You&meTraveling2

Barrancas del Cobre, Mexico Copper Canyon / Barrancas del Cobre The Copper Canyon (Barrancas del Cobre) is a system of canyons in northwestern Mexico. The canyons are huge; they are considerably deeper and cover a larger area than the Grand Canyon in Arizona. The region’s indigenous inhabitants are the Rarámuri or Tarahumara who are known for their ability to be able to run for hours on end. Many communities live in very remote areas, having few contact with modern life and maintaining their traditional lifestyle. Unfortunately, the canyon’s ecosystem is threatened by logging (the wood of some trees yield high prices on the market), erosion due to logging, damming of the rivers, and the government spraying herbicides to halt cultivation of opium poppies and cannabis. Divisadero Riding the Chepe Mexico’s only passenger railway, the Ferrocarril Chihuahua al Pacífico or short Chepe, links the city of Chihuahua with Los Mochis, passing through, along, and over the Copper Canyon. Constructi...

Mexico I never wanted to go to Cancún (those party/beach towns just aren’t my kind of place) but Cancún has a big airport and connections to almost anywhere. Also, internal flights in Mexico are quite cheap so that’s how we ended up spending a few days there (in the city center, just to be clear) before flying to La Paz, Baja California. La Paz, Baja California Sur The change was huge. No more rainforest, no more green, no more almost unbearable humidity, but cacti, desert climate, and an arid, predominantly ocher, red, and orange colored landscape. It felt as though we had traveled a very long distance and it felt good to be in such a different place – especially because we absolutely love deserts. Getting Around In order to get around easily we rented a car. Also, there’s not really a chance to get lost: Highway 1 runs all the way from north to south or south to north, depending on your perspective and there aren’t many other (paved) roads beside it. Heading north from La Paz, th...

 Belize Belize doesn’t seem to be part of Central America anymore, it’s much more a Caribbean country. People speak English and Kriol (and Spanish, and Garífuna, and a whole lot of other languages), rice is flavored with coconut (in my opinion that should be the normal way to cook rice), the houses look different, and once you get to the Cayes, it’s clear that you’ve left Central America. Houses on Caye Caulker Caye Caulker We desperately needed some beach time after the   Mirador hike , so we went straight from Flores to Caye Caulker – the most perfect place to relax. Caye Caulker surpassed our expectations: The water is really turquoise, there are mangrove islands, all kinds of fish, sharks (friendly ones), sea turtles, colorful houses, white sand, nice people… what more do you need? Special brownies, my friend? Snorkeling Off the shores of Belize is the world’s second biggest barrier reef, the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. I wanted to go snorkeling for a long time now a...

An ancient Maya city hidden in the  Guatemalan jungle About 40% of Guatemala’s 15 million inhabitants are of Mayan ancestry. “Maya” is actually a collective term for Amerindian people who, to some degree, share cultural and linguistic heritage.  Apart from Spanish, 21 Mayan languages are spoken in Guatemala but they are not recognized as official languages. A Highly Developed Civilization The pre-Columbian Mayan civilizations inhabited the regions of what is today Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and western Honduras. They had a fully developed writing system, and are noted for their architecture, calendar, art, mathematics, and astronomical system. Ancient Cities in the Jungle Many of the former Maya cities and villages today lie buried in the jungles of Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico. One of them – and one of the biggest cities of its time – is El Mirador in northern Guatemala. The city was at its peak between 300 BC and 100 AD and had an estimated ...