Izapa

We arrived in Puerto Chiapas, our final Mexican destination on the Pacific coast and in no time negotiated a taxi to take us to the Izapa archaeological site.  It took more than an hour over very poor roads to travel to the Maya ruins that were the site of a major settlement from 1250 BC to 1200 AD.

The site itself is reasonably modest but it was the home of a major civilization.  It is understood that the Maya calendar was developed here and where the stella of the Tree of Life was discovered.

The site covers over 100 hectares but we were only able to visit a small portion but we did see the ruins of temples, pyramids and a ball court as well as smaller objects such as water cisterns, grinding wheels and stellas.

                               Stella picturing a man in a canoe being pulled through life.

                                                            Rob climbs the steps.

                                                         Workers on the site.

                                                         View from the top.

                                                 

                                                           Rob on the ball court.

                                                      Gail at the site.

                                 Gail at the steps. We were able to climb around all monuments.

                                                                      Rob on the top.

                                             Another photo of Gail showing the size of the structures

We negotiated with the taxi driver to return to the ship via Tapachula, which is the capital of the Chiapas region.  It is a sprawling town with an interesting square.  We wandered round the square,  visited the church and admired the fountains and the Palacio Municipal.

   Gail on the site of the square with the Tapachula sign.  The impressive structure behind is the Palacio Municipal (Town Hall).

                                                         Gail in the Tapachula Square.

The driver then took us to the Planetarium which was 15 minutes drive from the town where we were fortunate to have a private viewing of a film on Maya cosmology.  It was projected onto a domed ceiling and we sat in fully reclining lounges to watch.  This civilization had an incredible knowledge of astronomy and a 365 day calendar.  They only made one mistake – they predicted that the world would end in 2012 as the calendar went as far as this.

It was another hour back to the ship but as we were in a freight port, there were only a few cruise ship oriented shops to look at.  Our driver had proved to be very helpful even though our conversations were conducted in “Spanglish”.

                                                          The Maya cosmology film.

                                                               The Tree of Life Stella.