Frederick Catherwood was the first 19th century artist to record the splendours of some of the most inaccessible Central American ruins. His images, published in books that changed the way academics viewed the region's indigenous peoples, were created under appalling conditions. They remain some of the most vibrant and beautiful illustrations of the ancient Mexican world ever rendered...
Monday, October 5, 2009
San Cristóbal de las Casas is one of Mexico's most beautiful and popular cities. Nestled in the mountains of Chiapas and replete with fantastic colonial architecture, San Cristóbal is a focal point for surrounding Mayan communities. Learn more in this guide.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
The Mayan village of San Juan Chamula is a bastion of archaic philosophy and pre-Hispanic lore. Here the old gods are alive and well, merely clothed in the robes of saints. The Maya are a cunning bunch, I realised, to have avoided assimilation for so many centuries.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Dense, exuberant rainforest shrouds this immense metropolis, abandoned for unknown reasons over a millennia ago. A sense of the lost, grandiose world of the ancient Mayans lingers in this city’s ruined plazas. Palenque is a testament to Mesoamerican civilisation at its height.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Excellent audio ‘junglecasts’ from Palenque based non-profit organisation, Maya Exploration Center, who offer informed tours, research and learning opportunities.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
A collection of images gathered in the early morning light of Palenque ruins, southern Mexico. This quintessential site features both heavily restored monumental architecture - pyramids, temples and observatories - and far less coherent structures barely recovered from the rainforest environs.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
The lowlands of Chiapas, southern Mexico, are home to some of the most entrancing forests in the country. Dense vegetation, streams, waterfalls and exuberant plant life occupy the region, also home to haunting ancient ruins. This was clip was shot in the famous Mayan site of Palenque.
Interamericana is an intrepid new travel blog about the people and places surrounding the Carretera Interamericana - a 6000 kilometre stretch of highway that links Mexico and the seven nations of Central America. Created by guidebook writer and journalist Richard Arghiris, Interamericana combines photography, video and the best in alternative travel writing.
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Mr Edgar ‘Rasta’ Coulsen is a native of the Caribbean town of San of Juan del Norte – an end of the world settlement perched at the mouth of the Rio San Juan. In this short video interview, Interamericana talked to him about the changes that have taken place in the region since his childhood.
One day, me and my compadres took a trip up the Río Istiam – a tranquil waterway that meanders inland at the isthmus between Ometepe’s two volcanoes, Concepción and Maderas. The river is home to abundant bird life, caimans, turtles and herds of indolent livestock. Many thanks to Jennifer Kennedy and the three Matts – Barwick, Hicks and Ashford, who appear in this video clip.
Via Via is something of a León institution, attracting Nicas and foreigners alike with its buzzing multi-cultural atmosphere, dirt-cheap bottles of rum and rousing Friday night music sets. Amalgama, featured in this video, are an institution in themselves, playing everything from rock ballads to crowd-pleasing revolutionary classics. In this clip they are accompanied by itinerant musician Richard Crandell and his Zimbabwean imbira.
As a poor chele, or white boy, rhythm was never going to come naturally to me. Nonetheless, my militant salsa instructor, Angel, patiently tried to teach me to dance. And when he could be patient no longer, he simply ordered me to the nearest disco…
Granada’s international poetry festival kicked off yesterday, 14th February 2010, with a belting set from Katia Cardenal. Performing at the Plaza Independencia, Katia sang a mixture of rousing folk songs and revolutionary ballads, including a superb homage to the Miskito people of the Atlantic coast (2nd song featured, actually in the Miskito language). Turn up the volume, pour yourself a rum, kick back and enjoy…
The land is scorched and broken. Piles of dark volcanic rubble litter the scene, yet to be properly eroded by sun, wind and rain. Years from now, these rocks will be transformed into fine, fertile silt. But for today, dead, black lava fields cling to the slopes like some monstrous reptilian hide – coarse, inscrutable, alien…
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Saturday, October 17, 2009
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