Saturday, December 18, 2010

more Kohunlich photos


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Kohunlich

Ira and booked this tour while on the Nordic Spirit that sails out of New Orleans. At our first port, Costa Maya, we were on a bus for two plus hours traveling through the Yucatan countryside, first miles of swamp, then lots of small dusty villages, a huge fresh water lake and sinkhole, and coming near our destination, huge fields of sugar cane. The Kohunlich pre-classical Mayan ruins are in a beautiful huge park. Our Mayan guide, Deanna Garcia was exceptional as she took us through the various sites. Imagine that these ruins of limestone were originally coated with an adobe/limestone mix and then painted red using cochineal.
The highlight of Kohunlich is the Temple of the Masks. The six awesome, huge carved stone faces are on 3 levels, on opposite sides of the grand stairway. The temple has been covered with a thatched roof to protect the sculptures and preserve the red color that still remains on them. Do look at my Picasa web page entitled Nordic Spirit to see more of the site.
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