Teotihuacan Ruins

12 March, 2009

We stayed in a little village about 30 miles NW of Mexico City. The town is San Juan Teotihuacan. Adjacent to the town is a huge archaeological site that protects and researches the mid-classical city of Teotihuacan. Teotihuacan was once a planned city home to well over 100,000 people (possibly a quarter million), making it -at its time one of the biggest cities in the world. The site covers 83 square kilometers in size.

The fall of Teotihuacan came some 500 years before the arrival of the Spanish. Already picked over, the site was left pretty much alone by the Conquistadors. Because of this the site reveals many artifacts that other sites have lost.

In spite of the rich resources at the site, the details of who occupied the site and just what influence and control they brought to Mesoamerica is lost in antiquity. Cultural exchange can be seen between surrounding cultures and here at Teotihuacan, but the exact roles these cultures played in each others' lives is lost.

We visited the museum first where we discovered just how huge the site is. A model showed us that the main street (dubbed “Street of the Dead” by Aztecs who believed the smaller structures to be tombs) is many miles long! As a result, we found ourselves walking from structure to structure with little time to contemplate them individually.

Three structures stand out, however. The Pyramid of the Sun, The Pyramid of the Moon, and the Hall of the Jaguars are really treasures. Each for different reasons.

Pyramid of the Sun is the largest of the structures. It is the second largest structure in the new world, second only to the great pyramid in Cholula.

Pyramid of the moon, while smaller holds a more prominent position in the city. It sits squarely at the end of the long Street of the Dead where it dominates the street, the landscape and the symmetrical architecture on both sides.


Hall of the Jaguars is impressive because of the extremely fresh stone carving on pillars and panels. The surviving sections of ceiling and interior walls still have crisp plaster finishes with many murals intact. A stone floor still retains its shine.

Again, we lament that our moments here are too, too brief. We left late in the afternoon, wishing it was still morning.

The Floating Gardens of Xochimilco

March 13, 2009

In the Xochimilco district of Mexico City there are still canals between the raised-bed gardens built by the ancient Aztecs. A flourishing vegetable and cut flower industry is still going strong here. While the gardens don't float, they've lived with their name “Floating Gardens” for generations.

For years Hollywood has been bringing us romantic images of Mexican Gondolas; Colorful flower-strewn boats full of families and lovers with gondoliers polling along green canals. Mariachis entertain, beverages and lunches are served and partiers enjoy a shady green retreat while servers and gondoliers take away the cares of the world.

Boats full of sellers of flowers, jewelry, tequila, toys sombreros and serapes all jockey for positions to wave their wares at the most likely-looking boatloads of revelers.

No new culture was discovered. No astounding insights unfolded. Scenery was relaxing. Lunch was tasty. Music was classic mariachi, and the cares of the world were polled away by the gondoliers.

Life was just right.

Museum of Anthropology

March 13, 2009

Mexico's Instituto National Anthropologico y Historia (National Institute of Anthropology and History) Has taken charge of ruins in Mexico. They work to conserve that which is unearthed, and to unearth more as time goes by, and to leave buried those that can't be defended against time, weather and people. . The I.N.A.H. has taken the most important and the most fragile of all the artifacts to a central location. Anyone interested in Mesoamerica, archeology, anthropology, history or fine museums owes themselves a trip to Mexico City to see the Museo de Anthropologico.

The complex actually contains many focused museums, each connected to a central courtyard. Each has neighboring museums much like the neighboring cultures they document. The ground floor halls display stone, clay, gold, wood, gourd and feather artifacts of different cultures.

The second floor is filled with dioramas of current indigenous groups in their daily lives. Houses, households, furniture, tools and clothing are all carefully authentic right down to the brand of beer in a particular region.

I realized as I walked these upper halls that this is a view for urban citizens of their rural countrymen. We've recently been from Mexico's isolated villages to the Capitol City itself. Ancient, current, northern, southern, rain forest, desert, rural and urban, Mexico is a land of cultural extremes. Her richness lies in her diversity. I.N.A.H holds this dear and presents it in microcosm here in these world-class museums.

MEXICO CITY

March 13, 2009

Mexico City is the most populace city in the world. After going into town at 8 AM I've no reason to doubt this statistic. We were using the “Autopista” - a toll road with few on and off ramps and no cross streets or traffic signals. The rush hour traffic was world class to say the least. Speeds ranged from 30 to 2 MPH.

Mexico runs on public transportation. A bus ride for instance across Mexico (city) costs less than fifty cents US. The metro, a rubber-tired light-rail system is priced similarly. It moves people through town at a speed of up to 50 miles per hour while virtually nothing in the rest of the city moves at a pace much above 10.

The streets are filled with compact taxis, buses of all sorts and sizes, local trucks and private vehicles – pretty much in that order.
Driving styles in Mexico are distinctly different than in the US. It really seems to be based on a different philosophy. Lines on roads indicate the direction the road goes. Just where one drives in a roadway depends pretty much on the spaces one sees. If you think you fit in the space, and the lines are going generally in the direction you want to go, by all means, stick your car in the space. People are relatively polite, and only honk if they think you are missing out on a perfectly good space in front of you.

Plaza De La Constitucion

March 13, 2009

Mexico City was founded by Aztecs. The legend goes that a shaman was asked by his band where they should settle. He told them to travel north until they see an eagle on a cactus eating a snake. They saw the vision on an island in the middle of a shallow lake. There they settled and built the the main Aztec Temple.

Aztecs rose and fell (like all societies seem to do). Legends and a few ruins remained and farmers still maintained and farmed the raised beds built in the shallow lake. A colonial city flourished on the old site.

Today in the Plaza De La Constitucion where the Cathedral and the National Palace of Mexico reside there is a flagpole. It marks the legendary spot where the cactus, eagle and snake were seen.

An open-air market features indigenous handicrafts, shamans and Aztec dancers.

The National Palace houses the offices of the President and the original legislature. The legislature has long since moved to larger quarters, but the hall is preserved and revered as the place the constitution was adopted. Diego Rivera painted 15 murals in the National Palace. They draw huge crowds of school children and adults alike on tours of the expansive building.

In the early 90's work on new buildings commenced just off the square and the excavators found foundations of huge buildings, some nearly a block long. The myths and legends have become more real and believable as the archaeologists take over, unearth and document what indeed appears to be the Aztec's main temple.

The Cathedral is filled with faithful and visitors alike. The massive stone structure is being saved from sinking sideways into its sandy underpinnings. Massive engineering projects are underway. The efforts are plainly visible by a plumb-bob hanging from the dizzying top of an arched vault high above the floor. The progress of over three hundred years of settling and fifty years of salvation show a path coming halfway back to plumb, as she was built so long ago.

Guadalupe

March 12, 2009

Basilica De La Virgin De Guadalupe

Our bus took us to the Basilica De La Virgin De Guadalupe. The original church marks the spot of a miracle in the fifteen hundreds. An indigenous Mexican convert was visited three times on a hilltop above the city. His proof of the events convinced the Bishop and the Virgin's instruction was heeded; A church was built on the hill. The Virgin of Guadalupe became such a popular figure that the church soon was outgrown.

A second church was built below the original in the early 1700's. Once again it became too small, and was also found to be tipping on its sand footings. In 1973 a new Basilica of startling avaunt guard Mexican architecture was built. Pope John Paul II has blessed this place by 5 visits during his reign.


We entered the new Basilica during a service. Pure grandeur and an intimacy somehow combine with the help of the wonderful acoustics. One hears and shares in all that happens in the service.
An aisle takes us under the altar where we look up at the cross and relic on the wall high above and behind the altar. We find ourselves looking at the cape of Juan Diego and the very image of La Virgin De Guadalupe as it miraculously appeared before Juan Diego and the Bishop himself.

We took a break in a quiet hallway beneath the back of the church. Needless to say it stayed quiet. Just about everyone gave pause to think about what we'd just experienced.

Our tour took us to the grand Gothic cathedral of the 1700's. Today she is in a state of severe distress. She leans dangerously as workers try to stop her slip towards a fall. Scaffolding and jacks support the ceiling and pillars of her main sanctuary while efforts go on to add stability to the foundation. Meanwhile a small side altar is still in use. A crucifix shows a beaten and bloodied Christ there in this beaten and bloodied old Cathedral. A powerful sense of travail overcame me.

In the courtyard grand vistas, historic churches, nunnery, the parroquia, and chapels (5) create a history lesson, an architecture lesson, a religious lesson and a supreme inspiration all on one plaza.


Our tour was like good movies are; They're just never long enough.

Puebla and Cholula

March 9, 2009

PUEBLA
We boarded a double deck bus at 8AM to tour the busy city of Puebla. The name Puebla has nothing to do with Pueblo. Puebla isn't rustic, isn't rural, and isn't small in any sense of the word.
The main boulevards in and out of Puebla are similar to some other large Mexican cities. They are wide streets with parks in the medians, statues in the gloriettas (huge roundabouts) and many cases laterales (urban “frontage roads” for business, parking and sidewalks). The five lanes on a side with parkways and a median probably occupy a swath about two hundred feet wide all told.

When one leaves the boulevard the common side street is about twenty two feet wide. This space is taken up by one lane of parking and two lanes of traffic. By the way, two buses and a parked care will add up to twenty two feet precisely, not counting mirrors. All Mexican buses have have folding mirrors. Buss drivers don't slow down; They reach out the open window and fold the mirror.

Puebla is a busy city with a strong European flavor to the architecture. The business district in fact has block after block of European brand-name shops with large windows and high gloss brass hardware. These storefronts are carefully, tastefully and seamlessly inserted into fifteenth to nineteenth century buildings of French, Italian, Spanish and Moorish architecture. Spaced neatly among the blocks of buildings are church after church. Each of them add to the antique flavor of the town with carved stone embellishments and soaring bell towers.

Puebla claims its own place in the history of Mexico. It seems that a French military presence occupied Puebla when Benito Juarez was elected President. President Juarez, in an attempt to make his books balance a bit better defaulted on some rather staggering sums in French loans.
France, with righteous indignation, rallied a few thousand troops. Apparently they intended to “occupy” Mexico, starting with Puebla.

Round one, on the 5th of May, 1861 the French found out you can't occupy Mexico with a few thousand troops. Round two, the French proved that you could re-take your own fort (in Puebla) with a few thousand troops. Round three, Benito Juarez ran the French out of Mexico once and for all.

El 5 de Mayo isn't celebrated much in Mexico. Most Mexicans here don't even know the significance of the day. Only in the U.S. do we celebrate when Benito Juarez skipped out on a loan.

We toured a tile and pottery shop in the artisan section of Puebla. They've integrated slab work and wheel work to form molded plates and bowls. Vases and the like are still made by throwing on a wheel.

Puebla pottery glazing has its own characteristic look. A big part is in its blue glazes. They're put on like any other glaze, but when fired they raise above the surface to add texture to the design. Cobalt Oxide is said to be the key ingredient.

On the same street we found a jewelry store making replicas of ancient gold necklaces and such. The pieces are made in these little shops by the lost-wax casting technique. Wax pieces are made in rubber molds, then set in a refractory plaster slurry similar to plaster of Paris. The dried slurry is baked to temper the plaster and vaporize the wax. Gold is poured into the mold in a centrifuge to fill the mold well. When the plaster is broken the gold pieces are ready for finishing. These handsome, well crafted pieces speak to us with ancient Mesoamerican voices.
Just south of the zòcalo we found the Benito Juarez Market. It is an indigenous day market that has been in full swing for as long as the city has existed. Everything from the unidentifiable to the familiar is here a-plenty. Crowds flow like water through the market and it gives life to the very air we breathe. Once again we're caught up in a culture we hardly recognize, yet we intuitively understand and embrace.

Puebla is yet another city that rests comfortably in the happy parts our memory.

Cholula
Cholula is being absorbed by Greater Puebla as size and population increase. Cholula is home to Tepanampa; an Aztec – Cholulatec ruin. The base of the main pyramid at Tepanampa is over a quarter mile on a side. It is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) in Mexico, and bigger by far than the Great Pyramid of Cheops.

Much about Tepanampa is lost to the overbuild that the indigenous city suffered in the fifteen hundreds. Spanish conquerors brought priests and one of the priests' projects (as usual) was the construction of a church. The priests had Tepanampa buried in adobe bricks and covered with topsoil. They then built a Spanish – Moorish church atop the pyramid's disguise. Not until the first part of the last century did archaeologists begin in earnest to tunnel into the mound.

Today much has been learned, and much left protected by the adobe. A nice museum shows a model of the city and many of the best recovered artifacts. The archeologists' tunnels are partly open to the tourists. A tour of the tunnel through and around the pyramid is an experience offered nowhere else in Mesoamerica.

High above the ruin the Church of San Gabriel is still active. People in this hilly environment are content to scale the man-made hill over 300 feet to worship. We were lucky enough to visit on a day when San Gabriel's icon went to visit another church. A parade of escorts, rose petal spreaders, icon bearers, their relievers, and a lavender-shirted brass band came down the hill and through the little park where we ate ice cream. The obligatory rocket salutes sounded at irregular intervals – apparently to keep evil spirits off-guard.

It seems that for any event, religious or political, when folks gather the Mexican zest for the festive is always present. What a wonderful way to keep a little town grounded and bonded.

Oaxaca

March 7, 2009

Ciudad Oaxaca sits on the Pacific slopes of the Mexican Sierra Madre. The landscape is a transition from the tropics of central and eastern Mexico and the classic Mexico of Hollywood movies. Far from colonial, the people of Oaxaca farm corn, maguay and squash with little strong interest in beef. Goats, chickens pigs and some sheep are the livestock of choice here. Donkeys and a few oxen are the beasts of burden. These seem to be being rapidly replaced by tractors.

The city itself is driven by state government, universities and tourism. The tourists use Oaxaca as the hub to many villages famous for their handicrafts. Oaxaca is a great city for walking around downtown. Benito Juarez was born, raised, educated, and married here. His influence is everywhere in murals and statuary. Three colonial style churches are down town. All are worth a visit in their own right.

A block south of the zocalo lies the Benito Juarez Market. In seemingly no rhyme or reason, shops and stands are packed into small open buildings, alleyways, sidewalks and streets. The fare at the market includes everything necessary for life. Bananas to bluejeans, furniture to fried crickets. It's all here, and many of the vendors just want you to sample their wares. Oaxacan string cheese wound into balls looking much like yarn, and many many varieties of chocolate are unique to the market. The bustle and crowds are amazing. European and American tourists are a comical sight standing like storks among a population that averages under five feet tall.

The zocalo is full of mature laurel and jacaranda trees. A bandstand dominates the center of the plaza and is filled with soft light and music at night. The trees all have their trunks and lower limbs wrapped with lights and the park fairly glows when the sun sets. Young men and women circle the park in two's and three's strolling in opposite directions enjoying the “scenery” of the on-coming traffic. Apparently the glances and smiles grow into conversations and eventually romance. Park benches are filled by couples who sit, talk and steal an occasional kiss. A second, adjacent park is filled with families and children. Both parks are surrounded by sidewalk restaurants where people enjoy the scene, the music of the bandstand or strolling groups, and the relief from the day's heat

Monte Albán
Like most ancient Mesoamerican ruins the stories the archaeologists discover develop in layers. Monte Albán is no exception. Toltecs were the early developers of the city on a hill. Their plan took more than the reign of the Toltecs to produce. With no apparent lost steps the Zapoteks took over, inherited the plan and much technology and completed the work. A fascinating city was the result.

The layout of the city uses buildings as analogues for the surrounding mountains. Monte Albán's analog is the main temple in the center of town – much the same as the mountain's position in the Valley of Oaxaca.

Stilae found in one of the buildings – now considered to be a university or a library – are illustrations for the practice of medicine. Such things as congenital deformity, broken and misshapen limbs, internal organs and even a breech birth are all illustrated.

Not only are the sciences of astronomy illustrated in the ancient observatory, but alignment between the axes of buildings and the relative positions of buildings demonstrate exactly the variation between true north and magnetic north at the time of the city's heyday. Rainwater was managed by gathering it in aqueducts from the entire inner city and collecting it in a ceremonial cistern. Overflow from the ceremonial cistern left by underground aqueduct to a reservoir just outside the inner city. Most of the buildings were connected by underground passageways presumably for dignitaries and priests.

While Monte Albán was one of the few Mesoamerican cities designed as a fortress they too became vulnerable. Speculation runs high and no answers were recorded, but Monte Albán's lofty perch meant that it's supply lines were tenuous. Disagreements with those who would normally support the aristocracy through tributes could've cost them their reign. There are also theories that the close family ties of the aristocracy led to an unhealthy level of inbreeding.
So, all good things come to an end – as did our afternoon in Monte Albán. We left to wonder over their demise, and savor our next slice of amazing cultures.

San Bartolo Coyotepec
More than fifty years ago Doña Rosa Real worked to improve her art. She discovered a process of burnishing the surface of pots before firing to produce a high polish finish like glazed wares. Combined with a unique local clay that fires into a jet-black pot, Doña Rosa was the first to produce a whole new line of wares. The technique has been duplicated in New Mexico in a successful line of American craft, but some of the finest black ware is from Dońa Rosa's family shop in San Bartolo Coyotepec.

Today Doña Rosa's son, Dón Valente Real carries on the tradition and art form in his mother's name.

Dón Valente demonstrated the art of throwing a pot in a very traditional and effective way; Two shallow round-bottomed plates are placed, one on the floor and another on top of it so the convex sides meet. Dón Valente took about a two to three pound piece of clay and created a pinch pot with one open hand and a fist. He placed the pinch pot in the top plate. The plates rotate on each other's center such that Dón Valente was quickly able to true up and balance the work while shaping it into an open bowl slightly shorter than its width.

He explained that for strength this work would normally be allowed to rest and dry slowly for a day or so, however he demonstrated the next step straight away.

Another half pound of clay was quickly turned into a “rope” and added by the coil technique. The coil technique was used to close the top of the pot and add a shallow funnel shaped rim to form a vase. With a flick of the thumb and a couple of fingers a spout made the work into a pitcher.

He showed how berry-sized pieces of clay can add dots, leaves and flower petals. Bamboo sections make wonderful scribes and stamp impressions, and his only steel tool, a mini paring knife incises lacy openings in a piece.

All the while, a second story developed as a cat (Dón Valente says it is a stray) walked in, drank deeply from the water bucket next to the “wheel”. He checked out the guests, selected Marty (one of our caravan group) curled up in his lap and went to sleep. A few great questions and thorough answers and we all went to the show room area. With our new knowledge we appreciated anew the lovely work that surrounded us.

Arrazola
Magic flights of fantasy guide the hands of woodcarvers and decorators in the village of Arrazola. They're making “alebrijes”. Pieces of what many would see as little more than firewood inspire Arrazola's carvers to take pencil in hand, tracing rough figures onto the wood, setting a machete in motion. Flying steel and flying chips may produce something as bizarre as a flying armadillo. The figures may be as docile as a humming bird or breathe fire in flames of yellow, green and blue.

I'm not sure when the exact form comes into a mature image for the carvers, but a lot of the magic happens after carving, drying, sanding and filling. This is when the carvers (men) turn the work over to the painters (women). Dogs become pink and yellow, covered with scales, stripes or dots. Pigs go paisley, birds get covered with flowers. The forms of dragons look like they wear slips and pinafores. Life in a wooden world goes topsy-turvey.

We wander through the workshop watching carving and painting. We move on the sales tables and into images that challenge our reality. The images are at first disturbing; never off-putting, and slowly the whimsy wins us over. Pretty soon plaid chickens are pretty cool.

Pricey as things were, no one really went overboard, but just about everyone picked up a little trinket that they'll never be able to explain to a relative. You just had to have been there.

Teotitlán del Valle
Isaac Vasques Garcia lives and works in Teotitlán. His spacious home serves as living quarters, a studio and a sales area. He, with a son and a daughter demonstrated the arts of preparing wool by carding, spinning and dying. Then tightly and evenly weaving original designs and carefully selected colors into pieces of fine art. The designs range from traditional works through new art and commissioned pieces.

Mr. Garcia has decided (years ago) that his art would be most durable, most colorful and truest to its heritage if he were to use only original natural dyes. He uses only mosses and marigolds for his yellows, only indigo for the blues, and the reds come only from the cochineal (a scaly bug in a “little shell” hence the name) The bug grows solely on the nopal cactus. We call them prickly pears in the north.

The resulting works of art range from reverent to whimsical. Sizes range from place-mats to rugs about 9' by 12'. They all share a fine-textured heaviness and an evenness that testify to the skill and care of these artisans. We fell in love with one of course. We are glad to be bringing home a piece to remind us of a few hours spent with this gracious and generous family.

San Cristobal De Las Casas

March 2, 2009

San Cristobal, Chiapas is a city in the center of the Mexican Sierra Madre. The surrounding steep and rocky mountains hold about sixty small villages in this district. Each has its own pride, sense of community, and special customs. Many groups of 4 or 5 speak their own dialects or languages. Our tour takes us to two of these. One is an extreme in its individuality, the other is more typical. They are (in order) Chamula and Zincantan.

Chamula

Indigenous people of Chamula have no knowledge of their roots, other than that they were created from corn. Their legends however seem to come strait from the Mayan Bible even though they deny a Mayan heritage. An abandoned 16th century church stands as a roofless shell with no charter, no history, and no meaning to the town other than as a marker for the cemetery.

The church on the town square is another story. They know when it was built (more or less) and when they chased off the Spaniards who built it. The church is full of Catholic Saints' Icons. Christ is just another icon here. Each icon has its day. Each icon makes the tour of the town for each fiesta. Icons are assumed to have powers and receive prayers and offerings from those in gratitude or need.
We paid a few pesos each to enter the church. We were asked to remove hats and informed that no photography of any kind is permitted in the building. People set up and light typically 5 to 50 candles on the stone floor and chant while they burn. Spiritual and medical advice comes from shamans often in the form of a prescription for herbs or prayers or offerings. Shamans may perform rites for people at their homes or at the church. While we were visiting the church we noted a shaman lady waiting for a client with a chicken in her lap. The chicken was apparently to be offered to one of the saints at the church, and the remains buried at the home of the shaman's client.

Men volunteer time to maintain the church. The floors must be covered with pine straw and refreshed once a week. The pine straw keeps evil spirits away. Men sweep regularly, keep candles from causing fires and scrape the wax puddles from the stone floor. Men consider it a duty and honor to donate time to the cause.

The sanctuary is also a storage place for icons (on display in glass cases) with tables for candles and for their litters for processions. The sanctuary is a huge open space since there are no pews in the church; simply open space, Icons in their glass-front cabinets, and stacked litters .
Each icon has a caretaker. Someone in the community is appointed (by the previous year's caretaker) to the title of Mayordomo. Mayordomo maintains the icon and its wardrobe, and sees to its appearances at each fiesta parade. An alter is kept publicly open for prayers to the saint and smoky incense-clouded prayer services are performed daily. Fresh bromilliads, pine straw, offerings and wardrobe are kept up at these shrines, but the icons themselves are left in the church.

Sometimes a Mayordomo offers up his own home for the shrine. Sometimes the shrine is in an extra home of a benefactor.

Sacraments such as marriage don't happen in Chamula. Men and women cohabit with no contract expressed or expected. They are a polygamous people. A priest comes to the church once a year to do baptisms and maintain the Christ icon.. No other sacraments are requested or offered at the church. When other priests tried they were run off by the town's people for disrespecting their church and their ways. Chamula is not a Catholic town.

We visited the home of the Mayordomo of San Juan Bautista, the patron saint of Chamula. Mayordomo was at work, but His wife, the Mayordoma was tending the shrine. In honor of our presence she filled the house with pine pitch incense and set about lighting over fifty candles. We all sat around the perimeter of the room while our guide explained the Mayordomo system.

Mayordoma was preparing for the 11:AM prayers. She offered a glass of pex (pronounced “Pesh”) - a fermented cane sugar distillate. Many of us shared the liquor. The Mayordoma (through the tour guide) thanked us for coming. We asked, and were shown a dish on the alter where many of us left a few coins for St. John.

The market in the square was bustling and vibrant. Men in black wool tunics (looking much like flocati rugs) and white straw hats congregated for conversation. Women tended wares in black wool dresses and colorful wool shawls. These ample shawls cover shoulders, arms and head. Many women go barefoot. Our guide commented that while they may look impoverished, they are intentionally dressing in the honored style of the proud women of Chamula. The image of a destitute woman fades when she answers the cell-phone in her pocket.
Zincantan

Less than 10 miles from Chamula is another village named Zincantan. Zincantan is a city that lives by the production of cut flowers greenhouses abound. Their market has grown to become international. As one might expect, Zincantan is a considerably more open town. Their artisans involve their love for flowers and colors in embroidered motifs on clothing and other household wares. They weave mats, runners and shawls on small looms. They also embroider other weavers' fabrics with vibrant floral designs.

We visited a home/store/workshop where a family of 5 generations lives and works. The home's front room is a typical Mesoamerican home. The door is in the middle of the long side of a rectangular room. In the corner to the left is an altar (actually two; the second is a flat-screen). The opposite end has the beds. A table on the rear wall holds family product. In other homes it may be cocos, corn, whatever. In this home were tables full of woven and embroidered wares. Opposite the front door in the middle of the back wall is another door. Through the door is a patio where ladies work at their crafts.

To the left is a kitchen. Kitchens are rarely in the houses here. The back of the house shares a courtyard with four other houses. These other houses are for others in this family. Children and pets share the space. Dad and a son work on the son's bicycle until mom needs a knife sharpened. The knife done, a woman takes the knife and a few plucked chickens inside another home. Work, laughter and quiet conversation go on all the while. The women weave and decorate wool shawls and embroider other people's textiles as well.

We are introduced to some of the artisans – a mother with a year-old daughter slung across her hip. The mother appears to be in her mid-teens. Also present are her mother, her grandmother and an aunt. Great grandmother was said to be in the house to the rear of the courtyard.
The family knew in advance of our visit and prepared quesadillas for us. They also offered pex mixed with fruit flavors. Pex is famed for bringing on the expulsion of evil spirits. This family's pex blends are considered special, and they are offered for sale in recycled 12 oz. water bottles.
Warm adios's, buena suerte's, waves and big smiles accompanied our departure. Some other home-shops were just as colorful, but none were as friendly and warm.

Palenque

February 27, 2009

The ruins at the ancient city of Palenque are absolutely beautiful. The mountainous terrain and the enhanced vertical dimensions to the ruin give this city a truly unique look. Stairs are steeper. Conditions of the structures are better, and the architecture is more sophisticated.

For example, aqueducts drain the bases of structures protecting the foundations. The system works to stabilize the ruins to this day.

Original wood lentils are of – as called in the vernacular – Bullet Tree (for its hardness). High silica content makes the wood age like concrete, impervious to many insects. Many of these lentils have lasted in the ruins over 1,500 years

One pyramid was found to contain the remains of a woman given one of the most elaborate burials known. She was laid in a solid sarcophagus with a 2 ton stone lid. Her remains were decorated with jade and other precious stones and covered in the brightest of red cinnabar. The sarcophagus and lid are still deep within the pyramid and are still stained a brilliant red inside.

Curiously, geneticists have found that she is not anywhere on the royal family tree! No one knows how she earned such a rich burial.
Another pyramid was topped with the royal family's residence. The home included porches, patios and a private courtyard. Our tour guide took us into many rooms hallways, and interior stairways. Surprisingly enough, we found a bathroom complete with a sanitary drain. Yes, the family of the Ruler indeed had indoor plumbing. Today water flows into the drain for the bathroom and the water still flows out – keeping the now-unused facility clean. Archaeologists and engineers as yet haven't figured out where the water comes from, or where the water goes. Dye tests do prove that it doesn't pollute any of the surrounding aqueducts Rarely do tourists get to see Mayan architecture so intimately.

Mayan arches work on a different principal than roman arches. No keystone is used, and the arch never requires buttressing. To envision how it works, imagine two pop bottles balanced upside down next to one another (but not necessarily touching). See the “negative space” between the necks of the two bottles? Extend each bottle as the cross-section of two parallel walls. That makes the space between the walls into a room with a vaulted ceiling. A simple narrow stone “lid” placed on top closes the space. Both sides of each wall thicken above head-height. The wall remains balanced and the the weight always transfers straight down! Columns and lentils form patios, while above head-height each half-vault is kept in balance. Unlike a Roman arch, neither side relies on the other to stand. even if one side of a room fails the other side remains intact.

Mayans were masters at mortaring and stuccoing. Their cement for mortar and stucco was made by burning and crushing limestone. A pure white stucco was the product. In places where water incursion hasn't happened some fabulous stucco walls still exist. Some protected walls still bear their stucco coatings, frescoes and reliefs. Unfortunately, water over thousands of years will leach the calcium from the stucco leaving nothing but dust - and the original structural stonework.

Worthy of note, the Mexican white-stucco tradition far-predates the Spanish. The Maya {and other Mexican cultures even used the technique not only for homes but to pave roads! Rubble stone ballast was laid to stabilize roadways and the surface was paved with stucco. There were thousands of miles of these roads. Some small sections of these paved Mayan roads called “sac bé” (white road) exist today.

So what eventually brings a Mayan wall down?

Plants... As tree roots wrap around stones and the tree eventually falls the stones are taken down. One saving grace is that the trees leave rootlets and drop leaves which become topsoil. The layer can grow at a rate of about a half centimeter per year, so eventually the substructures are protected by the same vegetation.

Chetumal and Belize

February 24, 2009

We stopped at the gateway city of Chetumal for a visit to Belize. Chetumal is practically new for a couple of reasons. First, Chetumal (now over 120,000 people) was only 5,000 fifty years ago. A trade route from the north into the rest of Mexico and another to the south into Belize has caused the city to boom. Another reason Chetumal is so new is that it seems to get blown away by a hurricane every ten to twenty years!

We holed-up for three nights in an RV park entirely of lawn. The park sits on the water and the RVs are only 6 feet from the Caribbean sea. One would think that this is a bit close, but with reefs and barrier islands protecting, and a tide of about six inches it is a perfect place to park. The park has all the facilities one could ask. A concierge desk, an Internet connection (slow) a bar and a restaurant all in palapas in the middle of the park. We enjoyed happy hours next to the water and even had a mini jam-session on the beach. Fun!

A tour of Belize started when we were introduced to a 50 year old school bus converted to tour bus service by a Belizian bus company “Morales”. Student seating isn't much problem for local folk, but gangley, long-legged tourists from the north haven't' a chance of sitting squarely in the space between these seats.

Luckily enough, we had a break midway for a Belizian style border crossing. Everyone exits the bus carrying all their possessions. People at counters are charged with the task of copying -nearly completely- each person's entire passport into the Belizean record book. Then a $30 dollar fee is collected and we are allowed to approach the customs desk. Henry, our guide had already talked with the staff so they were pretty certain we weren't coming to Belize to up-end their way of life. Everyone was waived through and allowed to re-board the now-inspected bus. We're on our merry way.

Our destination in Belize is a small company that does river tours on the New River. (No, it's not new.) We were loaded onto tourist boats that each seated about twenty. The boats are powered by twin 150 HP outboards. They fly!

The river is drainage for about half the country of Belize. The land is flat so the water movement is slow. The channels are classic ox-bow serpentines. Channel widths vary from a few hundred feet to around twenty. At forty MPH the trip is more like a thrill ride than any of us expected.

Our river pilot was a man in his early twenties. He was born on the river and grew up fishing the waters with his dad. He obviously learned a vast amount in a dugout because he was able to impart a vast amount to us during our 30 mile journey. His keen eyes enabled him to spot (at full speed) such things as small, rare birds and fresh-water crocodiles. He showed us amazing plants and described them in ways that gave us all new respect for these unique waters.

As is true on any inland waters one is responsible for one's wake. Our driver is no exception. He would drop the boat speed back to an idle at any point where other boats were present. The only other boats (beside our tour boats) were folks fishing with hand-lines from canoes. A few held up handsome catches of tilapia (an accidental transplant) and cichlids, the native and favorite fish. Our guide seemed to know the fishermen and spoke to them in a language not English or Spanish. They enjoyed a short chat and we were on our way.

Lamanai Ruins

Our destination was reached shortly before noon. We arrived at a Mayan ruin known as Lamanai. Lamanai is in the densest jungle we've seen yet. The top of the canopy towers sixty or more feet above our heads. The shade is so deep that cameras don't want to take pictures without flash.

You might think it a cool, quiet place, but it is neither! Bird song is a constant. The temperature is in the nineties. The humidity is similarly high, and as we walk back from the river there isn't a breath of wind.

The trees are full of howler monkeys. Everything that grows seems to have something that grows upon it as well. Orchids and/or bromilliads occupy every branch of most trees.
The city of Lamanai may be the only Mayan city continuously inhabited from before the time of Christ until well into to 1600's. Many structures are un-restored, and people think there are even more that are undiscovered. A steep pyramid is in good enough shape that people are allowed to climb to its top.

As short as Mayan people are, we all wonder at the height of Mayan steps. They are more than one shin high on the tallest of us tourists; it is surprising that the dimensions aren't more appropriate for the Mayan masses. I guess it's possible that Mayan masses weren't particularly welcome up there!

Pyramids are often over-built. When a building no longer impresses, it can be replaced most quickly and easily by using it as the foundation for the next. This is the case with one of the pyramids here. When a passageway hinted at the old finished surface beneath the structure the newer layer was removed. A massive stucco face is revealed on one side of the pyramid. Heroic heads aren't a Mayan thing. The existence of this mask indicates that the Toltec world bisected this city and left its influence on the art of Lamanai.

Each Mayan city seems to have its own principal god. In the case of Lamanai the Jaguar god is the apparent major protector and provider. The largest temple is homage to the Jaguar God. Lost in antiquity are the finish stucco and the brilliant paint, but the form of the Jaguar still dominates the front of the temple.

The day was waning and we were still 30 miles up-river from our venerable old bus. We boarded our boats once again for a flying trip down river. The bus trip back featured stops at an artisan's shop and a Belizean grocery store. Everyone should at least have the opportunity to import a bottle of Belize's famed rum; “One Barrel”.

The sun set over the Belizean cane fields, we slipped easily through Belizian and Mexican immigration and customs procedures. We were all home and ready to rest by about 7 PM. - A long happy day!