Maya Exploration Center Tour, November 17-26, 2017
OLMEC STONE HEAD — Tour Group in La Venta Park, Villahermosa Mexico
First an important word about images.
If you click on a image, it will open full size. To exit the image and return
to the page, just click on the circled x in the lower right corner below the image.
Villahermosa, Mexico
Nov 17, Friday: Regional Archaeological Museum
Michael and sidewalk “Day of the Dead” exhibits in front of the Museum
This is a photographic journal of the Maya Exploration Center (MEC) tour of the most famous of the Classic Maya archaeological sites in Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras. Our tour 
was guided by Dr. Heather Teague of the MEC and included nine 
of us: three couples, a solo Canadian, and my step-son Michael and me.
Michael and my photographs on the following pages are a sampling of the tour that we hope will serve to encourage anyone interested in Mayan history to consider undertaking an adventure into the heartland of the Classic Maya civilization. 
Michael and I returned from our MEC adventures with the ancient Maya firm in the belief that it is an experience not to be missed.
Michael and I flew into Villahermosa a day before the tour which gave us an opportunity to visit the local archaeological museum a short distance from our hotel. We spent a good part of the day here.
Michael meets the Olmec
The Olmec (rubber people) “were the first Mesoamerican civilization, and laid many of the foundations for the civilizations that followed. Among other “firsts”, the Olmec appeared to practice ritual bloodletting and played the Mesoamerican ballgame, hallmarks of nearly all subsequent Mesoamerican societies. The aspect of the Olmecs most familiar now is their artwork, particularly the aptly named “colossal heads”.” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olmec]
Nov 18, Saturday: La Venta Park
La Venta Park and its museum feature a number of impressive artifacts removed from the major Olmec archaeological site of La Venta after much of the site was threatened by commercial development.
Tour Leader, Dr. Heather Teague, points out details on a La Venta Park sculpture
Olmec altar with an individual emerging from a cave. A Jaguar face can be seen on the rim above.
Altar A shows another individual emerging from a cave holding a child. The facing profile shows two individuals with characteristic Olmec “almost jaguar” babies in arms.
An example of one of several Olmec colossal heads relocated to the La Venta Park in Vliiahermosa. These representations of human heads are thought to be portraits of individual Olmec rulers are carved from basalt and can weight as much as 40 to 50 tons.