Dec 29
Today went ashore at Chiapas and saw some native dances.
We took the shuttle bus to Tapachula, the nearest town to the port. We shared a taxi with another couple who are from Canada. We did not have much trouble understanding them. Eh!Our driver didn’t speak any English (that he would admit to)
He took us to Izapa, the ruins of a Mayan city. There is not much excavated yet. Here are some pictures.
One of the temple mounds
Next is another section of the excavated ruins. There are 3 sections. The pictures above are from the most visited portion.
The pictures below are from the 2 sections you can only get to by car. No bus could possibly make the trip on dirt roads that have weathered away to just rock. Our poor taxi was throwing rocks like crazy. We were sure if we could make it with 5 people in the car….we did and the taxi seemed unharmed, since we were able to get back to Tapachula and our shuttle bus back to the ship.
It was very difficult to see the carvings on the rocks. This is the best picture we were able to get. At some of the rocks there was a sign telling about it. They, of course, were in Spanish. So, if any of you can read this sign, please comment back and tell us what it says.
The flowers here are beautiful. It was rather hot. Near 90 degrees with lots of humidity. But the taxi had 4/55 air conditioning (you know, 4 windows open at 55 miles per hour) It didn’t work too well, since we never exceeded 40 mph.
This is a picture of a Protestant church. Sure looks like a Mosque, doesn’t it. But it is the Church of the Light of the World, built with the funds from Los Angeles, Californians. It is only 3 years old. Very interesting.
The show last night was exceptionally good. We heard John D. Smitherman. He is a wonderful singer. We went back for the second show. We stayed afterwards for the Indonesian Show. It was put on by the Indonesian staff. A majority of our room stewards and kitchen and dining staff are from Indonesia. It was pretty good. It was probably the best staff show we have seen in our travels.
1 comment:
Well, with my 8th grade Spanish, here's what I picked up for the translation of the stone that says "Sobre la barra terrestredos mascaras de una deidad falanqueando un reptil con las fauces abiertas de donde emergeuna deidadde la lluviacon su mascara antropomofa arriba el panel celeste"
It means:
About the bar, earthly masks of a god flanked by a reptile with the open jaws where emerges the god of rain with an anthropomorphic mask on the celestial panel above. All who dare photograph this tablet inherit its curse and are doomed.
I could be mistaken about the reptile part, but everything else is spot on...um...good luck with that...
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