Ancient Maya Canoe Found in Mexico’s Yucatan

11/01/2021

Source: VOA

A wooden canoe used by the ancient Maya and believed to be more than 1,000 years old has turned up in southern Mexico, officials said on Friday, part of archeological work accompanying the construction of a major new tourist train.

The extremely rare canoe was found almost completely intact, submerged in a freshwater pool known as a cenote, thousands of which dot Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, near the ruins of Chichen Itza, once a major Maya city featuring elaborately carved temples and towering pyramids.

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Fishermen Call for Aid Against Illegal Fishing in Yucatán, Mexico

07/16/2021

Source: InSight Crime

Illegal fishing is out of control in the Mexican state of Yucatán, according to local fishermen and media, as illegal techniques, competition from out-of-state vessels, and dwindling fisheries combine to threaten a major national industry.

Fishermen cite a laundry list of problems, including vessels illegally capturing fish that are smaller than allowed as well as fishing during the closed season, according to La Jornada Maya, a local newspaper. Many of these fishing vessels are coming from nearby states such as Campeche, Tabasco and Quintana Roo, leading to a dramatic fall in the octopus, lobster, grouper and sea cucumber available to be fished by the Yucatán fleet.

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Americans Are Flocking to Mexico. Should They Be?

07/16/2021

Source: The New York Times

Mexico’s reputation as an alluring travel destination both before and during the pandemic has met a sobering reality: Despite growing vaccine efforts, the coronavirus is surging, especially in tourist hot spots.

Though the U.S. land border with Mexico has been closed to nonessential travel since the start of the pandemic, vacationers can fly into the country with no quarantine or testing requirements, opening the door to unvaccinated travelers who might contract the virus in Mexico and bring it back home, or for any traveler to pass it on to a Mexican citizen.

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Maya Train risks being derailed in Mexico’s precious biosphere

04/03/2021

Source: The Financial Times

A dilapidated shed on a potholed road in the heart of Mexico’s Unesco-protected Calakmul biosphere is an unlikely war room.

But it is from here that the Regional Indigenous and Popular Council of Xpujil (Cripx), a local NGO, has launched a legal battle to stop President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s $7.8bn Maya Train project in its tracks.

Cripx and local farmers are worried about the environmental impact of running diesel engines through the habitat of endangered jaguars in a landscape studded with archaeological treasures. They are facing off against a powerful adversary: the military.

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Hurricane Zeta is ashore in resort zone of Mexico’s Yucatan

10/27/2020

Associated Press

CANCUN, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane Zeta, the 27th named storm in a very busy Atlantic season, made landfall on the Caribbean coast of the eastern Yucatan Peninsula late Monday while whipping the resorts around Tulum with rain and wind.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Zeta came ashore just north of Tulum with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph).

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Hurricane Delta makes landfall in Mexico, forecast to hit US Gulf Coast on Friday

10/07/2020

Source: USA Today

Hurricane Delta hit Mexico on Wednesday morning as an extremely dangerous Category 2 storm, coming ashore near Puerto Morelos along the northeastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula.

The center of Delta made landfall around 6:30 a.m. EDT, with top winds of 110 mph, a strong Category 2 hurricane, the National Hurricane Center said.

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Hurricane Delta now Category 2, roars at Mexico’s Yucatan

10/06/2020

Source: PBS

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Hurricane Delta rapidly intensified into a Category 2 hurricane early Tuesday, packing 110 mph (175 kmh) winds on a course to hammer southeastern Mexico and then grow to a potentially catastrophic Category 4 as it approaches the U.S. Gulf coast.

As Delta shifted west on Monday, Cuba withdrew a hurricane warning for its western province of Pinar del Rio and replaced it with a tropical storm warning. There was also a tropical storm warning for the Cayman Islands including Little Cayman and Cayman Brac.

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Tropical Storm Gamma leaves 6 dead in southern Mexico

10/05/2020

Source: Fox News

MEXICO CITY – At least six people died and thousands were evacuated in southeastern Mexico after Tropical Storm Gamma lashed the Yucatan Peninsula’s resort-studded coast with near-hurricane force winds and drenched Tabasco and Chiapas states, authorities said Sunday.

Mexico’s civil defense agency said in a statement that four of the deaths, including two children, were in Chiapas, where a landslide on a mountainous slope buried their home.

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Mexico’s president-elect proposes Cancun-Palenque train

08/13/18 Washington Post

Mexico’s president-elect wants to bring tourism revenues to remote and forgotten stretches of Mexico, but some are scratching their heads at his main proposal: to build a $3.2 billion train that would run from the resort of Cancun to the Mayan ruins of Palenque, 520 miles (830 kilometers) across the Yucatan peninsula.

The route is dotted by low jungle, wildlife reserves, pre-Hispanic archaeological sites, wetlands and underground rivers that can suddenly cave in. It would take years to build, and soak up scarce money, just to reach ruin sites like Calakmul, which now gets only about 35,000 visitors a year — the number better-known sites like Chichen Itza have in a week.

For those who like the plan proposed by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, it’s all about getting people off the beaten track — the heavily travelled tourism route of Cancun-Riviera Maya-Chichen Itza-Xcaret visited by millions of tourists per year.

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Mexico to tender $7.4 billion in passenger train projects in 2014

Reuters, 10/8/2013

Mexico’s government will tender three passenger train projects next year worth 97 billion pesos ($7.4 billion), two of which will service the capital’s sprawling metropolitan area, the country’s transport ministry said on Tuesday. Project details will be published ahead of the contract tender in early 2014, the ministry said in a statement. The new trains will connect the country’s capital with the cities of Toluca and Queretaro, in addition to a train traversing tourist destinations along Mexico’s southern Yucatan peninsula.

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