Labná

The Maya civilization, cities of the Maya

The material splendor of the Maya culture is appreciated, more than in any other field, in the architecture and ornamentation of their cities. These city-states were the center of power for the king-priests who administered the obedience, the tribute and the manpower of the people who believed in them. Many Maya cities and ceremonial centres […]

Continue Reading
Mexico's Museo Tecnologico Minero dates from the 19th century. It is part of the Mina Dos Estrellas or Two Stars Mine, located within the municipality of Tlalpujahua de Rayon in southern Michoacan, a few kilometers from the town of Tlalpujahua. © Anthony Wright, 2009

Night in Mina Dos Estrellas, a haunted mine in Mexico

The proverbial bat in the belfry, a boy trapped in a bathroom, and a witching hour wander deep into the heart of a century old tunnel provided the eerie highlights of my recent overnighter at Mina Dos Estrellas, not far from Tlalpujahua in northeastern Michoacan (see map). Yet one resident phantom, reputed to be a […]

Continue Reading
El Carmen de Tenancingo

Monastic getaway from Mexico City: El Carmen de Tenancingo

Let’s face it. Escaping Mexico City can be a great thing. Now more than ever. So much so that one would think that this unrestrained monster we call the Federal District, and the paranoia revolving around it, is a modern phenomenon. Time to think again. In the early 1700s a century-old community of monks, dwelling […]

Continue Reading
Tupátaro church

Did you know? The Sistine Chapel of Mexico

A small church with a rather nondescript exterior in a tiny village (Tupátaro) just off the main highway between Morelia and Pátzcuaro hardly sounds like the kind of place where you’re likely to find one of Latin America’s artistic masterpieces, but initial appearances can be very deceiving. The whitewashed exterior of Tupátaro’s church may be […]

Continue Reading
Aztec calendar stone

Mysteries of the Fifth Sun: the Aztec Calendar

-Valley of Anahuac, New Year’s Eve, 1507. Tenochtitlán, the great island city, capital of the Mexica empire, lies cloaked in darkness. An eerie silence pervades the vast ceremonial center — the Teocalli or Templo Mayor — spreading out over Moctezuma’s splendid palace, with its botanical gardens and well-stocked zoo, across the market places, canals, aqueducts, and within each of […]

Continue Reading
Perico rompope, an artisanal rompope from Yahualica, Mexico © Daniel Wheeler, 2011

Rompope: Mexico’s Holiday Season Beverage

Rompope, or “Mexican eggnog,” is one version of the many combinations of egg, milk, sugar and spirits that are traditionally used to toast the winter holidays in Europe and the Americas. English eggnog, a descendent of the milk and sherry combination called posset, German biersuppe made with beer, Puerto Rican coquito made with coconut milk, Peruvian biblia con pisco made with pisco brandy, and […]

Continue Reading