Liam and Marcus pre-sacrifice on the Temple of the Sun. Poor little innocents. 

Impressive Teotihuacan, meaning Place of the Gods in Nauatl. Hard to believe such a bustling metropolis existed in 600 AD and all built without the wheel. I guess of few slaves died along the way... This is a view from the Pyramid of the Moon looking toward the Pyramid of the Sun. 45 kilometers from Mexico City and still the city smog blankets these ancient buildings. 

One of the thousands of beautiful hummingbirds in the cloudforest. 

Mindo, Ecuador, cloudforest. 

Liam finds wildlife wherever he goes. Here he holds a rainforest frog on a jungle hike in Mindo, Ecuador. 

Marcus summitting the easy way above Laguna Cuicocha in the Imbabura Province of Ecuador 

Jenny and Jamie during an Andean mountain bike ride from 10,000 to 11,000 feet. Jamie hardly broke a sweat. Jenny was happy she stayed conscious. (Update: My brother Daniel noted a certain braggard tone to this post -- This text was posted by Jennifer, not me...and I sure as hell broke a sweat).

More Mexican Images

Jenny and Marcus on a horseback ride at Hacienda Jurica, outside of Queretaro, Mexico...and a self-portrait of me, near the end of a solo hike up a mountain ravine (with many waterfalls) outside of Guanajuato, Mexico.

Liam atop a mountain outside the village of Calderones, Mexico and Liam and Marcus, having made a new friend with a burro blanco, also in the wilds outside Calderones.

Mexican Roadtrip

Phase 2 – Mexican Roadtrip

Two days before we left Guanajuato, we drove with our Mexicana friend and her son to the Leon Zoo (not the Lion’s zoo, but the zoo in Leon). Liam was quite impressed with the diversity of animals and with how close we were able to view the animals. Indeed, a Puma in one tiny 6 foot chain link cage, kept us on constant guard as the boys were curious enough that we feared they would lose a digit or two to the feline’s incisors...However, as Jenny lectured safety to the boys out of one side of her mouth, she thrust her own fingers into the cage and touched the Puma’s body... "I just couldn’t not touch it...when do you get that kind of opportunity?" OK, boys, lesson learned. Liam also touched the giraffe there – quite the zoo, and yes, we’ve been to a lot of them in the last 5 years.

We bid adios to our beloved Hacienda in Guanajuato, and to our "rental" (as Liam calls them) dog and cat. In a relatively worn rental car, we drove to colonial town of Patzcuaro, famed for its day of the dead festival (the locals were still nursing their hangovers from 2 nights earlier). As soon as we arrived, the boys spotted some local rascals hawking pony rides. The caballeros were determined hagglers and we yielded to their price demand rather quickly, finding no competition and possessing two very eager boys. The boys now consider themselves regular horsemen. After the ride, we wandered the lovely whitewashed, cobble-stoned town and its many market stalls. To my consternation, Liam’s mother indulged him with a Mexican flute, but because we were in a rather raucous town, his bold whistling seemed to annoy nary a soul. Though Patzcuaro wasn’t "wild" – according to Liam – it had a certain je ne sais quoi that kept the whole family quite contented. From a hack photographer’s point of view, the town offered a lot.

We left Patzcuaro and had a stupendous ride through the beautiful mountains of the State of Michoacan until we reached the State of Guerrero, and the beach town of Zihuatanejo. We rented a room next to our traveling amiga, Anne Marie, overlooking the beach with a hypnotizing crashing surf. The body surfing, swimming, and sand castle building was too good to stick to our original schedule, so we extended our stay a tad. In our meanderings, we spied some locals quickly digging in the sand up to their elbows – Liam approached them and asked them "Que busca?" (What are you looking for?). They responded "Chiquiliqui" and showed us the little invertebrate which they said was like a shrimp. A new animal to all of us, and now on Liam’s list of the animals that he "needs to have" in his zoo someday. The list is getting quite extensive.

From "Zihua", we visited the famous silver town of Taxco, where Jenny procured some jewelry and the boys some baubles. Quite the lovely colonial town, ensconsed in the high mountains and far from the rest of the madding Mexican crowd. We pressed on through the traffic of the DF (Mexico City) to reach the town of Teotihuacan, a stone's throw from the imposing and impressive pyramids of the sun and the moon. I might not be exaggerating to say that Liam broke the speed record up the pyramid of the sun, while Marcus was content to ride on my shoulders -- until the park police told me to take him down, referring to a recent death that had occurred in the same fashion. We climbed several of the other pyramids that other people weren't bothering with and enjoyed our king of the mountain status. The following day, surprisingly, we didn't get lost on the way to the Mexico City airport and after a fight with the rental car company, we boarded a flight to Quito, Ecuador...

Images of Mexico

Here is Jennifer attempting to protect Liam from a precipitous drop -- from one of our mountain hikes outside the cobbled village of Santa Rosa. The next photo is of Liam giving some love to a 90 year old shop owner in the old mining town of Cubo, in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico.

El Dia de los Muertos

Move over, Halloween, its all about Day of the Dead here in Mexico. One the beautiful plazas in Guanajuato is filled with stalls selling alfenique, figurines made of pure sugar that one brings as an offering to the graves of the ancestors tonight. Some of the figurines are quite detailed scenes of skeletons dining a la Last Supper, other depict baskets of fruit. I think I saw a Barney last night. Of course Liam and Marcus shove the entire sugar treat in their mouths immediately , exhibiting none of the patience of the local kids. Could it be that we just indulge them more?