and the interior is a riot of gold, with a beautiful rosary chapel. The church, like all the buildings of the city, are relatively low in height because of the risk of earthquakes. Adjoining the church is the former Dominican monastery which was badly destroyed and has now been renovated as a cultural centre and museum. There is a collection of art. Most of our time was spent looking at a collection of Pre-Columbian artefacts from sites in Oaxaca, most notably gold and jade jewellery from one of the grave sites at Monte Alban (which we will visit tomorrow). From the upstairs galleries we got some lovely views of the adjoining botanical garden which has a collection devoted entirely to the plants of the state of Oaxaca. Later we walked through some of the local markets, full of interesting sights and smells and finished the tour at the Cathedral which is just a few steps away from our hotel.
Monte Alban
A late start today some left the hotel at 10 am for an 8 mile drive, climbing an additional 1000 feet above the city. Monte Alban is the remains of a city built on top of a hillside built 2500 years ago. In order to construct the city, they first had to level the hill. For many years the city dominated the region, but it was largely abandoned by 800AD, and adopted by another group of people who used it as a burial site. The city was rediscovered by archaeologists in the early 1900’s. Since a lot of the site was damaged by the effects of tree roots and earthquakes, a lot of what we saw today was a partial reconstruction. The location gave us impressive views over the valley and the city of Oaxaca. At either end of the main site there is a raised mound, so more steps to climb to gain views over the whole site. There are several temples which contained tombs, one of the features of the skeletal remains found here was that there were holes made in the top of the skulls which had been made during life ( there was evidence of bone growth showing that the person had survived the procedure). Among the buildings we saw was the ballcourt. The Indians had a traditional game played with a heavy rubber ball – the aim was to use legs, arms, thighs etc to hit the ball through a hole in a stone disc. At other locations , but not here, the custom was that the winning team were killed as a sacrifice to the gods ( so the Scottish and English football teams would have enjoyed a long and happy life then!). Other buildings were believed to be used as astronomical observatories. Carvings in the rock at one of the temples were once thought to represent dancers but are now thought to represent tortured prisoners of war, although it was also suggested to us could represent diseased natives. The rest of the afternoon we spent walking round Oaxaca and getting ready to leave tomorrow for the next part of the trip.
Journey to San Cristobal
Up at 5 o’clock to transfer to the airport for a flight back to Mexico City in the North. Lovely clear day so I got spectacular views from the aircraft. Saw several snow capped volcanoes and one volcano with smoke pouring out of its crater. After an hour or so back in Mexico City airport we transferred to a second flight to take us to Tuzla Gutierrez back in the south. This time we got a splendid view of the volcano Popocatepetl, which we should have seen from the road several days ago when we were driving to Oaxaca (it was totally covered in cloud then). After a 1.5 hour flight we had a short drive to the river where we transferred to a large speedy boat for a cruise for a couple of hours through the steep walled Sumidero Canyon. This was a spectacular trip. We stopped at several points to see the wildlife and some of the natural formations in the rocks and vegetation. We saw a large river crocodile and lots of birds including vultures, pelicans and egrets. One formation we saw resembled a Christmas tree and was created by an underground stream emerging from the rock and forming a waterfall ( at this time of the year there was very little water flowing). By now it was well after 3pm and it was time for a late lunch. We saw a 600 year old tree. A final drive of the day took us up into the highlands and our stop for the next two nights in San Cristobal de las Casas. Much cooler here and we will be needing our jumpers (apparently this morning the temperature was 3 degrees C). We warmed ourselves up with hot chocolate and some unusual but very tasty cakes together with a taste of a locally distilled spirit called Posh. The hot chocolate we drank in the traditional manner, made with water and no milk, the spirit is a traditional one distilled from a brew made from oats corn and cane sugar – supposed to have health giving properties.
City tour of San Cristobal
Well we didn’t need our jumpers this morning. Lovely cloudless skies and the hottest weather we’ve had this trip so far. This morning started with a walking tour of San Cristobal, we learnt that the state we are in at the moment was at one time part of Guatemala, but they had a vote and decided to become part of Mexico. It’s a very nice city to walk around and we saw a lot of the old Colonial buildings. Of course, there were more churches to see including the Franciscan and Dominican churches and the cathedral. In one of the churches we saw the mixture of two religions with a Mayan man practising his healing ceremonies within the Catholic Church. We also visited the cultural centre and its attractive garden. Within this centre people can take classes in all sorts of activities, martial arts, puppetry, ballet, painting etc. We also saw the Golden age club where the older women were meeting for craftwork and a chat. A short drive up into the hills took us to two small Mayan towns. The first was dedicated to St John The Baptist, and here we spent some time in the church (unfortunately we were not allowed to photograph the inside of it. It is a Catholic Church and nominally the Mayans worshipping there are Catholic, but in the 1700’s the decided they had had enough of the Dominican priests and they expelled them and adapted the church to their own use (they still have the services of a Jesuit priest for baptisms and Catholic festivals). The church has been emptied of pews and pine leaves scattered over those areas of the floor which are not covered with candles. Round the walls are the statues of the Catholic saints, altar pieces, tables full of flowers and candles. The light from the thousands of candles made for quite an atmosphere. Banners were suspended from the ceiling to form two sides of a triangle to represent the mountains from which mankind originated. Everyone has three souls’ one of which is in the heavens, one in the body and a small one likened to a hummingbird is in the heart.
The religious healers identify a person’s ailments by feeling their pulse and give healing prayers (said in an old Mayan language) for which flowers, candles and chickens are offered up. It has to be said that there was more of an atmosphere in this church than in many of the traditional ones we have visited. The second town we visited had a more traditional Catholic Church, but the priests allowed the healers to come in and perform their rituals, but they are not allowed to burn candles on the floor and there used to be a notice on the door to tell them that they were not to sacrifice chickens in the church. This town grows a lot of flowers and the women have also formed a collective to market their woven goods. We watched a woman weaving and saw some of the local woven produce- all very colourful. We also had a demonstration of tortilla making. This evening as the sun is going down, it is getting very cool again, so we may have to go for another hot chocolate and cakes as we did yesterday.
Agua Azul and the Palenque Temples
Up at 5 this morning for our departure to Palenque, setting out at 6am. The morning was bright and clear but there was a heavy frost ( remember though, we are at an altitude of over 7000 ft). The drive was up in the mountains along winding roads and we could look down into the valleys filled with a heavy mist. By 9 am after a stop for breakfast, it was already hot and sunny. We continued on our way through areas of lush, dense vegetation, to the Aqua Azul (blue waters) waterfalls. The water has a lovely blue colour due to the minerals in it. The waterfalls were very impressive, but we didn’t have time to do a full circuit of all the viewpoints. We continued on our journey to our lunch stop in the outskirts of Palenque, close to the archaeological sites. The temples are in an area of jungle, it was very hot and extremely humid. We could hear but not see the howler monkeys which were all around. The temples were quite different from those we had seen before, largely due to the setting. There were some remnants of paintings and carvings, together, in one of the temples, with the sarcophagus of one of the kings.
Adventures in the jungle
Another early start this morning , leaving at 6am for a 3 hour drive . We had a brief stop for breakfast. The day was cloudy and a little less humid than yesterday. Because we are very close to the border with Guatemala, both yesterday and today we passed through (unhindered) a lot of police and army checkpoints. Along the way we saw a number of people walking along the road who we were told were illegal migrants from Guatemala, probably attempting to reach the USA. As long as they are on foot the security services do not bother them, but if they get in a vehicle they are liable to arrest and deportation. We arrived at the green monkey river, so called because of its colour and that it used to have a lot of monkeys along the banks. This is a major river and it forms the boundary between the countries of Mexico and Guatemala. We transferred to a long narrow boat and sped along the river for about an hour, stopping briefly to see the crocodiles on the banks. Our destination was to the Yaxchilan ( name means green stones, because of the moss which covered them when the site was discovered) archeological site, the home of rulers in the Jaguar dynasty. The temples and palaces here are right in the heart of the jungle, so our exploration was accompanied by the sound of howler monkeys, although again we did not see them. Yesterday at the Palenque archeological site, we entered the palace through the “underworld” which is symbolised on the buildings by a design resembling an inverted letter T; as we ascended to the higher levels the heavens were represented by a symbol resembling T the right way round.
Today, we started our visit again in the underworld passing through dark narrow unlit passages as if we were first time explorers. Within this space we saw bats and giant spiders. From here we moved on to the ball court, which was aligned with the direction of North. Not all the games played here ended in a human sacrifice, some were played for pleasure or for gambling. Indeed at this site there is evidence that the ruler played the game. We saw a stone sculpture depicting the ruler dressed with all the protective gear needed for the game and with a ball inside which was a representation of one of his enemies.. The rulers practised polygamy and there were houses for each of the wives. As we also saw yesterday there were steam baths for the nobility. Exploring the site meant climbing lots of steep slippery steps. A return journey up river took us to the restaurant for lunch, passing along the way a tree with lots of birds perched on it and a crocodile waiting for his chance underneath. From here a drive took us to a second site – Bonampak. This was a small site important for the painted walls in some of the rooms. Difficult to make out the details in the photographs but showed the ruler conquering his enemies, musicians playing, and other royal events. There were also some lovely detailed carvings showing the ruler with his elaborate headdress. In one case he was shown with his mother and wife, in another with captive prisoners. A common theme yesterday and today was ceremonial offerings of blood – for women the tongue was pierced, for men the spine of a Manta Ray was used to pierce the penis and the blood collected. A nearly 3 hour drive meant that we got back to the hotel at about 7.45pm. Time for cocktails and a light meal. Have a lie in tomorrow with the alarm set for 6.15.
Arrival in Merida
Picked up from the hotel at 8.30 and had a two hour drive to the airport for our midday flight to Merida. The road journey took us through the state of Tabasco – a rich state because of the oil industry and cattle. During the flight we passed over the bay of Mexico and arrived in Merida at about 2pm and found a temperature of about 32 degrees. Nice hotel, and there are a few photographs of the courtyard and some of the notices. We took a walk into town for a beer, passing by the cathedral and some fine buildings. The people are very friendly “I’m talking to you because you are not an American”. In a souvenir shop we found a new bargaining technique which got us a 40% discount on the first price by completely emptying our wallets of notes and the salesman saying “I’ll take it”. Today is the last day of a 3 week Mayan festival and after dinner we watched a version of the Mayan ball game, which was very energetic. All in all a quiet day and a late departure for our tour tomorrow morning.
Visit to a Hacienda
A relaxed start to the day, leaving for today’s tour at 9am. Our destination was the Hacienda, Sotuta de Peon and it took less than an hour to arrive there. In the 19th century an important industry in this region was the production of sisal ropes (used by shipping the world over). The industry was so important to the area that for a while Merida was the 2nd most wealthy city in the world (after London). The sisal fibres are obtained from a cactus, and the soil in this area is so poor that the cactus is the best thing to grow in these conditions. The name sisal is a misnomer’ the correct name is something different, but when the ropes were imported into the UK and other countries, they came labelled Sisal which was actually the name of the Mexican port from which they were exported. The owner of the Hacienda gave up production of sisal in the 1940’s and the house and plantation fell into disuse, until sold and restored by the current owner and turned into a museum illustrating the manufacturing techniques. First we toured the house and saw some fine furniture and very decorative tiling. In the basement we saw rooms which were originally used as places of punishment for the workers. The workers could be punished for many things, not cutting enough cactus leaves, not cutting the right size of leaf or cutting too many leaves from one plant. From here we saw demonstrations of the processing of the cactus leaves and the making of the ropes, both by hand and by machinery. We transferred to a “truck”, an open railway type carriage which ran on narrow rails and was drawn by a mule. This took us through the cactus plantation and to a visit to an 82 year old man who had worked from the age of 12 for the previous owner. With the aid of an interpretation by our guide, as the man spoke the local Mayan language, we were told about his work and how to plant the cactus. It was by now quite hot and we were grateful to have the opportunity to swim in a cenote. This was like a cave with an underground river, and was very beautiful. We followed this with a relaxing cocktail and a very pleasant lunch. The remainder of the day we spent exploring the city. There is a Mexican festival in the main square tonight.
Chichen Itza
Left the hotel at 8.30 for a one and a half hour drive to Chichen Itza. This is the remains of one of the great Mayan centres and is a world heritage site (and included in the list of the seven wonders of the modern world. On the way our guide gave us an introduction to the counting system of the Mayans and to the calendars they used. The one calendar was for religious purposes and had 13 months of 20 days, the other was an astronomical calendar giving a year as 365 days. These two calendars coincide every 52 years. Our first stop was to see the astronomical observatory, and followed on to see the various temples. The main and most imposing one is a square based pyramid with the sides aligned to face the points of the compass. There are 9 terraces on each side (representing the 9 levels of the underworld) and a staircase on each side of 91 steps. 91 is the number of days between the equinox,and the solstice, 91 multiplied by 4 = 364, adding on the building at the top of the pyramid makes up the number to 365, the number of days in the year. At the base of the staircase is a sculpture of the head of a snake and twice a year at the equinoxes the sun shining on the side of the pyramid produces a shadow on the staircase as though a snake is descending. On top of another temple is the altar in which the beating human heart of the sacrificial victims was offered up to the gods. Each year at midsummer’s day the sun shines directly on this altar. The other main impressive sight was the ball court which was many times larger and higher than those we had seen at other sites and we could see the rings which they aimed to get the ball through. After spending a couple of hours here we moved on to a restaurant for lunch. This had a large cenote, but we had no time for swimming. A 2 hour drive took us to the Gulf of Mexico and the resort at Playa del Carmen where we will spend the next few days.
Lazy day 1
After a very late breakfast at 9.15, we went for a walk along the Main Street of the town. There were ice-cream shops on every corner and because it was so hot we had to sample them. The afternoon we spent on the beach and had a swim in the sea and a cocktail. That took us up to tea time and a fine meal. Night finished with a slow walk back through the town. The temperature was still very hot so we went for a few beers and sat with a fan on our backs until 10.30. Had planned to do something active tomorrow, but expect we will repeat today’s activities instead!
Lazy day 2
Earlier breakfast this morning. The temperature was about 20 degrees at 8 am. Went into town for a walk and an ice-cream and it was about 30 degrees by the time we got back to the resort. Another quiet afternoon down at the beach and swimming in the sea. As the afternoon wore on the skies clouded over and there was a brief burst of light rain, however the temperature remained high. After a Caribbean buffet tonight (and maybe a cocktail) we will head back to the Main Street to listen to the Mariachi bands and a beer or two. Will be picked up after 10am tomorrow for our drive to the airport – it’s all gone by so quickly.
Adios amigos, hasta luego!
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