Mayapan and Acanceh with Oliver

This week our friends from Toronto, Oliver and Pam have been visiting along with their lovely children. It has been very nice to catch up and enjoy some nice food and drink poolside. As Oliver is also really in to Meso-American archaeology we summoned the energy to get off our asses an brave the heat. We made our way to Mayapan and Acanceh and enjoyed a great day of sightseeing, but the heat (as anyone in Yucatan knows) was truly oppressive. Founded sometime in the first or second century AD,  Acanceh (meaning "groan of the deer") is a Maya city located about 25 south of Merida. The archaeological remains of the ancient city are found among contemporary structures in the modern town of the same name. The architecture is quite impressive but Acanceh is best known for the six masive stucco masks which adorn the pyramid in the central palza. The "Palace of the Stuccos". Due to some arquitectural similarities Mayapan is often compared to Chichen Itza. Though it is not as massive as Chichen Itza, Mayapan was still a very large city state in its own right, boasting approximately 4000 structures within its city walls. Mayapan. That´s all for now!

Birding at the Aquaparque

In the over 10 years since I started this blog never have I taken such a large leave of absence! In my defense (and I know this is my go to excuse)  things have been absolutely insane. I have a few trips planed for this summer and hopefully this will provide me the opportunity to get outside, enjoy nature and take lots of photos; as I used to do all the time. In any case a couple weekends ago I made my way to the "Aquaparque" here in Merida for a little birding and wildlife photography. It had been several years since I had visited the park located in the south east of the city, but I was not disappointed. I made the trip with Michael Schuessler who was in town for the big anual book fair (the FILEY) and we managed to observe and photograph many species such as the graysih salator, great egret, cormorant, tricolored heron, social fly catcher, limpkin and my personal favorite, the northern jacana! It was a fun morning followed by some delicious huevos motuleños downtown so all in all no complaints!