rvadventure

Heeeeer's Pakal

2008-04-02T14:55:00.000-07:00

Pakal was the MAN in these parts and ruled from his teens to his death at 81 years. He was a major builder and many of the exposed structures at Palenque were created during his reign. There is a very good museum dedicated to him and his era at the ruins visitor center. There are many likenesses of the man and quite a lot of written work about his life, in maya glyphs of coarse. It was only a few years ago, less than ten, that the the Maya written code was finally translated and there are many large steale or plaques covered with the history of this man. One other note, his likeness here is accurate and not stylized. Royal male children of the nobels had their heads deformed during the first months of their lives to identify them as royal. Sometimes the deformation worked without significant physical or mental problems - many more other times, well.....

Palenque - Kingdom of Pakal

2008-04-02T14:04:00.000-07:00

The Palenque ruins are about 300 feet up the side of the mountains and look north across jungle lowlands - the relm of King Pakal around 700 AD thought to be the main man here. The area was surveyed extensively about a decade ago from the air with earth penetrating radar. It is a massive site with less than two percent explored. There is a a series of larger pyramids further up the mountain right behind and to the left of my pictures here. Our campsite was at the bottom of the ruins and about a 3 kilometers away and still within the city site. Water was plentiful and the temples and palaces had running potable water as well as a sewage system throughout. The stream that we followed through the jungle actually supplied water to a series of bath and stream houses via an aquaduct. Who knows what other kings and heros rest at Palenque - purhaps one even greater than Pakal.

The Wet Jungle

2008-04-02T13:55:00.000-07:00

Deb and I love this environment! It is hot, humid, lush and rich smelling, almost funky with a cross between decay and floral aromas. The light is quite different here a varies a lot between under the canopy and exposed to the sun. There are quite a few trails around the jungle ruin sites. Here a few photos of a walk following down a small stream. The air is quite silent save the far off voices of the howler monkeys - and our hair stands on end.

Yaxchilan and Bonampak Ruins on the Guatamalan Boarder

2008-04-02T12:12:00.000-07:00

We arrived in the Palenque area on our way to Cozumel in Mid January so this series of posts are slightly out of order. This is jungle land and everything is big and dramatic. The ruins at Yaxchilan are right on the river and face Guatamala. They are large a very spread out and frankly difficult to photograph as the jungle still over-runs most of the site. They are still relatively inaccesable as one has to take a fast boat downriver for about an hour to get to them from the nearest road. Bonampak was only discovered about 60 years ago and until about ten years ago you had to fly in to view the most complete and undamaged frescos in the Mayan world. Consider these wall works are 1300 years old. The colours would be typical of the decore all over the Mayan world - it blew us away. If you are really interested ask us about the video of these frescos, we would be happy to show you them when we meet.

Deb's Parents visit Cozumel

2008-03-06T07:22:00.000-08:00

We have been travelling in our motorhome for 6 months and planned to get out of it for a time while we scuba dived in Cozumel. Deborah's parents have been building what is supposed to be the last house they will ever live in, while living in their large motorhome. The problem is that constuction delays have pushed them from a fall occupancy to a spring one and while nice, the RV is not that comfortable during the periodic deep freezes in Alberta. They seemed quite happy to enjoy a month of lounging with us by the Caribbean Sea. Judge for yourself.

Agua Azul - And it Is

2008-02-12T09:09:00.001-08:00

Activities in the Villages Around St. Chris

2008-02-08T14:21:00.001-08:00

Around the St Chris Area

2008-02-08T14:17:00.000-08:00

San Christobal de las Casas - Chiapas

2008-02-08T13:58:00.000-08:00

We think that the state of Chiapas has been the most interesting of our travels so far. When the majority of people you see from the very young to very old are wearing traditional aboriginal dress of many varieties you know you are infor a treat. This first series of photos shows us at the zocolo or town square. Note what we Deb is wearing at nine in the morning - and we are only a few miles from the Guatamala border.

Zipolite

2008-02-08T13:38:00.001-08:00

This might be the best travelers beach anywhere. Zipolite (Zip-o-leet-eh) is near Puerto Angel on the Pacific Coast of Mexico about 6 hours south of Acapulco. It is about 1.5 km long and is lined with extremely inexpensive and rustic bars and resturants. Travellers of all ages and conuntries including Mexico come for the layed back attitude. Towards the north end it is clothing optional and towards the south much more traditional and somewhat mixed in between. The surf here can be deadly slamming the unsuspecting into the sand bottom and other days quite benign. We hung out here for about ten days and went in the water everyday except one, when the volunteer lifeguards posted a red warning flag. They literally pulled someone out of the water every 30 minutes or so with one poor UK traveller air medivaced home paralyzed from the neck down. If you play in the water heed the warnings as they are serious. The evening can be enjoyed eating excellent food drinking cheap drinks and dancing to a variety of live and recorded music. The ultimate chill-out place: sling your hammock under a beach palapa for 30 pesos - that's 3 dollars folks a room might be $15 and that's during the high Christmas season.

Noche de Rabanos

2008-01-03T10:32:00.000-08:00

The entire city of Oaxaca is one big festival during the Christmas season with hundreds of food stands, carnival rides, craft markets and parades or posadas every night. Legend has it that 350 years ago two Dominican monks came up with a marketing idea to help indigenous farmers sell their produce. They encouraged the farmers to carve their beets, carrots and radishes into fantastic shapes and thus were born the “Night of the Radishes”. The radishes are specially grown for the occasion and have been heavily fortified to grow to their sometimes-enormous size of 40 inches – needless to say they are not consumable. Since 1897 the management of this special festival was taken over by the municipal government and promoted as a tourist event. Each year on December 23 dozens of displays are set up for the three-hour evening event and thousands upon thousands of people converge on the zocolo to witness these very original folk artworks. Here is but a small sample of the sculptures – my favorite: farm life with tractor.

Mescal and Tequila

2008-01-03T10:25:00.000-08:00

There are eight varieties of the maguey plant all of which are used to make mescal, a small-scale artisanal product. Tequila a variety of mescal only permits the use of blue agave maguey exclusively. The process of production is essentially the same with tequila production being much larger in scale. It takes about seven years for the maguey plant to mature and be harvested. The leaves are trimmed off leaving only the “pineapple”. The pineapple is split into quarters and left to dry for about two weeks. The pineapple is then crushed under a millwheel to create fibers, which are then placed in a large barrel with water and allowed to ferment for about two more weeks. The mash is drawn off and distilled in copper kettles producing raw mescal (this is the real porch-climber stuff ) and then aged in barrels, blended etc. While this producer had dozens of crema or flavoured mescals and a respadado the distillery’s 3 year old anejo (aged) mescal reminded me of a very smoky peaty scotch. Worm negotiable.

Hierve el Agua - Frozen Water

2008-01-02T13:09:00.000-08:00

Well not really frozen but they are white from all the minerals in the water. They also call it boiling water but really it is carbon dioxide - soda water. This must be the original infinity pool. Photos of the site were first published to the outside world in 1989 and the photographer took them while on a remote mule trek in the mountains searching for remote native culture. It is still quite remote. The ride to the site was up about 4000feet and then over a ridge and down about 3000 feet all on a one lane gravel road. On parts of it I was thinking of possible headlines in Canadian papers - Ok just kidding - barely. We met some very nice people on this tour and hope to tell you more of them sometime in the future.

Santo Domingo Church - Oaxaca

2008-01-01T12:02:00.000-08:00

This Dominican Order church and monastery was built between 1570 and 1608 and like all the churches on Oaxaca have thick stone walls – some being in excess of thirty feet according to my estimate. The exterior is fairly austere but the interior cloister and throughout the monastery we start to get hints of the glorious sanctuary of the church itself. Deb and I were wandering around marveling at the paintings and all the gold when we stumbled upon a string trio of musicians standing in a small alcove. We continued wandering around the Alter and a priest came out from behind it and started setting up for a mass. We moved discreetly away just as the trio started playing the wedding march and as the wedding party began their procession. Really quite nice! Note that we are pretty much in the tallest structure in the city. Most buildings are only one or two stories high – wise considering Oaxaca gets over 200 earthquakes per year. Apparently we were there during a 5.2 quake but we were entertaining some friends in the RV at the time and never noticed the shaker.

Monte Alban - Oaxaca

2008-01-01T11:56:00.001-08:00

This is the first ruins we have visited on this Mexican tour and it is interesting that this site is quite different than others we will encounter. Monte Alban – White Mountain -was first occupied by the Zapotecs around 500BC, however most of what we see is from the years 300 to 700AD. The population on the surrounding terraces was estimated to be around 25,000 people. The site itself was largely ceremonial with regular festivals for education and showcasing music and dance. It is surmised that this location was a sort of teaching hospital given the large numbers of stone carvings illustrating hundreds of illnesses and afflictions. Some sort of written text accompanies the illustrations that to this date has not been deciphered. It is also believed that sophisticated operations on the brain were done due to the recovery of skulls with precision cuts precisely where modern medicine enters the brain cavity. This site is unique as well in that over its entire history no human sacrifices were ever made. While what we see now shows stepped construction it was actually smoothly covered in white stucco and decorated with colorful frescos. The whole site was part of an astronomical observatory with one five sided building being the key element. What you see in the pictures is the commanding view the location has looking into three valleys and controls the entire region (no wonder that Cortez wanted this area for himself). The main plaza would be for music, dance and oratory competition and celebration while the ball court was used for recreation and conflict resolution. Think of this game like tennis without the racket – you struck the hair filled leather ball with foot, hip shoulder or elbow - the side sloping areas were in play – and spectators sat at either end cheering on the players, one side against the other although nobody died at the end unlike other pre-hispanic ball games.
Note the breeched birth in this stone carving – writing accompanies the tablet but is undeciphered. The somewhat dull building here is the observatory and it highlights the summer and winter solstice with light passing through the building. That we were here on the site for winter solstice is either good luck or good planning, I won’t disclose which.

More Taxco

2008-01-01T11:52:00.001-08:00

Taxco - Steep and Narrow Roads

2007-12-31T12:54:00.000-08:00

Taxco was founded around 1530 and is an old silver mining city and Colonial gem. It was placed on the list of World Heritage sites about twenty years ago. We had a guide tour us arounf for a day so we could get the general lay of the city. The ride around town in the volkswagon bug was very cool a kind of rollercoaster ride. There are thousands of "bugs" in the city one of the few vehicles able to negatiate the narrow roads. When it looks like a one lane street it is actually two and if it looks like a walkway it's a one way. Glad we found a place to leave the RV at the edge of town.

Taxco - So its is Possible

2007-12-28T14:24:00.000-08:00

Taxco is the Mexican silver city with hundred of workshops. There are no Rv campgrounds within 3 hours of the city so we had to get creative. We researched every hotel/motel looking for one out of town and with a parking lot. Our room had a huge tiled bath sitting room and views from the balcony were simply awesome if somewhat virtigo inducing. At $46 per night on a busy pre-Chritmas weekend just after the silver fair we feel we chose wisely....

Festival of the Virgin of Health - Patzcuaro

2007-12-28T13:54:00.000-08:00

The local festival honors the Virgin of Health and She is revered by the local indiginous people. On the eighth of each month pigrims make penitental offerings (ie crawling across the plaza and to the alter) and on December eight the whole parish and town joins in. It is one Mass after another in the Church and outside it is a big fair complete with midway and fireworks. Thousands of people press into the narrow streets for a fun party. The sounds are hard to desribe purhaps simply describing it a cacaphony of sound - I now know exactly what that word means.

El Rosario Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary

2007-12-26T13:17:00.000-08:00

Many people have heard about the amazing lifecycle and migration of the Monarch Butterfly from the Great Lakes region of North America to its winters in the mountains of Michoacan in Central Mexico. The amazing thing is this annual cycle takes five generations of the butterfly so there is no direct connection to the wintering grounds in Mexico. Deb and I hired a guide to take us to them. Altitude 3300 meters - temperature that night 2C. It was frosty but the hike up definately put a sweat on our brow. We hung out with the butterflys for a couple of hours and took tons of pix and video. The thing that is difficult to fathom from these pix is that the area is huge with hundreds and thousands of trees covered just like these. A final note, President Calderon of Mexico has budgeted some 35 million dollars toward the protection of this species and its environment. Ironically the butterflies greatest threat is the irradication of common milkweed throughout Canada and the States as this is the butterflies main food source during its migration.

Dance of the Old Men - Patzcuaro

2007-12-26T13:02:00.000-08:00

This dance called Dance of the Old Men is a Purpecha dance hundreds of years old. Today the Purpecha people perform it with modern instruments bass, guitar and fiddle (sometimes mandolin). The dancers are boys and young men usually from the same family. They wear masks and costume and special clapping wood shoes. The dancers perform with great vigor leaping about and in all is extremely funny. There is some kind of message here as well in that the elderly still have life and spirit in them. This is but one sample of folk dances from around Lake Patzcuaro in the Michoacan highlands of central Mexico.

Patzcuaro - San Francisco Friday Market

2007-12-08T14:37:00.000-08:00

Patzcuaro is a lovely town with winding cobblestone streets, whitewashed buildings with orchre trim and lively markets. The main market is huge comprising several streets and buildings and hundreds if not thousands of small stalls. On Fridays in the San Francisco Plaza a small outdoor market is held highlighting prodominately inexpensive ceramics and small handcrafted items. We noticed that most of the people using the market were older than the general population. Here is but a small sample of the people of this town.

Copper Pots

2007-12-07T08:38:00.001-08:00

Santa Clara del Cobre - Coppersmithing

2007-12-07T08:16:00.000-08:00

This was a very interesting day visiting the town known for its copper work. This area was known for coppersmithing since pre-hipanic times - that means Aztec and before. The pine forest provided the energy for smelting and the ore came from mines about 40km away. The mines were exhausted about 50 years ago but the metalwork continued using recycled copper brought into the area from abroad. This recyled source continues today - the streetfolks that scrounge copper at home may continue the journey of the metal ending up here and becomg a beautiful water jug. Apparently there are dozens of studios in the town and we visited one and saw the process of working copper completely by hand. We bought some items but that will be another later post on the blog. There were five guys in the studio, four workers and the jefe and with broken spanish and a smattering of english we followed the process through. I think you'll get the idea with the pictures - remember all by hand - no elecrtic tools whatsoever - very cool!

Bricks, Bricks, and more Bricks

2007-12-07T07:37:00.000-08:00

In between Zamora and Patzcuaro we started to notice that most of the buildings were made of red bricks and mortor. We were also seeing trucks of all sizes and descriptions loaded down with these bricks. Somewhere in the pine forest we passed through a small town with dozens of clay brickworks beside the highway. The clay is at the site or sometimes is trucked in from elsewhere. The clay soil is mixed with water and molded with small wooden forms and then stacked for drying. Finally the bricks are stacked in a simple brick-built kiln and fired from the offcuts of the local logging and sawmill industry. We never know quite what to expect as we drive down the highway.

Heading Inland - Agriculture

2007-12-07T07:16:00.000-08:00

Deb and I spent a month on the beach tuning up our spanish before heading inland to the Michoacan highlands and our first true experience with colonial Mexico. Along our way we passed huge regions of agricultural land - miles of blue agave around the town of Tequila east of Guadalajara. South of Lake Chapala along highway 15 it was miles of strawberries and raspberries in gigantic but simple greenhouses and as we turned away from the lake it was a checkerboard of mixed crops. In the highlands we would often see evidence of small scale farming primarily corn with perhaps some evidence of a vegetable garden in predominately pine forest. Much cooler at altitude and the cropland is now dormant for a few months. The high today is forecast to be 19C with a low of 3C - brrrrrr.

The Evening Parade of Ants

2007-11-24T11:28:00.000-08:00

Every evening just after dusk leafcutter ants come out of their hole and march beside our patio pad to a bush out front to harvest its leaves and flowers. I can't get that stupid song out of my head while watching them. Some of you know the song I mean...

Puerto Vallarta

2007-11-24T11:25:00.001-08:00

We had the opportunity to head into Vallarta for the day and basically walked around looking at tons of tourist souvenirs and dozens of bars and resturants. One highlight ironically was the trip to Wal-Mart where we stocked up on some essential items like a couple of new bathing suits for Deb and a relatively decent map of Mexico.

Mexican Rodeo

2007-11-24T10:57:00.000-08:00

The Rodeo is a little different than the CPRA in that it is done with a team of five against two other teams. The teams have to present the horses for inspection and to demonstrate that they and the horse are skilled enough to procede. All the baqueros are skilled in roping. At one point the baquero had a big lassoo circling around himself then he turned it 90 degrees and jumped through it twice and then got to throw the lassoo out to rope a stampeding horse. It was amazing. It was quite dark so I don't have many photos, but I do have VDO that I will try and post in the future.

Revolution Day Parade 5 - La Penita

2007-11-23T15:09:00.001-08:00

November 20th is Revolution Day in Mexico and all over the country in small towns and large cities parades are held celebrating the event. La Penita is a village of about 1000 people and is located 60 kilometers north of Puerto Vallarta on the Pacific coast. For the most part this parade is organized by the schools in the area and includes colourful costumes, dancing, and skits demonstrating events from the revolution. The parade travels about eight blocks in total, down the main avenue and takes about four hours to pass. I can't imagine how long the staging area must be. This really is a community event in some parts of the route the crowd spilled off the curb and into the street twelve or fourteen deep. Oh by the way the temperature was 32C - these are some resiliant kids

Revolution Day Parade 4 - La Penita

2007-11-23T15:03:00.001-08:00

Revolution Day Parade 3 - La Penita

2007-11-23T14:47:00.001-08:00

Ana Karen is a high school student that works part-time in the RV park. She is going to graduate this spring and as I understand it, as present she is getting the opportunity to visit British Columbia for the summer. Since she is the only person we know in the parade we have to include her on the blog. (see, I told you I would)

Revolution Day Parade 2 - La Penita

2007-11-23T14:41:00.001-08:00

Revolution Day Parade 1 - La Penita

2007-11-23T14:36:00.000-08:00

Our Neighbourhood and a Neighbour

2007-11-14T12:52:00.000-08:00

Around La Penita - Our Chores and Stuff

2007-11-12T16:06:00.000-08:00

La Penita RV Park Supports Turtle Release

2007-11-12T15:56:00.000-08:00

Espinoza del Diablo on Day of the Dead

2007-11-12T15:52:00.000-08:00

The Mountains Between Durango and Mazatlan

2007-11-12T15:50:00.000-08:00

And More Desert

2007-11-12T15:35:00.001-08:00

Some Desert

2007-11-12T13:21:00.000-08:00

Into Mexico

2007-11-12T13:20:00.001-08:00

New Orleans Voodoo Music Fest

2007-11-12T12:49:00.000-08:00

Two Drivers

2007-11-12T12:24:00.001-08:00

Magic Kingdom

2007-11-12T12:01:00.001-08:00

Frank Lloyd Wright - Falling Water - A Masterpiece

2007-11-12T11:58:00.000-08:00

More from KW

2007-11-09T05:02:00.001-08:00

visit another brother in Kitchener/Waterloo

2007-11-08T15:58:00.000-08:00

Zipline in Laurentions with my Brother

2007-11-08T14:02:00.001-08:00

To visit family in Ottawa

2007-11-08T13:56:00.000-08:00

Manitoba and Northern Ontario

2007-11-08T13:43:00.001-08:00

Saskatchewan

2007-11-08T13:41:00.001-08:00

Into Alberta

2007-11-08T13:37:00.000-08:00

starting the trip across canada

2007-11-08T12:52:00.000-08:00

2007-11-07T14:59:00.000-08:00

Leaving Moab and Arches - Final Photos this Trip

2007-08-19T17:24:00.000-07:00

Sunrise in Arches National Park

2007-08-19T16:42:00.000-07:00

Once again the charm and beauty of the Moab region kept us hanging around. The previous day we ran out of battery on the camera so today we chose to rise early, like 5am, all charged up to get well into Arches NP and experience the sunrise. Got tons of stills and VDO. Nobody was there...

An Afternoon in Arches National Park

2007-08-19T16:04:00.000-07:00

Canyonlands NP - Moab, Utah

2007-08-19T15:13:00.000-07:00

Moab turned out to be a big suprise. We had heard that it was beautiful in a harsh way but truely it is stunning. We expected just to overnight there and we ended up staying for three days. These pictures are from a jetboat tour we took down the Colorado River. Very well guided with lots of cultural, historical and geographic information on the ecology of this region. We also did a "whitewater" raft trip down another part of the river. Not much whitewater but a lot of fun none the less. Most of the time I was in a kayac, with Deb joining me for the final section of the trip. We didn't bring a camera (water you know) however a company called Moab Action Shots takes pictures of all the groups going down the river and posts them on a website to sell to the tourists. A nice souvenier. Here is a small sample of our stills in Canyonlands National Park - we have some awesome VDO from the jetboat.

Colorado to Utah - A Variable Landscape

2007-08-19T14:59:00.000-07:00

We left the ranch and had to have a big day to move us down the road back towards Canada. The Colorado landscape was mountainous with trees and lots of passes. The Continental divide was 11,312 feet and as we moved towards Utah it got drier and more desolate until we approached the canyonlands.

Monument Lake

2007-08-19T11:19:00.000-07:00

We spent a few days fishing in Monument Lake, south and west of the Spanish Peaks. Elevation of the Peaks is 13,000ft +, this lake is at about 9000 ft. We camped up there for a few nights and our friends Scott and Cindy came up fish during the day. We had a great camping site right beside the lake with lots of wildlife. One evening a bear put his paws on the front of the rv and looked in; the cats went crazy. We caught our limits in this lake and had a big fish fry before starting the long drive back to Kelowna.

Ranch Life in Boncarbo

2007-08-19T10:30:00.000-07:00

After a three day speed run to Southern Colorado we hung around and enjoyed life on the ranch, elevation 7500 feet. The view to the west was fantastic day and night; sunsets clashing with thunderstorms over the Spanish Peaks each evening. Dennis was a gracious host and after a group dinner entertained us in the evenings with his original songs. We got fishing licences. Scott and Cindy taught us how to fish on a small lake before we headed Monument Lake 9000 feet just to the southwest of the peaks.

Yellowstone to Arrival at Valhalla Ranch

2007-08-19T09:24:00.000-07:00

A Quick Stop in Yellowstone on the Way to Trinidad Colorado

2007-08-19T08:52:00.000-07:00

These selected pictures show some of the landscape we experienced on our trip to Valhalla Ranch near Trinidad Colorado. It was a three day speed run to visit our friends Cindy and Scott from Cozumel and their friend ranch owner and singin' cowboy Dennis Lentz. Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone NP was really the first noteworthy site. We had travelled through Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Coloroado south to just a few miles from the New Mexico boarder.

Travelling with Jeff and Deb

2007-08-19T07:12:00.000-07:00

We just returned a few days ago after logging some 5000km in our 24 foot motorhome and we thought you may like to see a few pictures