This week started out Toriann sick with a respiratory infection and Heather super sunburned. It was rough being near the beautiful beach and barely being able to make it the short walk to the beach. But, we survived and have had an amazing week of finishing up in Mexico and traveling to Belize!! Our last few days in Mexico we spent near the resort towns of Playa del Carmen and Cancun. We finished up with our first group, and met our next leader, Annika, and our new group. There are still the 6 girls, including us, with 4 new couples from the UK, Australia, and Germany. Plus, one guy from New Zealand. This new group is great and a lot of fun so far.
Before saying good bye to Mexico, we visited the famous ruins of Chichen Itza. They were amazing, its very cool to have seen 2 out of the 5 major Mayan cities so close together. The main temple in the center of the ruins is designed after the Mayan calender, and on the 21st of March and September (the equinox) the picture of a rattling snake appears. Their advanced technology is truly humbling. We had a great guide who was a wealth of information, but it was hard to concentrate for the whole tours because I don't know if I have ever been so hot in my life! But we did learn about their version of football, a game involving two teams of 7 players that had to use their feet, paddles, and a bat to try and get a 5 lb ball through a very small and high ring. The captain of the losing team was decapitated and sacrificed to the gods. wooh, glad we don't do that anymore :)
So, after Chichen Itza, we met our new group, spent a few lazy (and recovering) days in the hotel, and then we headed off to Belize. Belize has proved to be a fascinating mix of Latin, Caribbean, African and Asian cultures. Our first stop was Caye Caulker, a small island close to Belize city. The island was a mix of locals and backpackers from all over, and after you met someone, you usually saw them several more times during the day! We went an incredible snorkeling trip!!! My mom would be so proud and jealous! We saw a manatee, nurse sharks, sea turtles, sting rays, and wide assortment of fish and coral! Our guides caught and held the sting rays and sharks, so we actually got to pet them! The reef is the second largest after the Great Barrier. The only down part of the day was more sunburn :)
After 2 nights in Caye Caulker, we drove to a small city close to the Guatemalan border called San Ignacio. We stayed at a very cool Ecolodge run by several locals and a retired couple from Michigan. There were many critters, as we were deep in the jungle, one called the 'Jesus Christ' lizard because it runs on its hind feet and can run on water. One of our girls on the trip swore she had seen a dinosaur. We were later informed that there were no dinosaurs in Belize. :) The toilets were a little different too. They were 100% compostable, just basically porta-potties but you flushed with sawdust. Toriann felt like she was in a hamster cage every time she went.
Our adventure from San Ignacio outside the lodge was a going caving. We went 1 mile into a nearby cave that was used by the ancient Mayans to hold religious ceremonies and make sacrifices. It was SO cool. The cave was filled with stalactites and stalagmites some of which looked like Christmas trees, waterfalls, and even the nativity scene! After about an hour of swimming, climbing over and in between rocks, we entered into a massive cavern filled with ancient pots, ruins, and skeletons. We were lucky to have one of the archaeologist that has worked in this cave for 8 years to be there that day. The remains were mostly of people, royalty that were sacrificed to the gods. They can tell that they are royalty because of the formation of the forehead. Royal babies had their foreheads bond until their skulls were flattened. The eyes were also often crossed and teeth sawed to points and jewels drilled in. These were considered very beautiful and royal. At the furthest point we saw a perfectly preserved (from the calcium carbonate) female skeleton. They believe she was tortured and left to die as a sacrifice.
Today we said good bye to Belize and entered into Guatemala. We are now in the small city of Flores, an island in the middle of a lake. People again speak Spanish (Belize is an English speaking country!) and we are planning to have traditional Mayan cuisine for dinner with our group! Tomorrow morning we leave at 3:30 am to leave for a trek through the jungle to the Tikal ruins to watch the sunrise!
Toriann is feeling greatly improved! Heather is avoiding the sun and peeling. We love hearing updates from home, esp about the elections! Its amazing how interested the whole world is in who the next US president is going to be. Adios until next time!! Much love from Guatemala!
***PS, more pictures added to the slide show on the previous post! We are still learning how to manage all this blog stuff :)**
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
San Cristobal, Palenque and Merida
Its amazing how far we have traveled in the last week, everyday we are either out seeing some incredible part of Mexico or traveling to our next destination. We are in the middle of our second week in Mexico and by early next week we will be heading to Belize! This week we have seen some amazing ruins, staying in the jungle, swam in blue waterfalls, and wish we could share all our stories! But here are a couple of our favorites!
In San Cristobal, after taking a 12 hour night bus, we headed up into an indigenous village. We were able to see how they lived, visit a home and see homemade tortillas prepared, and visit a couple of churches. The Spanish colonized these people in the 1800s and converted them to Catholicism, but the people have since brought back their traditional beliefs and traditions. This has created an incredibly interesting mix of catholic and indigenous practices. The church looked like a Catholic church from the outside, but once you stepped in it was really different. There were no pews, just pine needles all over the ground. People were also sitting on the ground, lighting candles to the gods, drinking alcohol and coke (apparently coke makes you burp out bad spirits), and killing chickens. People were also outside lighting off fire works constantly. Their are over 60 indigenous tribes in the area, and all lead very separate lives from the rest of Mexico.
We saw two more ruin sites this week, Monte Alban , a site near Oaxaca, and Palenque, one of the five major Mayan cities. Monte Alban was inhabited for about 13 centuries but no one knows exactly who lived there. The site was big but nothing in comparison to Palenque. Palenque spreads about 15 km long and only 2 or 3 km is actually restored and revealed. Most of Palenque is still under forestation because it takes about 15 years for one ruin/temple to be revealed. Aside from that what we did see was amazing. Palenque was inhabited by the mayans and the main ruler Pakal ruled for some 69 years. He became ruler when he was 12 and died when he was in his 80s. His tomb was discovered behind this triangle door and had been buried with loads of jewels such as jade. His wife or so they think was found in another temple but she was buried with this red chemical which destroyed her DNA. Archeologist have just discovered the biggest temple of all of Palenque which we were fortunate to see however it is still under forestation, all that can be seen are parts of the wall. It would be interesting to see what Palenque looks like in another 15 years. From all that we were told and saw it seems that Palenque has a lot to offer. If you want to do some more research or just read more about palenque here is a site that is supposed to be good. http://www.mesoweb.com/
Today we went swimming in underground caves. It was so cool, all were beautiful and fairly free from other tourists! Getting there was an adventure as we had about an hour ride in a van and then rode on horse drawn carts on an old railroad site! I just keep thinking, only in Mexico! But it was super nice because it is so hot and humid here! It will be exciting to get to the beach soon!
Lots of love from Mexico!
In San Cristobal, after taking a 12 hour night bus, we headed up into an indigenous village. We were able to see how they lived, visit a home and see homemade tortillas prepared, and visit a couple of churches. The Spanish colonized these people in the 1800s and converted them to Catholicism, but the people have since brought back their traditional beliefs and traditions. This has created an incredibly interesting mix of catholic and indigenous practices. The church looked like a Catholic church from the outside, but once you stepped in it was really different. There were no pews, just pine needles all over the ground. People were also sitting on the ground, lighting candles to the gods, drinking alcohol and coke (apparently coke makes you burp out bad spirits), and killing chickens. People were also outside lighting off fire works constantly. Their are over 60 indigenous tribes in the area, and all lead very separate lives from the rest of Mexico.
We saw two more ruin sites this week, Monte Alban , a site near Oaxaca, and Palenque, one of the five major Mayan cities. Monte Alban was inhabited for about 13 centuries but no one knows exactly who lived there. The site was big but nothing in comparison to Palenque. Palenque spreads about 15 km long and only 2 or 3 km is actually restored and revealed. Most of Palenque is still under forestation because it takes about 15 years for one ruin/temple to be revealed. Aside from that what we did see was amazing. Palenque was inhabited by the mayans and the main ruler Pakal ruled for some 69 years. He became ruler when he was 12 and died when he was in his 80s. His tomb was discovered behind this triangle door and had been buried with loads of jewels such as jade. His wife or so they think was found in another temple but she was buried with this red chemical which destroyed her DNA. Archeologist have just discovered the biggest temple of all of Palenque which we were fortunate to see however it is still under forestation, all that can be seen are parts of the wall. It would be interesting to see what Palenque looks like in another 15 years. From all that we were told and saw it seems that Palenque has a lot to offer. If you want to do some more research or just read more about palenque here is a site that is supposed to be good. http://www.mesoweb.com/
Today we went swimming in underground caves. It was so cool, all were beautiful and fairly free from other tourists! Getting there was an adventure as we had about an hour ride in a van and then rode on horse drawn carts on an old railroad site! I just keep thinking, only in Mexico! But it was super nice because it is so hot and humid here! It will be exciting to get to the beach soon!
Lots of love from Mexico!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Oaxaca
Hola from Oaxaca :) We arrived in Oaxaca yesterday afternoon and spent the day roaming the streets. We visited the open markets which were filled with cow intestines and chicken legs. Oh so yummy. Today the whole group took a tour to Santa Maria Tule, Teotetlan Del Valley, Hierve El Agua, and finally we visited the Mescal Factory. At Santa Maria Tule we saw the largest tree trunk there is in the world. The name of the tree is called the Sabano and it is over 2000 years old. The thickness of this tree was 58 mts and the diameter is 14.05 mts, it is a massive tree. After visiting this world record tree trunk we went to Teotetlan del Valley were we learned about weaving. This communities source of income comes from weaving tapestries and they have it down to a science. They use natural resources to die the wool and then by hand weave these beautiful tapestries. The people in this village start to learn how to weave at 7 years old and make it look so easy. From there we went to Hierve del Agua where we saw this rock that looked like a waterfall but was actually just a rock wall that has been 
covered by salt and other minerals to make it look like a waterfall. On our way back into Oaxaca we stopped at a Mescal factory and learned how agave (tequila) was made. Smells like a beer factory but taste like tequila. They had all kinds of different forms from straight up tequila to a mocha liquor tequila plus many other flavors. Overall the day was very fun and interesting. We have just one more day here where we will visit some more ruins and then we will be off.
And so it begins... Mexico City to Puebla
We have arrived! Toriann and I arrived in Mexico city on Saturday evening after an amazingly smooth and comfortable trip down! The city is unbelievable-huge(100 million, I think), crazy and really indescribable. We wish that we would have come down a few days earlier to explore the city! But, we made the most of our day, and traveled to Teotihuacan. Teotihuacan are ruins just outside of the city, primarily two large pyramids-one built for the sun and the other for the moon. They dont know who exactly built them, when, or why they were left. Our
GAP group went there on a tour, but Toriann and I decided to venture out and find our own way on public transportation. We took the metro and bus, and with Torianns spanish, had no problemo. It was amazing to see the ruins, feel the history of them, and made us excited to see so much more of central america and all that it has to offer. After a long day of exploring the ruins, we joined our group for a nice dinner at the top of a tall building which overlooked the enormity of Mexico City! It was pretty amazing, and fun to get to know our group. Our group consists of people from England, Germany, Austria, Australia, and Italy. Everyone seems very nice 
and layed back so far. There are 6 of us girls that are going all the way to Panama. Today we took the bus to a city called Puebla. Puebla is full of colonial architecture, and is beautiful! We walked around the city, went to an outdoor market, a cathedral, and had coffee in the plaza. Tomorrow we head to Oaxaca! This part of our trip will definitly be go, go, go! We are so excited to be beginning this journey, and have already seen and experienced so much! We think of you often and love hearing how things are going at home!! 
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