Visual Communication Cover Letters

March 25th

26th March

Merida, Ek Balam and Playa del Carmen

clear after a good, very rich and obstigem breakfast, pineapple, many species of melon, papaya and many unknown fruit ... there are plenty of hotels. Where: the most colorful fruits I tasted mostly the least.

Then we took a city tour of Merida. We looked at old buildings, the custom of the arrogance of the English conquerors.

I like old English cathedrals and villas rather not. They seem so bleak, dark, threatening. The Mayan sites, however, from which they were built (even if there are any, many people lost their lives) have something sublime, historically significant in itself. We visited the Government Palace, the Cathedral ...

Then we went to the market. Here, Sabine once bought a very good, authentic Mexican Hammock (This part must be at least 1.60 to 1.80 m wide and very closely be. You sleep in it diagonally, it can - use them as a couple - supposedly carrying capacity of 4 tons. How good is a hammock can be counted using the strings that have been used .. But I do not remember how much has cords Sabines mat)

We went over the "ordinary" locals market. There are some really fresh meat, which hangs in the sun, fresh, but mostly shriveled fruit at noon, thousands of types of spare parts and components, many small food stalls where you can get an encore sure Montezuma's Revenge ... . Everywhere there is a lot of activity. .

Then there was the last joint lunch our tour group in a large open-air restaurant. Here we were offered lunch in addition to the folk dance. Gaily dressed Mexicans were dancing to tape music with glasses, bottles and trays on their heads. The food was - as always tasty. The drinks were - also as usual on the trip - expensive. Only coffee you could get yourself free.

The journey went on to Ek Balam, our (now) last Mayaort. The small (relatively new) excavation site, in addition to some small, have already been excavated buildings, but not as spectacular (or is that because we have already seen 3 cities?) As the highlight of a pyramid, you may climb, and are in their upper part, very well-preserved parts of a temple. As the temple entrance was very interesting - it is designed as a big mouth of a god - I really had to ¾ of about 110 steps high.

Up went really well. Above one has a very good view of the jungle (we saw smoke - surely a slash and burn), to the mountains, but probably not really mountains, overgrown ruins .... Even the temple entrance - you have found him a few years ago, he is still so white, that have not been discolored by the humidity - seemed overwhelming.

After everything I had sufficiently admired, I began my descent. Face always toward the stairs, slowly, diagonally down the steep steps ... Caution is the side which meet sometime at the end .. So do not come too close to the abyss ...

I was well down and was happy to listen to the remarks of Max.

The history of Maya is not really as complicated as I thought. The Olmec culture was replaced by the Maya. These acquisitions, like all American civilizations, much of its predecessors: a part of the gods, the construction of temples and pyramids, the very precise calendar, the observation of the stars, the sacrifice of prisoners for the gods .... They had a 20s-number system and knew the zero (much earlier than, say, the Europeans).

There was never a "unified Maya culture," but cities that stood against each other in competition. The Maya were many cities and developed rapidly. Even if they had to give up the wheel and iron, the many crops that were air conditioned possible that (coming from America so corn, potatoes, cocoa, and much more that we need today a day) many edible plants resulted in they were more accessible. For religious reasons, the cities wars against each other (when that was promising, "said Venus, which has been under constant) to have prisoners who could be sacrificed to the gods.

This was the sacrificed but apparently not quite as bad: only by the sacrifice (heart ripped out from the living body) could be the "real paradise to come. finally alliances were formed around the "great powers" Tikal and Calakmul . As one of the great powers was defeated by a small "city side", broke the balance, the wars were to .. Additionally, there was the ever-increasing population nutrition problems, since the fields are no longer "rest" and therefore could have been infertile. When, more often times the rains did not come true (global warming, the earth happened so every few hundred years, like just now), questioned the "common people" to their god kings, and there were riots. In consequence, most cities have been abandoned over time. The Mayan civilization was slowly creeping under. You followed then by the Toltecs, for example again the almost deserted populated Chichen Itza newly built and continue. These were then in principle (even slowly) being replaced by the Aztecs, which were then defeated by the Spaniards ....

Then our journey took us to Playa del Carmen, where we were looking forward to our hotel. We were lucky - After the long bus trip, we had taken the last few days behind us, we were about 18 clock the first to be dropped off at their hotel. A super trip was behind us. We have very seen a lot a lot about Mexico and the Maya experienced. Much of it is safe to tell still,

eg make

• The natives still about 10% of the total population of the country, they live mostly in separate locations (we have seen in passing. Properties with a "Mayan hut, whose neighborhood is full of trash on a regular basis rather)
  

• The average" Mexicans "have a nearly with the U.S. citizens similar income Only unskilled are "poor". (Told me Max, but I the question was put firmly in the wrong place. All around us were other tour groups and Mexicans, Max looked at me with his comments also very intense and wondered each formulation .. Whether in our neighborhood "representatives his company "or" local tourist police was "otherwise and his response would have been different?)
  

• There are few roads through the jungle. Also, we are usually the same routes had been driven several times.
  

• locals were always very helpful, without expecting a tip (at least, the begging, I'm used to from Egypt, there was almost never)

any case, now was the holiday at the Hotel WYNDHAM VIVA AZTECA going on. Having our AI bracelet (which we were identified as hotel guests in the hotel but also for all street vendors) had received, we went to our room 1219th Unfortunately, the room had no sea view, but you could see the barely 40 cm wide "balcony" from the garden to see where to jump out small lizards ... And in the second floor of a hotel to be dreietagigen is certainly in order: the stairway is not as long, but nobody from outside can come into the room. was in the room are two double beds (which actually in a double room? We have only used one.), A safe, accessible well-stocked Minnibar (included), a beautiful bathroom, very quiet air conditioning ( the noise of air conditioning in the three hotels was far but very disturbing.) ... We were completely satisfied. We looked at only briefly this evening to the hotel and then went, after a good dinner, fast To sleep.