Deep in the remote southern area along the border with Guatemala, recent excavations have exposed remains of pyramids and cities that until recently, were nearly impossible to reach. Hieroglyphic texts found here are changing our knowledge of the Maya by revealing history that has been hidden for more than one thousand years. So what is the...Read More
Five hundred years ago the first contact between the great civilizations of Mesoamerica and Europe was just beginning. But it did not begin with Cortes’ landing in Mexico in 1519. Eight years earlier, a small lifeboat from a shipwrecked Spanish vessel drifted ashore on the southern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. The local Maya did not...Read More
Who was Frederick Catherwood? Here’s the incredible story… One day in 1839, English explorer Frederick Catherood and American explorer John Lloyd Stephens climbed the crumbling steps of the pyramids in the Maya city of Copán. The pyramids had been overgrown by the jungle and even the inhabitants of the region forgot about their origins. These...Read More
The Toltecs are the most mysterious and controversial group from ancient Mesoamerica. The interpretation of their importance to the greater cultural traditions of the region have ranged from seeing them as the “mother culture” from which all others sprang, to a group that didn’t even exist historically and were nothing but a figment of the Aztec...Read More
A gigantic stucco frieze was recently discovered during excavations of a building at Holmul, a ceremonial center in the northeastern Peten of Guatemala. Measuring 26 feet by 7 feet, and still containing traces of red, blue, green, and yellow pigment, deified rulers are prominently displayed in that is one of the best preserved Maya façades...Read More
By Mary Dell Lucas When one of my professors asked me ‘Would you like to work on an archaeological project in Belize?’, my first thought was, ‘Belize – where’s that?’ But one of my excavator friends had worked there the year before, loved the country and the project… and had a van, so I agreed...Read More
By Elise Gochberg, Trip Participant 2007 I did a trip to Peru in 2008 with Far Horizons and it was the most amazing trip/adventure I have ever been on to date. And, I have traveled with various groups and locations and nothing compares to my experience in Peru with Far Horizons. I did this trip...Read More
Lima is much more than just a one-night stand for travelers to Peru. Preferring to quickly move onto Cuzco and Machu Picchu, or even Iquitos, the gateway for Amazonian explorations, most people choose to bypass any city sight-seeing and use Lima simply as a necessary layover from their international flights. What first struck me about...Read More
By Stanley Guenter, Study Leader Over the last decade the site of Ek Balam has emerged as one of the great surprises in Maya archaeology. A relatively small site, although possessing sizeable mounds, excavations in Ek Balam’s Acropolis have revealed one of the best preserved stucco facades in Mesoamerica. Arranged around a doorway in the...Read More
No Bañarse! by Sara Barbieri, Tour Manager (on January 2009 trip) When you are traipsing through the jungle in the pouring rain feeling the water seep through your clothes, you do begin to wonder what you are doing—oh yes, stalking a Maya ruin at Yaxha! The world around you is still and green and there...Read More
