Since the general interest these days is to stay a bit closer to home, we have decided to focus on the wonderful history of our neighbors to the south: Mexico and Central America. Their proximity to each other makes them a natural combination for this issue.
The region abounds with monuments and history, ranging from the pre-Columbian cultures of the Maya, Toltecs, Olmecs and other ...
Tour Host Review
Albee Adventures specializes in custom-designed packages for travelers to Costa Rica and other Central American countries. Although its primary offerings are set departure multi-day adventures, single day tours are also available as add-ons or available as part of a custom itinerary.
The company’s web site has information on each country where it operates. Information on key destinations ...
Host of the Month
Many Americans believe that humans might be able to engineer and tinker death almost out of existence. We’ll all live to be 150 years old in 30-year-olds’ bodies, then one day peacefully fall apart like the one-hoss shay in the old Oliver Wendell Holmes’ poem of the same name. And many of us, when we’re not thinking of conquering death, are scrupulously ignoring it.
Mexi...
Festival Pick
A lot has happened in Mexico's Copper Canyon area since its pyroclastic origin some 25 million years ago. Great mountains rose in a fiery display of smoke and ash. Torrents of rain and wind cut deep slashes in the rising igneous colossus that we now know as the Sierra Madre, forming immense canyons.
Some 11 or 12,000 years ago, the first humans arrived, migrating bands of nomadic hunters seekin...
World Heritage Site
Although it’s located 1,000 miles north of the Mexican border, the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul offers some surprisingly comprehensive coverage of contemporary and ancient Central American cultures.
Currently the museum is offering a fascinating online exploration of Maya culture called “Maya Adventure.” The exhibition surveys important Maya cultural sites, such as T...
Museum Pick
For many years modern people looked on the Maya as tranquil, thoughtful, mysterious counterpoints to the prosaic, bloodthirsty Aztecs. They were the Greeks of the New World to the Aztecs’ Romans.
The image worked fairly well. Since nobody could translate Mayan hieroglyphs, and the civilization’s great cities had become deserted long before Europeans arrived in Mexico, pe...
National Park Pick
Belize or not?
Written By P.J. Ott P.J. Ott Posted on Nature
The Spanish were astounded by the "easy" life the Maya had and it’s hard to blame them. Could you work six months, grow enough food for your needs and trade leftovers for other necessities, and then pursue six months of vacation or other interests?With its 22 major fiestas per year, wouldn't you agree that the Mayan "system" sounds like perfect harmony? No wonder explorers and pirates stayed in Belize, one of the Maya’s major habitations, and began trading for cacao – the basis of "chocolatl" – and for the local honey, nature’s own viagra.
The cacao bean was real currency. Cortez’s historiographer Bernal Diaz del Castillo wrote that six beans bought a...
If that’s the only good piece of information you ever get from this web site, we’ll have done our job.
My friend Amy recently looked on the Internet for a package that would fly her and her new husband to and from a three-night stay in Jamaica. Finally, she found a $795 package on Expedia that seemed to fit the bill.
But I know as a travel agent that there can be all sorts of hidden costs that an online source simply...
Although it’s located 1,000 miles north of the Mexican border, the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul offers some surprisingly comprehensive coverage of contemporary and ancient Central American cultures.
Currently the museum is offering a fascinating online exploration of Maya culture called “Maya Adventure.” The exhibition surveys important Maya cultural sites,...
Most people have only a passing acquaintance with nature, but those who are looking to develop a true appreciation for it will find Costa Rica difficult to pass up. When we went there, we arrived a very limited knowledge of nature, but a desire to learn. Costa Rica soon educated us.
We knew Costa Rica had wildlife in abundance, much of it...
Albee Adventures specializes in custom-designed packages for travelers to Costa Rica and other Central American countries. Although its primary offerings are set departure multi-day adventures, single day tours are also available as add-ons or available as part of a custom itinerary.
Visit Web SiteThe company’s web site has information on...
The Day of the Dead, El Día de los Muertos , is one of Mexico’s most cherished traditions, when the spirits of the departed are welcomed back by the living. This tradition is especially prevalent in indigenous communities, where pre-Columbian rituals and Catholic customs have combined to create a unique celebration of life and death.
Tlaxcala, Mexico – I always like a glass of good pulque and my friend Pedro had some of the best. Once allowed only to Aztec nobles and priests, pulque is produced by cutting out the center of a maguey cactus and collecting the liquid which rises from it. Fermenting naturally in two to five hours, the resulting drink is mildly alcoholic, viscous and sweet. Served at room...
Since
the general interest these days is to stay a bit closer to home, we have
decided to focus on the wonderful history of our neighbors to the south:
Mexico and Central America. Their proximity to each other makes them a
natural combination for this issue.
The region abounds with
monuments and history, ranging from the pre-Columbian...
The latest adventure tour to hit Mexico is Canopy – a fast, fun and furious combination of sport and eco-tourism. Originally developed in Costa Rica, the idea has now rushed north to the popular Mexican holiday destination of Puerto Vallarta. There, lush tropical forests drip off of the Sierra Madre Mountains to touch the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean, and this next generation of Canopy...
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Albee Adventures specializes in custom-designed packages for travelers to Costa Rica and other Central American countries. Although its primary offerings are set departure multi-day adventures, single day tours are also available as add-ons or available as part of a custom itinerary.
The company’s web site has information on each country where it operates. Information on key destinations ...
Many Americans believe that humans might be able to engineer and tinker death almost out of existence. We’ll all live to be 150 years old in 30-year-olds’ bodies, then one day peacefully fall apart like the one-hoss shay in the old Oliver Wendell Holmes’ poem of the same name. And many of us, when we’re not thinking of conquering death, are scrupulously ignoring it.
Mexi...
A lot has happened in Mexico's Copper Canyon area since its pyroclastic origin some 25 million years ago. Great mountains rose in a fiery display of smoke and ash. Torrents of rain and wind cut deep slashes in the rising igneous colossus that we now know as the Sierra Madre, forming immense canyons.
Some 11 or 12,000 years ago, the first humans arrived, migrating bands of nomadic hunters seekin...
Belize or not?