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Mexico January 2006
Ca. 20 degrees northern latitute,
Mexico City, Jan 26
Mexico City, View from Hostel Catedral. The core of MC, our first morning after arrival the night before. Hernan Cortés arrived at Veracruz in 1519 and few years later, the Spaniards were taking over power in the old Maya country. In the 18th century the building of the MC Cathedral was completed. Here's a treatment of the conquest of great Tenochitlan by Cortés.

Charlotte on the balcony. At Hostel Catedral, drinking and festive youngsters covered the bar. We left the noisy posada, found an authentic, spicy but pricy mexican tortilla deli and had dinner around 11 pm. At this time the temperature was around 12 C.

Thanks to jet lag we woke up early and went by taxi to MC airport once again, condestino Zihuatanejo. When we entered the runway 50 minutes (400 km) flight from MC, the temperature was 35 C.
Zihuatanejo, Jan 27 - 31
Hotel Palacios by Playa Madera; pricy but only for 4 days ; clean, air condition, fridge and very sweet staff. Charlotte presents hotel and room view in her always uniquely elegant manner!

Zihuatanejo is a fertile place by the Pacific not so far from Acapulco. Palm trees, dry air, ramshackle housing outside the hotel areas, scrawny terraces, young mexican repair shop boys , smoking fags, hanging out in the shops. Here Charlottes presents our view from the room.
First mexican fajita meal by the beach: mexican sauce and beer. Great mexican beer trick: introduce a piece of lime AND a teespoon of salt into the bottle or glass.
Below some shots in the sunlit bay and its romantic boardwalk between Playa Madera and Zihuatanejo city (15 minutes walk) and some of the bahia:
Zihuatanejo City. Population around 50,000 mexicans. Very touristy during high season. Packed with americans - and a couple of Danes.
Playa Madera, sunset view from Hotel Palacios. Enjoy woth a Sol, Corona, or plain G&T.
Already from the outset, our mission was of an ornithological sort: We wanted to spot the allegedly beautiful but endangered trogon, the Resplendent Quetzal bird. Well, not really - and it never happened either... But it sure is beautiful, no?

Below, you find the Ceiba Café, named after the holy Maya tree, the Ceiba, having protective spikes on its branches. The open air café became our favourite breakfast spot. Great, spicy omelets, grape fruit, and a lovely Oaxaca coffee.
The Playa Pescano of Zihua is lively in the morning hours. Fish, pelicans, more fish, and some fish.
On Sunday 29, we went to Playa Las Gatas across the bahia. On board the boat, we saw a large whale some 300 meters away. It was magnificant, and supposedly it was a gray whale. On Las Gatas, we found a restaurant/bar/deck chair service and settled by the shore.

In the middle of the day, two men came running from a boat by the shore carrying a large sword fish (see below).
Plenty of beach musicians walk the beach thin and play for tourists - like Charlotte. Check out those cool double basses!
Left Charlotte and the Axelssons from Fairbanks, Alaska. Right a party of nasty pelicans jazzin' in the sun.
Palenque Town, Jan 31 - Feb 3
Leaving Zihua, flying via MC to Villahermosa, and then by bus to Palenquetown, we arrived late in the evening. Luckily, our dear friends, Maja and Lars, had booked a hotel room for us and we met with them for a night cab and then straight to bed.

Having Palenque Town as our base, just like the Danish archeologist Frans Blom [1] had it - and hundreds after him - we went to the the three closest Mexican ruin complexes in that area: Palenque, Yaxchilan, and Bonampak.
Views from Hotel Posada Tucan the first morning, right before going to Palenque. Last phot is from last day, where the local Keel-billed Toucan actually showed up in the neighbor's garden tree.
Palenque, Feb 1
And finally, the quartet went by bus from the main street in Palenque Town to the famous ruins. We found a young local Mayan guide who gave a tour throughout the ruins and the jungle too. Him speaking only Spanish, we were lucky to have Maja with us.
As seen on the Palenque site map, this Temple of the Skull is where we started. The actual stucco skull giving name to the temple and being located at the base of the middle pier is seen on the last two photos.
The Temple of the Inscriptions , having nine levels is located south of the main palace (see below). Frans Blom discovered some holes in certain floor slabs, but didn't think they could be opened. It was the Mexican archeologist Alberto Ruz who in 1952 found the tomb and uterus-shaped sarcophagus of the great king Hanab Pacal, at the base of the pyramid. This temple is unique in having been build during the rule of Pacal.
Hanab Pacal, mid- 7th Century AD (my own Photoshop manipulation)
In 1922, the Danish self-taught archeologist Frans Blom visited the ruins for the first time. Today, this it the most visited of all Maya ruin sites, but in 1922, they were overgrown with trees and flowers. The jungle covered for miles and the site was seldom visited by travellers or archeologists. Blom was particularly impressed by the main palace, El Palacio with its characteristic tower, the only tower of this kind at any Maya ruin."All the walls were then richly decorated with stucco reliefs covered with colors [1], p. 122-123. Blom's job in 1922 was to remove plants and trees from the ruins.
Below El Palacio, and the last three shots are from the Court of the Palace. Imagine the Palace all furbished up in red colors. Must have looked great with the green jungle as background!
Temple of the Sun, April 1922. Frans Blom standing on top (scan from Blom's biography [1], p. 122)
Below a great shot of Charlotte (high quality pic) and some of the Maya hieroglyphs. The Egyptian hieroglyphs were explored also in the 1920's and 30's, and thus the terminooigy has been tranferred by archeologists in Mesoamerica. Hence the term "hieroglyphs". The last photo to the right depicts the T-shaped hieroglyph "Ik ", meaning "wind"
The Palace Tower, perhaps an observatory, and perhaps built by Pacal's son, Kan Xul II in veneration of his father.When viewed from the top of the Great Palace tower on the winter solstice, the sun sets directly behind the Temple of the Inscriptions, appearing to enter the underworld throught Pacal's tomb.

Next a group of pictures showing daily Mayan life. Upper pictures show what probably was a sauna.

The two lower pictures shows the civilized ancient latrine, with flowing water underneath, the ancient aqueduct. Our guide meticulously imitated the ancient Maya peoples while piddling :-)
Entering into the lower inside parts of the temple, we got a glimpse of the life of the kings, their "control of light" by opening and closing little holes in the wall. Left you see a bed for a "Queen (size) bed" :-)
The fertile jungle, the river giving waters to the ancient aqueduct, the fruit trees (here a banana tree with fruits). It really was paradise. Allegedly, only 20% of the Palenque ruins have been excavated. Satellite pictures reveal that a huge area of smaller ruins comprise the ancient metropol.
Temple of the Foliated Cross. Each of the temples in the so-called "Cross Group" is dedicated to a specific god in the Palenque triad, and represents one of the paths to Xibalba [the Otherworld] which the king must take in order to bring back gifts of life and prosperity to his people. The god GII was associated with this temple, and was particularly associated with the ritual of bloodletting.
Xibalba - hieroglyph
The Temple of the Sun. Anyone who read the adventures of Tintin must know about this temple. In Prisoners of the Sun, Tintin and his party is released as Tintin predicts a solar eclipse. Originally alle the three cross temples looked like this, which is the best preserved.

Left you see a view of Palenque from the Temple of the Foliated Cross: To the right the levels leading to the Temple of the Cross. Behind it El Palacio, and behind it the flatlands of the Mexican state of Chiapas. (next to this you find a lizard, ca. 15 cm of length).
Tintin: Prisoners of the Sun (1947).
View from the Temple of the Cross. Charlottes peeping in from the immense, humid heat outside.
The Ballcourt (NOT for festive balls and parties, but for sports!). Click here for a description of the ball game to a scary degree of detail (compare picture with below ball court from Yaxchilan).
The Jungle. Below a set of photos from la selba, the intruiging, humid jungle. The fauna and around the Palenque jungle is diverse. Just during the day at Palenque, we saw: Howler monkeys, squirl, a brown snake, Orange Breasted Falcon, Chestnut-colored Woodpecker, Red-crowned Ant-tanager, Keel-billed Toucan, a White-winged Dove and some lizards, the largest .
Palenque and its museum. Below a series of more pictures from Palenque and its museum. So many stories, so limited memory in my head, I leave the photos to you (this series is mainly shot my Maja, while the remaining troika rested in the shade (some are from the Museum too, though).
Model of El Palacio having polished walls.
Yaxchilan, Bonampak, Feb 2
After a quite alcoholic night in the transit town of Palenque, we got up early for a one-day tourist company tour throughout a small part of Mesoamerica. By bus for several hours, then a 45 minutes boat trip along the River Usumacinta at bordering Guatamala to Yaxchilan (for one hour). Then back by boat and more busdriving to Bonampak. Below some shots from the boat trip. The fertile shores are magnificent from the water.
Yaxchilan
< The Yaxchilan ballcourt.
Bonampak. Here, you see a few pictures of the temple, a nest made by the bird Montezuma Oropendula, which caught most of our attention owing to its marvellous singing (and which we didn't shoot). Then a turkey and some crazu fowls, and a Red-lored Parrot.
Villahermosa, Feb 3
The Villahermosa La Venta zoo and Olmec outdoor museum was a fantastic experience. This was our transit town on our way back to Mexico City. We went there by bud from Palenque, took a taxi (not too easy in this city of ca. 700.000 citizens - especially when the soon-to-be president pays the city a visit! Below some shots of the ancient Olmec stone heads, some of them originally found by Frans Blom too. The toltecs lived ca. from 1,00 - 600 BC, so it is old stuff! (firstly a jaguar, lastly, Charlotte at Restaurant Tulipan in Villahermosa)
Mexico City, Feb 4
Our last day in the center of the 20 million city. Some random shots. Firstly a GREAT breakfast in an authentic Mexican diner.
Our Hotel Gillow was located close to the Catedral. Next to the Cathedral, the ruins from the original city of Tenochitlan can be seen (founded by the Aztecs in 1375).
Literature

[1] Tore Leifer, Jesper Nielsen & Toke Sellner Reunert. Det urolige blod - Biografi om Frans Blom. Høst & Søns forlag, 2002.