After Immigration, we were greeted with a cheery “hola” or hello
from the person organised to drive us to and hotel and a hot, reinvigorating
shower. Shortly afterwards, he had dissolved us into this heaving city like surfers
trying to catch swirling messy waves.
A few hours later we caught up with our four friends Rob &
Robyn and Geoff & Lorna whom we had previously travelled through Africa
with in 2012 and we were on a World Expeditions private tour tailored to our
needs, a first for us but not the others.
It wasn’t long before we met Lula, a warm and very friendly
woman who would be our guide whilst in Mexico.
We would also have our own driver for the entire time in Mexico, a truly
delightful man by the name of Alfonso.
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| The Mexico 'team' at Museum of Anthropology - Mexico City |
Lula immediately briefed us on our itinerary for the next 11 days
and asked if we were willing to do an early start in the morning to beat both
the crowds and heat. She also immediately
took on the task of trying to teach us a few simple Spanish words and sentences
to use during our tour, things like “como estas” or “how are you?” Each day during our tour, Lula tried to
forlornly teach us some new words!
This time to kick off, there are 2 maps below and the first
shows our actual tour route through Mexico.
We spent 4 nights in Mexico City to explore in and near it before essentially
heading south and covered around 2,247 kms.
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| Actual route in Mexico |
The 2nd map simply seeks to put our tour route into
overall context with the size of Mexico and as you can see, we only scratched
the surface!
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| Mexico is quite large isn't it |
It was also interesting for us that quite a few sections of our
route included travelling along sections of the Pan American Highway, which
starts in Alaska and finishes near the Columbian border in Panama.
So why Mexico considering its reputation for drug related crimes,
murders and other bad press which did cause in all of us a degree of apprehension? The primary reason for being in Mexico was
not only to experience the current Mexican way of life, but also learn more
about its history and culture. Mexico
was also the starting point for a few other countries we would visit, but more
on that in later posts.
As it transpired, at no time in Mexico did we feel unsafe,
especially when we saw how many heavily armed police and army patrols were
around. You would see plenty of armed
Police around all of the cities and there were small convoys of police vehicles
travelling down some highways with hooded men standing in the back of open 4WDs
hanging onto large calibre machine guns - a little different.
Now this blog entry for Mexico was a bit of a challenge to
write, simply because there was just so much we saw, did and experienced in the
11 days we were there. You will also
come to learn via some of the photos that the Mexicans have for a long time really
liked bright colours and we also learned first hand they love music.
Being essentially a Roman Catholic society, we did visit a
number of very historic, grand and highly decorated churches/cathedrals, like
the massive complex called Guadalupe in Mexico City. There is only one church however
that will be described in any detail because it was so different, but more on
that later.
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| Depiction at Guadalupe complex of the Aztecs paying homage to the Virgin Mary |
So early the first morning and still jet-lagged, we quickly
learned a few things about this highly populated city… air pollution and
vehicle congestion! With so many cars
and trucks on the roads, thinner air due to altitude, the still smouldering Popocatépetl volcano a mere 70 kms away and the surrounding mountains, the
pollution settles onto this city.
Each day they check pollution readings and if too high, as they
were our first morning, an odds or evens numberplate regime kicks in to reduce
traffic for that day. In this city of ~22 million people, there always seemed
to be traffic everywhere!
Now before we start and you read about the various ancient ruins
we visited, keep in mind that the Spanish invaded Mexico in 1519 when Hernan Cortés defeated the Aztecs and take note of when many of the
ancient cities we experienced declined.
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| First view of Sun pyramid - Teotihuacan |
Now when it comes to
knowing who actually built this city, the archaeologists really don’t
know.
They think it was established
around 100 BC and was one of the largest cities of the ancient world.
The site covers 83 square kilometres and the Pyramid of the
Sun, the largest structure, is 75 mtrs high and its base the same size as the Great Pyramid
of Khufu at Giza. At its peak,
the city reached a population nearing 200,000, which was bigger than Rome. By the 6th century Teotihuacan was
in decline and had disappeared by the 7th century, 9 centuries
before the Spanish arrived.
Climbing to the top of these pyramids was a real task due to
the heat and altitude along with the almost 40 cm risers between each step, our
knees protesting as we went. The view
from the top however certainly displayed just how large this ancient grid based
city actually was and what an amazing feat of construction by whomever built
it.
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| View over Teotihuacan from the top of the Moon pyramid, the Sun pyramid in the background |
Whilst based in Mexico City, we did a few day trips visiting a
number of other interesting locations.
For example, Taxco or the ‘silver city’ founded in 1529 and located
southwest in the mountains and where we became a little bit poorer once Rob
found the shops!
Yes its famous for its silver mines and products, but is also a very
beautiful Spanish colonial city and home to one of Mexico’s grandest privately
built churches. In 1795, Jose de la Borda, a French/Spaniard who had migrated
to the new Spain and was making his fortune out of the silver, offered to built
this church on condition his son be the priest in it.
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| Santa Prisca de Taxco church |
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| Taxco |
Also whilst in Mexico City, we cruised along the Xochimilco
canals in a very colourful trajineras (flat-bottomed
boats), one of hundreds moored there. The canals, now a UN
World Heritage site, were built by the
Aztecs and are famous for the chinampas or floating reed gardens used to grow
flowers and food and now slowly disappearing.
During our time on the canals, we were briefly joined on our trajineras
by a very colourful and loud mariachi band to serenade us.
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| Trajineras's plying their tourist trade along Xochimilco canals |
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| Mariachi band doing their thing |
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| Frida |
We also found ourselves exploring the home of Frida Kahlo, a
famous and eclectic artist who lived an extraordinary life and lifestyle
bucking the system until she died at the age of 47 in 1954. You may have heard of a movie called Frida with
Salma Hayek as lead, telling her story.
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| Frida's death mask |
It was a surprise to also learn that Leon Trotsky, the Marxist
Soviet politician alongside Lenin during their 1917 revolution and founding
leader of the Red Army, lived in Frida’s house for a period before being assassinated
there in 1940 on the orders of Stalin.
During our 4 nights in Mexico City, in the evenings and a few
early mornings around sunrise, we all walked around the streets absorbing the
sights, sounds and constant energy in this very large city and at all times
felt quite safe.
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| Mexico City Opera House at night |
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| Enjoying sunrise in Mexico City |
It was time however to head south towards Oaxaca but not before stopping
to walk inside the Great Pyramid of Cholula in the town of the same name. This pyramid is not fully unearthed and
unlikely to be because of the beautiful church called Nuestra Señora de los Remedios built on the top of it in the 16th
century.
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| Inside a pyramid |
Whilst this pyramid is not very tall at 55 mtrs, its base is four
times the size of the Great Pyramid if Giza and is the largest known pyramid in
the world today.
Exploration of this
pyramid commenced in 1931 with archaeologists digging 8 kms of tunnels within it
to explore the substructure whilst also looking for remains and valuable
artefacts, but found neither.
These
tunnels however did enable us to see how well these massive structures were
constructed.
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| Nuestra Señora de los Remedios church atop Cholula pyramid |
Now before describing even more of the various ancient ruins we
visited, time for a short course in Mesoamerican history… no, we didn’t even
know there was such a word as ‘mesoamerica’ before visiting Mexico.
In simple terms and many centuries prior to the Spaniards
turning up, there were lots of various tribes/cultures spread from Mexico
through Belize and Guatemala down to northern Costa Rica.
There were Aztecs, Zapotecs, Olmec, Toltec and Mayan to name
just a few. Each group were strong in
specific geographic areas and the ruins we were visiting included some of these
groups.
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| Ladies in traditional dress in Oaxaca |
We had a few favourite towns in Mexico, and Oaxaca was one of
them with its very nice but cheap restaurants, lively streets to stroll along, usually
filled with music at night and very interesting architecture all around.
Oaxaca also had a very large archaeological
museum we spent time in looking at the large collection of fascinating historical
artefacts.
Our reason for being in Oaxaca however was to visit the ruins of
an ancient Zapotec city built on top of the mountain of Monte Alban, where the
residents would have had a commanding view of the river and valleys below. Before erecting any of the buildings, the
Zapotecs had to literally flatten the mountaintop first, commencing this around
500 BC.
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| Mountaintop ancient Zapotec city of Monte Alban |
At the height of its power, this ancient city numbered around 20,000
people and became a centre of Zapotec power until its decline and desertion
around 750 AD.
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| Monte Alban |
Priests were very
powerful in Monte Alban and it was here we first heard about the ‘ball game’
played between 2 people, which lead to the death of the loser as a sacrifice to
the Zapotec gods!
There were hoops, a
bit like basketball ones, but its unknown what the ‘ball’ was nor exactly how
the game was played.
Next town on our route was Mitla, home to a few palaces
containing impressive pre-Hispanic stone mosaics before reaching the site of Tehuantepec
to explore some more impressive Zapotec ruins.
There was a slight detour before Tehuantepec to learn about mescal production, a very potent drink similar to tequila and also made out of specific cactus plants. The local mescal guide diligently explained the whole production process before taking us to the tasting area. It tasted terrible so no sales that day for them!
There was a slight detour before Tehuantepec to learn about mescal production, a very potent drink similar to tequila and also made out of specific cactus plants. The local mescal guide diligently explained the whole production process before taking us to the tasting area. It tasted terrible so no sales that day for them!
We also spent time at the home of a delightful local artisan
family who weave the most beautiful rugs.
The bubbly and enthusiastic wife explained the whole weaving process,
including showing us how they create the many bright colours the Mexicans love,
from local plants and minerals.
The larger rugs they make may take 4-6 months
to finish and they were simply beautiful.
They did make a sale, albeit a small one.
Before reaching our next city we stopped to take a boat ride into
Sumidero Canyon, which commenced its creation around the same time as the Grand
Canyon in the USA.
We boarded one of
many high-speed boats, put on life vests and headed into the canyons’ narrow
mouth, with walls up to 1,000 mtrs standing as sentinels either side of us.
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| Entering Sumidero Canyon |
Within the canyons confines, we stopped to look at the Cueva de Colores (Cave of Colors) perched high up on the side of one of
the walls.
It gained its name because of the filtration of magnesium, potassium
and other minerals forming colors down the sides, especially shades of pink within
it, an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, which is frequently decorated with
flowers left by visitors who have to clamber up a rickety ladder to reach it.
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| Local indian dress in San Cristobal |
We arrived into the beautiful city of San Cristobal de Las Casas
with its cobblestone roads, old Spanish colonial buildings, numerous arts and
craft shops and many people walking around in traditional Chamulan dress.
The
locals are made up by two prime tribes living in the area, the Tzotzils and
Tzeltals… don’t you love all the names!
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| our accomodation in San Cristobal |
Patiently waiting in the wings was another large another wedding party waited
patiently in the wings for them to depart.
The Mexicans certainly do love bright colours and load music!
It was the next day we visited the two authentic Mayan villages
of Juan Chamula and Zinacantan, where locals dress traditionally and continue
as subsistence based communities.
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| Local Chamula indian in front of the blue-framed church |
It was
in Chamula where we visited the blue-framed church, the only one I will write
about in any detail.
First… we were warned not to try and directly photograph any
individual people within the villages unless they first agreed to this and were
also absolutely warned about taking any photographs inside the church or
risk going to jail for a few days.
This church was once Roman Catholic but inside now there are no pews or an altar. Instead, resting on tables around the walls are multiple
glass cases, each containing a saint and these saints may seem to be Catholic ones,
but really represent Mayan gods.
In
front of the glass cases on other tables were large bunches of flowers and on the
ground, rows of burning candles and incense with pine
needles strewn all over the floor.
The local Indians were mostly sitting on the ground amongst the candles
making preparations for their Easter celebrations, THE major event for the year. Also joining the locals on the floor were
lots of caged chickens; we believe to be sacrificed at some stage later. The Chamulans believe Jesus rose from the
cross to become the sun, which in ancient times was one of their many natural
gods so this was a very different church indeed!
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| Agua Azul |
Moving even further south, and after visiting the waterfalls of
Agua Azul, where thousands of Mexicans were enjoying themselves and finding
relief from the constant heat, it was onto the Mayan ruins of Palenque, a
medium sized city compared to other famous Mayan sites that rose to prominence
in the 7th century.
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| enjoying the falls |
The Mayans
were absolute craftsmen when it came to building with stone, including all the
intricate detail and decoration which adorns most buildings.
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| above & below - Palenque |
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| Pacal's jade portait mask |
It is believed the city’s origins started around 226 BC and the
Spanish took some interest in Palenque from around the 1770’s with various explorers
visiting the site off and on up until 1952.
It was then that Ruz Lhuillier was first to
gaze on the tomb of Pacal the Great in well over 1,000 years, discovered lying with
a jade portrait mask on his face and other treasures around him.
In the last 15 to 20 years only about 5% of this amazing and
extensive city has been uncovered and reborn from the jungle.
Due to its sheer size and grandeur of its
multiple large inscription covered buildings, Palenque is certainly a very popular
location for visitors.
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| Mayan hieroglyphs |
When you look at the photo below just pause for a moment and try
to imagine EVERY building you see painted a very bright red soaring out of the
jungle, which is how they looked when Palenque was at its zenith.
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| magnificent Palenque |
As we drove further south, the humidity had steadily been increasing; making the climbing through even more ancient ruins more of a challenge.
We were now headed to another Mayan site called Bonampak and these can only be reached using a local van and accompanied by a resident Mayan guide.
Leaving the van, we then walked some distance deeper into the jungle and whilst not as impressive as Palenque, multiple walls inside the buildings were adorned with grand frescos dating from 790 AD, some with the original red colouration still on some of them.
After our walk around Bonampak, it was time to visit our final
set of Mayan ruins in Mexico, a place off the normal tourist trail and set
within very dense jungle next to the Usumancinta river… Yaxichilan. The Yaxichilan city was also built by the Mayans
and reached its peak around 800-1,000 AD.
We had to work a bit harder to reach Yaxichilan, first having to
nimbly clamber onto a long-boat for a 40 minute trip downstream on the fast
flowing river, which like most of the rivers in this part of Mexico, is home to
crocodiles.
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| boarding out long boat for the trip to Yaxichilan |
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| walking down the 'alley' into the maze Yaxichilan |
Then it was a short walk down a narrow rock walled ‘alley’ before
briefly disappearing underground into a pitch-black Mayan built stone maze,
before emerging into the quite serene and stunning setting for this ancient city.
Whilst there were certainly some very large
structures and now familiar ‘ball game’ courts, these ruins had a majestic
serenity to them when combined with many flat grassy areas set out amongst the old
buildings and huge ceiba trees.
It is also believed that in Yaxichilan, the winners of that
now familiar ‘ball game’ were sacrificed to the gods instead of the losers.
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| above & below Yaxichilan |
After our slower boat trip back upstream, we collected our bags
from Alfonso and checked into the Escudeo Eco Lodge for our last night in Mexico. There are so many other things we could have
described as a result of our Mexican meanderings, like watching personalized
orders for chocolate being made, the many humorous interactions with Mexican
locals throughout our travels, the visits to other large and fascinating
museums learning more about Mexican history and culture.
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| even a toucan popped by during our time in Mexico to say "hola" |
Then there was the abundant food, especially ‘mole’, a
combination of thick chocolate and chilli commonly served with our main meals.
We enjoyed many traditional Mexican dishes and it was a lot of fun and a bit of
a mystery when trying to order different meals without being able to speak or
read Spanish.
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| there are plenty of interesting food choices in Mexico |
We all enjoyed what Mexico had to offer, especially its rich
culture, history and fun loving people, but it was soon time to leave it and
cross a border to who knows what. Lula our
guide had not only been very good at what she does but also a pleasure to be
with.
Below is a link to additional 2016 - Mexico photos but not using the usual method which is no longer supported. This time they are stored in Google Photos for this post to see how it goes. I cannot however label any of the photos as before so hope it works and they are okay.
So for the time being and until the next post… adios amigos and
go well!
Gorgeous photos and a great read (and history lesson). Thanks for sharing and glad you're home safe and sound.
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