Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala:
After a brief trip to the U.S. to regroup, we headed back to Central America for another seven weeks. During this part of the trip, we visited 10 exciting archaeological sites, and 9 magnificent Spanish colonial cities, as well as focused on Mayan culture. I will describe the highlights.
Mexico
The first week was at the Mayan Riviera an hour south of Cancun. It was a lovely small (26 room) resort in the jungle and right on the beach. I enjoyed sitting in the beach cabana, looking at the clear water and gentle waves. I participated in yoga classes, walked the beach and swam. It was warm and sunny but pleasant. One evening we ate at the beach restaurant and saw the full moon reflection in the water. It was a perfect place to begin another 7 week trip.
Chichen Itza/Ek Balam, and Uxmal/Kabah are the most important Mayan sites. Most tourists come from Cancun or Merida (2 hour bus ride each way) and spend a few hours at these sites. We were lucky to be able to stay at the lodges adjoining each of these sites and therefore, we were able to start touring at 8am when they opened and beat most of the tour buses. We practically had the sites to ourselves and toured during the cooler part of the day.
Chichen Itza is famous for its huge Mayan pyramid. The reality is so much more than the concept in this case. We walked for 3 hours in this large complex, which has many excavated temples and structures.
The large pyramid is built to the mathematical specifications with nine levels 91 stairs on each of the 4 sides to add up to 364 days a year – the top layer makes up the final day.
The pyramid is from about 1000 CE to 1200 CE, but above are earlier structures with carvings of snakes, birds, people. Some of the original color and stucco has remained.
Near Chichen Itza is Ek Balam, which, although smaller, is no less impressive.
Here, unlike Chichen Itza, we could climb the structures in order to see the fabulous carvings. However, climbing the pyramid was a bit scary because the steps are very narrow. I saw some tourists come down the steps on their behind. I walked diagonally.
But I am sure that you will agree that it was worth the steps to see these carvings at the top level.
Uxmal is older than Chichen (600-900 CE). The main pyramid is smaller with only 3 levels. There were a number of pyramids just partially excavated. We were able to climb some structures to get a better look at the carvings.
The doorways, and ornamentations are beautiful, especially a set of snakes which interlace from 2 directions. Again, we stayed at a lodge just across the street from Uxmal. We were the first ones into the site and for the first 2 hours, were joined by only about 20 people. We had great picture opportunities with out hordes of people. We spent a relaxed time walking around and when we left at 10:15, the buses were pouring in.
Kabah, 25 km away from Uxmal, is mostly un-excavated. But the buildings which were excavated are fantastic.
One of the buildings has 2 magnificent statues of men. The better-preserved figure is called “scar face” because he has tattoos on his cheeks. His legs are muscular from climbing hills. The other figure’s face is lost. Below the statues are relief carvings of warriors and their prisoner. Incidentally, we had the site to ourselves.
One of the fun things about traveling is having unexpected experiences. At our next destination, Merida, we walked along Paseo de Montejo to look at the beautiful Spanish colonial houses.
At one house we saw a sign for house tours. We inquired at the office, but were told that there would be no tours that day but that we can look around at the grounds. A few minutes later the owner offered to take us around (the tour guide was on vacation).
In the living room was a beautiful 1920 Steinway grand piano. I mentioned that I played and that the down side of traveling was missing my piano. She invited me to play on this marvelous instrument. The tour was full of family stories. We ended the tour with hot chocolate in the office.
We also attended a ballet performance in the opera house. Cuban ballet was the feature, and the magnificent opera house was just as delightful.
Oaxaca
There is much to see in Oaxaca including the cathedral, the Santo Domingo church, the convent/botanic gardens, and the Soledad Church (pictured above).
However, just sitting in the square and watching the locals dance on Tuesday evenings, or the kids play with balloons on Sunday was a treat. We were glad we had 4 nights in Oaxaca to have time to enjoy local culture.
About 10 miles from Oaxaca is the Mt. Alban archaeological site. This is an early site of the Zapotec people with wall carvings dating back to 600 BCE. Mt. Alban has mountain temples rather than pyramids.
Mexico City was a delightful surprise. We spent an entire day on our own in Chapultepec Park, going to The Castle, the zoo, and the botanic gardens. It is a wonderful place.
In addition to the standard sights, we visited the Education Building’s 3 floors with Diego Rivera murals. If you look carefully, his wife, Freda Kahlo is the woman in orange.
We also went to the Kahlo and Rivera studios and Kahlo’s family home. To the right is Kahlo’s home. She loved this brilliant blue.
Finally we spent an afternoon in Xochimilco suburb, joining the locals on their Sunday afternoon boat jaunt. Don’t miss this one – the canals are wall-to-wall boats, with food being cooked to order and musicians strolling from boat to boat.
Our time in Mexico also included the lovely towns of San Miguel and Queretaro. But keeping to just highlights, I will skip these two wonderful towns as well as other archaeological sites.
Guatemala/Honduras
Our final stops were in Guatemala with a side trip to Copan, Honduras to visit Copan archaeological site.
Copan, Honduras
After a day in Guatemala City, we were driven to Copan (5 hours away). Copan itself is a tiny town, but it has a great museum of artifacts. But of-course the reason for the long ride is the amazing archaeological site. The area was abandoned about 1000 years ago and the forest took over. There are still 4,500 mounds to excavate. The site has many steles with 3 dimensional carvings that took my breath away. It took two men 1 1/2 years to carve one stele. Some of the stele are in the museum, with replicas at the site. The ones that are original, are now protected with a roof to prevent further erosion.
Our guide gave us the choice of driving back to Guatemala City directly or driving an extra two hours in order to stop at another archaeological site, called Quirigua. As you can see from the picture to the right – it was well worth a stop. I included the picture with the 2 of us to give you an idea of its size. Amazing is the only word I can find to describe the Steles we saw there.
Antigua, Guatemala
We spent a few days in Antigua, a UN Heritage site. The city suffered from many earthquakes. The last one, in 1773, was very severe and killed about 1,200 people out of the 60,000 residents. Antigua, which had been the capital, was almost abandoned. Today, some people have retuned and are trying to restore the town.
The cathedral is just a shell and has been repaired just enough to be safe for tourists to visit.
The beautiful Merced Church, originally built in 1548, was remodeled in 1767 to withstand earthquakes. It survived. It is a lovely Baroque style church with stucco/plaster decorations. The designs are a mix of Mayan and Catholic symbols.
Chichicastenango, Guatemala
Chichicastenango’s attraction is the market. Twice a week, merchants and buyers from near and far villages come to buy and sell. They walk or pile into the back of pick-up trucks with fresh food, live chickens and textiles. The market is fascinating not only for the variety of items for sale, but for seeing the indigenous Mayans. The women and some of the men wore their native Mayan dress, which changes by locale. Mayans make up at least 70% of Guatemala’s population.
But even more exciting was learning about the Mayan rituals by actually watching the rituals being performed. The locals are of Mayan origin and although they pray in the Catholic churches, they also keep their ancient rituals.
We saw these rituals performed in the church in town (on special altars), in the very colorful cemetery, by the graves of their ancestors, and up on the holy hill. The rituals involve burning long tapered candles, pouring various liquids on them and the use of incense in prayer.
Most tourists just come to Chichicastenango for the day but we spent two nights: arriving the afternoon before the market, to see the transformation from a quiet town to a hob of activity the following morning. We were also able to stay to see the rituals and the breakdown of the market.
Tikal, Guatemala
Our last stop, Tikal, required a short flight from Guatemala City. We spent all day at this HUGE site, which is located in the jungle. At its height, it had 100,000 people living in the area. There are temples, palaces and noblemen dwellings. The wood houses of the common men did not survive.
Much of the site is still uncovered as you can see in the picture to the left.
We were able to climb pyramid #4, which is the tallest is Meso America. From the top we could see the other pyramids jutting out of the jungle. In addition to the magnificent temples, we saw spider monkeys and heard the howler monkeys.
The adventures were over and we were so happy that we were able to experience all of these wonderful cultures and places.
Final Comments:
- Learning about other cultures is enriching. I have such a deeper respect and appreciation of the Mayans. Both the temples and the rituals were inspiring.
- Having extra time in each location, allowed us to have a richer experience and the ability to have some down time. Savoring the local happenings is a treat.
- Central America is definitely not “one size fits all”. The variety and the richness is amazing.
Nili's Adventure 