Leaving Mexico

Time to sum up the experience.

I flew in with an open heart, expecting nothing, so reality exceeded everything. After trial runs outside the gated community, we went to explore Mexico for real. Tourist zones, Mayan ruins, pyramids, Spanish towns, Mexican cities, all-inclusive, Airbnb, hotels, hostels, and the backpacker crowd from all over the world.

Mexico City, Day of the Dead, downtown and favelas. Queretaro, Juriquilla, San Miguel de Allende — a gorgeous town still built by the Spaniards, Cancun, Playa del Carmen — the hub of American tourism, Valladolid — a base for excursions into Mayan territory in the state of Yucatan.

The Mayan ruins are incredible. Each next site more fascinating than the last. Very little has survived, though the Mayan language is alive, and the Maya themselves own the surrounding lands. Cenotes, underground lakes carved into the rock by subterranean rivers — that’s their tourist business. The Maya look exactly like the drawings from a thousand years ago. Going to have to rewatch Apocalypto. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472043/