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!