Yucatán - Pyramids and palm trees | Uphill Zen

Yucatán is one of the 3 states that make up the Yucatán peninsula.

This was the homeland of the ancient Mayas, and ruins of their advanced civilization dot the state. Another magical feature is the hundreds of cenotes – spectacular subterranean swimming holes.

Yucatan road trip posts

Visiting the Mayan ruins at Edzna

Visiting the Mayan ruins at Edzna

I don’t know what the name “Edzna” means, but I would guess “Place of the iguanas”. I have never seen ...
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Hacienda San Lorenzo and Cenote Oxman, Mexico

Hacienda San Lorenzo and Cenote Oxman, Mexico

The historic Hacienda San Lorenzo is different from the abandoned haciendas that lie in ruins around the Yucatan. This is ...
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Some pix from Yucatán

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Steps leading down into a #cenote. I love this one because to me it captures the mystery. 😊💚 What lies below? A beautiful blue pool? 💧 A cavern with intricate formations? Until you descend those stairs yourself, you can never know. 🙈 And those steps into the unknown, leading to a sense of discovery and a new experience... that's what makes it an #adventure! 😎
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This is the last of my Yucatán pix before switching gears (literally!) 🌴➡️⚙️ But that's a story for another day! 😊
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#yucatan #mexico

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In most cenotes, the pool is the star of the show, beckoning you in for a swim. 👈🏊‍♀️ But sometimes the #cave itself steals the spotlight! 🌟
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I camped by this #cenote for days. 🚐🗓 On weekdays, it was my own little #magical place for a swim. 😊💙 The pool was wonderfully refreshing, but if you walk (and crawl) all the way to the back of the cave, this is what you find. 😱😀 #surprise
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#mexico #yucatan

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#Zennie on the road to another little beach camp. 🚐👍 The Caribbean is just over that little hill on the left, and a big sandy beach! ☀️🌊 ... ... We drove on plenty of tiny roads around the Yucatán - that's how you get to the places the crowds don't go! 🙄 Of course sandy roads leave Zennie needing a bath 🚐🚿🧼 (a frequent state of affairs)... But it's totally worth it! 😎 #dirtywindows #finewithme
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#mexico #yucatan

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This is it! 😱 The book I've been working on for so long is finally just... about... here! 📕👍 The Adventurer's Guide to Mexico's Yucatán will be out on Amazon next week, bringing you 15 adventures to discover lost cities, deserted beaches and the soul of the Yucatán. ... ...
The best places I found in all my wanderings are in here, with lots of inspirational photos and all the info you need to make these experiences your own. It's really been a labor of love, and even looking at them again now makes me long to be back. 😎💚🌴
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The official launch (and launch party!) is next Monday. After many months of work, the big day is nearly here! I'm so excited, it barely feels real! 😂 #booklaunch #partytime
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#mexico #yucatan

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Another marvelous #cenote! ⭐️👍 This one is like a giant sinkhole, open to the sky. The walls are a hanging garden 🌿 with long roots & vines stretching down to the water, and far below the surface lies the cool, clear beautiful pool. 💧💙 #enticing
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I camped here with Zennie, which meant I could be last in in the evening and first in the morning. Having this luscious cenote to yourself? #Priceless! 😎
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#mexico #yucatan

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Nothing like having your own little #beach! 🌴😎
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I camped here for a week 🚐📆 and it was wonderful! There were guys who came through once in awhile picking coconuts 🥥, and on the weekend a few other people showed up. But most of the time, this was my secret place to walk the beach 🏖, stare at the waves 🌊read a mystery 📖, practice yoga on the sand 🧘‍♀️, and watch the sunset🌅. Getting away from it all = This. 😊 #muytranquilo
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#mexico #yucatan

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Just dodge the palm fronds 🌴 and follow this track to the end to reach a lovely little sandy beach 🌊⛱, another of my Yucatán greatest hits. ⭐️ ... ...
I camped here for a week in Zennie 🚐📆, and most of the time I had it all to myself. 👣 It's a pretty luxurious feeling! 😎 Just make sure not to park under any falling coconuts! 🥥😉 #wannagoback
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#mexico #yucatan

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Switching gears... It's been hot this summer 🔥, and I'm really missing the #cool beautiful cenotes of the Yucatan! 💦 Oh, to be able to swim in one of these luscious underground #pools again! 😊💭🏊‍♀️
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This spot is one of my favorites. ⭐️ There are 32 cenotes at this little town, all shapes & sizes, each one unique. I camped 🚐 by one #cenote for a couple of weeks while checking out the others, but I didn't make it to all 32, so I need to go back! 😎 #gottadoit
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It's part of a big project that I've been working on just about forever. Or at least it feels that way 🙇‍♀️, but it's nearly done! Just a couple of weeks left... 📆🎉 #almostthere .............
#mexico #yucatan

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Just a cow hanging out in the Mayan ruins of Yaxuna... 🐄😜 The people of the local village handle the upkeep here, and they said it’s a constant battle to keep the plants from taking over. 🌱🌿 Maybe the cow can do its part to help out, too? 😉 ~~~~~~~~~~
#mexico #yucatan

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It must be the season for these big, beautiful #butterflies - they were everywhere! 🦋😎 This one was fortunate 🍀 - I was able to stop driving and encourage him to let go of my wiper and fly away. 😊 Does anybody know what kind it is? #beautiful ~~~~~~~~~~
#mexico #yucatan

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I’ve got some catching up to do here. Time seems to fly whether I’m posting pix or not! ⏰✈️😮 ... ... ...
Anyway, after a quick visit to Tucson to see friends & family, I returned to the Yucatán, where the trees were putting on quite a show! 🌳🌺😎
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#mexico #yucatan

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Throwback to last week, and the last big, beautiful #beach of my Yucatan rambles. 😀😰 It’s been a delightful way to spend the winter! 😎🚐🌴⛱💚 ... ... #somuchfun #timetomove
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#mexico #yucatan

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So you go down those steps... Walk & then crawl all the way through to the back of the #cave... and see this. 😱💚
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#mexico #yucatan

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The steps down to another #cenote. 🌳⤵️ No wonder the ancient Mayas saw caves as entries to the underworld - they’re very #mysterious! The top looks like nothing much, but you never know what you will find down there... 👀😱 #surprise
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#mexico #yucatan

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The perfect chill spot? 😴💤 The big haciendas weren’t big on beds - just one bed in the whole place! 😱 But hooks for #hammocks were built into the walls all over, and this one’s pretty sweet! 😎👍 #siestatime ~~~~~~~~~~
#mexico #yucatan

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Henequen fibers drying in the sun. ☀️This #hacienda has been restored to full working order, following the process start to finish just the way they did it back in the day. It took a lot of plants and a lot of work to make a rope! 😮 #nowonderitsgone #fascinating
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#mexico #yucatan #history

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Henequen, the “green gold” that made fortunes in the Yucatan. 💰 A huge percentage of the world’s rope was made from this, and vast plantations covered much of the peninsula. 💰💰💰 ... ... Everybody else called it Sisal, because that was the Yucatan port it was shipped from, so containers arrived stamped “Sisal”. 😂 ... ... Then along came synthetics, and the world changed... 🚫💰
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#mexico #yucatan #history

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The very best thing about camping at a #cenote, is that late afternoon and early morning, you can have an enchanting swimming spot like this all to yourself. 😎💚
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#mexico #yucatan

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Does this road make my butt look big? 😜 ... It was no easy matter squeezing out to take this picture! 😎🚐
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#mexico #yucatan #zennie

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Hackers! 😱😡😭 I’ve been holed up in this “office” for days & days, trying to repair the damage caused by somebody who hacked into my web hosting, shutting down multiple domains. What a royal pain! 😖 And it’s a week of unplanned work, when I could have been doing productive planned work (or just goofing off!) 😜 ... ...
The downside is that the internet access is so slow everything takes 100 times longer than it should. ⏳ The upside is there’s a cave with a cenote just steps from here, that refreshes & lifts the spirits. 💦🏊‍♀️😊
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Anyway, I hope to be back to posting happy travel pix soon! 🚐😎 #hackerssuck #betterthanacubicle
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#mexico #yucatan

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Lovely spot for morning coffee - enjoying the view, thinking about life, and contemplating the day ahead. ☕️😊 It’s a nice perk of #camping at this little balneario! 👍 #sittingonthedock #anothergreatday
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#yucatan #mexico

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The pink lagoon. I had my doubts, but yes, it really is #pink! 💕
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#yucatan #mexico

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Inside another stunning #cenote. They have the most entrancing swimming holes here! 😮😀
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#yucatan #mexico

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We entered the #Temazcal ceremony through the jaguar’s mouth. Inside, the dome was painted with planets & stars. 🌗✨ ..........
Having cooked all afternoon in a wood-fired furnace, super-heated stones were carried in by a guy with a shovel & stacked in the middle. Then the door closed, and absolute blackness closed in. Water on the rocks turned to steam, and the ceremony began. 🔥💦
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Jaguar roars came from different places, then drumming and chanting. Voices all around me, rising and falling in the darkness, with stories, songs and prayers. I didn’t understand all the words, but the impact was disorienting, powerful, even overwhelming. 🐾😮 ..........
This is an ancient Mayan #tradition that lives on. Lucky me, I happened to be here when a visitor was hosting a Temazcal. She does it every year, and invited me to join! 🙏😀 #whatanexperience
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#yucatan #mexico

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This woman sews these elaborately embroidered Mayan blouses here in her house. Her sewing machine is behind her, right by the door where she can get the light. 🚪☀️
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There’s not a lot of furniture - just a table and a few plastic chairs. Hammocks double as beds and chairs, and are wrapped around the rafters when not in use - quite a practical system! 🛏🛋👍
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I felt honored to sit here & drink a Coke, and talk to the family a bit. And I’m so happy to buy one of these beautiful garments here, instead of a shop in Cancun! 👚😎 #special
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#yucatan #mexico

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The Mayan ruins of Yaxuna are not too far from Chichén Itzá, but it feels like another world! 🌎 There’s not another tourist here, and I can climb anything and everything!! 😎
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I had a guide from the local ejido, and he was very proud of their ancient city. 😊 He said it’s better than Chichen in many ways - taller pyramid 👍, unique triple pyramid 👍, longest ceremonial road (100km) 👍, connections to major cities of Tikal, Coba & Uxmal 👍, and multiple celestial alignments 👍. They also had this circular “observatory”, earlier than the one at Chichen. 👍 ..........
Yet Chichen has a million tourists, and there’s nobody else here! 😱😎 I should warn you that climbing the pyramid here isn’t like walking up steps - it’s like scrambling up a steep rocky hill. You can’t really make out the ancient structures until you’re at the top. All in all, amazing experience!! 😀 (Don’t tell anybody else, OK?) 🙊
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#yucatan #mexico

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Evening on the waterfront. 🌅 Standing here, watching the shifting #sunset colors, with the birds singing and a light breeze ruffling the water, fills me with a deep sense of #joy. 🌅😊 ... It’s that special kind of #happiness that wells up from deep within, and fills me almost to overflowing. 😀 Sometimes I feel like the luckiest girl in the world. 💃❤️#gratitude. .............
#yucatan #mexico

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Met a new friend from Tucson by the zócalo in Valladolid! 😎 #smallworld 🌎
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#yucatan #mexico #dk

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The “Mayan angels” are some of the remarkable sculptures at Ek Balam. 😮💚 This is about 2/3 of the way up the pyramid. Someday they won’t let people climb it anymore, and then you won’t be able to see this, so go now! 😎👍
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#yucatan #mexico

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Fortunately there are still pyramids they let you climb! 😎😀
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#yucatan #mexico

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I have no idea what this procession was celebrating, but I love the colorful Mayan embroidery! 💛💙❤️💚🧡
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#yucatan #mexico

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I adore this #cenote, with the roots that dangle deep to find the water! 😎💚 It’s especially enchanting when you’re out in the middle, floating in this impossibly blue water, with the sky far above. 🏊‍♀️😊 ... #stunning
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#yucatan #mexico

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Remember the big apocalypse in 2012? 😜 ... #historybooks
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#yucatan #mexico

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Hey guys, aren’t you forgetting something? What about me? 🐍 I used to be pretty important around here, you know! 😜
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#yucatan #mexico

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It looks like El Castillo has the power to disrupt the clouds! 😜
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Chichén Itzá isn’t my favorite, because it’s just too crowded with tourists and vendors. 🚌👭👫 And they don’t let you climb *anything* here! 😰 But there’s no denying it’s an impressive place. 😮👍 Amazing things happened here! 😎 .............
#yucatan #mexico #pyramid #history

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One of the most unusual church designs I’ve seen. 😊 It looks to me like 3 rockets 🚀 on top of a fort, but that’s probably not the impression they were trying to make. 😜
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#yucatan #mexico

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I thought all this white stuff was wool. 🐑 But when I got closer, there was a powerful aroma of twine! 👃😀
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This is one of the old henequen plantations, still in operation making rope from agave. Back around 1900, this was big business in the #Yucatan, and fortunes 💰💰 were made from the “green gold”. 💚💛
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#mexico

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That Mayan pyramid has trees & grass on top, just like a little park! 🌲🌱 And the grass is so neatly trimmed because they graze sheep on the #pyramid! 🐑😱 ... ... I saw a group of sheep on the ruins when I pulled up, but they ran off before I could get a pic. 📷🙁 They have quite a pasture! 😎 Wonder if that gives them any special #pyramidpower? 😜
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#yucatan #mexico

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I had a little visitor.🦎😊 He didn’t say much 🙊, though he did bob his head up & down, so I could tell he agreed with me. 😜 #beach #wildlife
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#yucatan #mexico

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I’ve got this whole beautiful #beach all to myself! 🌴🌊😎 ... ... Pedro comes every day to clean. And some guys came through to harvest some of the gazillion coconuts, with a “thud, thud, thud”.🌴🥥 ... ... But most of the time, it’s like my own private beach resort! Now which palapa do I want? 🤔🏖😎👍
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#yucatan #mexico

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The entry to my little hideaway! ☀️🌊⛱😎 Just gotta duck a few low-hanging palms... 🚐🌴👍
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#yucatan #mexico

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Hanging out in Progreso to get stuff done. #Zennie gets a new battery and an oil change. 🚐🔋🔧 I get groceries, agua purificada, and clean clothes. 🥦💧👚 Everything we need to hit the boonies for awhile! 😎
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#yucatan #mexico

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View from our campsite on the Malecón in Progreso. 😎🚐🌴🌊
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The town’s claim to fame is having one of the longest piers in the world. It’s not a pier you can walk down, though. It’s like a big highway full of trucks and buses. 🚌🚛🚎🚚 In the pic, if you look at the second white blob from the left, you can see a cruise ship 🛳 docked way, way out there. Yep, it’s long. 😜 ... At least it keeps that cruise ship just about out of sight! 👍😊
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#yucatan #mexico

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This Mayan temple is precisely aligned so that at sunrise on the spring and fall equinoxes, it creates this stunning display. If I’m anywhere in the area by then, this is one I’d love to see! 🌅😱😀 #socool
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(Inset photo isn’t mine - I’ve only seen the normal view!) 😉
#yucatan #mexico

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Another gorgeous cenote! 😀 Some cenotes are inside a cave, while others like here are open to the sky. ☀️ And this one is right at some ruins, so you can go climb an ancient pyramid 👍, then cool off with a dip 🏊‍♀️ in this glorious cenote. 😎💚 #perfect
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#yucatan #mexico

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It was so wonderful that my mom could join me for some #Yucatan touring! 😀👍 We saw flamingos, cenotes, colonial towns, and plenty of Mayan ruins. Here, it looks like she’s about to set off down the ceremonial road to Uxmal.🚶‍♀️😎 Also, she got to find out first hand what life on the road with Zennie is really like. 🚐👍 She’s an adventurous lady, for sure! #loveyoumom
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#mexico

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This is one way to do horse drawn carriages. 😎 It’s super cute, colorful, and some of the horses even get shade hats. 🐴👒 ... BUT what about ... (to be continued!)
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#mexico #yucatan

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So I wonder why they call Izamal the Pueblo Amarillo (yellow town)? 🙄💛
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#mexico #yucatan

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#Zennie carries me to all these amazing ruins, then has to sit outside waiting, making friends with the trees. 🚐⏳🌳 ... But it’s a good exchange - I’ve taken her on some pretty awesome roads, too! 😎🚐🛣👍
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#mexico #yucatan

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Imagine wandering through the forest, and encountering this! 😱 Feeling like Indiana Jones 🤠, walking through these little known ruins without another soul here... Now all we need is a golden idol! 😜 ................
#archaeologyrocks #mexico #yucatan

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Isn’t it a bit disrespectful to use your god’s nose as a step? 😜 True, it is a unique way to fit more #Chaac faces into a building. 😀👍 But what if the Mayan rain god 💦 doesn’t like you stepping on his nose? 👺 #uhoh
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#archaeologyrocks #mexico #yucatan

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This temple at Kabah has a whole wall covered in Chaacs, the long-nosed #Maya rain god. 💦 It also has a pile of broken noses out front, waiting for archaeologists to reassemble them. 😜
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As the god of rain 💦, Chaac was super important in this dry region with no major water sources☀️. Between Uxmal and the other ancient cities nearby, we saw hundreds of Chaac masks - a definite theme! 😎
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#archaeologyrocks #mexico #yucatan

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View over the Mayan city of Uxmal, with the unique #Pyramid of the Magician rising above the trees on the right. 💚 When I was a kid, I got to climb that, but they don’t let you do that anymore. 😕 But you can climb the Great Pyramid now, for marvelous views of the city! 👀👍 ...............
#Uxmal is amazing! It’s much more impressive than I remember it, though to be fair, I mostly remember the climbing! 😜 It has well-preserved carvings, and really gives you a sense of the city’s grandeur back in the day. 😱 And we got to camp right outside the gate, for a nearly empty site in the morning! 😎🚐👍
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#archaeology #mexico #yucatan

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Unlike lawn flamingos or zoo flamingos, wild #flamingos fly. 😉 And they stretch way out to do it, showing off just how long they really are. 😮 A male can be nearly 5 ft tall - not quite enough to look me in the eye, but getting there! 😳💚 #coolbirds
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#mexico #yucatan

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What a beautiful day for a #boat ride! 😀 Couldn’t ask for a prettier morning! ☀️🌊😎
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#mexico #yucatan

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Storm clouds gather on the horizon, making me think about life. 🙄 ... Do you worry about the storm, making preparations? Or just enjoy the sunny beach as long as possible? ... How to balance 🌩☔️😨 with 🌤⛱😊?
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I know I lean to the sunny beach side of this, perhaps more than is wise. I want to take advantage of today, because I may never see this beach again. And who knows? Maybe that storm will go somewhere else! 😜 #findingabalance
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#mexico #yucatan

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Morning reflections. 🕊😊
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#merida #yucatan #mexico

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Merida is called the Ciudad Blanca, for reasons that aren’t quite clear... 🙄 I love this city and its elegant historic buildings, but they definitely aren’t white! 💚🧡💜💙💛
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#yucatan #mexico

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Just sitting here twiddling my tires... 🚐 Deanna left me in Merida while she ran off with her other family. 😕 It’s not a bad spot, and I get a vacation too.👍 But I’m eager to #hittheroad again! 🚐🛣😀 #zennie #yucatan #mexico

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