Palenque

On our way back, we passed Palenque because we still had a lot of time until we had to get to Puebla.

Palenque is another ancient town but contrary to Tulum it is in the forest. It really looks great as well and what impressed me is that only 4% of the whole town are discovered. The rest is still hidden in the forest. And if they wouldn't constantly remove plants, all buildings would soon be covered again.

There is one hill and they told us that probably there is a pyramide underneath as well.

To be precise: Martin told us as he was our tourist guide there. He had already been there before and to be honest I did a good job as tourist guide. There is more to learn and discover than in Tulum. So I prefer Palenque a bit. But both is worth seeing!

Yucantan - VIII

On our last but one day, we finally went to the famous ruins in Tulum. Nice, aren't they...


Unfortunately the weather wasn't perfect but ok. To be honest there isn't much to tell about the Tulum ruins. It's very nice there because it's on the beach (I guess the only Maya ruins on the beach) but there is not much to "learn". I told you all the important things before...

Yucatan - VII

As I already mentioned, the weather wasn't too good in Playa del Carmen. Therefore, one day we went to Tulum (about 1 hour from that town) to do snorkeling in the Cenote Grande.

A cenote is a cave filled with water (or partly filled). So weather isn't that important for this kind of sport. Although it would have been a bit nicer with sunlight as I was told that the water appears turquoise when the sun shines into the cenote. Well, it was very cool anyway. The formations of stones are really impressing. Of course I don't have fotos of that. But here is another nice one.

Hanna, who you can see on the left hand side on the pic is (almost) a professional diver. Martin wanted to dive as well and asked what would happen if he went diving without knowing about handling the equipment. Her answer: You'll definitely die!

Martin is still alive. But he didn't go diving after such a motivating answer;-)

After our snorkeling adventure we wanted to see the famous pyramides of Tulum which appear on almost every tourist guide about Mexico. As the weather go even worse we didn't go there that day.

Yucatan - VI

To be honest, the rest of our tour was a bit quieter. We went to Playa del Carmen where we met 5 other Volkswagen interns which was fun (and not always easy;-).

Playa del Carmen is a tourist town, too, but not as "gringo" as Cancun. It is not that big and more international. And the police is very eager there concerning parking. First I should explain that in Mexican towns you can park along the streets unless the curbstone is painted yellow (if I'm right it's the same in the USA). By saing the police there is eager I mean they don't even allow you to be 5 cm on the yellow part. Because of this they unscrewed the number plate of onother intern. Well, I should also explain that if you see a car with a missing number plate in Mexico this can have to reasons:

• The plate was stolen.
• The police unscrewed it.

In the second case you have to go to the police station and pay. Then you'll get it back. Strange way of making sure people pay but it seems to work. (In the first case there is not much to do.)

Unfortunately the weather wasn't that good there. Therefore, I won't publish pictures. I don't want to destroy your imagination that there is always sun in Mexico;-)

Because of the weather we didn't spend much time on the beach. I'm not so keen of it anyway so I don't really complain. Instead we went sailing as Ute knows how to do it. It was really fun. I was captain for some minutes as well and can tell you that sailing isn't that difficult. As long as somebody tells you what to do... ;-)

Yucatan - V

As I already said, our next stop was in Cancún. I guess Cancún is for US Americans what Mallorca is for Germans. The difference is that Cancún was built around 30 years ago from scratch! There is the zona hotelera (area where all the big and expensive hotels are) next to the sea and... let's say the rest of the city. At least, there the hotels aren't that expensive. But there are tourists (gringos) all over the place and they try to fool you everywhere;-) For example we ordered a beer each of us in a pub and got tow each. My friend asked if at that day there were dos por una (two for one; sometimes they have those offers here) and they told us that yes. When we had to pay we had to find out that it wasn't true and there was nothing we could do about it. The next day we were looking for a relatively cheap restaurant. After asking some people in the street we found one. That is to say: the food was cheap. The drinks were not listed on the menu and we didn't think about asking how much they were. At the end, the two cokes I had were much more expensive than the meal *annoyed*.

As Cancún is a place crowded with tourists we went to Isla Mujeres (Women Island) which got it's name because the Spanish conquistadores found a temple with many statues of goddesses there. There is a more romantic explanation for the name but it is not true;-)

It is true that Isla Mujeres isn't that crowded with tourists but by no means it is a quiet place. Martin and I went snorkeling there which was very nice. The funny thing was that after we had paid and everything was almost ready on the boat they asked us if we could swim... And you will be surprised to hear that the majority of people there couldn't or couldn't swim very well in deed. They got their lifejacket and the promise that they would get extra attention...

You already know the less good news. Some of our things were stolen on that island.

Besides of that the beach is nice there...

Yucatan - IV

Let's continue a bit with my tour:

On Monday we went to Chichén Itzá. Probably the name doesn't ring a bell but I guess the following picture does. You definitely have seen it in any kind of information about Mexico:

The pyramide is quite famous and I found it really impressing. It's not only the buidling itself but its function and meaning. It has 91 steps on each side which makes (91 times 4) 364 in total. Plus the "last step" on top... mmh? ... 365! The number of days of a year. Maybe you don't find that too impressing but they didn't only calculate the number of days per year exactly but also had a system to add days (as we do in a leap year) which was almost as exact as the system now (btw, it's quite interesting as it's actually a bit more complicated than adding a day every four years). Considering that they knew that already 1000 years ago and were much more exact than the Gregorian Calendar in Europe, it is something really worth knowing (for me;-).

In addition, twice per year the sun is the reasons why more people than usual come to Chichén Itzá. Because of light and shadow it looks as if a snake is coming down the pyramide. You can see it on the next picture although I think it's a bit difficult to imagine. Well, I didn't see it either as it is for the start of spring and autumn. The interesting question is how the Mayas calculated the adjustment of the building.

And some more about Mayan mathematics: they had a number system based on 20 including zero. Those who know a bit about mathematics and the history of numbers know that it isn't self-evident and that "our" zero comes from India.

Going back to Chichén Itzá and the Mayas, let me tell you that the pyramide isn't the only building there. Of course they also had a ball game field there. I think by now I told you enough about it (see previous posts) and the building called "The Observatory" is quite cool as well. You can see it on the picture on the right.

We stayed a bit longer in Chichén Itzá to see the luz y sonido ("light and sound") event in the evening. The light effects were very good and they told in short (30 minutes) the story of the region and the town.

By the way, around the archeological site there is really nothing worth mentioning. The next town is more than ugly. Therefore we continued our travel at about 9pm to arrive in Cancún about 2 hours later... (Cancún will be the next post.)

Yucatan - III

The next day (Sunday) we went from Campeche to Uxmal which is a quite famous archeological site. Or just stones again (depends on your point of view).

We took a guided tour there which is always quite helpful. There are hardly any signs to tell the tourists about the history and buildings.

What I learned there is that Mayan language has some similarities with German. Very strange... Uxmal (pronounced oosh mul) means 3 times (ux=3; mal=times which is the same in German). The Mayas gave this name to the town because it was constructed 3 times. Or lets better say they but 2 times a new layer of stones over the old one;-)

The town was constructed at that place because of some big cenotes (like holes in the stone) where the rain water collected. It was quite interesting to learn that the ancient Mayas already did the same as we are doing now at Volkswagen. Collecting and treating rain water for further use (this is part of my project here).

But the Mayas didn't use all the cenotes for collecting drinking water. They also believed that in some of them lived the rain god. To get to know about the weather of the following year, they threw somebody into one of the cenotes (after 3 days of fasting). If the person survived for more than one day, they were retracted and asked about the weather. They believed that the rain god revealed his plans to those who survived. Well, it's a kind of weather forecast but I prefer the modern ones;-)


Later that day we continued our trip and went to Mérida. Again we followed the "Lonely Planet" (I still had it then) and went to a youth hostel. There we met quite a lot of people that had also been in Campeche. As Martin expressed it: Buying the "Lonely Planet" means buying in to a certain community.

And there was evening, and there was morning - the second day. And we saw that it was good!

Yucatan - II

As I promised, I'll tell you a bit more about my trip last week.

I went with two other interns at Volkswagen, Ute and Martin, and we took one of the Jettas Volkswagen gives to the interns. Of course, officially the car is only for going to work and back and maybe doing your shoppings. But let's say they tolerate that we interns also use the cars for our weekend and holiday trips. Or how do you explain that the car assurance is valid all over Mexico...?

So we left last week friday at about 10pm. Our first stop was in Campeche. For Mexicans: Campeche, Campeche (i.e. the city Campeche in the state Campeche; many states are named equally to their capital or another big city). We arrived there about 12 hours later. Quite tired as you can imagine. But happy;-)

Campeche is the cleanest city I have seen in Mexico. It is a really nice colonial city with small streets, restored colonial buildings and of course the important city wall. You can see part of it on the picture.

We travelled with the "Lonely Planet" (at that point I still had it) which recommendet the Monkey Hostel. It is located directly next to the zócalo (city square) and we got to know quite some... mmh... let's say "freaky" people including some Germans. Backpackers with matted hair etc. The whole program... ;-)

Campeche is also very nice at night. They play music at the zócalo, there are clowns (well, that was more the kids' attraction) and they sell beer there...

And there was evening, and there was morning - the first day;-)

Another "Wake up!"

Last weekend I went to Zacatlan. It's a nice small city about 3 hours by car from Puebla. On the pic you can see the nice view you have there. When we were at that place (where I took the picture), we asked ourselves if it wasn't possible to go down this valley. So we asked a woman in a shop who told us that it was possible and also told us the direction where we had to go. Because of our experience with Mexicans telling you where you have to go (see one of the previous posts), we also asked a policeman for the way. He told us that it was forbitten to go down there because it was so slippery.

Nonetheless, he went with us to the place where the path starts downwards. Additionally he went away and came back with to boys (about the age of 8) to guide us downwards for a coke each.

I guess that describes some more things in Mexico.

Teotihuacan, City of Gods*

Last weekend I was in Teotihuacan, which is a place east of Mexico City.


You can find the most ancient pyramids of Mexico there and the whole place is very impressing. There are three main pyramids which are:

1. La Pirámide del Sol (Pyramid of the Sun)
2. La Pirámide de la Luna (Pyramid of the Moon)
3. La Pirámide de la Ciudadela (Pyramid of the Citadel)

The first has a hight of 63 metres. The second is about 40 metres high.

There are a number of smaller pyramids which all represent the planets. I found it very impressing that they know about our solar system already 300 BC (or a little later, around that year the constructions began).

The name Teotihuacan is of Aztec origin. The Teotihuacanas (name of the people that orignially lived in the city) lived already before the Aztecs but for a reason unknows they abandoned the city. Later the Aztecs found the city and believed it was the city of their gods. They also named the main street of the town "Avenue of the Dead" because they believed the small buildings along the street were the tombs of their former kings.

As you can see on the pictures the weather was very good and although I protected myself quite well from the sun, I ended with a little sunburn on a very strange place. The next day I had to wear my safety shoes which was painfull.

*There is no relation to the film "City of God" (Cidade de Deus) which I can recommend, however. People say it's similar in some parts of Mexico City.

Every place has its attraction...

...it just depends on the measurement.

I hope nobody from Cholula will read this post. Otherwise they'll kill me for the way I talk about their pyramide.

Maybe you remember the picture of Popocatépetl with the church in front. On that picture also was the greatest pyramide on earth!

You didn't see it? Well, it is underneath the hill with the church on top. Perhaps the next picture helps a bit to imagine a little better. But the real pyramide really is underneath the hill!

And if you always thought Cheop's Pyramide in Egypt was the greatest. Well, that depends on the measurement. Cheop's is the highest pyramide. The Cholula pyramide is the greatest in terms of volume and ground area.

Find the pyramide...

D.F.

D.F. stands for distrito federal (federal district). That's how most people here call la Ciudad de México (Mexico City) although that is not 100% correct. The federal district is just a part Mexico City. Anyway, most sights are in the distrito federal and it's much shorter so why not say D.F.

Why do I explain all that? Last weekend I was in D.F. First of all, don't worry: I'm still alive, I wasn't kidnapped and I wasn't robbed. Second, the city is really amazing! I really don't know where to start...

Facts & Figures

• about 9 million inhabitants in the city itself
• more than 22 million inhabitants in the greater city area
• density: 5.900 inhabitants/ km²
• about 5000 km² surface of the greater city area

Smog
Smog really is a problem in Mexico City. Although I was there during the weekend (when it isn't really bad) I could sense it a bit. And when I returned on Sunday night I had really dry eyes. I guess it was an effect of all the exhaust fumes in the air.
Smog is such a big problem not only because nobody cares about catalysers and filters but also because Mexico City is situated in a valley so that the polluted air cannot escape. The production plants on the hills around the city also contribute their part to pollution.
To reduce smog and pollution, the government has introduced a system which takes part of the cars off the road. I don't remember exactly which numbers are affected on which day but it is as follows:

• cars with a 1 or 2 at the end on the number plate are not allowed to drive on Monday
• 3 and 4 have to stay at home on Tuesday
• etc.

The only problem is: Most people who live close to the city centre are rich people. Those usually have more than one car and of course they don't have two cars with the same number at the end!

Traffic

There is really a lot of traffic in D.F. and in a way it is even cazier than anywhere else. I even saw a traffic circle which was used in both directions. It's on the picture but, yes Michael, you can hardly see it;-) Well, to be honest I didn't understand the system behind it.

Bochos
In Mexico City and anywhere else in Mexico you still can see many Käfer (Beetles) which are called bochos here. A lot of them are used as taxis. By the way, a lot of people here call Volkswagen la bocho although they haven't been produced any more. But the Mexicans are very emotional about that. The shop floor where el bocho used to be produced is also called "hall of tears".


Sights
There are so many sights in D.F. that it's unpossible to see all of them on a weekend and I struggle a bit choosing some to present them here.

What is very famous is the Museum of Anthropology where you can learn a lot about pre-hispanic Mexican histroy.



There is the Metropolitan Cathetral as a repre- sentative of the Spanish colonial era.









Furthermore, there is the Templo Mayor or better it's ruins. It was the great pyramide of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan.


Situated on the zócalo is the Palacio Nacional where Diego Rivera painted his great murals.









And the Palaco de Bellas Artes is quite nice, too. As long as you are interested in arts at least a little bit;-)

Views

Have you ever heared about Popocatépetl? It is quite famous, I guess. It's the second highest mountain in Mexico (5452m), the second highest volcano in North America and what I see when I look out of my window (más o menos;-). It looks nice, doesn't it? But it's not that nice all the time. This volcano is still active and we sometimes can see smoke coming out of it. The last breakout was in 1996. Well, ten years ago... time for another one. I don't hope so!

Popocatépetl has a "twin" called Iztaccíhuatl (never mind the pronunciation, it's of Aztec origin, I have my problems with that, too) which you can see on the next picture on the right. Some of my colleagues have climbed it and I'd like to do that, too. I just have to do a bit of training! And even if you are well-trained, people say that you have a strong headache and hardly can breathe. By the way, it's not possible to climb Popocatépetl any more; except for those how have a special permission (journalists, scientists etc.).

Some people say that Iztaccíhuatl looks like a lying woman (make up your mind yourself). There also is an Aztec legend which says that Iztaccíhuatl was a princess once and Popocatépetl a soldier who were in love with each other. When Popo had to go to war, Izta killed herself. When Popo returned he found her dead but ever since then he watches over her. And when he is really sad and cries, smoke comes out of the volcano.

And that's me in front of them...

Stones

When I asked other interns at Volkswagen what they had seen in Mexico, they often told me "stones". Of course this is a kind of ironic answer but I tend to agree with them.

On my second weekend here, I was in El Tajin where you can see the remains of a number of pyramides which is really great. But of course it's just stones;-).






I was there with 3 other interns and what shocked us a bit was how our guide talked about the self-sacrefices which took place there some hundred years ago. You can see that on the pictures. Now a question to you? Can you see what shocked us so much about it? Let me tell you that the guide talked about it in an absolutely calm voice while he got excited about how painfull it was for women to but a bone through their tongue.


And just a nice picture to end this post: