Drew MacKenzie .com:
From Day 40: Witnessed a wedding at a church, built in 1618 from the limestone of a dismantled Mayan temple. (It’s claimed you can still see Mayan carvings on the stones of the west walls.) Their videographer brought a Phantom 2 drone. #Mérida #Mexico #Pa
Drew MacKenzie .com:
From Day 40: Serious Mayan cuisine, as we’re told by our Airbnb host. A lot of ground corn and chicken. #Mérida #Mexico #Panamerica with Lily at La Chaya Maya – View on Path.
Drew MacKenzie .com:
From Day 40: Contrasts. #nofilter #Mérida #Mexico #Panamerica with Lily at Mérida – View on Path.
Drew MacKenzie .com:
From Day 40: The governor’s palace is infested with lizards. #Uxmal #Mexico #Panamerica with Lily at Zona Arqueológica de Uxmal – View on Path.
Drew MacKenzie .com:
From Day 40: Someday, despite our best efforts, these ancient ruins of the House of the Pigeons will be lost forever, by a tree sapling. #Uxmal #Mexico #Panamerica with Lily at Zona Arqueológica de Uxmal – View on Path.
Drew MacKenzie .com:
From Day 40: On the far west end of the site, through the woods and over a rocky hill, is an eerily quiet area of Uxmal that is barely excavated, and that few seem to visit. A crumbling stone temple surveys over a large quadrangle, walled on each side and
Drew MacKenzie .com:
From Day 40: The Pyramid of the Magician at #Uxmal. In 1840, American explorer John Lloyd Stephens visited this site in overgrown ruins, and recorded a famous legend from a local Mayan native. It follows a dwarf, born from an egg enchanted by a witch, who
Drew MacKenzie .com:
From Day 40: Visited the nearby ruins of #Uxmal, notable for its well-preserved Puuc-style architecture. You can climb the Great Pyramid. We’ve learned that most ancient landmarks around the world are really just fancy staircases. #Merida #Mexico #Panamer
Drew MacKenzie .com:
Day 39 recap: After a giant lunch at a local Mayan-fusion spot with our host Ginesa, and picking up the car with bad news on its steering guide, we hit the road again. 330 miles across the state of Campeche and into the Yucatan. Police checkpoints were mo
Drew MacKenzie .com:
From Day 39: Lucy is back on the road and heading to Merida, in the Yucatan, after a laundry list of tune up items. We’re told she needs a new steering rack guide in a month or less, which probably also explains the clunking in brakes and turns. Until the
Drew MacKenzie .com:
From Day 39: Invited Ginesa out to lunch to thank her for all her help with the car, rides, advice, etc. She picked this Mayan fusion spot, where Lily and I ordered half the menu. #Palenque #Mexico #Panamerica with Lily and Ginesa at Restaurante Maya Caña
Drew MacKenzie .com:
Day 38 recap: We dropped Lucy off at our host’s mechanic, which seems to be the most modern shop in town. The owner spoke English and said he once drove a 4Runner through Alaska, so he was a big supporter of our choice in rigs. We explained the throttle p
Drew MacKenzie .com:
From Day 38: Archeologists couldn’t possibly remove the gigantic sarcophagus of Pakal the Great from his burial chambers inside the Temple of Inscriptions, but the #Palenque museum has a pretty impressive recreation. The glass walls show the inner depicti
Drew MacKenzie .com:
From Day 38: Archeology crews continue to uncover tablets on the Temple of Inscriptions, aka the tomb of Pakal the Great. No Indiana Jones action scenes here. Just painstakingly slow and careful work. We’ve read that just 5% of the entire site has been un
Drew MacKenzie .com:
From Day 38: The unflattering jade funerary mask of the Red Queen, Tz’ak-bu Ajaw, the wife of Pakal the Great, and the grandmother of the last Mayan ruler. Removed from her sarcophagus inside Temple XIII in Palenque. Creepy. DNA found in collagen in her v
Drew MacKenzie .com:
From Day 38: The king consults his advisers. Almost cartoonish expressions on these tablets, preserved in the #Palenque museum. #Mexico #Panamerica with Lily at Zona Arqueológica de Palenque – View on Path.
Drew MacKenzie .com:
From Day 38: Sealed in Temple XIII, in the central plaza of Palenque, beneath 20-foot-thick walls of limestone, is the sarcophagus of the Red Queen, now theorized to be the wife of Pakal the Great, ruler during Palenque’s peak in the AD 600s. The wiki on
Drew MacKenzie .com:
From Day 38: Palenque is insane. You can climb up and *inside* Temple XIII, to see the limestone chambers where archeologists broke through a stone wall to find the sarcophagus of the Red Queen. This pyramid is directly adjacent to the giant Temple of the
Drew MacKenzie .com:
From Day 38: The Observation Tower at #Palenque. #Mexico #Panamerica with Lily at Zona Arqueológica de Palenque – View on Path.
Drew MacKenzie .com:
From Day 38: Climbed #Palenque, aka Bàak’al. Active 226 BC to 799 AD. Abandoned to the jungle for a nearly a millennia, until the Spanish raided its tombs in 1773. #Mexico #Panamerica with Lily at Zona Arqueológica de Palenque – View on Path.
Drew MacKenzie .com:
From Day 38: Lucy is in the shop for the first time since departing Portland, roughly 3,500 miles ago. Checking out the loose steering, squeaky brakes, and the throttle position sensor wiring (though fortunately the CEL hasn’t come back on since we cleare
Drew MacKenzie .com:
Day 37 recap: Walked to the central square after breakfast to find Cesar — our tour guide from 2 days prior — to check the latest news on road closures. A record-long blockade on our route had cleared, according to Cesar’s colleague, but more were expecte
Drew MacKenzie .com:
From Day 37: Idyllic views from our Airbnb host’s home in #Palenque. #Mexico #Panamerica with Lily at Palenque – View on Path.
Drew MacKenzie .com:
From Day 37: Lily found a kitty! #Palenque #Mexico #Panamerica with Lily at Palenque – View on Path.
Drew MacKenzie .com:
From Day 37: Roadblocked! We’d heard the protests near Ocosingo (a Zapatista hotspot) had all cleared out, and we’d driven nearly 3 hours from San Cristobal without issue. But just 45 minutes outside of Palenque, the traffic on this jungle mountain road c
Drew MacKenzie .com:
From Day 37: A welcome message in the roundabout in Ocosingo: “punishment of state criminals FNLS (National Front of Struggle for Socialism).” No signs of protest or road blocks. Very little traffic at all. Suspiciously quiet, even… #Palenque #Mexico #Pan
Drew MacKenzie .com:
From Day 37: Leaving rainy and cold San Cristobal. But first we needed more information on our route. Still without Internet access, we awoke at 8:30 AM for breakfast, then walked back to the town square at 9:15 AM to find Cesar in his usual spot in front
Drew MacKenzie .com:
From Day 34: Red Bug. #XT1 #SanCristobal #Mexico #Panamerica with Lily at San Cristóbal de las Casas – View on Path.
Drew MacKenzie .com:
From Day 36: Late night food stands along the church courtyard in #SanCristobal. #XT1 #Mexico #Panamerica with Lily at San Cristóbal de las Casas – View on Path.
Drew MacKenzie .com:
Day 36 recap: Last day in San Cristobal de las Casas. Morning was spent at the local market around Santo Domingo church. Early afternoon at a large cafe for Internet access to work, after our AirBnB’s connection mysteriously died overnight. Then a long an
