Raphael Kessler

Although I had been briefly to Mexico before, it was mainly to get a shave and some decent food and I didn't see any noteworthy sites. When I returned I made a point of seeing what I regarded as some of the more important sites in Mexico, although with a country that large and with the limited time I had, there was only a limited amount I got to see. Whilst on this visit to Mexico the weather was not co-operative and although not particularly wet, it was consistently overcast almost throughout my entire visit, which was not particularly helpful for taking photos.

After crossing the border from Belize I headed up the Yucatan peninsula to the town of Tulum, site of a Mayan town in a reasonable state of preservation as it is not particularly old, dating from the fourteenth century. It is quite a small site, but it does have a particularly lovely location next to the Caribbean. 

Possibly the most famous of the Mayan sites on the Yucatan is Chichen Itza (meaning "Mouth if the well of the water-sorcerer") which was built principally between the seventh and tenth centuries. The site is large with temples and other buildings littered over quite a wide area. The most imposing of the buildings is El Castillo (photos 1 & 2) which sits proudly in the centre of the complex. Inside there is a room with some statues one being a red painted jaguar and the other a green statue of some god (photo 3). The views from the top give a good vantage around the site to the ballcourt (photo 4), the temple of a thousand columns (photo 5) and various other buildings. At the bottom of the staircase to El Castillo lots of people spent too much time clapping and smiling, at first thinking they might be undercover Hare Krishnas, then deciding they were nutters on day release from the institution the group I was with thought we should see what the bloody hell all these freaks were up to. So we did a couple of surreptitious little claps and heard some pings coming back from the pyramid, we gave it a bit more gusto and got some good twangs from the pyramid. We started grinning and clapping and no doubt looked as mental as our clapping predecessors. 

In Merida, the pleasant state capital of the Yucatan there was an amusing cultural performance in the main square that managed to fulfill several cultural stereotypes particularly when men in large sombreros looking like a revival of the Three Amigos, except that there were five of them, danced round to a famous shrill Mexican tune, whose name I don't know but everyone would almost certainly recognise. There were other performances including one that looked like a Mexican version of Maypole dancing (photo 1). With one of the pictures I decided to get a bit artistic taking a double exposure of some Mexican line dancing and Uxmal (photo 2).

Uxmal is a very interesting site also on the Yucatan peninsula (photo 1). The overall style is Puuc with its distinctive representations of the god Chak that can be seen on many of the buildings, particularly external corners where the god is depicted with a big long curly nose. The dwarf's temple (photos 2 & 3) has seventeen Chaks all the way up each side of the staircase. The shape and size of the pyramid upon which the temple rests is unique and very striking. The governors palace (photo 4) has been described by some historians as being the most important structure in Mesoamerica (quite a bold statement). The representations throughout the site are impressive, from the courtyard of the nunnery (photo 5) which is ornately decorated to the temple of the turtles (photo 6) with a more minimalist design.

Palenque (photos 1 - 8) is an impressive site in the south of Mexico and the temple of the inscriptions (photos 4 & 5) is one of the forgotten wonders of the world. Not all of the site has been properly excavated or restored which gives one an impression of how it might have seemed to early explorers and archaeologists. Walking through the forest at the site one comes across a small but picturesque waterfall.

After visiting the archaeological site at Palenque I was in the village of the same name where the devoted went running for La Virgen de Guadelupe the patron saint of Mexico and who's saints day was coming up a few days later.

Paricutin Volcano is one of the seven natural wonders of the world (photos 1 & 2) is named after one of the villages it destroyed when it suddenly erupted on 20th February 1943. In what had been a peaceful farming community this volcano appeared and destroyed the villages of Paricutin and San Juan. The landscape was changed forever and all that remained of the villages was the ruined church of San Juan (photos 5 - 8). The trek up to the volcano involves traversing the lava field which is twenty square kilometres and is teaming in parts (photos 3 & 4). Whilst atop the volcanoe some locals from the nearby village of Angahuan had also decided to climb the volcano. It was also nice that the sun made a brief appearance during the day and there was even a little bit of blue sky briefly in the day.

The village of Angahuan nearby Paricutin volcano to some extent the appearance of the type of dusty village often shown in bad Hollywood films (photos 1 - 3). As this was the day for remembering the appearance of the virgin of Guadelupe there were some celebrations taking place (photo 1). The people in this area have a tradition of putting small figurines of the departed on top of their homes and buildings (photos 4 & 5) wearing their favourite attire. Sometimes one sees small football kits or something similar for this reason, this would imply that the person who lived at the home in photo 5 was probably a patriotic drunkard.

The ancient city of Teotihuacan dates from 300 BCE and is one of the most impressive ancient sites in all of Mesoamerica. What has thus far been excavated shows a large city existed in the area where hundreds of thousands of people lived, larger than any of the European capitals at the same time. The largest structures in the city are the two pyramids (photo 1), the temple of the sun (photos 2 & 3) covers almost the same area as the great temple of Cheops in Giza, Egypt and is only slightly shorter. There are numerous interesting buildings around along the sides of the Avenue of the Dead, the main thoroughfare. The representations on the temple of Quetzalcoatl are of feathered serpents and other mythological creatures. The relief carvings in the temple of Quetzalpapalotl are of more mythological creatures and are inlaid with obsidian.

The most interesting point of the ruins at Tula are the incredible statues that are carves ornately on the back and front and stand atop a temple (photos 1 - 3). Around the site there were thousands of butterflies and it was one of the few clear days whilst I was in Mexico.

Mexico City has numerous things to occupy a visitor. In the city centre there is the ruin of a Mayan temple (photo 1) that was destroyed by the Conquistadors and flattened in order for Hernan Cortez to build his house on top of it. Just nearby there are people recreating the Mayan / Aztec ways with dances and blessing ceremonies (photo 2). Across from the fantastic National Anthropological museum was a demonstration of Pole Flyers (photo 3), the significance of the ceremony is ambiguous and anthropologists argue about it, but the effect is impressive as the participants slowly twirl down to earth accompanied by the musician who spends the whole time sat on top of the pole as it spins round.

The architecture in Mexico City is quite varied with impressive monuments to recent history such as the monument to the hero children (photo 1) or the impressive Cathedral and colonial architecture around the city centre  (photo 2). The imposing Palacio des Bellas Artes (photo 3) houses some excellent murals by the inimitable, Diego Rivera and David Siquieras. Works from these legendary muralists can be seen all over the city with some particularly striking examples in the National Palace (photos 4 & 5).

As it was just before Christmas when I was in Mexico City there were festivities taking place across town in particular in the Zocolo main square. There were regular performances in the Zocolo of all different sorts from Transvestite rock singers, Samba, Jazz, Mariachi  (photo 1) and strange comedy plays. There was also some peculiar touting I saw whereby some guys with faces painted would climb on top of each others shoulders and have a small kid dressed as Santa Claus on top of the top guys shoulders and they would run up and down through the traffic before getting money from generous drivers.