Tag Archive for ‘Mexico’
Surfing Mexico
From below, it looks like the bottom of a thundercloud — dark and roiling — until it begins to bend. Get too close to the curve and it will suck you over. So you hug the bottom, swimming seaward like a turtle trying to dodge an oil tanker. When the shadow passes overhead and the [...]
Palenque, Part 2: City of Faith
Lacking any knowledge of Mayan history, the various expeditions and theories that have been imposed on this place, Palenque impresses the visitor with its presence. The refined grace of the buildings, the sophisticated interplay of natural contours and manmade terraces and the sheer difficulty of constructing this city on a hill, all speak volumes about [...]
Palenque, Part 1: City of Faith
Palenque was built on faith. For 600 years a dynasty of warrior priests ruled over the city-state that was as important to Mayan civilization as Florence was to the European Renaissance. Their rule was absolute and their powers unquestioned. Then, for reasons that are still not entirely clear, Palenque was abandoned. The jungles reclaimed the [...]
CitySurfers Journal: Spring 1998
April 4, Saturday: Oaxaca Around four in the morning the bus reached Huatulco. The driver repeated the name of this Mecca by the sea, ‘Wa-tool-co’ (the next Cancun, if government plans pan out) and unsealed the doors of the bus. It didn’t look like much: a dark crossroads, a few palm trees and a half-lit [...]