Back to Homepage Back to Travel Photos	Mexico: Chiapas, the Yucatan Peninsula, and the Caribbean Coast -- July 2007
San Cristobal de las Casas, a colonial town in the state of Chiapas. Because the town has a high elevation, the temperatures were cool in the upper 70's and low 80's…very different from the rest of southern Mexico in the summertime with average temps in the upper 90's with 60% humidity. The cathedral on the central plaza called Plaza 31 de Marzo. Many of the streets were also named for important dates for the Mexican people.
San Cristobal on a Saturday night in summer. The streets are full of people shopping, enjoying a stroll and also enjoying the open-air market under the Santo Domingo temple at the end of the street.
Local Mayan Tzotzil women. All the Tzotzil women, of all ages, dressed in a similar style: wearing wool black skirts they had hand-woven, colorful tops, and braided hair. Later we were able to visit a Tzotzil village. Chipas is a state known for the Zapatista uprisings due to the inequity and prejudice the native people have faced. "Centuries of corruption and inequity reached a climax in 1994, when an armed uprising claimed San Cristóbal and three other towns. Timed to coincide with the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the insurgency was led by a small band of rebels calling themselves the Zapatista National Liberation Army (Ejécito Zapatista de Liberación Nactional or EZLN). The Mexican government responded rapidly, driving the rebellion into the countryside. 150 people were killed in the conflict. Since then, the leader of the Zapatistas, Sub-Commandante Marcos, has become something of a folk hero."
Sumidero Canyon which is 40 kilometers from the Chiapas state capital of Tuxtla Gutierrez. It is a kilometer deep with sheer cliff faces all along its length. This canyon was the location of a battle between the Spanish and Chiapanecan Indians who chose to jump into the canyon rather than submit to the invaders. At the end is the Chicoasén dam, the fifth-highest in the world. It is one of Mexico's important sources of electrical power. Before it opened in 1981, the waters were barely navigable. We were able to take a 2-hour tour in a speedboat of about 10 people and a guide.
Highest point in Sumidero Canyon (1 kilometer high--or .62 of a mile). Many of the cliff faces contain thick green patches of jungle.
An adobe house in the Mayan village of Chamula where many Tzotzil people live. The Tzotzil people live in the central highlands of Chiapas and are direct descendants of the Mayan people. Some houses were made of adobe, others thatch and others cement. Many of the people grew corn in their yard, raised goats, and had stacks of shopped wood for heating and cooking. Most of the enlistees in the Zapatista army are Tzotzil. "The word 'tzotzil' means 'people of wool' (tzotz = wool in the Tzotzil language). Tzotzil people make their clothing primarily out of wool. However, according to ancient Maya language, "tzotzil" could also be translated as "bat people", given the association of their culture with this animal in the view of the Mayas."
The main plaza of Chamula with the town church and an open-air market. Inside the church, we were forbidden to take pictures (one Mexican tourist who started filming almost got his camera broken). The floor of the church was covered in pine needles and many Tzotzil people were praying and chanting. They also had candles and drinks laid out in front of them as they prayed and occasionally sacrificed chickens.
My friends Josh and Amber watching a Tzotzil woman weaving in a house of weavers in another Tzotzil village called Zinacantán. Here we were served crumbled cheese tacos in handmade tortillas and allowed to sample the local alcohol called Pox (pronounced Posh).
The Palenque ruins, a Mayan archeological site in Chiapas. This site is located in the middle of hot and humid jungle. We had to drink lots of water. "The first European to visit the ruins and publish an account was Father Pedro Lorenzo de la Nada in 1567; at the time the local Chol Maya called it Otolum meaning "Land with strong houses." De la Nada roughly translated this into Spanish to give the site the name "Palenque", meaning 'fortification'."
"Palenque was first occupied around 100 BC and flourished from around AD 630 to around 740. The city rose to prominence under the ruler Pakal, who reigned from AD 615 to 683…he lived to the then incredible age of 80."
"After AD 900 Palenque was largely abandoned. In an area that receives the heaviest rainfall in Mexico, the city was soon overgrown."
Campeche, a small and beautiful town in Campeche state on the Gulf of Mexico.
Campeche at sunset on the malecon (the waterfront). Because Campeche is on the water, over the centuries it was vulnerable to pirate attacks. After years of attacks and massacres, the Spanish spent 18 years starting in 1668 to build a tall and thick stone wall encircling the city. Today only two sections of the wall remain. We were able to take an open-air tram with a guide around the city for 2 hours to see the different churches, manicured parks, various monuments, and brightly colored houses and buildings.
One of the beautiful churches in Campeche just down the street from where we stayed.
Several hours north by bus up the Yucatan Peninsula is Merida, a dominant metropolitan center in the Yucatan, about one hour from the Gulf of Mexico. This town is a center for arts and culture and all during the week there are events such as this one--a free performance of folkloric dancing and poetry readings in Parque Santa Lucia, a block north of the University.
On the Paseo de Montejo in Merida, 19th century city planners created a wide boulevard with grand houses like the Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City or the Champs-Élysées in Paris. This is one of the many grand mansions on this boulevard.
In Merida during the summer, they often close the streets to cars at night for festivals. They fill the streets with tables, food vendors and live music.
The Yucatan is also known for something unique…Cenotes, which are underground lakes inside caves. 65 million years ago, an asteroid hit the Yucatan and it created a giant crater that sent out fissures that created 3 thousand cenotes throughout the Yucatan.  You can’t visit or swim in all of them as many are inaccessible and some are on private land but we found we could hop a 2-hour bus from Merida to the town of Cuzama for a dollar to check them out.  When we arrived, we were taken four kilometers on 3-wheeled pedal carts to where the Cenote trek into the jungle began. Here David and I are getting driven which couldn't have been easy for the guy pedaling in such high temps and humidity.
Then when we arrived at the jungle's edge, we got into a small cart with two bench seats under a shade cover that was loaded on a narrow train track and pulled by a horse.  It was surreal.  We went riding into the dense jungle for our 3-hour cenote tour and after about 10 minutes, we arrived at the first of the three cenotes we would be visiting.   There was a hole in the rock and we walked down a series of wooden steps that had been built into the cliff side, and we arrived in the underground cave filled with beautiful clear blue water.  That first plunge was so refreshing after the sweaty trek in. The cenotes are deep.  When you jump in, you can't reach the ground and there is no gradual drop off.  The cave roof is covered in stalactites and you can swim out and occasionally find rock piles to stand on or you can cling to cave sides to catch a rest.
The top opening of the second Cenote we visited. And here is a young guy building up courage to leap into it. The rest of us took the stairs.
The second Cenote. You could either stand on the deck or jump into the cenote. There was no bank or place in the cave to sit. The cenote water was again a clear deep blue with shafts of light penetrating to the bottom like a powerful flashlight beam. In the cenote, you could float on your back and oddly felt more buoyant than in regular lakes.
The last cenote was down a steep ladder that disappeared into the darkness and you couldn’t see the bottom!  Inside the cave, you could only see parts of the platform where the shafts of light were coming down through the rock cave ceiling; the other parts were completely dark. When it was time to leave, a downpour had started and we had to climb the wet and slippery ladder carrying all our stuff.
The third cenote was by far the creepiest. We jumped in and this cenote was lit in the center but dark at all the edges.  We braved what we joked was a lurking cenote monster and swam to explore the dark edges of the cave.  It was very deep like the others and you could only stand with your head out of the water on the pile of fallen rocks in the center.
Chichen Itza is the most famous and best restored of the Yucatan Peninsula's Maya sites. This is the largest structure at Chichen Itza called El Castillo (the castle). "At the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, the morning and afternoon sun produces a light and shadow illusion of a serpent ascending or descending the side of El Castillo's staircase."
El Caracol (the Snail) at Chichen Itza was named this by the Spaniards for its interior spiral staircase. "This observatory is one of the most fascinating and important of all the Chichen Itza buildings…the windows in the observatory's dome are aligned with the appearance of certain stars at specific dates. From the dome, the priests decreed the times for rituals, celebrations, corn planting and harvests."
"Most archeologists agree that the first major settlement at Chichen Itza, during the late classic period, was pure Maya. In about the 9th century the city was largely abandoned for reasons unknown. It was resettled around the late 10th century, and Mayanists believe that shortly thereafter it was invaded by Toltecs, who had migrated from their central highlands capital of Tula, north of Mexico City. Toltec culture was fused with that of the Maya…the substantial fusion of highland central Mexican and Puuc architectural styles makes Chichen Itza unique among the Yucatan Peninsula's ruins."
"The warlike Toltec contributed more than their architectural skills to the Maya. They elevated human sacrifice to a near obsession, and there are numerous carvings of the bloody ritual in Chichen demonstrating this."
Tulum, on the Caribbean coast of Mexico. Tulum is described as a sort of non-touristy, non-resort ridden counter to Cancun. We stayed in bungalows on the beach that only had electricity from 7pm to 11pm at night.
The ruins of Tulum located on a cliff top overlooking the beach and Caribbean ocean. "The buildings here, decidedly Toltec in influence, were the product of a Maya civilization in decline."
"Most archeologists believe that Tulum was occupied during the late postclassic perioid (AD 1200-1521), and that it was an important port town."
"The ramparts that surround three sides of Tulum (the fourth side being the Caribbean Sea) leave little question as to its strategic function as a fortress…the city was abandoned about 75 years after the Spanish conquest. It was one of the last ancient cities to be abandoned; most others had been given back to nature long before the arrival of the Spanish."
After a hot and dusty bus trek from Chaipas, across the Yucatan, to the Caribbean, we ended our journey in a resort in Cancun. We were afraid we were going to be kicked out of the backpacker's guild for staying in such a luxury place. It had 3 pools, was right on the ocean, and we discovered in Cancun, many of the hotels are "all-inclusive" which means you pay more but all your food and drinks are included.
Zona Hotelera (where the majority of the hotels and clubs are located) is a 13 kilometer (about 8 mile) peninsula flanked on both sides with huge hotels, dance clubs, shopping complexes and restaurants. The beaches were beautiful with white sand and the water was a bright light blue. This was definitely the most touristy part of our journey and the only place where we didn’t need to speak Spanish. The airport where we flew home from was at the tip of this peninsula.