buried mirror: latest reflections » natural world

Mexico’s best natural attractions

xensen — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 13:00:14 +0000

According to the LA Times, that is. It lists six of them:

Michoacán’s Million Monarch March:
Whale-Watching
Sea-Turtle Nesting Beaches
Lago Bacalar
Copper Canyon
Desert Landscapes in Baja Sur

What do you think of this list?

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Mexico’s best natural attractions

Photo Wednesday: motmots

xensen — Wed, 21 May 2008 13:00:40 +0000

This image of turquoise-browed motmots comes from jvverde’s photostream.

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Photo Wednesday: motmots

Orchids of Mexico and Guatemala

xensen — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:00:29 +0000

The New York Public Library has digitized and put online The Orchidaceæ of Mexico & Guatemala by Jas Bateman. This rare book was published 1837-1843 by James Ridgway and Sons. The prints are quite beautiful, as these examples suggest:

Oncidium leucochilum. [White-lipped oncidium]:

Stanhopea tigrina. [Tiger-like stanhopea]

Cattleya skinneri:

See the full book here.

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Orchids of Mexico and Guatemala

Protecting butterflies

xensen — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 13:00:13 +0000

Mexican president Felipe Calderon visited the Sierra Chincua monarch butterfly reserve to announce a new $4.6 million program that will provide equipement and marketing support for the preserve, which is the winter refuge of monarch butterflies that migrate south from Mexico. Without a safe Mexican habitat, the butterflies would be endangered.

Calderon noted the significance of the butterflies to indigenous peoples:

The butterflies’ stay meant the essence of the dead, because the butterflies used to arrive around the time of the Day of the Dead and for the Otomí and Mazahua, they represented the spirit of the harvest, because the harvest ended when the Monarch butterfly arrived. These butterflies, which attract thousands of tourists, are regarded as one of Mexico’s natural wonders and this season, we hope to receive 230,000 tourists.

Calderon also announced that Mexico is working with the United Nations to have the monarch butterfly area recognized as a World Heritage Site.

via Mexico Premiere (also the source of the photo on which my artwork is based)

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Protecting butterflies

Chiminos Island Lodge

xensen — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 13:00:58 +0000

Chiminos Island Lodge is located in the remote Petexbatun Region region of the Peten. It bills itself as an “eco-archaeological adventure.” I have never visited, but that seems fair enough based on the evidence of this video.

Lodge home page

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Chiminos Island Lodge

The Yucatan as a garden

xensen — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:00:55 +0000

It might seem an obvious point, but a 2004 report by Anabel Ford, a UCSB anthropologist wroking at the site of El Pilar, confirmed that Yucatan’s ecosystem “bears the evidence of manipulation.” Plants are spread more uniformly that would be the the case in an unmanipulated ecosystem. Many of the “jungle” plants are cultivated species that have gone feral. Says Christine Hastorf, an archaeology professor at Berkeley: “That isn’t the forest that was there before humans landed in the Americas.”

An excerpt from the report:

Plants are nurtured for medicine, ornaments, food, spices, dyes, poisons, construction, household products, toys, beverages, rituals, fodder and many more household needs. These forest gardens may at first look more like a compost heap and untamed jungle, but as you spend time with the farmers, you come to understand the management strategies and the alliance that actively engages in the verdant environment. While plants introduced over the past 500 years influence these contemporary gardens, more than 90% of the native forest oligarchy is nurtured in the traditional forest garden suggesting that the structure of the forest and the forest garden is much the same.

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Shown: Forest at the ancient Maya site of Coba

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Via Wired

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The Yucatan as a garden

What is this?

xensen — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 13:00:51 +0000

I took this photo of this colorful creature at the Maya site of Ek Balam in the northern Yucatan.

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What is this?

Love birds

xensen — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 13:00:57 +0000

So colorful! It’s not hard to see why the ancient Maya attached such importance to the macaw.

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Love birds

White-Tailed Deer release in Guatemala

xensen — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 13:00:10 +0000

Endangered white tailed deer were recently released in Guatemala. (I haven’t been able to find details about the release — if anyone knows more, please leave a comment.)

Find more videos like this on www.truveo.com.

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White-Tailed Deer release in Guatemala

View of temple 1, Tikal, from east plaza

xensen — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 13:00:50 +0000

This is a watercolor I did some years ago.

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View of temple 1, Tikal, from east plaza