TOUR HIGHLIGHTS SINGAPORE - MEXICO CITY. Mexico City

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1 10D WONDERS OF MEXICO HMX10W 30/Apr/2018 to 30/Nov/2018

2 TOUR HIGHLIGHTS Mexico City Mexico City Tour with National Palace Guadalupe Shrine Teotihuacan Pyramids Complexes Cuernavaca La Cathedral Taxco City Tour Merida Merida City Tour Kabah Palace of Masks Uxmal Ornamented Buildings Chichen Itza Archaeological Sites Cancun Mayan Rivera D1 SINGAPORE - MEXICO CITY Assemble at Singapore Changi Airport for your flight to Mexico.

3 D2 MEXICO CITY Upon arrival, embark on a city tour of the biggest city in the world. Start with Zocalo the main plaza or square in the heart of the historic center of the city. The plaza used to be known simply as the "Main Square" or "Arms Square," and today its formal name is Plaza de la Constitución. Visit The Cathedral the oldest and largest cathedral in the Americas and also the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico. It is built atop a former Aztec sacred precinct near the Templo Mayor on the northern side of the Plaza. In The National Palace admire the famous murals of Diego Rivera. Continue to the modern part of the City to visit the Anthropological Museum which also one of the World's 10 best museums. Lunch/Dinner D3 MEXICO - TEOTIHUACAN - MEXICO Enjoy a full day guided excursion to the famous Teotihuacan Pyramids. Enroute visit the Guadalupe Shrine a place of peregrination of millions of Mexicans and around the world people. Continue to Teotihuacan Pyramids to visit the Sun and the Moon Pyramids, the Quetzalcoatl Temple Temple of the Feathered Serpent and the fortresses. You have some time to explore the complex at your leisure and might want to take up the challenge of climbing to the top the Pyramids (do take note of the steep steps leading to the top) and be rewarded with an aerial view of the complex. D4 MEXICO - CUERNAVACA - TAXCO - MEXICO After breakfast, depart to Cuernavaca - the City of Eternal Spring and beautiful flowers. Visit the Cathedral, one of the oldest colonial constructions in Mexico. Known as la Catedral, construction for this one time Franciscan friary began in 1529, just a few years after Cortés conquered what is now known as Mexico City from the Aztec. This fortress/church was completed in 1552 and is one of the oldest churches in Mexico. Frescoes inside were discovered during refurbishing in the 1960s and they date from the 1500s. Having an Asian style, they depict the persecution of St. Felipe de Jesús, Mexico s first Martyr and Saint, in Japan. Continue to Taxco - the Silver Town and embark on a guided tour through this colonial gem a beautiful city in Mexico built on a hill in Guerrero and one of the prettiest towns in Mexico. Taxco is renowned for its more than 200-year-old baroque-style church, the Santa Prisca Cathedral. It is rich with old and new silver mines, it has narrow streets and hundreds of silver shops and the most ideal place to shop for silver and to try your bargaining skill.

4 D5 MEXICO CITY - MERIDA Transfer to the airport for your flight to Mérida. Upon arrival transfer to your hotel followed by lunch. In the afternoon enjoy a brief short panoramic sightseeing of Mérida. View some the 19th century grand mansions built by wealthy plantation owners and the more traditional vividly painted, colonial-style stucco-walled homes with shaded courtyards and hidden gardens serve as stages for the city's vibrant arts community which many have been turned into galleries and museums, restaurants and small hotels. One of the most ornate mansions on the city's grandest boulevard, Paseo Montejo, is the Palacio Canton, home to the city's archaeological museum that houses Mayan treasures. D6 MERIDA - KABAH - UXMAL - MERIDA Kabah, a Puuc-style city that flourished around the year 800 AD is known as the second largest religious center in the Puuc-style. (Puuc is the Mayan name given to a series of low-lying hills with a unique culture and style.) Visit the palace, a building of great beauty located on a high esplanade forming a quadrangle. The most remarkable construction however, is the palace of the masks, with an impressive facade comprised of over 250 masks of god Chaac. Each mask is finely cut from stone and positioned in magnificent baroque-style. Uxmal is known to many by way of legend, myth or anecdote. It is situated within a series of hills known as the Puuc or mountainous area in the Maya. The name was later given to describe the architectural style of the region, such as the colossal Magicians Pyramid, impressive Governors Palace, intricate Dove s Temple and grand Nuns Quadrangle. The archaeological structures and buildings located throughout Uxmal are ornamented with geometrical figures and masks of the rain god, Chaac. The rain god was considered by the Maya people as one of the most important of their deities. D7 MERIDA - CHICHEN ITZA - CANCUN Depart Mérida to visit Chichen Itza one of the new 7 wonders of the world. Chichen Itza - meaning "At the mouth of the well of the Itza" - is Mexico's most visited archaeological site, a magnificent display of Mayan culture and the ceremonial center of the Yucatán. The highlight of Chichen Itza is the Kukulkan Pyramid, known as "El Castillo", a 24 meters (79 feet) high step pyramid construction. Mesoamerican cultures occasionally built larger pyramids on top of smaller ones and this is the case for El Castillo where an excavation discovered a temple with an elaborate jaguar throne. At sunrise and sunset during the Spring and Fall equinoxes the corner of the pyramid casts a shadow of Kukulkan, a feathered serpent god, creating the illusion of a snake slithering down the North side with the sun's movement. The Cenote Sagrado is also an impressive natural site at Chichen Itza, featuring a sinkhole gateway into an underground body of water 60

5 meters (197 feet) in diameter. A visit to Chichen Itza get a good feel for ancient Mayan culture through these impressive structures. D8 CANCUN - MEXICO Explore Cancun at your own leisure. A world-renowned tourist destination located off of the Caribbean Sea, and is one of the easternmost points in Mexico. Cancún is located near Mexico's Caribbean coast resort band known as the Riviera Maya. You may also wish to visit some of the Maya ruins. After lunch, transfer to the airport for your flight to Mexico City. Upon arrival, check in to your hotel. D9 MEXICO - SINGAPORE Transfer to the airport for flight back to Singapore. Breakfast D10 ARRIVE SINGAPORE

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