By: Rebecca and Jason

Last month, Jason attended the 10th annual International Conference and Workshop on Lobsters in Cancún. Yes, an entire week devoted to all things lobster (including one evening of eating them). We decided to make a mini-vacation out of the trip so we flew down a couple days early to have some free time before the conference started. 

The view from our hotel balcony

The first night we arrived we went out to dinner at a restaurant just down the street from our hotel. Called Navíos, the restaurant is built on a pier on the lagoon-side of the barrier beach. We had some fantastic food (smoked marlin tostadas with avocado and picked onion was just one offering), tasty drinks, and great service from our waiter, Alberto, who looked like a Mexican version of Danny Divito.

On Sunday, we escaped the torrential rain in Cancún and took a bus tour to Chichén Itzá. Like all bus tours, there are several stops, but our favorite was Chichén Itzá itself. One of the new seven wonders of the world, the site was built by the Mayans around 600 AD. Having seen two of the other sites on the list (here and here) and the only one left of the original seven (here). We were impressed! We hadn't realized that there was more than the one huge pyramid. The site is quite large and varied. There are many temples to various gods, a market, ballcourts, roads, etc. Although I'm sure the tour guide had good things to say, we ditched the tour in favor of wandering around and getting a feel for the site ourselves. 

The great pyramid at Chichén Itzá

The ball court at Chichén Itzá

Temple of Sacrifice

At Chichén Itzá's sacred cenote

On the way back to Cancún we stopped in the town of Valladolid. The tour was running late so we only had a short time to wander around the main square, see the huge cathedral (San Servacio) and get a snack. We would have loved to explore the streets with their Spanish Colonial vibe - maybe next time.

The last stop before the long drive back to Cancún was a cenote (sinkhole). We took a quick swim in the cold, but refreshing water and stared up at the stalactites hanging from the ceiling. It was late and not so sunny, but the water was still a beautiful shade of blue. We got out feeling relaxed after a long day of sightseeing.  

I took a day off from the conference to visit Isla Mujeres, an island off the northern tip of Cancún. I took the ferry to the island and spent the afternoon wandering the quaint (though very full of tourist) streets and walking along the beautiful beach. Later in the week, Jason visited the reef off the island on his SCUBA trip. He got some fantastic photos and saw an abundance of marine life including, of course, lobsters!

Entrance to the beach on Isla Mujeres

Boats in the Isla's harbor

Mermaid statue on the east side of the Island

We would definitely visit the Yucatán again. Next time we'd love to do more exploring. Although the beaches of Cancún are gorgeous, there is so much more to do in this part of México. 

Stayed tuned for Jason's post on SCUBA diving. See more pictures of our trip here: 

Mexico

By: Jason

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Megiddo contains 25 cities that have been built successively one on top of the other in the form of a Tel, or hill. In some place you can actually see cross-sections of the building materials from each civilization in the side of the hill. Megiddo is located about 15-20 miles from Haifa (about a 45-minute drive) and it overlooks the beautiful Jezreel valley.

The view of the Jezreel valley from Megiddo

 The earliest civilization during the Calcolithic period dates to around 8,000 BCE (or about 10,000 years ago)! Tels are very common throughout Israel, however Megiddo is highly complex and one of the best places where one can observe multiple civilizations that include Canaanite, Assyrian, Egyptian, and Israelite, among others in a relatively natural state.

Layers of history

This site was also named Armageddon and mentioned in the Book of Revelations by the Greeks and became famous (or infamous depending on how you look at it) for several battles. The modern usage of the word denotes ‘end of the world’-type scenarios. Tel Megiddo also served as a main fortress on the Roman military road to the sea or Via Maris (see the last paragraph for just how important). The Egyptians waged war in two separate battles here, one against the Caananites and one with the Kingdom of Judah. The details of these battles are still found as hieroglyphics in underground Egyptian temples. More recently, Megiddo was the battle site between the Ottoman Empire (present day Turkey) and the British army during World War I and the Mandate period.

  

Ancient temple with circular altar

This is really one of those places that you have to stop and just try to take it all in one step at a time. There’s no speed walking through this place or you’ll be bound to miss the ancient temples, homes, and horse stables that are 1,000s of years old.  

One of my other highlights was the view and the surrounding fields. My friend and colleague Alex informed me that what appeared to be an ordinary agricultural field was, in fact, an un-excavated Roman fortress that is considered one of the largest in the Middle East!  Not that I didn’t believe Alex, but we drove up to the field after our Megiddo adventure and walked briskly up to a small hummock where, in about two minutes, Alex overturned a few rocks and pulled up some Roman artifacts!!  Pretty cool!  FYI, it seems as though this site is going to be excavated this summer, so it will be interesting to see how it looks the next time I go.

By: Rebecca

We are all familiar with taking a moment of silence to commemorate the anniversary of an event - usually a tragic one. Whether it is to mark the very minute of detonation at the finish line of the Boston marathon or impact of a plane into the World Trade Center, the hour of a loved one's passing, or the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, we pause for a moment to remember. Once that moment is over, we get back to our usual busy lives and forget again.

Sometimes it is to mark a good thing, or nothing at all. We used to stand for a moment of silence every day after the morning announcements in high school. We take a moment of quiet at the end of yoga practice to find stillness in our bodies and minds. 

A minute of absolute silence is familiar. But what if that moment was punctuated by a sound? That is what the moment of remembrance is like on Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) in Israel. Promptly at 10:00am, the air raid sirens across the country sound for two full minutes. The tone is steady and unforgettable (and loud!). For two minutes a country of seven million people stands in stillness and silence to honor the memory of the millions that died during the Holocaust. You stop - on foot, in the car, on the train, it doesn't matter. You stop, go outside, and stand, empty handed for two full minutes. It is a powerful experience.

When we toured the Israel Museum, we saw a video of the main highway in Tel Aviv on Yom Hashoah. This is not the same video, but a similar one from a few years ago. It will hopefully give you a little feel for how powerful these two minutes are: