Hello! I´m back in Xalapa now after a week of vacation in the Yucatan Peninsula and Chiapas. The trip was incredible, it was nice to get to see various other parts of México and get away from studies for a week. As a group, we left Xalapa last sunday in two vans to head to Celestún, a city on the west coast of the yucatan peninsula. It was about a 20 hour drive which each of the 2 drivers of our vans did without changing drivers through the night. Both surprizing and a little scary. The drivers were a lot of fun all week, we got to know them well and joked around all the time. We arrived in Celestún the next day and spent the day relaxing on the beach. The next day we took a boat ride into the natural reserve in Celestun and we able to see lots of flamengos along with various other kinds of wildlife. We also stopped in a swampy/jungly area to take a dip in a nice natural pool. That evening, we headed to Merida, the capital of the state of Yucatan. We took a tour of the center of the city which has a really interesting history. Before it was settle by the Spanish, there were 5 pyramids in the city. The Spanish took the stones from the pyramids and used them to build many of the churches and buildings that are seen today. The tour we got of the center was given by two mayan historians who speak both maya and spanish, so their perspective on the history was very fascinating. The mayan culture and language is still very alive in the yucatan, which gives it a much different feel than central Mexico, which was territory of the Aztecs. It´s interesting how the 2 parts of the country have very different backgrounds and histories.
From Merida, we took a trip to Chichén Itzá, which is one of the most impressive archaological site of the mayas. The science, history and mathematics behind the site were the most fascinating for me. There were unbelievable calculations made by the mayans when they built their pyramids and buildings, many based around their calendar and knowledge of the universe. From Chichén Itzá, we made our way to el Cenote Dtiznup, an incredible cave structure filled with crystal clear water that you can swim in (The yucatan is covered in limestone, so rivers dont exist, all flowing water is subterranean which forms the ¨cenotes¨). The formation was impressive and a very fun place to take a swim.
We spent the next day back in Mérida, I spent a good bit of the day visiting Jon Jenners uncle Jerry who lives in Mérida. It was fun to get to meet him after hearing many stories of him. From there, we took an overnight trip to arrive in Palenque, a city in the state of Chiapas in the morning. The entire day was spent at a place called Agua Azul, an extremely beautiful series of waterfalls and pools of water. Also a really fun and natural place to swim as you can make your way down the waterfalls, jumping into the pools below. That night, we spent in some cabins in the middle of the jungle. I had bought a hammock the day before in Merida, so I set that up outside to spend the night in, instead of sleeping in the cabins. When I woke up in the morning, two monkeys were playing in trees not too far off.
After getting our stuff packed up, we headed to the archaeological site in Palenque, another famous site of the mayas. For me, the buildings and surrounding area were more impressive and beautiful than Chichén Itzá. The site was built in the middle of jungle, with mountains and trees surrounding it. We went into the jungle, outside of the main site, and you can still find old buildings and walls which used to be part of the ancient city but now are covered in vines, plants and trees and havent been cleaned up or explored by archaeologists yet. After seeing the site, we climbed back in the vans to make our way back to xalapa. It was about a 12 hour drive and we arrived at about 4 am yesterday morning after being stopped once by a military checkpoint and having a vans searched by dogs and soldiers who are looking for illegal immigrants/drugs, etc..
Anyhow, thats the overview of our trip, hope it gives you a small idea of the incredible things I experienced in the last week. This next week will be much different, I have a lot of school work waiting for me. Hope all is well back in the states and wherever you might be reading this from. Take care!
Photos: they go in reverse order of our trip...
1-me in the palenque archaeological site
2-jumping off a small waterfall in agua azul
3-el cenote dzitnup
4-our group in front of the pyramid in chichén itzá
5-a view of the sunset on the beach in celestún
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