Catching Up

Only two weeks in and I'm already behind, so here goes!

WEEK 1:
 The highlight of the week was a trip to "La Catederal" (hopefully everyone can figure out that Spanish).  It was my very first Cathedral and it didn't disappoint. 

It's made up of three Cathedrals in total, two smaller and then the main one.  

Numero uno (my favorite one):

 Numero dos:

And finally, the main attraction.  Complete with skull and crossbones over the front door.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven..."

WEEK 2:

 This week was a trip to the pyramids at Xochicalco. The  was founded in about 650 AD by the Olmeca-Xicallanca, which are a Mayan group of traders.

View from the road. 

And into the museum with an aerial view.

And LOTS of artifacts.

 

Apparently skulls were really in fashion back in the day.  Used for bracelets and to line the outer walls.  So versatile.  

"Ball Game" kinda like a combination of all games involving a ball.  The only rule- no hands.  The best part is that the winner was the one to get sacrificed. 

 

And finally, out to the actual pyramids with some amazing views of the city.

And a few stairs.

Chole decided she'd had enough of the stairs and jumping off would be a lot faster.

And Clair got in a little trouble for walking on the walls.

               The main pyramid.

The "ball game" court

The observatory. A cave modified to allow study of the movement of the sun. The cave was covered with stucco and painted black, yellow and red with a chimney that measured from the base to the surface 29 feet, and which is hexagonal in the top. The chimney has a slight slope allowing the sun's rays to be to projected on the floor of the cave.
In the 105 days running from 30 April to 15 August, the sun shines into the cave. In the sun's movement towards the Tropic of Cancer and upon their return, respectively, on 14/15 May and 28/29 July, the sun is at its zenith and the astronomical noon, the beam of light falls directly through the chimney showing the image of the sun on the floor of the cave. The site was also used for religious ceremonies (thank you to Wikipedia for the info).