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TRAVEL MEMOIRS
A Journey Back in Time to When Aztecs Ruled The World
I fulfilled my junior high dream to visit Mexico’s pyramids
Mexico has called out to me since I sat through my social studies classes in junior high school. My teacher, Mr. Brennan, was passionate about Mexican culture and its history.
He spent time traveling through Mexico exploring the Aztec and Mayan civilizations and his classes enjoyed the rewards. We sat through hours-long slide shows, pausing only for him to change carousels.
It brought life into the subject matter. He didn’t deliver just a dry history lecture. His classes were exciting and captivating to a fourteen-year-old boy with big ideas. It planted another seed to encourage my passion for travel. I realized it was possible to experience the world with my own eyes and feet.
I knew one day I would visit Mexico to follow in Mr. Brennan’s footsteps into the Aztec and Mayan cultures.
When I visited the Mayan Riviera at an all-inclusive resort several years ago, I took a side trip to the pyramids at nearby Chichen Itza. The history surrounding it was overwhelming.
I visited a cenote near Chichen Itza — I couldn’t travel to that part of the country and not see it. Cenotes are like giant sinkholes with deep groundwater at the bottom. I expected to view it from a safe distance but didn’t expect to climb down into it. Deep water and heights are my biggest fears.
Several years earlier I tried to confront my fears — I went snorkeling in the Andaman Islands, scuba dived in the Red Sea, and went hot air ballooning in Turkey. It helped but I still get nervous around open or deep water and heights. So I had to steel my nerves and slip on a life vest before climbing down all those steps and diving in.
My swim, something the Mayans did regularly, put everything into perspective. When they jumped into the water they were on their own, but when I did it there were a couple of busloads of tourists doing the same thing. While I enjoyed my cultural and historic…
