Saturday, February 21

Students will arrive by air in Villahermosa, the capital of the state of Tabasco, at night. After checking into a downtown hotel, we will have dinner and review the itinerary.

Olmec Head

Sunday, February 22

Students may choose to have a quick breakfast. At 9:00 AM there will be a short lecture on the petroleum industry and development and on other subjects. We then depart for the coast of Tabasco - the area where Cortez fought the first battle of the conquest and the origin of “La Malinche”. There will be short stops along the way. At the fishing community of El Bellote, there will be a boat tour of the Mecoacan Lagoon and coastal area, which emphasizes tropical coastal ecology and economy, and the instructor’s archaeological research at Maya sites in the area. After the boat tour, and lunch (local fresh fish and seafood), the group then departs for a nearby private ranch in the area that includes a tour on cacao (cocoa) production. The group will then travel to the ancient Maya city of Comalcalco for a site tour. We return that evening to the same hotel in Villahermosa, have dinner, and have the nightly discussion.

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Monday, February 23

Students may choose to have a quick breakfast. At 8:00 AM the group will check out of the hotel and visit the Parque Museo La Venta (La Venta Park and Museum), a beautiful outdoor park with animals and archaeological monuments from the ancient Olmec site of La Venta, in Villahermosa. We then depart on a 3-4 hour trip to Villa La Venta in western Tabasco. After lunch, we will visit the ancient Olmec ruins of La Venta - the largest and most impressive Olmec site. The group will proceed on an additional 3-4 hour trip west into the state of Veracruz. We will check into a hotel in a small rural town, have dinner, and hold the nightly dinner discussion.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify
this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

Tuesday, February 24

Students may choose to have a quick breakfast. At 9:00 AM we will check out of the hotel and visit a peasant Ejido (a collective farm established under Mexico’s land reform system). We then visit the ruins of Cempoala - where Cortez camped before proceeding inland toward the Aztec capital. We also stop in the town of Antigua to visit the ruins of one of Cortez’s properties, where students learn about Mesoamerican societies under Spanish control. We will have a late lunch in the City of Veracruz - Mexico’s largest port, and major tourist destination for Mexicans. After dark, the group will witness the Veracruz Carnaval - one of the largest in the world! We then head inland, and up into the tropical misty highlands, to the city of Xalapa (the capital of the state of Veracruz) to check into a hotel and have a late dinner.

Wednesday, February 25

Students can sleep in an extra hour and may choose to have a quick breakfast. At 10:00 AM there will be a brief lecture on the cultural geography of the Xalapa region. Afterwards, the group will leave for a tour of a private coffee ranch and the town of Naolinco, which specializes in leather crafts, for lunch. We then visit the Universidad de Veracruz to learn about the Mexican educational system and tour the rustic downtown area of Xalapa followed by dinner. (There will be an optional night out at a folkloric club, featuring a mixture of live Huapango [regional folkloric], Salsa, and Cuban music).

The cathedral, Mexico City

Thursday, February 26

Students may choose to have a quick breakfast. At 8:00 AM the group will check out of the hotel and take a bus to Mexico City (4.5 hrs.) during which time students will witness the tremendous geographical variation of central Mexico: tropical highlands, pine forests, deserts, the high Sierra Madre Central, the basin of Mexico, and, of course, Mexico City itself! After navigating our way through the city, we will check into a hotel, and have lunch. After lunch, we head to the Zocalo and visit the Cathedral, the National Palace, accompanied by a lecture at the Templo Mayor on the Aztec Empire, their capital at Tenochtitlán, and the conquest of the empire. We then have dinner and the nightly discussion (and possibly meet up with the EMU students in the Art in Mexico City program).

Map of Mexico City in 1628

Friday, February 27

Students may wish to have a quick breakfast before this long day of walking. The group will leave in the morning for a tour of the ancient city of Teotihuacán - Mesoamerica’s largest prehispanic city. From Teotihuacán we will head directly back to Mexico City and visit the Museo Nacional de Antropología (National Museum of Anthropology), which is widely considered to be one of the world’s best anthropology museums. We will then have a celebration dinner with live music in Mexico City’s famous Zona Rosa.

Saturday, February 28

After checking out of the hotel, the group will head to the Mexico City airport for the return to Michigan.

Treasures of Teotihuacán

Post-Return Take-Home Exam: Due March 31, 2009.