Mexican Road Trip: Zapatista Road Blocks in Chiapas

by Richard Quinn | Dec 14, 2023 | Mexico, Road Trips, Travel

DAY 4:  FROM VILLAHERMOSA TO PALENQUE After three long days and more than 1,200 miles of driving, we’d made it from Laredo, on the border with Texas, all the way to Villahermosa, in the Mexican State of Tabasco. We stayed the night there, but we didn’t...

Mexican Road Trip: Heading South, from Laredo to Villahermosa

by Richard Quinn | Dec 14, 2023 | Mexico, Road Trips, Travel

In October of 2015, shortly after I returned from my Alaska RoadTrip, my old friend Michael and I packed up my Jeep and drove it to the Yucatan. I’d wanted to see the Mayan ruins for as long as I could remember, but considering all the negative reports I’d...

Mexican Road Trip: How to Plan and Prepare for a Drive to the Yucatan

by Richard Quinn | Nov 4, 2023 | Mexico, Road Trips, Travel

People who don’t live in Mexico tend to assume, based on what they see on the news, that the whole country is unsafe for road trips. Ask just about anyone, and they’ll tell you that driving your own vehicle anywhere south of the border is foolishly risky....

Day of the Dead in San Miguel de Allende

by Richard Quinn | Oct 20, 2023 | Mexico, Travel

The Dia de Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a national holiday in Mexico, a tradition that’s so deeply ingrained in the collective psyche of the country that it’s almost a cultural imperative. The actual holiday–the day the banks and government...

Chichén Itzá: Requiem for the Feathered Serpent

by Richard Quinn | Oct 14, 2023 | Maya, Mexico, Travel

The Temple of Kukulkan, the Feathered Serpent, is the largest structure in the ancient city of Chichén Itzá. Often referred to as the Castillo, it is perhaps the most perfect example of a Mayan step pyramid to have survived into our modern age, and it’s so well...

Tulum: The City that Greets the Dawn

by Richard Quinn | Apr 17, 2023 | Maya, Mexico, Travel

Tulum is not all that large, as Mayan cities go, but its spectacular location, right on the Caribbean coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, makes it one of the best known, and definitely one of the most picturesque. This was a late post-classic Maya site that was at it’s...

The Mayan City of Edzná, First House of the Itzás

by Richard Quinn | Mar 26, 2023 | Maya, Mexico, Travel

Edzná (Edz-nah, pronounced just like it’s spelled) is one of the best kept secrets in the Yucatan. The average tourist has never heard of this particular Mayan ruin, so you would think, based on its lack of notoriety, that there’s nothing special about it. In reality,...

Uxmal: Architectural Perfection in the Land of the Maya

by Richard Quinn | Mar 9, 2023 | Maya, Mexico, Travel

Uxmal, (pronounced, oosh-mahl), is the most aesthetically spectacular of all the Mayan cities. The beautiful setting, the quality of the architecture, the state of preservation, the wonderful plazas replete with flowering trees. This place has it all, and it’s not...

The Amazing Mayan Murals of Bonampak

by Richard Quinn | Dec 25, 2021 | Maya, Mexico, Travel

DOWN BY THE GUATEMALAN BORDER, …in a remote corner of the Mexican state of Chiapas, there’s a small Mayan ruin known as Bonampak. The ancient, long abandoned city, really more of a large town, boasts an acropolis, topped  by a couple of smallish third rate...

Palenque: Mayan City in the Hills of Chiapas

by Richard Quinn | Jul 21, 2021 | Maya, Mexico, Travel

Palenque! This ruin of an ancient Mayan city, located in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, ranks among the most famous archaeological sites in the entire world. Just hearing the name conjures images of crumbling limestone pyramids rising up out of the the...