Dancing!!!

There were two girls in the family that I first lived with. They are in dance classes and every so often they do dances to celebrate different saints. Here they are in traditional clothing of Spain and were doing Spanish dances.
So the pictures aren't great because I forgot my camera and used my phone.


Here is another Spanish dance and traditional dress from a different part of Spain.

The last one of the year was done in honor of the Virgin of Guadalupe. The dances and dresses represent the different regions of Mexico.

Here is the traditional dress of Puebla!!! Sequins anyone? The girl in front is the cousin of the family and the grandma made her skirt by hand. How cool is that!!!This is from Veracruz. The white reflecting the coastal culture and you can see they have the same aprons as the Spanish dress shown above.
Luckily no one spilled their water.


This is from Chiapas. It is the poorest state in Mexico but rich in culture and color.The dance of the old men, even if no one dancing was over 25. At the end of the dance one of them fell over and the audience cheered and clapped as the others pushed and pulled until they got him up.
Who doesn't think this chubby cheeked kid isn't absolutely adorable!
This is getting into the northern part of Mexico. Notice the leather? It is a western essential.

This is also from the north and is the traditional dress we are used to seeing in Texas.


And then my favorite, The Mexican Hat Dance!!!

Pueblan Telavera

The tourist markets in Puebla are filled with telavera or blue and yellow pottery specific to Puebla.Whether you are interested in a full dining set or just a vase, you will probably find it.However, to get a real grasp of telavera's impact on the city's history you need to travel off the tourist path and visit Uriarte Telavera. This is the oldest running company in Puebla and the second oldest in Mexico.
They started by selling common dishes by the kilo, and now they do special to order items. You can special order mugs to have your company logo or your own unique dish set.
However, the entire process is completed by hand and internationally protected. They have however moved from the wood fired kiln shown below to a more efficient gas burning one.
They do not use common knives or rulers, but true to tradition, they have hand made tools from sticks and wire.
Apparently productive is not hurt by the lack of tools.
The company is even located in the original location. The store is located in the residence of the original owners and is ornately decorated with tiled murals, edgings, and fountains.
Here you can see the process. The clay starts out as dark gray (back right), then they fire it once and it becomes an orangish red color, dipping it in the first glaze turns it yellow, afterwards they put a charcoal outline of the design (the charcoal is burned up in the final firing process), then they paint it in glaze, and the final step is to fire it one last time. It was fun to tour the factory and see people patiently working away.

Yucatan, Mexico

When Dad came to visit, I decided it would be best to drag him all over Mexico... He and I really enjoy history so we went to 3 of the 5 largest archeological sites in Mexico including Teotihuacan (which I have already posted pictures on here), Uxmal, and Chichen Itza. To visit the final two places we stayed in Mérida, Yucatan which is located between them.

Mérida
It is known as the "white city" and I can see why. Mérida is extremely clean for being such a large city. The Mayan history still has a large influence on the language, culture, and cuisine (FYI if you ever go there try La Chaya an amazing restaurant). Unfortunately, while we were there, the city plaza and many other places were closed due to reconstruction projects in preparation for the city’s anniversary coming up in January 2012. However we both enjoyed the murals and history on permanent display in the government building.Most of our time was spent outside of the city touring sites, but on our last day we took a tour of the city which drove down a large avenue of mansions from different time periods and cultures. Some are no longer used, others are businesses, and some are still occupied by the original family. Here was my favorite. They called it a castle. Unfortunately it is hidden by a tree.And of course they too have churches made out of indigenous ruins.Kaban

Kaban is a small site but it is extremely popular due to the building of the rulers which has statues of different Mayan rulers on the one side and on the other side has numerous masks of their rain god.

Here are all the pieces which go on top, that they intend restore.

Here is a close up of the rain god.

Uxmal

Pronounced Oosh-mall, this place is exciting because after so many years the carvings are still very detailed.

This is a large site, as seen here.

However this doesn’t really display its size because the majority of it has yet to be reclaimed from nature. Here is just one of the temples that the trees and plants have destroyed.

Pirates play a large part in the history of Yucatan. It is thought that they adopted the skull and crossed bones from the Mayans.

Some of the main features of Mayan architecture is the fact that they only decorated the top half of the buildings and their false arch that is not dependent on a corner stone, like the Greek arch.

Chichen-Itza!!!!

Chichen-Itza is 1 of the 7 wonders of the world, for the astronomical phenomenon that takes place on one of the four stairs.

During the spring and fall equinox (March 21^st & September 21^st) the shadows on the left staircase creates an effect that they are snaking down the pyramid.

One of the gods of the Mayans was Kukulkan (known as Quetzalcoatl to the Aztecs). This god is a plumed serpent. So at the bottom of the stairs that moves, there is a snake head.

The Mayans had advanced systems of math (the zero existed in their culture) and had an advanced understanding of astronomy. For example, the steps of the main pyramid correlate with the number of days in the year and the levels/platforms correlate with the number of weeks in a year. Here is an observatory also found in Chichen-Itza.

Human sacrifice was prominent in the latter period of Mayan empire. The priest would pull out the heart of the one being sacrificed, lick the heart, and bite the person. This represented drinking the blood and eating the flesh. Here is a carving of an eagle licking a human heart.

They sacrificed the captain of the winning team of their ball game (the best ball court I have seen was in an unrelated site at Monte Alban in Oaxaca). It was his job to go the gods and ask for their favor. There are numerous skulls carved around one of the platforms depicting those who gave up their lives.

Most of the sacrificing took place in effort to get rain. Yucatan has 6 months of rain and 6 months of drought. It is mostly made up of limestone so the main water formations aren’t found above ground such as rivers and lakes, but are underground. There are several sink holes called "cenotes" where they could get water during the dry months. Here is one that we visited.