Tabasco & Chiapas rain forrest extravaganza pt. 3

Last friday I had to get up at 5.30 am to catch my transport from Palenque down to Frontera de Corazal to catch a little river boat and make my way to the ancient city of Yaxilan. Yaxilan is simple amazing, truly worth the 3 hour drive from palenque and the 50 minute boat trip.

The left of the image is Mexico and the right is Guatemala

The ruins of an ancient temple

Beautiful stone carvings depicting a jaguar as well as other elements

Detail of an enourmous stelae found on the site

The quality of the stone carvings found at the site is really something special

Part of a large complex in the main plaza

Representation of a power transfer ceremony

This temple has many rooms to explore as well as a intrecate catacoomb system

Cool stucco representation of what I supose is Quetzalcoatl

Thats all for now, check back tomorrow for Bonampak!

Tabasco & Chiapas rain forrest extravaganza pt. 2

Well this site (Reforma) was quite a treat, I hope you enjoy the photos.

Hello señor cow, what way to the archaeological site? all I see are these huge mounds of earth... and there are not mountains in this region

holy @·"·!"#

Archaeologists little hut for temporary artifact storrage

Workers hard at work unearthing stone steps

ohhh what have we here

Another of the structures at Reforma

Same building different view

Mayan ballcourt

Cows hanging out on the mounts of yet another building (there are dozens of these mounds around the area, and those are just the ones you can actually get to).

Reforma is quite far from Merida, at least like 7 hours, but I hope to go back and check out how the process is going from time to time. They have been working since late March and the archaeologist said that on average only one car comes by to visit every two weeks. If you are interested in going and would like directions let me know... its kinda out of the way and most people in the area know nothing about it.

Tabasco & Chiapas rain forrest extravaganza pt. 1

Last Week Aris and I headed out to Tabasco and Chiapas for work, and if you follow this blog you know that can mean only one thing; a bunch of photos of maya archaeological sites. Anyway after work last tuesday we ventured out of the town we were staying in (Emiliano Zapata) to check out and archaeological sites called Ponoma. I could not find much information about the site on the net, but upon arriving I disovered that it shared many odd arquitectural features with the ancient city of Comalcalco. Of the four sites we visited this week Ponoma was by far the smallest, however it did prove to have quite a bit to keep us interested, such as some cool stone carvings, round stone altars, a couple moderate size piramids and a fairly large ceremonial center.

Little guy outside my hotel window

A representation fo the sun or "kin" which was found in the now destroyed interior corridors of the ceremonial temple.

I am fairly sure I posted a similar photo last year, but I dont care, I love these trees (take that tree huggers)

Aris atop the ceremonial temple

Front view of said temple

One of the serveral round stone altars

Corridors atop ceremonial structure

Pyramid from the early classic period

The "road" you take from the highway to get to the site

Anyway that is all for now, but check back soon since there is still much to post, and the best is yet to come. cheers!
- Carlos

Southern Quintana Roo pt.3

Well to wrap up my posts on this weeks trip to southern Quintana Roo, here are some shots I took at the archaeological site of Oxtankah. While not as large as Chacchoben, Oxtankah still has quite a few interesting structures to explore and check out. Anyway here are the pictures.

Cute little village scene in Qroo near the border with Yucatan

Hmmm that sure was a nice lunch

Nice colorfull shot

A nice pitalla flower... mmm I cant wait for pitalla (dragon fruit) to be in season

very tiny huming bird... was just 5 cm across or so

Remains of a ruined spanish chapell in Oxtankah (I would think from the late 15 hundreds or so)

Mayan temple at Oxtankah

Some nice remains of decorations and stucco

another temple at Oxtankah

Anyway that is all for now. On sunday I will be going off again for a week long trip to Tabasco and Chiapas, so stay posted!

Southern Quintana Roo pt.2

Well continuing with my series of photos of southern Qroo, here are some shots I took at the Mayan archaeological site of Chacchoben (which in Maya jeans “the place of the red corn”). I did not see any red corn, but what I did see was some cool wildlife and ancient Mayan structures, so yea… it was great! It was also very cool that Aris and I were the only people roaming the site, and running around on your own at a place like this is an entirely awesome experience. The site is of medium size and dates to the classic period. Anyway here are the photos, hope you enjoy them.

Nice view of the surrounding rain forrest at the site

Trees growing over the steps to what was once a residential complex

Large pyramidal structure

Hello mr snake!

Poor Mr (or Mrs?) Snake, its looks like some jerk threw a rock (or bit you) on the head =(
But seriously don´t hurt snakes, its not cool

Section of stairway up to artificial platform...i wonder what we will find up there

Awsome! big pyramid! yay!

and another one! whoot!!!

I am not sure what kind of bird this is, will have to check my bird field guide (forgot it at home)

yet another pyramid! This stuff never gets old for me, I will never understand people who just see a bunch of rocks and claim that once you have seen one you have seen them all... eshhh

Southern Quintana Roo pt.1

So anyway I this week Aris and I have made our way to southern Quintana Roo (or Qroo) for short… and as always we have managed to squeeze in some time to take some pics and explore a little. For those of you who don’t know, Qroo is a Mexican state on the south east of the Yucatan peninsula, and one of he three states that borders central America. We are based out of Chetumal (which is the capital) which is right on the border with Belize.

Run down old church in a tiny village called Ticum

Tiny little meat market in a very very very rural little village

Poor guy looked really hot, it had to have been at least 38 c. out at that time of day

Top-down shot in to "Cenote Azul" near Bacalar

Another shot of "Cenote Azul", its really quite a place

I loved this little guy, sure was lucky to land a shot... after the shutter click he just flew away

Yet another shot of "Centore Azul" it actualy looks like a good size lake and is amazing for swiming (highly recomend it)

Old Spanish colonial era for in Bacalar

Check back soon for more pictures!

Yea Yea... I Know

I have not updated the blog in for ever... before this point I do not think more than 10 days had even gone by between posts... but in all honesty I have been swamped, but worry not I have some trips to Tabasco, Belize and maybe even Guatemala coming up really soon (starting next week) so I will have a bunch of pics up on a regular basis soon.