Monday, April 13, 2009

Journeys to the Maya world


I want to also share some of my travel shots to the ruins (las ruinas) in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras. Thanks to my daughter, Jarnli, working for the airlines, I was able to afford four or five trips down there in the mid-nineties, one of them with Jarnli to Mexico City and Teotihuacan. Other trips were a BYU tour to all of those countries, and a tour with some Las Vegas Mormons to Mexico from Cancun to Teotihuacan. This is a picture from the trip with Jarnli taken at the Temple of Quetzacoatl. Jarnli stayed in the cool of the visitors center since we had already climbed the Temple of the Moon and walked down the Avenue of the Dead past the huge Temple of the Sun and she was pretty worn out. In fact, I will never forget what she said to me, "Dad, I want you to know that I am really enjoying being here with you, but I think I've seen enough carved rock to last me a lifetime!" Anyway, thanks to her I was able to make the trip! On that same Temple of Q. there is a depiction of the goggle-eyed rain god, Chaac, although that is the Mayan name and the ancient residents of Teotihuacan probably had another name for him.







Another trip was with Sally to Cozumel for our thirtieth wedding anniversary, although it was in February and our anniversary was the following July. We traveled by ferry to the mainland, rented a VW bug and drove down the Caribbean coast of the Yucatan to Tulum. There we were able to enjoy a view of the crystalline two-tone azure sea while visiting the ruins of this beautiful ancient site. Here is a view of the 'Temple to the Descending God' through a stone arch (left), a closer view (right) and a closeup view (center) of the rudimentary stucco image paying homage to this deity. Read more about this image in my section on my artifact collection!






11 comments:

  1. Great blog Dustmop!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oops! I forgot to ask you if You allow me to put a link of this blog on mine???;)

    Best

    Louis

    ReplyDelete
  3. Is the peacock mask for sale? If so how much, is it a artifact?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have an authentic "Mayan Obsidion Idol" I want to sell. How do I go about it?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I visited Teotihuacan in 2007. The tour bus from Mexico City took us to an artisan shop just outside of the entrance to the pyramids. The shop had beautiful replicas of the black obsidian monkey bowl, but I passed at the time because of the cost. I've been kicking myself ever since. Do you know the name of that artisan shop or a way to purchase one of the replicas online?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. K - I know just how you feel. I had to wait for a second trip because I didn't get mine on the first trip. You might want to contact Dean (comment below) since he has one he wants to sell. - Mark

      Delete
  6. How to go about checking if my object is a artifact or a replica?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is not easy as often even the experts are wrong. You might try to find the book "Faking Mesoamerica" if you want to learn a little about the problem. - Mark

      Delete
  7. I have several gold sheen obsidian "replicas" such as a monkey bowl, corn god, and 4 other pieces including an amethyest head. the monkey bowl is 6 inches tall, corn god 81/2 inches tall etc etc. are you interested?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dean - You ought to contact K above since that person wants to buy an obsidian monkey bowl. - Mark

      Delete
  8. Would you want to sell the broken pot?
    I might be able to get it fixed.
    just email
    andyb@b-y.net

    ReplyDelete