Every spring, the streets of Mexico's capital are painted purple with the flowering of thousands of jacaranda trees. Their spectacular colors not only attract the eyes of residents and tourists, but also birds, bees and butterflies that find food and shelter in them. But this year something changed. Some jacarandas began blooming in early January, when they normally awaken in spring. The early onset bloom has set off alarm bells among residents and scientists in Mexico City, where the trees have become an iconic, photogenic mainstay of city streets. Local scientists have begun investigating how widespread the early-bloom phenomenon is, but they point to climate change as the first culprit. People walk near a jacaranda tree at Plaza Cibeles in Mexico City, Mexico. February 22, ...
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travelogues, travel articles and news about Mexico
The population of monarch butterflies in the Mexican forests where they spend the winter fell to the second-lowest figure on record this season, offering a grim snapshot of the already endangered orange-and-black insects. The iconic butterflies' presence was only documented in 2.2 acres (0.9 hectares) of forest spanning a couple Mexican states where they traditionally hunker down for the winter, according to the latest annual study published on Wednesday and conducted by Mexico's protected natural areas commission and the Swiss-based World Wildlife Fund (WWF), an environmental group. In the mid-1990s, monarch butterflies could be found on around 45 acres of the same forests covered largely by pine and fir trees, along the border between Michoacan and Mexico states. FILE PHOTO: A ...
Read MoreThousands of people turned out Saturday to watch Mexico City’s Day of the Dead parade as costumed dancers, drummers and floats took a festive turn down the Paseo de la Reforma boulevard all the way to the historic colonial main square. There were marching bands disguised as skeletons and dancers with skull face paint performing in Indigenous costumes. The smell of traditional resinous copal incense hung heavy over the parade. Participants take part in a James Bond- inspired Day of the Dead Parade, in Mexico City, Saturday, Nov. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme) A skeleton drum group pounded out a samba-style beat, while blocks away dancers swirled long skirts painted to resemble the wings of monarch butterflies, which traditionally return to spend the winter in Mexico around ...
Read MoreThe Day of the Dead in Mexico smells like cempasuchil flowers and copal incense. It has a sweet taste. Sounds and colors abound. There are photos, candles and music all over. The hands of artisans prepare the altars to honor their ancestors. Although it is an intangible tradition, borne down from pre-Hispanic cultures, Day of the Dead is also a celebration for all the senses —even if one of them is failing you. Gerardo Ramírez, who over the years become almost blind, sums it all up in one line: “You honor people, you connect with the past.” THE SMELL THAT GUIDES YOU FROM THE UNDERWORLD Together, two smells show dead souls the way out of the underworld: cempasúchil — a type of marigold whose name means “flower of 20 petals in Náhuatl language” — and a tree resin called copal burne...
Read MoreA museum exhibit displaying Aztec ritual offerings dug up from underneath downtown Mexico City opened on Friday in a first-ever showcase that offers new insight into pre-Hispanic art and religious practices. The artifacts, all crafted from wood, include finely carved masks, sculpted scepters believed to have been wielded by ancient gods, and weapons that were buried with sacrificed animals dressed as deities and warriors, both male and female. Small sculptures evoking warriors and warfare made from wood, copal and flint are pictured as part of the exhibition "Insignia of the Gods, the wood in the Templo Mayor," at the Templo Mayor Museum in Mexico City, Mexico September 27, 2023. REUTERS/Raquel Cunha Reuters gained exclusive access to the exhibit at the Mexican capital's Templo M...
Read MoreA previously unknown ancient Maya city has been discovered in the jungles of southern Mexico, the country's anthropology institute said on Tuesday, adding it was likely an important center more than a thousand years ago. The city includes large pyramid-like buildings, stone columns, three plazas with "imposing buildings" and other structures arranged in almost-concentric circles, the INAH institute said. A view shows a part of an engraved stone after archaeologists from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) discovered an ancient Mayan city inside the Balamku ecological reserve in Campeche state, Mexico in this photo released and distributed by Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History on June 20, 2023. Mexico's National Institute of Anthropolog...
Read MoreA team of nature conservation experts have recently announced that with the help of Huawei Cloud and artificial intelligence, they have identified at least five jaguars in a nature reserve in Dzilam, Yucatan, in southeast Mexico. The Tech4Nature Mexico project, launched in the Dzilam de Bravo nature reserve last year, uses an integrated and continuous monitoring system analyzing images and sound data to identify and track jaguars and their preys. The project involves partners including the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Polytechnic University of Yucatan, C Minds' AI for Climate initiative, Rainforest Connection, the local community of Dzilam, and the government authorities of Yucatan. Huawei supplied the capabilities of Huawei Cloud to the project. To ...
Read MoreAt Mexico’s Chichen Itza site, researchers discover ancient ‘elite’ residences
Archaeologists have revealed a group of structures discovered at the famed Mayan Chichen Itza archaeological site in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, believed to have been part of a housing complex inhabited by the elite of the sacred city founded in the 5th Century AD. Archaeologist Francisco Perez Ruiz said there were no known residential groups in Chichen Itza, meaning the housing complex would represent "the first residential group where a ruler lived with his entire family." Workers of Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) work in the restoration of Chichen Viejo during a media tour at the archaeological site of Chichen Itza, in Piste, Mexico February 10, 2023. REUTERS/Lorenzo Hernandez The area, known as Chichen Viejo, is expected to be integrated in the...
Read MoreMiguel Ángel Díaz walks slowly so his footfall on dry leaves doesn’t drive away what he’s trying to find in this dense forest of seeded breadnut and sapodilla trees. Coming to a small wetland, a sign warns: Beware of the crocodile. Díaz, a tourist guide, shines a laser pointer at a woodpecker and a toucan, and then moves it over to the blue tail of a Yucatecan jay. He learned years ago to decipher the sounds of the Calakmul jungle in Mexico’s southern Yucatan. Although it’s high season, this recent morning Díaz had a hard time finding tourists to guide. Last year, just over 50,000 visitors came to Calakmul, home to an ancient Mayan city that today is a UNESCO world heritage site. A woman climbs up a pyramid in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve at the Calakmul Mayan ruins in the Yuca...
Read MoreYucatán in Mexico joins UNWTO network of sustainable tourism observatories
UNWTO has welcomed Yucatán’s Tourism Observatory into its International Network of Sustainable Tourism Observatories (INSTO). The Yucatán Tourism Observatory was established in 2018 to generate and manage information around tourism development. This work has identified key challenges and opportunities and so led to the design of relevant policies aimed at supporting the destination’s overall sustainable development, thereby increasing its competitiveness. Joining the INSTO Network will help Yucatán manage tourism development in a responsible and sustainable manner, taking a holistic view in developing adequate and innovative strategies for “rethinking” tourism. UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili said: “In this time of rethinking tourism, measurement is increasingly importa...
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