Mexico

Freetimetravellers

03 Jan 2025 — 10 min read

Another year with covid19 and another trip booked with a travel agency, nothing like Kenya safari last year Kenya but was quite ok and we had a chance to see amazing places, to learn something about the culture and the country we hadn’t known before.

Chitzen Itza

Chichen Itza was one of the largest Maya cities, with the relatively densely clustered architecture of the site core covering an area of at least 5 square kilometers

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chichen_Itza

Cenote

Merida

Uxmal

Uxmal is an ancient Maya city of the classical period. It is considered one of the most important archaeological sites of Maya culture, It is located in the Puuc region of the eastern Yucatán Peninsula, and is considered one of the Maya cities most representative of the region’s dominant architectural style. It has been designated a UNESCO in recognition of its significance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uxmal

Pyramid of the Magician

the Governor's Palace

Campeche

Palenque

Palenque is a medium-sized site, smaller than Tikal, Chichen Itza, or Copán, but it contains some of the finest architecture, sculpture, roof comb and bas-relief carvings that the Mayas produced. Much of the history of Palenque has been reconstructed from reading the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the many monuments; historians now have a long sequence of the ruling dynasty of Palenque in the 5th century and extensive knowledge of the city-state’s rivalry with other states, such as Calakmul and Toniná. The most famous ruler of Palenque was K’inich Janaab Pakal, or Pacal the Great, whose tomb has been found and excavated in the Temple of the Inscriptions.

Catemaco, Veracruz

Catemaco is a tourist destination, with its main attractions being the lake, remnants of the region’s rainforest and a tradition of sorcery/witchcraft that has its roots in the pre-colonial period and is mostly practiced by men. This tradition is well-known in Mexico and attracts clients from various walks of life, including businessmen and national-level politicians. Catemaco holds an annual event in March dedicated to sorcery, which can draw up to 5,000 visitors. (wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catemaco

Laguna Catemaco

Isla de los monos

Eyipantla Falls

is a waterfall located in the Los Tuxtlas region of southern Veracruz in Mexico.^[1] It is forty meters wide and fifty meters tall and is the largest and most important waterfall in the region https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyipantla_Falls

Puebla

The state of Puebla is located on the east side of the volcanoes of Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, opposite of the Valley of Mexico and Mexico City. The two volcanoes have as much significance here as they do on the west side, with many communities nearby maintaining ritual specific to honoring the two. The historical and cultural value of Puebla City architecture is a major reason the city was chosen as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Various styles and techniques such as Baroque, Renaissance and Classic are represented here in over 5,000 buildings included in the catalogue.^[24] The historic centre is filled with churches, monasteries, mansions and the like, mostly done in gray cantera stone, red brick and decorated with multicolored tiles. Puebla is also considered to be the “cradle of Mexican Baroque” both in architecture and in the decorative arts,^[25] and one of the five most important colonial cities in Mexico.

Teotihuacan

Teotihuacan is a site of many of the most architecturally significant Mesoamerican pyramids built in the pre-Columbian Americas. At its zenith, perhaps in the first half of the first millennium (1 AD to 500 AD), Teotihuacan was the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas, with a population estimated at 125,000 or more, making it at least the sixth-largest city in the world during its epoch.

The city’s broad central avenue, called “Avenue of the Dead” (a translation from its Nahuatl name Miccoatli), is flanked by impressive ceremonial architecture, including the immense Pyramid of the Sun (third largest in the World after the Great Pyramid of Cholula and the Great Pyramid of Giza). Pyramid of the Moon and The Ciudadela with Temple of the Feathered Serpent Quetzalcoatl are placed at both ends of the Avenue while Palace-museum Quetzalpapálot, the fourth basic structure of the site, is situated between two main pyramids. Along the Avenue are many smaller talud-tablero platforms as well. The Aztecs believed they were tombs, inspiring the name of the avenue. Scholars have now established that these were ceremonial platforms that were topped with temples.