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!