The Weekly Watch

Colonial Town, Cenotes, and Maya Ruins

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This week we're traveling west (we use taxis and buses in Mexico) to the colonial town of Izamal. Visiting some cenotes, water filled sink holes. Then visiting another UNESCO site, Uxamal, an old Mayan city.

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Izamal

You won`t want to miss our historic, Mayan - Colonial town, spending a couple of days to explore all of Yucatan's sights from here. Enjoy the tranquil atmosphere, take a ride in a horse buggy, rent a bike or climb the biggest pyramid in all of Yucatan. Explore the secrets of the Mayans and enjoy the natural surroundings. Explore Izamal's unique colonial buildings, the Mayan pyramids, the art and crafts route with stops at interesting handcraft workshops of your choice. Visit with local artisans weaving hammocks, making jewelry, carving wood icons and masks, crafting Paper Mache butterflies and mobiles, creating artwork pieces from tin, or medicine from Mayan traditional plants and herbs.

Immerse yourself a couple of days in this lovely town, walk around or rent a bike to discover the history, the nature, the hidden secrets of the town and see how Mayan life is nowadays. Either you stay in vivid downtown or you choose one of the more quiet and relaxing hotels at the edge of town - distance doesn't matter in Izamal, everything is close by, no more than 10 to 15 minutes of walking distance.

(8 min)

What makes Izamal a magical town?

Just enter the town and that question will be answered. The first thing that any visitor notices is that the town is painted yellow… all the colonial buildings, the market, the huge convent, everything! The next things that stand out are the cobblestone streets and the iron lampposts that give the town a tranquil ambiance.
To visit Izamal is to visit a city/town that is alive with three cultures – the ancient Maya, the colonial, and the present day bustling Izamal. Izamal is a monument of color, history and pride that can be felt in its streets and buildings. Art, music, and gastronomy are all around you!
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Izamal is a jewel of a colonial city, with almost all the buildings painted an egg-yolk yellow. Cobblestone streets and colonial lampposts complete the scenery. Clean, peaceful and quaint, this is a great town to stroll through. There are Maya pyramids, colonial-style buildings, parks and plazas, horses and buggies, and lots of people-watching.

Izamal, Mexico is a ridiculously photogenic and wonderfully walkable Pueblo Magico, in the heart of Yucatan State. Loaded with charm, Izamal wows visitors with its colorful colonial past, accessible ancient ruins, and friendly, small-town atmosphere. Izamal is also widely known as the Yellow City for reasons that will quickly become obvious.
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Izamal doesn’t yet get the numbers of tourists you might expect from a place brimming with well-maintained historic structures at every turn, but that will likely change in the not too distant future.
For now, Izamal occupies an ideal space on the tourist spectrum, offering enough sights and services for visitors to feel comfortable, without the tourist traps, crowds, or hustlers of better known destinations. A visit to Izamal, Mexico strikes a balance that is increasingly hard to find these days — but thankfully, still seems to exist here in this small corner of the Yucatan.

https://www.awaygowe.com/izamal-mexico-travel-guide/

The Pyramid of Kinich Kak Moo (Sun-eyed-Fire-Macaw) at Izamal is the largest pyramid structure by volume on the Yucatan Peninsula, and perhaps the third largest in all of Mesoamerica (Cholula is the largest). It is located right in the town of Izamal and dates to at least 700 BC. The structure was built over a cave which holds a sacred place in the religion and mythology of the Maya. Remnants of the cave are still visible on one side of the pyramid. It has "megalithic" construction, basically huge blocks of stone throughout the site, much like at Ake and a few other sites in the area and has a number of Sacbe's (sacred raised white roads) going off in different directions, the most famous one going to Ake, which stretches for 300 KM east to west through he Yucatan connecting up various sites. Another feature is protruding slabs that run at intervals around the circumference of the structure.
25 min exploration.

Izamal in the Yucatan of Mexico is the location of an ancient Mayan city dating to as far back as 700 BC, which has now been mostly built over. However, many pyramids and other structures, often with megalithic blocks still remain. In this video we visit four sites in and around the town including the recently discovered pyramid of Chaltun Ha. Izamal is famous for the mega-sized pyramid Kinich Kak Moo (Sun-eyed-Fire-Macaw), the largest pyramid structure by volume on the Yucatan Peninsula (see previous video), and the third largest in all of Mesoamerica (Cholula is the largest). Hugh Newman visits El Conejo (The Rabbit) stone platforms, Kabul, a wide, low pyramid, the impressive Itzamatul Pyramid, and a few other spots in town where ancient stonework still exists. Includes exclusive aerial footage. (13 min)

A tour and history of the town, pyramids and other Mayan archaeological sites of Izamal. (8 min)

Cenotes

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The Yucatan Peninsula is home to the worlds most impressive natural swimming holes called Cenotes (Say-No-tehs)...

The facts… All Cenotes radiate from the center of what is known as the Chicxulub crater (Chik-shu-lube) caused by the impact of a huge meteor 65 million years ago. The first “Ring of Cenotes” is approximately 90 km from the center of the impact and there are subsequent ripples of Cenotes traveling from Chicxulub / Progreso and all the way to the Mayan Riviera and the Caribbean coast.

There are estimates that 6,000 to 12,000 Cenotes dot the landscape of the Yucatan, like Swiss cheese, most of which are on private land and/or hidden deep in the low lying jungle.
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There are NO surface rivers in the Yucatan, all the rivers are underground. Over time as the limestone erodes, the caves get bigger and eventually the ceiling caves-in, or a tree will break through looking for water. This sinkhole provides access to the underground river system from the outside world and is called a “Cenote”.

In Maya “Cenote” is pronounced “Dzonot”, meaning “cave flooded” and “sacred well”. The formation of Cenotes can take hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of years. Depending on the age of the Cenote, there are different classifications.
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Mayan Legend says the entrances to the Yucatan cenotes are guarded by the Toh Bird

The Keeper of the Cenote… the “Toh Bird” aka Turquoise-Browned Mot Mot lives in and around Cenotes. Having a very distinctive far-carrying call, similar to croaking, sometimes remote Cenotes are found merely by following the Toh’s cry. In addition to their unique call, the Toh’s tail features two distinctive featherless barbs ending in an array of colourful feathers at its tip. There are various Mayan legends explaining the origin of Toh’s tail feathers. . . here is but one…

The Toh bird was appointed by the Mayan gods to keep the evil spirits trapped in the underworld by guarding the entrance of the Cenote. One day, in the middle of the afternoon, the Toh decided to take a siesta (a Mexican tradition), and while it was asleep Evil tried to sneak out of the Cenote and in the process stepped on the Toh Bird’s tail, waking him as he past. But by then it was too late and the Evil was able to escape the underworld. That is why, it is said… that we have evil in the world today. As a consequence, the Mayan gods decreed that the Toh Bird should not be able to grow its tail feathers back. Even today Toh Birds are born with tail feathers and they eventually fall off permanently.

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We're unsure which cenote(s) we will visit. We'll ask our hosts in Izamal for a recommendation. We've been to several different ones over the years, but these look interesting.

(15 min)

Uxamal and the Puuc Route
The next stop is a small village, Santa Elena, near the Uxamal ruins.

Uxmal, ancient Maya City, is located 62 km south of Mérida, capital of Yucatán state in Mexico. Its buildings are noted for their size and decoration. Ancient roads called sacbes connect the buildings, and also were built to other cities in the area such as Chichén Itzá in modern-day Mexico, Caracol and Xunantunich in modern-day Belize, and Tikal in modern-day Guatemala. (13 min)

Part 1 of an exploration of Uxmal (meaning 'Thrice Built'), a spectacular Maya site in the Yucatan of Mexico (20 min). It is a classic period site with pre-classic foundations and megalithic elements that are often overlooked.The Pyramid of the Magician has five construction phases and local legend states it was built by a dwarf in one night who challenged the king of Uxmal in a battle of wills. The dwarf was hatched from an egg and brought up by a sorceress before he became king. He was also said to have used 'whistling' to levitate stones and create a Sacbe (sacred white road) between Uxmal and Kabah. The nearby Nunnery Quadrangle is also visited that shows stunning symbols of plumed serpents, the Tlaloc rain god (who was leader of the Quinametzin Giants) and other beautiful artwork in stone. Part 2 (coming soon) investigates more of the site looking at the geodetic and megalithic elements that could suggest this is much older that realised.
Part 2 of an exploration of Uxmal (15 min) Maya Site that has Toltec influences, in the Yucatan of Mexico. We visit the Ball Court, the House of the Turtles, the Great Pyramid and the Governor's Palace which rivals the Pyramid of the Magician as the masterpiece of Uxmal. It is an imposing three-level edifice with a 320 ft long mosaic facade, built in the 9th and 10th centuries AD. The building is oriented to another pyramid nearly 3 miles to the southeast. From there, Venus is observed as the 'evening star,' and when reaching its maximum northerly extremes, would have set behind the northern edge of the Governor's Palace. Kukulkan (Plumed Serpent/Quetzalcoatl) is heavily depicted who represented Venus (amongst other things). We also look at further geodetic and megalithic elements below it where a large monolith may have been seen as the sacred centre or omphalos of the entire site, that could have been there before the Maya built the main site. It is thought to represent the Central Tree (Axis Mundi), the Ya’axche Cab, which is mentioned in the mythology of the Maya.

The Puuc Route (Ruta Puuc) is a collection of five ancient Maya sites in the Yucatan, around 85km south of Merida. Thanks to its collection of well-preserved towering pyramids and grand palaces, it has become a must-visit attraction for culture-loving visitors to the region.

The ANCIENT MAYA cities of KABAH and SAYIL | Exploring the Temple of King Chac Xib Chaac (15 min)

One more ancient city to visit on this leg of the trip...
The Lost City of Labna, "The Old House"
This small and beautiful ancient Maya city has been described by archaeologists as "intense."

So another week of the trip. One more to go. Again internet is iffy this trip so I'll check in if I can. Other wise this is an open thread, so share anything that you want. See you next week for sure.

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Comments

Thanks for the continuation of your travelogue. Love the Cenotes. The formation caused by a
meteor is amazing how it rippled outward in a ring.

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When working on the Acatuum field in the GOM, I would hitch a ride into Campeche and travel
to Merida, make connections and get out to Cancun for my shore leave. Stay at the Pocna on
Isla Mujeres. Loved it there.

Enjoy your adventures!

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snoopydawg's picture

This is just silly.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin accused China of using the balloon “in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States,” in a statement after the “successful” air-to-air missile strike that brought it down above US territorial waters on Saturday.

Hey Lloyd I think that if this was a spy balloon then China achieved its objective and did spy on those strategic sites and they are laughing at us for destroying the balloon after it left the land it was spying on. The deed was done, the information sent and the fat lady is singing.

Dunno if it’s true or not, but huffpoo is saying that 3 balloons from China flew over America during Trump’s tenure and he hushed it up. Seen it a few times on the Twit too.

Also too did anyone buy the story on giving Osama a sea burial and the reason why they did? And what’s up with all members of seal team 6 dying in a helicopter incident? And how many Americans still believe that Saddam attacked us on 9/11? Some enterprising person should write a book on the propaganda we’ve put out. I bet it sells better than Grimm's fairy tales. Smile

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earthling1's picture

on travel in Mexico. The videos are really good. Have made my decision to make the Yucatan my next excursion.
Safety warning: Ominous 2nd Chinese balloon patrolling over S. American region. Keep your tin hat on at all times.
Breaking news: US military catches up to 1st Chinese balloon over Atlantic and successfully pops it in daring operation.
Winning!

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

snoopydawg's picture

I think it’s a new thread. But if we did pop the balloon then we spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to do it. An f-22 costs $80,000 per hour of gas alone and the missile adds another couple of hundreds of thousands of dollars to the tally plus the ship sent to retrieve it. Yup much ta-do about nothing.

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enhydra lutris's picture

Trying to remember if we ever made it to calakmul. We did hit a few places in Belize like Altun Ha and Caracol. Now yet more inspiration to go to Mexican Yucatan again. Hmmmm.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

I am so glad you got to go exploring!
I love the music of Mexico. Even street performers are great. I bet the food is good, and these Mayan ruins site not yet crowded with tourists sound so fantastic.
Thanks for giving us all ideas about going there, and what to see.
The weather here is finally warming up, and it didn't rain today.
Can't wait to see some of your trip pictures!

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

snoopydawg's picture

And presumably some Americans felt safer knowing a nation that landed a rover on the dark side of the moon and tested encrypted satellite communications using quantum entanglement technology, is no longer floating a helium balloon overhead. It reminded us that what we fear need not make much sense.

But boy did the media try to ramp up the fear. I don’t watch the news, but people said that was all they were covering yesterday before the military popped the balloon with a very expensive pin after it was no longer over American territory. Brilliant!

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@snoopydawg we were fixated on balloon news. Maybe the Ukraine war is going really badly? Or, the stock market is near crashing?
Like you, I do not watch TV news and analysis.
China is way too technologically sophisticated to have some important surveillance in a balloon. They have satellites.
This is so crazy.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

snoopydawg's picture

@on the cusp

Cui Bono?

Previous constant headlines of the Ukraine-Russia war were put on pause Friday into Saturday as the American public's attention and discourse got temporarily consumed by the bizarre Chinese 'spy balloon' saga, which grew more dramatic by the hour until it was shot down by the Pentagon over the Atlantic Ocean.

But few are currently asking the necessary deeper questions related to the timing. Given the last major balloon crisis to take over 24/7 network news coverage ended up being a complete hoax (remember the "balloon boy" stunt of 2009 which had the world breathless and on edge for a full news cycle?), the current context to the Chinese balloon story and the question of cui bono is worth a deeper dive...

The Pentagon itself said that “the payload wouldn’t offer much in the way of surveillance that China couldn’t collect through spy satellites” and that “the balloon posed no serious physical or intelligence threat”.

I.e. the Pentagon themselves say it would make zero sense for China to use a balloon like this for intelligence purposes when it has satellites. Kind of begs the question why they decided to make a big deal out of it in the first place…

I'll let you decide for yourself which story makes more sense… The sheer ridiculousness of this Nth “red scare” episode is absolutely obvious to anyone with an iota of common sense. Except, sadly, common sense seems to be in critically short supply nowadays.

Also, as often, the real story is probably why this story became a story in the first place.

Gotta click on the picture to see it.

Well I guess in this scenario there is in fact malice on the media’s part and that of politicians and wider members of the blob but it’s “organic malice”, so to speak, jumping at a golden opportunity to scare-monger.

Conclusion: however you see it, this story is absolutely shameful and a sad reflection of the insane times we live in, when rather than take the time to carefully consider facts, apply reason and common sense, we instead choose as a society to incite fear and hostility.

Bingo on the last sentence. The media hyped this incident as much as possible and once again people fell for it. We have been telling Zelensky for weeks to pull out of Bakmut because they can’t win and they are just throwing lives away, but Zelensky is refusing to do it and still saying that he will push Russia all the way out of Ukraine including Crimea. Yeah? You and whose army?

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snoopydawg's picture

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since he was detained, then just let go.
Nonetheless, 2025 is right around the corner. We must get the propaganda started, the fear, the hatred, asap, and keep it going strong.
I am surprised nobody has pondered whether we sent up that balloon. So, I will ponder that idea.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

snoopydawg's picture

@on the cusp

but know that many here appreciate his voice.

Patrick Lawrence has a must read on balloon gate and why Blinken canceled his visit to China. Too damn sore to excerpt it but hopefully people will read it. He addresses the upcoming war with China and that we are putting missiles in Japan who will become an unsinkable air craft carrier and the new 9 military bases in the Philippines which is against their constitution. See how we work around that inconvenience.

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@snoopydawg I will read it shortly.
About Gonzo. I have listened maybe 2 or 3 of his videos. I have never disagreed with him on anything.
The reason for my hesitancy to take him at his word is that he is in Ukraine, making videos unfavorable to Ukraine, was detained by Ukraine for 3 days, maybe more, and he is right back to making videos critical of Ukraine. Ukraine government knows what he is doing, and lets him do it. As we know, they are cracking down on dissent like crazy over there.
I am skeptical of everybody in media and alt media nowadays.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

usefewersyllables's picture

Wonder what they covered up while prating on and on and ON about it?

Meanwhile, back at the Air Force base....

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

@usefewersyllables

this is only the first salvo. weather balloons the world over are now targets for the
mighty mice in the war department. there are scary spies in every sky now.
China!!!
next, they will be taking out the scary satellites
hope that works out better than the sanctions Wink

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