Adventures Through Crete

During my travels through Greece my family spent a week in Crete. We flew from Thessaloniki to Heraklion and rented a car to take a mini road trip around Crete. First we went to Chania where we had our first bad experience with directions, but we made it to our awesome little house. We got to our house and the nice people we were renting from were waiting there, with freshly baked bread, little savory pies, and oranges from their orange trees (which we made fresh orange juice out of) - it was all delicious.

Fresh squeezed OJ in Chania

WWII in Greece

Original artwork from the war.
Displayed at Moni Megalou, Meteora 

Greece was greatly affected by WWII. The Italians wanted to prove that their army was strong and capable, so they decided to attack Greece because they thought that it would be easy. When they tried to invade, Greece successfully fought them off and pushed them back. The Italian failure forced Hitler to attack Greece and he succeeded. After the German invasion they stayed there for the whole war and made life miserable for the Greeks.

The war with the Italians in Greece started after the Italians torpedoed the Greek cruiser called Elli in the 15th of August 1940 in the harbor of the Greek island Tinos which killed tons of people. Then on October 28th 1940 the Italian minister in Athens gave a letter saying that Greece has to let the Italian army occupy its country or they would invade. The Greeks refused so the Italians invaded from Albania thinking it would be an easy victory, but it wasn’t easy or a victory. The Greeks fought back and in six weeks they pushed the Italians back into Albania. This is very humiliating for the Axis so to get the job done Hitler had to stop getting ready for invading Russia to go invade Greece. First the Greeks asked if they could make a truce between Greece and Italy, but on the 6th of April 1941, the German Army invaded Greece. The new Greek Prime minister, Alexander Korysis, committed suicide when the Germans invaded.

Thessaloniki

We just spent the last several days in Thessaloniki which is the second biggest city in Greece. In our guide book there was a walking tour of the city which included a lot of churches, this seemed like a fun way to explore the city so that's what we did all day. When we were done with the walk we went to a delicious bakery with tons of different desserts. Here is a little photo tour.

Our first destination of the "Tour" was part of the Byzantine Walls.
These walls were built in the 4th century B.C. until the Ottomans
destroyed it in the 19th century.

Meteora

We left Delphi yesterday by bus and had to transfer a ton of times. We finally arrived here in Meteora at 9:00 pm, it was raining and we got confused about how to get to our hotel. This was kind of a low travel moment, but once we found our hotel and got some dinner everyone felt much better.

Meteora is known for its monasteries that were built on huge rocks that have been forming for millions of years. The geology of these rocks is not completely understood, but it is believed that they started forming underwater and when the water receded they got eroded by wind and other forces. Today they are humongous rocks rising up to 400m with moss covered tops. They have curved edges from the erosion and black coloring on the sides.

Ancient Mycenae and Ancient Delphi

Ancient Mycenae and Ancient Delphi played a significant role in the myths of Herakles. Ancient Mycenae is where Herakles received his twelve labors after he went to consult with the Oracle of Delphi on what he should do to redeem himself for killing his family. We recently visited both of these sites.

Entrance to Ancient Mycenae

The Hero's Journey

A big part of my high school program at the Pacific Community Charter High School is a project called Passages. Each student picks from six categories and completes one or more Passage each year. The Passages include topics like Adventure, Logical Inquiry, Career Exploration, Global Awareness, Practical Skills and Creativity. You must complete all of the passages to graduate. I have chosen to complete the Adventure Passage this year. My theme is "The Hero's Journey" and my trip to Greece is based around that idea. 

The Acropolis

Something I think is cool about Athens is it's Acropolis. This Acropolis is so old its creation is shrouded by a myth.

When the people of ancient Greece stopped being peaceful farmers they started creating cities on top of places like the Acropolis. The Acropolis served as a very good defensive position for the time when all of the city-states were attacking each other for resources. The Acropolis lays on a big rocky ridge that juts out of the Attica plateau along with the Lykavittos Hill, which we climbed yesterday. The rock rises up over two hundred feet and has a length of around nine hundred feet and a width of about four hundred and fifty feet. 

We Are In Greece!

Hello everyone. As you know from my title my family and I are in Greece. We arrived in Athens on Monday after two long flights and little sleep. From the airport we decided to take a taxi to our apartment. Our driver had a hard time pulling up our address but we had faith he knew how to get us where we were headed. After driving through the maze of Athens' streets, he stopped at an apartment building, and we took all our stuff out of the car thinking the building was the correct one. We unloaded our bags, payed him and he drove away. We walked up to the building to ring the doorbell for our apartment but none of the names were correct, so we stood around scratching our heads and biting our nails for awhile (not literally, just metaphorically, although we did stand around for awhile) until our hopeful savior walked up to go into the apartment. We asked her if she knew where our apartment was, and she said nothing because she didn't speak English (and we definitely don't speak Greek) but suddenly another women walked up and she knew what we were saying and helped us. We thanked her and walked away following our new directions - go straight, then right, and then left. After walking around for awhile we realized that it should have been two rights, but at least we got safely to our new little home. 

Athens from above

View from our apartment

Map Of Our Travels

During our five weeks of traveling we took buses through the Yucatan and Chiapas and went to some pretty and cool places. We took a picture of a map of Southern Mexico in our Palenque hotel and also made a map of our route.

Map we made

Bye Bye Everyone

A huge temple at Chichen Itza

Yesterday was our last day in Mexico after five weeks of traveling around. It was mostly a travel day from Merida to Cancun, but we did make a stop in Chichen Itza for a few hours. 

Merida was where we spent the last 6 days of our trip and is a big city with tons of plazas and shows almost every day, and great food stands. We stayed in a little house several blocks away from a big plaza where we saw Noche Mexicana and ate delicious tacos. It is a really flat city but unlike Tulum you can’t bike because the drivers go too fast, although on Sundays they block off part of the city so we got to rent bikes and ride around. There were a lot of places selling hammocks in Merida so we went to a small shop and got a couple to bring home. The reason why there are so many hammocks around here is because Mayan women traditionally made them from the henequen fiber which was grown around Merida (now they are usually nylon or cotton). We really liked our small house in Merida and are glad we can hang out in our hammocks when we get home. 

The Adventure In The Cenotes

One of the moto-cabs

On Monday we went on a trip to some cenotes about an hour away from Merida. First we had to take an hour bus ride that was really hot because the air conditioning didn't work and there were a lot of people. When we got to the small town of Cuzama we took two motorcycle taxis (we're not sure why we had to take two because there were four seats, but what can you do??). We took the taxis to a little railroad where horse drawn carts would take us to the cenotes. Cenotes are big water tunnels and pools under ground and they are super beautiful and fun to swim in.

The first horse drawn cart stopped at a little rest stop for the horses. After a little waiting at the horse stop another moto-cab took us to another horse stop and we got on yet another horse drawn cart. The railroad ride was a lot longer than the first one but then we got to the Cenotes. At first I couldn't see the cenotes but when I got closer there was a hole in the ground with a stair case leading down. When we got to the water my brother, my mom and my dad all jumped in right away but I'm a wimp of cold water so I had to test it first, but after awhile I jumped in.

Dancing In Plazas

At two places we have stayed on our trip, Merida and Chetumal, there have been dancers in the plazas. While we were in Chetumal there was a carnival at a plaza by the sea and a big stage where all ages of dancers showed off their moves and it was kind of fun.

In Merida (where we are right now) we went out for dinner in one of the many plazas and there was a stage that had a lot of different dance groups. A lot of the shows in Chetumal had people who were lip syncing and had crazy outfits on. The dancers in Merida were more traditional. One of the nights we were here a band was playing in a plaza close to our little house and there were lots of people dancing.

The first dance we saw in Merida

The Small Town Of Celestun

Flying Flamingos!

We stayed in Celestun for three nights and four days. While we were there we visited the beach a lot, which is covered with big shells along the ocean. We also went on a boat ride to see pink flamingos. On the ride to see the flamingos we saw lots of other birds in the water as well like a black eagle and some white pelicans. We saw a couple of patches of flamingos in the ocean and kept going to see mangroves.

The Walled City Campeche

A view from the walls

While we stayed in the city of Campeche we got to learn about its history and why they have parts of a giant wall around it. A long time ago in 1511 two men named Jeronimo de Aguilar and Gonzalo Guerrero shipwrecked on the Yucatan Peninsula. They were taken in by a Mayan village. Guerrero married the chief's daughter and stayed there while Jeronimo got rescued by the conquistador Hernan Cortes. Campeche wasn't very populated, but natives that lived in the rest of the Yucatan Peninsula could rebel the occasional attack by Spaniards. Later in 1527 Francisco de Montejo tried to conquer the region, but the Amerindian defenses were too strong so he fled. Three years later he returned with his son, yet again the Ameridians were too strong. At last on his third attempt in 1537 he was successful and de Montejo established the cities San Francisco de Campeche in 1540 and Merida in 1542. 

Casas del Arco Iris

While I was walking around the colorful town of San Cristobal de las Casas, I thought that it would be fun to make a rainbow collage with pictures of colored houses. On just one block I took a picture of each color but kept taking more so I had a variety. I chose these six for the arco iris and a few extra just for fun. I really like how there are so many different colors here and hope you enjoy them too.

A rainbow of houses

Pakals Tomb

The Palace

On Saturday we went to the ruins in Palenque and walked around for several hours. The ruins were really big and they had a lot of steep stairs so we got a good workout. The Mayans started building the city of Palenque in 100 BC and they flourished from around AD 630 to 740. Palenque is a good example of Mayan civilization. The big ruins that we visited are really cool, but they are not the only place you could find Mayan artifacts because the Mayan civilization was huge and there were villages and cities everywhere.

Exploring Palenque is a good way to learn more about Mayan civilization. It was a big city that is well preserved and has been extensively excavated by archeologists. The archeologists have made many good finds there including the discovery of Pakal who was Palenque’s greatest king.

They found his tomb in 1952 and it is considered one of the greatest Mayan archeologist finds. The Mayans buried valuable things with their leaders but over time people looted the tombs so archeologists didn’t have much to work from. Pakal’s tomb is unique because it was found completely intact.

Nadar en Mexico

The main spot where we would swim in the ocean

There have been a lot of good swimming spots that we have visited on our trip. We have been swimming in the Caribbean, under ground caves, a lake, and pools.

I prefer the Caribbean because there are a lot of  small waves and sometimes it's completely still. My brother and I like jumping into the waves and getting sucked under the water. The ocean here is different than it is back  home. First of all it's the Caribbean Sea and we live on the Pacific. It's also a bit warmer and the beaches are really white and the water is super blue.

The under ground caves were fun because they were super dark and little fish swam around your feet. The under ground caves are also called Cenotes and they have really long underground tunnels filled with water and sometimes bats. All of the little fish swim around and nibble on your feet. There are also some small turtles that you couldn't swim by in the Cenote we visited, which was the Gran Cenote outside of Tulum. The Cenotes are found in the Yucatan and used to be one of the main sources of water for the Mayans. 

Comida en Chetumal

The taco stand

We arrived in Chetumal two days ago and went for a walk around dinner time in search of food. We found a little taco stand that had amazing tacos. The taco stand was pretty nice for a small food stand--it had chairs in front with tables and a roof made with a tarp. It was kind of close to our hotel but we made it a longer walk since we didn't know about it yet.

Tulum Ruins

A view of the cove

While my family and I were staying in Tulum we visited some of the ruins that were by a beach. We rode there on bike then and stayed for a couple of hours. We saw a ton of black spiny tailed lizards everywhere because the ruins are perfect habitat for them (my brother did a blog post about these lizards). Towards the end of our visit we walked down to the beach that was in a little cove next to the ruins. Swimming was really fun and maybe even my favorite part of visiting the ruins. My mom and dad said that the Mayans picked a beautiful place to live and I think that I agree with them.

So Many Bikes

The house that we are staying at in Tulum came with some bikes so we have been biking around a lot. Most of the locals we have seen, and some tourists, ride bikes around. Some of the bikes have a big cart on the front and some people ride in it. Today we saw two little kids in a cart and an older kid (probably like 11) riding the bike. Some of the food vendors use the big work bikes to carry their things.

Tulum is a really nice place to bike because it is super flat and there are really nice bike paths. We have ridden to the beach a lot on the bike paths and it is really fun. I have seen two people on a bike at the same time riding down the street and it looks really uncomfortable. At night there are food vendors riding around by our house, honking a horn and it gets really annoying when you are trying to sleep.

When I was biking back from the beach today I took some pictures of the bikes we saw.

On The Road Again

Hola.

My family and I are on a trip in Mexico and will be travelling around the Yucatan and Chiapas for five weeks. I am really excited to be on another trip with my family. We arrived in Cancun on Monday 1/25/16 and stayed there for two nights. We ate most of our meals in Parque de las Palapas. The plaza had a ton of food vendors and a place where you could eat, there would also be a man or woman playing music. The last night we were there a lot of people started dancing. The food there was really good and some of the vendors sold delicious drinks like licuados (blended fruit, milk and ice) and agua frescas, including horchata and pina. Some of the foods I ate were enchiladas, quesadillas, soup, and burritos. My favorite was the quesadilla with papas, chorizo and queso on a homemade tortilla.

The delicious quesadillas