Flora & Fauna

Central Mexico, where we live, is a giant mountain valley. We have 2 seasons - wet & dry, bc we're in the tropics, but we're elevated so high that the temperatures are temperate and it's normally really beautiful here.
But our trip to the Yucatan gave us an up close and personal view of tropical jungle.


It was really hot - in the 90s - with very high humidity. It felt like vacationing in a giant bathroom after a hot shower. Except we couldn't exactly spend all day every day in our bathing suits! We did not realize how warm our cotton tee shirts and khaki shorts could be in such hot weather. We were careful to wear hats and carry lots of water and take breaks, but even so, we almost worked ourselves too hard one time. The Calakmul pyramid is buried deep in a federally protected biosphere. We had to drive nearly an hour into the reserve, then park and walk another 20 minutes to get to the pyramid. We were really hot and really hungry, but it was worth it. Walking through a jungle isn't something we do every day!


While we were at Calakmul, we climbed a huge pyramid to look out over the jungle, and got to see some spider monkeys playing in a tree. Thankfully, we did not see any jaguars or pumas. I was hoping there were more afraid of us than we were of them.


The yucatan has lots of "cenotes" - underground caves, normally with ponds or creeks running through them. At first, I didn't understand the appeal - why would tourists want to see holes in the ground? - but then we had some extra time between Ek Balaam and Chichen Itza pyramids, and it was too hot to do much else, so we stopped by a popular cenote in the area. We were not wearing swimsuits, so we didn't swim. (also, it was FULL of little fish, whom I was not really willing to share space with) but lots of tourists stop by to swim. I had an image of yucatan maya teenaged boys cenote diving (kind of like the boys on the reservation cliff diving in twilight book #2) to pass the time and cool off and show off for the girls.



The first pyramid we visited had a beautiful waterfall and small riverbed system connected to the pyramid city. I'm guessing that water is why they built their city there. It is too hot to do much in the yucatan, so shade trees and swimming must have been a common activity! They called one of the parts the "bathing pool of the queen" and they used to let tourists swim there. I think it's a liability now.


One of the pyramids that was popular with tourists - Tulum - was right on the beachfront coastline. There were not only a lot of tourists at this pyramid, there were also a lot of iguanas. At first, I didn't understand why the iguanas chose to hang out near all the tourists - weren't they scared? I figured these iguanas must really like the water or something, or they couldn't really live anywhere else nearby (maybe development had ruined the rest of their habitat). But then I realized that a lot of tourists will feed the iguanas! So they actually like the tourists. Except maybe not the giant iguana that was being used by a mexican man to take pictures with the tourists for $5-$10 each pic! We got pics with these tame ones for free.

Los piramides

Many cultures built pyramids, but most north americans do not know or understand the native cultures of Mexico and their legacy of Pyramids. The largest pyramid on Earth (by volume) is Cholula, in Puebla (we've been there) and the 3rd largest pyramid on earth is the Pyramid of the sun (in Mexico City - most of our visitors have been there with us). These pyramids were likely built long after the mayan pyramids, and could have been influenced by Mayan design.

The egyptians built pyramids before the Mayans, but the Mayans likely didn't know about those pyramids and built their own pyramids - without slaves, pack animals, or wheels - about 1,000 B.C. Many of them are still standing today.
On this vacation, we visited 5 major mayan pyramid sites.

1. Palenque, in the state of Chiapas. This was fun to visit, bc most of the city surrounding the pyramid has been excavated and can be visited. It was abandoned and recovered by jungle by the time the Spanish showed up. Some local native americans brought the white explorers over to see it, but when no gold or silver was found here, they lost interest. Since then, it has been expertly excavated by archaeologists.


2. Calakmul, in the state of Campeche

This set of pyramids is deep, deep in the jungle. It is hidden within 1.8 million acres of biosphere reserve, home to endangered plants and animals, including jaguars, pumas, and spider monkeys. Thankfully, we only saw monkeys. We had to drive for over an hour from the park entrance to the pyramid entrance. But then, we could climb the pyramid to see over the jungle. Very very cool. This site is still being actively excavated, so they don't know much about it.

3. Tulum, on the east coast of the yucatan peninsula. This was actually a walled city for the maya, to protect their ocean port from invaders.

This pyramid is within driving distance of Cancun and Cozumel, so it was overrun with buses of tourists from cruise ship excursions, which was very annoying. We tried talking spanish so we wouldn't get mixed in with the crazy gringos. It didn't really work. We look too gringo.



4. Ek Balaam, in yucatan. This is a small site, but worth visiting because of the many preserved carvings.




5. Chichen Itza, yucatan. This is also a popular cruise ship excursion location, as it is driving distance from both cancun and cozumel. Even so, it was worth visiting, bc along with the center pyramid, there is an entire walled city of artifacts and foundations for temples. Unfortunately, it was too hot to spend the day wandering around. Instead, we spent an hour trying not to melt or be harrangued by mexicans selling cheap chinese-produced "souvenirs". As it's the most famous Mexican pyramid (and has 4 sets of stairs to the top - really unusual) I'm still glad we went.


We highly recommend the pyramid tour for any ancient history buffs. We may even come back some day, if I can figure out how to not melt during the tour!

La Ruta Maya

Sept. 16 is Mexican Independence Day, so Dave & I took a road trip from Sept. 12 - 20, as we had almost the entire week off anyway. This was probably the longest trip we will take within Mexico during our time here.
The concept of a "road trip" is purely American. They do not do that kind of thing in Mexico. Vacations are about the destination, not the journey. Many Mexicans will drive for vacation, as it is much cheaper than flying, and so that they can visit family or sites in out-of-the-way locations. But almost no one here, including my students, understood why we would drive to Cancun. In their minds, a cancun vacation involved 5 days of sun-worshiping and swimming, bookended by crowded flights.
We did not want to do that.
We spent 2 days driving to the Yucatan, 5 days driving around it, and 2 days driving back. We got to see many more states in Mexico, and really enjoy non-tourist locations.
This kind of trip is unusual, but not unheard of. It is called, "la ruta Maya" or the Mayan route.
HISTORY LESSON: What is now the modern country of Mexico used to be full of hundreds of indigenous tribes. The Aztecs lived in central Mexico; the spaniards conquered and raped them and there are few pure-blooded aztecs left. Many mexicans are mixed european and aztec ancestry. The Zapotecs lived in southern Mexico - what is now Oaxaca; they saw what happened to the Aztecs and built a strong economy farming small red bugs used to make the red dye coveted in Europe, and by doing so escaped much persecution. There are still many Zapotecs in southern mexico who speak Spanish as a second language and live in abject poverty. The Mayans lived in the Yucatan peninsula - what is now the eastern tip of Mexico and the country of Guatemala; they were so deep in the tropical jungle and so far from any useful mines or cities where the spaniards wanted to live that they also were largely ignored for hundreds of years. Many pure or nearly pure blooded Mayans still live in Guatemala and the Yucatan peninsula.
I did not expect to be able to notice the difference, but I could. I can now recognize someone as mixed heritage mexican, mainly maya, mainly zapotec, or mainly european. Not all Mexicans look the same. The Mayan culture was very advanced, considering that they had to make all of their advancements in crushing heat, without pack animals or the wheel.

my new resolution is more posts every week, so tomorrow I'll post pics of pyramids!

International Students

I have just been informed that I have many more blog readers than I realized! Super sorry to keep you all waiting in-between blog postings. New resolution to write more begins now!

I teach few Mexicans. Many of my students have lived most of their lives in Mexico, even if they are North American or Korean or mixed ancestry. So, much like students in New York City, they are truly international. They may look "american" and even act "american" and speak "american" (whatever that means) but they have a very unique history.

Example #1: We got into a great discussion yesterday about U.S. Immigration. As it turns out, one of my top students, a 19-year old student of Korean ancestry, has no desire to go back to Korea. He misses his family, but he hates their school system - that's why they left, and he is also not interested in Korea's mandatory 3-year military service. So he would like a visa to attend a U.S. university. I think he can do it; he's very smart, and his English is as good as most any American student, and international students are sought out by many schools. Once his student visa runs out, though, he's planning to marry an American woman. He figures then he can be american, and so can his kids. Also, he thinks american women are sexy. ;) I assured him that he's charming enough to make it actually work!

Example #2: We did a simulation this week of the philadelphia convention - where the american forefathers wrote the constitution. My perceptive students realized that out of the 9 of them, only one would have been invited. the other 8 were either women, koreans, mexicans, or black (actually, most were a combination of those). I thought they were sad/angry about this, but they made the best of it. They tried to convince me that they shouldn't do the work bc it wouldn't be a realistic simulation! I told them they should rewrite history as a little more inclusive. :)

The "grito"

This week we talked about the declaration of independence in U.S. Government class.
Next week, Dave & I are going on a tour of the Yucatan Peninsula for our Mexican independence Day celebration.
Which led to a discussion in the car this week with my new carpooling buddies, 2 students, about "el grito".
Basically, even though they've lived in Mexico sine they were infants/toddlers, they had no idea what Mexican independence day was all about. Since I'm teaching Mexican history next semester, I gave them a little primer:
In 1810, Father Hidalgo was part of a revolutionary group meeting in secret discussing how Mexican-born Spaniards could overthrow the Spanish ruling class in Mexico to create an "independent" mexico, much like the American colonists had tossed England off their shores. Meanwhile, he was learning indigenous languages and defying the Spanish rules in order to teach the local natives how to make wine and silk and other money-making ventures to promote self-sufficiency.
After some friends of his were arrested for their "treasonous" meetings, he heard that they'd be coming for him next. Well, he wasn't going to go out quietly, so he stood on the steps of his church - the town cathedral - and shouted, "Viva Mexico!! Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe!! Viva la INDEPENDENCIA!!!!" Which basically means, 'long live mexico! long live the mother of mexico! long live independence!' and all fo the local indians were so excited that they followed him (literally) and began to walk towards Mexico City.
The walk to the capital would take weeks, and he kept hollering along the way, and colleting more indians. Enough mestizos (mixed blood) mexicans were interested in independence that they kept fighting for it over the next decade, even when Father Hidalgo and other revolutionaries were publicly murdered for their views.
This began Mexico's century-long fight for independence.
Much like our independence day celebration, it has nothing to do with the actual start of democracy, but it does celebrate the patriotism we all feel when we hear about our brave forfathers.
Viva Mexico!!