Life as James knows it

Surrounded by the Sumidero Canyon National Park, which extends for 21,789 hectares over four municipalities of the state of Chiapas, is Cañón del Sumidero (Sumidero Canyon) located just north of the city of Chiapa de Corzo. The canyon’s creation began around the same time as the Grand Canyon (in the U.S.A on the Colorado River ) - about 35 million years ago, by a crack in the area’s crust and erosion by the Grijalva River, which still runs through it. The canyon has vertical walls which reach as high as 1000 metres, with the river turning up to ninety degrees during the thirteen kilometres that the narrow passage runs. Numerous native wildlife is inhabit the canyon, studies (including from the federal Secretaría de Agricultura y Recursos Hidráulicos - SARH) report excess of 300 species of vertebrates including four species of fish, fifteen amphibian, fourteen reptiles, 195 birds and fifty three mammals. During my journey, I was fortunate enough to encounter 2 river crocodiles, spider m...

A beautiful city, especially the historic centre which has maintained its Spanish colonial layout with narrow cobblestone streets, roofs covered in red clay tile and wrought iron balconies with flowers. The facades of the buildings vary from Baroque to Neoclassical and Moorish, painted in various colours.  To walk through the city centre you could be forgiven for thinking you're in a classical village located in the middle of Spain or France, until of course you start conversing with the locals. Located in the Central Highlands region of Chiapas, the city was founded as Villa Real de Chiapa in 1528 by Diego de Mazariegos in what was called the Hueyzacatlán Valley, which means “pasture” in Nahuatl. From then on, the city went through a number of name changes: to Villa Viciosa in 1529, to Villa de San Cristóbal de los Llanos in 1531, and to Ciudad Real in 1536. It was changed to Ciudad de San Cristóbal in 1829. “de las Casas” was added in 1848 in honour of Bartolomé de las Casa...

Hierve el Agua (Spanish for "the water boils") is set of natural rock formations in the Mexican state of Oaxaca that resemble cascades of water. The site is located about 70 km east of Oaxaca city, and consists of two rock shelves or cliffs which rise between fifty and ninety metres from the valley below, from which extend nearly white rock formations which look like waterfalls. These formations are created by fresh water springs, whose water is over-saturated with calcium carbonate and other minerals. As the water scales over the cliffs, the excess minerals are deposited, much in the same manner that stalactites are formed in caves. Additionally, there are two large artificial pools for swimming as well as a number of small natural pools.  One of the artificial pools is very near the edge of the cliff - seen in the images where I'm taking a swim. Swiming in the pool on the edge of a mountain cliff-face ...

An archeological site is within the modern municipality of San Pablo Villa de Mitla, Mitla was the main religious centre. The name Mitla is derived from the Nahuatl name Mictlán, which was the place of the dead or underworld. Its Zapotec name is Lyobaa, which means “place of rest.” The name Mictlán was Hispanicized to Mitla by the Spanish. The construction of Mitla as a ceremonial centre began in 850, and the city was still being expanded when the Spaniards arrived and destroyed it.  The oldest group of buildings has been dated to between 450 and 700 CE and shows architectural features similar to those found at the earlier Monte Alban. The steps to the main ceremonial hall ... Inside the ceremonial hall ... Inner courtyard, the stonework is amazing ... Underground, inside one of the burial chambers ...

Situated atop an artificially-leveled ridge, which with an elevation of approximately 1,940 m above mean sea level rises about 400 m from the valley floor, in an easily defensible location. Founded by the Zapotec at around 500 BC, Monte Albán's importance stems also from its role as the pre-eminent socio-political and economic centre for close to a thousand years. Looking down from the south platform ... Looking up at south platform ... Looking from the north, the further most structure is the south platform ... Sun dial on the west side of the site ...

There had been Zapotec and Mixtec settlements in valley of Oaxaca for thousands of years, especially in connection with the important ancient centres of Monte Albán and Mitla, which are close to modern Oaxaca city.  The Aztecs entered the valley in 1440 and named it "Huaxyacac," a Nahuatl phrase meaning "among the huaje" (Leucaena leucocephala) trees. The name Oaxaca is derived from the Nahuatl name for the place, Huaxyacac, which was Hispanicized to Guajaca, later spelled Oaxaca. Oaxacan cuisine is its variety of moles (chilli chocolate based sauce), chapulines (fried grasshoppers with chile), and mezcal the (a distilled alcoholic beverage made from the maguey plant native to Mexico).  I've consumed them all, and oh boy, that mezcal is strong gear! chapulines ...

A Mesoamerican city located in the Basin of Mexico, 48 km northeast of modern-day Mexico City, which is today known as the site of many of the most architecturally significant Mesoamerican pyramids built in the pre-Columbian Americas. Apart from the pyramids, Teotihuacan is also anthropologically significant for its complex, multi-family residential compounds, the Avenue of the Dead, and the small portion of its vibrant murals that have been exceptionally well-preserved. Below the 'walk of the dead' into the city can be seen. The city is thought to have been established around 100 BC, with major monuments continuously under construction until about AD 250.  At its zenith, perhaps in the first half of the 1st millennium AD, Teotihuacan was the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas, with a population of 125,000 or more, making it at minimum the sixth largest city in the world during its epoch.  Teotihuacan began as a new religious centre in the Mexican Highland around the f...