Ants...

Here is a short video-documentary by Liesl - spotlighting some (not all) of the creatures that we share our apartment with...

good for a laugh. -jb

El dia con las tortugas - el pueblo de Mazunte

A few weeks ago, we jumped on a bus in PE and went to Mazunte, a little community on the coast, about an hour away that has two claims to fame, as far as we can tell. One, it is a sort of eco-hippy-groovy-yoga-free love destination for the dred-locked masses. Two, it is also the site of a pretty cool sea turtle museum and restoration facility.

Historically, an unimaginable number of sea turtles (see photo below) once used the Pacific beaches of what is now Mexico for laying eggs in the sand. There were some 6-8 species that used this area. They spent most of their life ranging widely in the ocean. Then, like salmon, they return to the same beaches where they hatched to lay a big clutch of eggs at night, bury them, and return to the ocean.

Leatherbacks are the biggest variety, and they can grow as large as 800 pounds! See NGS photo below - leatherbacks are the largest, widest-ranging and deepest diving turtles in the world; they have been on the planet for 100 million years (!!) though are now at risk of exinction...

The people of this area took advantage of this incredible fecundity: collecting eggs and turtles for food. As human population has risen recently, the turtle population has dropped (sound familiar?), and now many populations are in serious trouble. In the last several decades, there has been a growing awareness of the need for change, for protection, for restoration, and for encouraging people to stop eating eggs and turtles.

We spent the day at the museum and then at the beach. Across the coast, these beaches are still used by turtles for laying eggs. They drag themselves out of the water at night, and leave before dawn.

A rather strange public education campaign - is this guy "turtle man" or is he into bondage?

L and J inside the museum.

Liesl with a turtle egg that washed up on the beach. We weren't quite sure what to do with it? was is still viable? Should we bury it? Some people that we talked to indicated that these floating eggs were still viable, but I am not so sure...

This is photo from the middle of last century on a nearby beach. Incredible.

At a local beach, a bunch of kids were jumping off a dock into the water...so we had to do it too.

Liesl finally takes the leap.

Here are some righteous hippies at Mazunte...OK, I confess, I found these photos on the web...

El Criadero de Iguanas

So last weekend we took a quick trip about 30 minutes east of Puerto Escondido - to visit a seat-of-the-pants iguana farm run by a veteranarian/university professor/conservationist named Elpidio Marcelino Lopez Reyes. We spent time afterward at a secluded beach nearby, Agua Blanca, where huge surf pounded the coastline.

La Criedero de Iguana is a small site located along a river very close to the ocean. The land is rented, about 20 or so acres, though the facilities itself is located on probably just 3-4 acres. There are two types of iguanas in this area - the dark iguana and the green. Both are endanger of extinction -  in part due to habitat loss and in part because people here have hunted them for food for a very long time. They say that it tastes like chicken (just kidding).

Anyway, the facility is super-low budget - it contains a few cages and reproduction areas (they lay and bury soft eggs in the late winter). There are a couple of volunteers who live next to the site, and I think are related to the doctor.

We had the good fortune of meeting Elpidio - he just happened to be there when we visited. He is super-busy - he works as a veteranarian locally. He also is professor who gives classes in Oaxaca, 7 hours away. He also manages the turtle restoration efforts on the coast - helping to protect and restore the ocean-going tortugas and re-educate the local population to help conserve them. Historically, the eggs have been considered a delicacy and an aphrodisiac; and the turtles themselves, some of which grow to hundreds of pounds, has been a source of fresh protein.

Anyways - below are some photos from the criadero and Agua Blanca.

Dr. Lopez Reyes with Team Bogaard.

This is a 3-y.o. green iguana. It will soon be released back into the wilds locally. The criadero had scores of 3 y.o's as well as 2 y.o's

Close-up of a green. They get to be about 1.5 meters/

This is a dark iguana - more rare, more shy. Head to tail, they can grow to 2 meters in length.

This is the shedded skin of a dark iguana.

This is one of the volunteers preparing some food for the young, still-caged iguanas.

The site was filled with free-ranging iguanas. The trees were filled with them. This is a large green iguana.

We were there at feeding time. Dozens of iguanas came flying out of the trees to feed.

This is a coconut that has sprouted recently.

This area is filled with cicadas. Here are a few shells of the wingless insects, after they emerged with wings and took flight.

This is a photo of David, a surfer from B.C. that we spent some time chatting with at Agua Blanca. He had spent lots of time on this coast, and had lots if insight and some crazy stories.

Liesl's Post - Our Mothers' Day Dance at School

Mothers' Day! In Mexico, Mothers' Day is on the 10th of May. (it is a very big deal in Mexico!) Since I got to school in April, we have been practicing for a Mothers' Day dance. I had to get fitted for a special dress (these were all traditional Mexican dances) and I had to tie my hair back in a special way. I did what is called a Mayapan Dance. I thought that it was kinda of cowboy style. I had fun doing it and practicing it with my new friends at school. On the evening of the performance, we (the dancers) sat in the school lobby for nearly 2 hours - a long time! The lights and the sound system came and went, while bats flew in and out of the school the whole time. But when it came time for us to dance for all the families of the school, I think that it went pretty well.

Here are some photos of me and Jeremiah during our dances. And there are also 2 videos of our dances at the bottom.

Disfrutalos!

-- Liesl

La senorita Liesl (she has been re-named here by the locals as "Lisa")

The rather sad-looking campesino, Jeremias.

Que guapos son!

Jeremias and sus campaneros.

Lisa y una amiga, Andrea.

La fiesta, por la calle, delante de la escuela.

unos ninos muy lindos!

Una baile Azteca.

Una danza de la region Maya - de Chiapas.

 Here are two videos from the fiesta - above is Jeremiah and his amigos; below is "Lisa" and her amigos. They are pretty cute (at least for their parents!)

Day 2 in Mexico City - a visit to Teotihuacan.

Teotihuacan pre-dates the Aztecs, or Mexicas, whose power center was 40 miles south at what is now the heart of Mexico City several centuries after Teotihuacan had been abandoned. It was a very large, carefully planned city that rose and fell roughly between 100 and 1000 A.D. It was at the time, the 6th largest city in the world, home to as many as 125,000 people. It's structure and layout shared some similarities to other city-states and states that emerged during and afterward in Mesoamerica - the Aztec empire, the mosaic of many Maya cities and states that thrived eastward in the 1500+/- years before the arrival of the Conquistadores.

It has several predominant features: the Pyramid of the Sun, Pyramid of the Moon, Avenue of the Dead, and the Plumed Serpent Ciudad. These were all clustered relatively close toward the northern end of the city. This was where all the religious and governmental and main market and community events took place. Only about 2.5 km of the Avenida of the Dead today has been uncovered. It was at least 10 miles long, extending south into the mountains toward points unknown today.

There are numerous theories to explain the fall of Teotihuacan, but no one seems certain - internal strife, external threats, environmental pressures, climate change leading to loss of food production or water availability. The site has been revered ever since as a sacred site, though when the Aztecs wandered through this area looking for a homeland, Teotihuacan pyramids and streets were buried under dirt and trees. Some have even speculated that the residents intentionally buried the city before they abandoned it, but that seems crazy to me (but what do I know?)

Anyway, here are some photos from a tour I joined to visit the site. It was quite amazing in its layout, scope and scale. The site we visited is enormous, but this is just a small fraction of the once-great city. Most of it remains unexplored and un-excavated.

I am standing atop the Pyramid of the Moon, with the Avenue of the Dead behind me, and the Pyramid of the Sun over my right shoulder.

Atop the Pyramid of the Sun (which, based on recent excavations, may in fact me a pyramid to honor the Tlaloc, the God of Rain.) This the the higher, larger, of the two pyramids. Steep steps lead to the top.

This is a bust of the plumed serpent, Quetzalcoatl, a mythic god creature, on the face of the much smaller pyramid in the market area, La Cuidadela.

View from the Pyramid of the Moon; looking down the Avenue of the Dead.

Ditto above photo.

The view looking north - the Ciudadela, closest on the right, then the Pyramid of the Sun beyond that, and finally, the Pyramid of the Moon in the distance.

With the Pyramid of the Moon behind me.

JB's side trip to Mexico City

So last week, I took a 14-hour bus through the night from P.E. to Mexico City. The ride took me back through the mountains, though not nearly as sinuous as our first trip to P.E., past Oaxaca, and into Mexico, or D.F. (Federal District), as it is called here in the homeland.

Mexico is a city inhabited by at least 23 million people - one the biggest (the biggest?) in the world. I stayed for two nights and three full days. I focused my time on the historic center and Teotihuacan - an ancient city that rose and fell between 100 and 1000 AD, before the rise of the Aztecs, or Mexicas.

D.F. feels like a big city, to be sure, it has a beat, it is international, it is cosmopolitan, but it is also very Mexican. But, despite its size, I did not feel the pressure of 23 million people. I did see the sprawling neighborhoods in the foothills outside of the center. There is tremendous poverty and inequity here, but that did not overwhelm on this quick visit.

The historic center of Mexico City today, is also the original center of Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs' capital. In the early 1500s, when Hernan Cortez invaded, the spaniards report being speechless at the civilization that they found - hundreds of thousands of people, thriving markets, amazing architecture, palaces, temples. Aided by the peoples that he met along his way from the Gulf of Mexico, peoples living unhappily under Aztec rule, he, in a nutshell, killed Moctezuma, and began the arduous process of erasing all signs the Aztec empire, enslaving the Mexicans and other Mesoamericans, and plundering their wealth and land.

They buried the Aztec capitol, and built New Spain atop its ruins. It wasn't until the 1970s (!!!) when a workman was digging around a building foundation and happened upon a massive Aztec artifact that the remains of the central temple at the heart of the ancient city were discovered/rediscovered, recognized for its historic and cultural significance, and uncovered as part of a massive project to reveal El Templo Mayor. My first stop in the city.

At least seven concentric pyramids were built here by the Aztecs, via slaves and conscripted labor. A bigger one each time atop the previous one. Engineering masterpieces to be sure. A place of rites and ceremonies and sacrifice and heavenly observation, of appealing to gods and goddesses of rain, wind, fertility, and war.

Mexico City is built at about 6000 feet, on an ancient lake bed, surrounded by volcanic lands. The previous city was built with black and red basalt from the surrounding mountains.  Remains include sculptures and images of snakes, skulls, frogs and eagles.

The on-site museum displays much of the material found during the recent excavations - astonishing stonework, jewelry, ceramics, weaponry, etc.

Amazing fact for the day - Aztecs traded goods and ideas with people as far away as what is now Utah (turquoise) and Nicaragua in Central America. The name Nicaragua has its roots in an Aztec word meaning "the edge of the Aztecs' reach or lands." Everything moved on foot or by boat. Wow.

Below are a few photos from the city: El Templo Mayor and the City Center. 

This is a carved stone box, reflecting corn - maize - as a central theme 

in their culture.

This 8-ft diameter stone sculpture is what the workman bumped up against in the 1970s as he was digging beneath a foundation. It shows the goddess of the Moon, cut into four sections, to reflect the moons 4 phases.

These statutes were laid against the stairs of one pyramid, just before it was covered by the construction of a new one atop of it. The black and red basalt stones were covered in a 6 inch layer of stucco. Huge pyramids and walls all bright white.

This a detail from a 'stella' - a large stone statute etched with symbols and gliphs that tell stories, relate history, and commemorate key events and dates. These were used all over Mesoamerica to record history, for thousands of years until the arrival of the Europeans.

A statue excavated from the El Templo Mayor.

The snake played a central role as a symbol of power and fertility for Aztecs, and many others of Mesoamerica.

Stairs leading into the "Eagle Warriors" quarters in El Templo Mayor. Eagle Warriors were elite fighters.

A wall of skull sculptures inside the Eagle Warriors' quarters.

This is the base of a column that the Spaniards had used at one time in the cathedral. On the bottom of the column, you can see what are snake scales. The Spaniards destroyed the Aztec temples (forced the Aztecs to destroy their own temples, and used the material to build a new cathedral immediately next door.

Here you can get a sense of the pyramids that were built atop pyramids over a several hundred years. Each one bigger and higher than the previous one. Built by the Aztecs with slaves and 'tribute' labor - labor from peoples dominated by the Aztecs.

Frogs were powerful creatures/gods for the Aztecs - they called for the rains to come.

Two Frances Botero sculptures in front of El Museo Bellas Artes in Mexico City

This is a shot inside the Cathedral. The floor is wildly uneven, rolling, as the lake bed upon which this church is built settles and subsides.

Detail of the ceiling from the Gran Hotel, built by Tiffany's Glass Company a century ago, during the reign of Portfirio Diaz, a dictator that ruled Mexico for more than three decades.

The Gran Hotel is airy, beautiful -- grand even.

A sidewalk bench in Mexico City.

Finally, a little political/cultural commentary on the sidewalk of Mexico City - Mickey Mouse covered in the logos of lots of U.S. and multi-national corporations.