November 2001 Newsletter - Part 1
Phil Konstantin
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beginning of the newsletter
Greetings,
For those of you who many have signed up for the newsletter recently,
this edition will be different than my normal fare.
I made it back from Mexico yesterday. It was an amazing, informative,
exciting, funny, sad, exhilerating, tiring, arduous, and fastinating
trip.
Only one of my intended destinations was missed: San Cristobal de las
Casas. I also visited several more places that I thougt I would. I
purchased a two week "Buspass" which allowed me to travel on most of the
routes of four different (although, associated) bus companies. Due to
computer probelms, I could not use the pass one day, and so I decided
not to go to San Cristobal. Indirectly, this made it easier for me to
visit the ruins at Tikal in Guatemala.
My complete trip covered lot of territory. I also took over 800 photos
with my digital camera. A few of you have kept up with the pictures I
uploaded while I was on the road. Since I got back last night, I have
made a few modifications to the website I created to show these photos.
I continue to edit that page for some time. In any case, you can see the
photos I took starting on this website:
http://agentwilson.tripod.com/mexico.html
The first thing I have done is to figure out what pictures appear on
which page. Here is a quick guide:
You can find pictures of the following places (ruins in CAPS) on the
following pages:
Mexico City - Page 1
TEOTIHUACAN - Pages 2 & 3
Mexican National Anthropology Museum- Pages 3, 4, 5 & 6
Oaxaca - Page 8
MONTE (MOUNT) ALBAN - Pages 6, 7 & 8
Santa Maria el Tule ánd ´El Arbol´ (The Tree) - Page 8
MITLA - Pages 8, 9 & 10
YAGUL - Pages 10 & 11
PALENQUE - Pages 11 & 12
BONAMPAK - Pages 12 & 13
YAXCHILAN - Pages 13, 14 & 15
Lancondon Maya Indian village - Pages 15 & 16
Usumacinta River on the Mexico-Guatemala border - page 16
Flores, Guatemala - Page 16 & 19
TIKAL - Pages 16, 17, 18 & 19
Belize - Page 19
Campeche - Pages 19 & 20
EDZNA - Pages 20, 21, 22, 23 & 24
Veracruz - Page 24
Texolo Falls - Page 24
Xalapa Museum of Anthropology - Page 24, 25, 26, 27 & 28
"Popo" and "Itza" volcanoes - Page 28
At the bottom of each page is a link to the next page. You can skip to
any other page just by modifying the address at the top of your browser.
For example, the first page is at:
http://agentwilson.tripod.com/mexico.html
Page 2 is at:
http://agentwilson.tripod.com/mexico2.html
Page 10 is at:
http://agentwilson.tripod.com/mexico10.html
Page 25 is at:
http://agentwilson.tripod.com/mexico25.html
Just change the number after mexico, to go to the page of that number.
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I will tell you a bit about each of the places I visited.
Mexico City: BIG! The current population is estimated at 20,000,000. It
is an interesting place. For those of you who have never visited Mexico,
the vast majority of its people are poor. This is very evident by the
housing. Most of the housing is made of concrete and would not meet the
minimum building codes in the USA. Most of the buildings look old, even
the new ones. Some buildings (not the ruins) date from as far back as
the 1500s. There is some very interestig architecture. The city also
covers a large physical area. I started and ended my trip in Mexico
City. It was warm when I arrived, and cool when I returned. As I have
mentioned in other newsletters and websites, I have always found
Mexicans to be very warm, friendly and helpful people. Mexico City was
no different. One thing I did notice was the truly large number of armed
officials all over the city. Many officers carried semi-automatic, long
barreled weapons. It would probably be the first thing you would notice
if you had never visited Mexico before. This is intended to prevent, as
well as to deal with potential problems. I did not see a single
demonstration (OK, I did see two guys carrying a sign in the park),
robbery, fight or any anti-civil activity during my time there. You can
find many museums, art galleries, restaurants, and other "upscale"
activities, as well. Mexico City is a part of Mexico's Federal District,
similar to Washington D.C. in the USA. It is often called D.F.
(Districto Federal) by the locals.
TEOTIHUACAN: These "ruins" just north of Mexico City feature two very
large pyramids, and several other structures. The largest pyramid is
usually listed as the third largest pyramid (volume - size, etc.) in the
world. FYI, the largest is also in Mexico, the 2nd is in Egypt. To use a
mountaineering term, I am a bit of a "summit-bagger." So, I climbed to
the top of the largest "Pyramid of the Sun." The pyramid and the view
are both breathtaking. This is one of the few ruins in Mexico which can
be seem from many miles (or kilometers) away. There is also a nice
museum on the site.
Mexican National Anthropology Museum: This facility in Mexico City is
divided into several different sections. Each section covers one of the
major tribal groups. Unfortunately, the Maya section was closed for
remodeling when I was there. In any case, it holds many of the
significant objects from sites all over Mexico. I have lots of photos
from here.
Oaxaca (pronounced wah-ha-ka): Is a moderate sized city southeast of
Mexico City. It is the capital of the state of Oaxaca. As with most
Mexican cities, it has an impressive set of churches. It is the home to
many of Mexico's best chocolates and the alcoholic beverage caled
Mezcal. The Zocalo (town square) almost always seemed to have lots of
people.
MONTE (MOUNT) ALBAN: This ancient ruin is located on the top of a hill
overlooking the city of Oaxaca. It contains many different buildings,
which are almost all on the same level. The views are extrordinary.
Santa Maria el Tule ánd ´El Arbol´ (The Tree): According to some
sources, this tree is the largest "biomass" in the world. Having seen
the Sequoyah (named after the famed Cherokee) redwoods, I have might
doubts about this claim. Most sources agree that this one tree has the
largest diameter of any tree in North America, if not the world.
MITLA: This set of ruins is southeast of Oaxaca. The village of the same
name is built around, and on, this group of buildings. The local church
is right in the middle of the ruins, and contains some of the original
building material. This site has a couple of tombs (yes, I took pictures
inside the tomb) and some very nice ornamental designs.
YAGUL: This small group of ruins is between Oaxaca and Mitla. For most
of my visit. I was the only visitor here. Sopme sources say the
ballcourt here is the largest in Mesoamerica, second only to Chichen
Itza. While it was nice, It was not too big.
PALENQUE: Palenque is in southeastern Mexico, in the state of Chiapas.
This was my second visit to this amazing place. It is in the foothills
and on the edge of the true jungle. It is considered to be one of the
four or five most significant Maya sites (Chichen Itza, Tikal, Copan,
etc.) by many people. This is a source of some argument, but all
classifications aside, it is a tremendous place.
BONAMPAK: This small site is southeast of Palenque, near the Guatemala
border. It is quite remote. It is best known for its colorful murals. I
bought a small "all-inclusive tour" from Palenque to visit Bonampak,
Yaxchilan and to go to Tikal. There were eight other people in the
group: 2 Dutch, 2 Italians, 2 French and 2 Mexicans. Unfortunately, the
tour operator told several of us the admission was included in the tour.
The park operators said they had not been paid. We only had a short
period of time here. By the time this problem was resolved, I only had a
short period of time to visit this site. While I felt the murals, which
changed many people's ideas about the form of Maya artwork, were very
interesting, they were not as vivid as I had been led to believe. Don't
misunderstand this comment. It was well worth the visit.
YAXCHILAN: This was one of the best parts of my trip. If you were to
roll every Disney - Indian Jones jungle stereotype together and made the
real, this would describe Yaxchilan. After our small tour van stopped at
a roadside place to get a quick breakfast, we were joined by a group of
about twelve armed security personnel. One of them them road with us for
the rest of our trip in the van. There is still a significant outlaw
element in the area. To get to Yax, you have to take a narrow boat down
the Usumacinta River, which separates Mexcio and Guatemala. This almost
one hour trip shows you how remote this area is. We saw people in the
river scrubbing their laundry on washboards or on rocks. There were very
large, colorful iguanas, and a couple of caiman on the jungle lined
shore. The river is wide, dark brown, and had many small whirlpools. The
settings for the ruin were fascinating. One of the buildings had a maze
like internal corridor. There were bats and spiders as big as my hand
inside. The structures were quite ornate. We were soaked during the
return upriver trip by one of the frequent rains. If you want to have an
"adventure," I highly recommend visiting Yaxchilan.
Lancondon Maya Indian village: After leaving Yaxchilan, the rest of the
small tour group I was with, returned to Palenque. I was dropped off in
the small Lancandon Maya (also known as the Winik) village of Lancanja
or Chan Sayab. They have electricity and small wooden houses (some of
the very few wooden homes I saw on my trip). There is a community
outhouse (it had been almost 35 years since I used a real pit outhouse
in the small town where my father grew up in Texas). The spiders in that
pit were very large, too. A small stream runs through the midle of the
village. And then there was the surrounding jungle. This is the true
rainforest jungle of southern Mexico. I rained during most of my stay
here. Well, it is the rain forest! My host was named Vicente. I later
saw him being interviewed on a TV travelog about Bonampak. His wife made
some of the best chicken I had on the trip.
Flores, Guatemala: The border crossing from Mexico (Frontera Corozal)
was like most of those B movies you may have seen. The local soldiers
looked through all of my luggage. I carried some powdered Gatorade to
add to the local bottled water. They sniffed at that to make sure it
wasn't drugs. I did not take any pictures here. The soldiers did not
look like they would have appreciated it, and I did not want to flash an
expensive camera to some of the questionable folks watching.
Then it was down the muddy riverbank for was another long boat ride up
the Usumacinta River. I spent some time in the Guatemala border town of
Bethel waiting for the bus to be ready to go inland. And then it was off
the the small island town of Flores on Lake Peten Itza. I found more
internet stores in this small town than anywhere else on my trip. There
are lots of foreign tourists here.
TIKAL: Tikal is absolutely amazing. It is surrounded by dense jungle
growth. There have been almost 4,000 building discovered so far in the
area. The area is quite large. One of the local guides told me it would
take almost three days to really get a good sense of this very large
site.
Belize: I only took two pictures while I traveled through Belize on my
way back to Mexico. I spent all of that time on the bus or the border
crossings. It was interesting to see most of the signs in English in
this former British territory (British Honduras). Belize City reminded
me of many small towns along the Gulf Coast in the USA.
Campeche: This Mexican state capital city was once a walled fortress.
Many of those walls are still there. The old town is quite nice.
EDZNA: This ruin is located southeast of Campeche. Its largest
structure, The Building of the Five Floors, rises above the surrounding
woods. For most of my stay here, I was the only tourist there. It is a
very interesting place. It had some interesting scultures and reliefs.
Veracruz: Veracruz is a port city on the Gulf of Mexico. Many Americans
are not aware that the US invaded Veracruz twice. There are several
monuments to these battles in the city.
Texolo Falls: I love waterfalls. This waterfall (two larger ones ad a
couple of much smaller ones) is located in the small town of Xico south
of Xalapa. If it looks familiar, it was used in both Romancing the Stone
and Clear and Present Danger. It was quite nice.
Xalapa Museum of Anthropology: This often is considered to be the second
best anthropology museum in Mexico. I was very impressed. It has the
largest collection of those amazing giant Toltec heads. Just a note on
the name of the town. The locals use the indigenous spelling of Xalapa.
Whereas much of the rest of the country uses the Spanish spelling of
Jalapa. In either case, it is pronounced ha-la-pa, and it is the capital
of the state of Veracruz. It has a nice mountain setting and was much
cooler that Veracruz.
"Popo" and "Izta" volcanoes: I am also facinated by volcanoes. Popo
catepetl and Iztaccihuatl are the two large vulcans between Mexico City
and Puebla. You pass just north of them traveling between these two
towns. I went to the small town of Amecameca to get a closer look.
Unfortunately, the cloud cover seldom cleared for long. During the
morning when I arrived, it was so cold, I could actually see my breath.
The view from the church which overlooks the town is quite beautiful.
It was quite a trip. I am glad I made it. I think this was the longest
period of time I have ever been on a vacation away from home. It may
take me a few days to recover. :-)
If you have any questions, I will be happy to answer them if I know the
answer, or have any comments.
That's it for now.
Phil
http://americanindian.net
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