Mexico City Weekend Gettaway!

This past Friday I made my way up to Mexico city for the weekend to attend a Iron Maiden concert with my friend Oscar. We decided to stay for a couple more nights and take in some laid back sight-seeing and nice food. On this occasion I took it fairly easy and stuck mostly to the downtown area... no major archaeological sites this time. All and all it was quite a nice and relaxing time! Hope you enjoy the photos!

30 Second Exposure of "Palacio de Bellas Artes"

Long exposure (5 seconds) at "Los Azulejos"

He is going to wash your windshield whether you want him to or not... path of less resistance comes to mind

El Zocalo (filter used, obviously)

A monument to Juarez in the Centro Historico

Shot from the Airplane

"El Angel" on Reforma

"Monumento a La Revolucion"

Shot of people cooling down at the fountain out in front of the "Monumento a la Revolucion"

Shot from a top the monument

That´s all for now!

Dzibilnocac & Iturbide

After our visit to El Tabasqueño and Hochob, my dad and I made our way to the ruins of the city of Dzibilnocac which is located on the outskirts of the village of Iturbide. Evidence for the ocupation of Dzibilnocac goes as far back to the preclassic (about 500 to 50 BC), however the monumental structures now visalbe are placed firmly in the classic peridod (600 to 800 DC). It is clear to any visitor to this ancient ruin that Dzibilnocac was a city of great importance and beautify... however it is important to keep in mind that the ruins which are now visable represent but a fraction of the original city, since most of the centre was located in what is now the town of iturbide. It is interesting that several of the ruined prehispanic structures where used in the 1850s for materials in the construction of forts and bastions during the terrible conflict knows and the "Caste War". Several of these forts are still standing to this day.

El Tabasqueño & Hochob

A couple of days ago I made my way south to Campeche with my dad with the purpose of finally getting around to explore some Chenes Maya Archaeological sites which we had been wanting to visit for quite some time. The main reason we had not been out there before is that the roads in this inland area of Campeche are notoriously bad and have only recently been rehabilitated by the state goverment. The roads have gotten infinately better... however travel in this region is not without dificulty since the infrastructure is sparse... their are very few gas stations and the signage to places of intereste is spoty at best. Anyway we did manage to visit the Mayan prehispanic cities of El Tabasqueño, Hochob and Dzibilnocac as well as take a look arround several small towns and villages in the region.

Both El Tabasqueño and Hochob present a type of architecutre refered to as Chenes. Chenes arquitecture is characterized by the presnce of enourmous "Monstruos de la tierra" (Monster of the Earth) masks which cover the enitre facades of complete structures or altars. The presence of rain god masks is ubiquitous in Chenes architecture, however such feature s are usualy more commonly asociated with the Puuc style. Many elements from Rio-Bec architecture are also found in Chenes which leads many Mayists to consider Chenes architecutre more of a transitional style than a style in itself.

I hope you enjoy the photos of El Tabasqueño & Hochob!

El Tabasqueño:








Hochob:








Thanks for reading and check back soon for more from the Chenes region!