Index to this Page: Summary
, Touring Maya Country , Tulum , Yucatan
( Chichen Itza , Uxmal , Kabah , Labna , Sayil , Xlapac ) , Palenque
, How
Risky is World Travel?
See also: Mexico Page 2: Baja California
(touching
gray whales)
See also: Belize: Belize Map , San Ignacio , Ambergris Caye & Barrier Reef
, When to Visit , Maya Trip Suggestions
Tulum, in the state of
Quintana
Roo:
Above: Tulum was a fortress city-state built by the
Maya in the 10th century. Located on strategic canoe trade route
between
Honduras and Yucatan, it was the largest Maya settlement on the sea
coast.
Left:
Tulum was a fortress city-state built by the Maya in the 10th
century.
Located on strategic canoe trade route between Honduras and Yucatan, it
was the largest Maya settlement on the sea coast. The Maya in Tulum
traded
honey for cacao, jade, obsidian, feathers, and other items. A falling
symbol
on the west-facing doors in Tulum honors the setting sun, while the
rising
sun is honored in ruins on Cozumel Island, 30 miles east across the
Caribbean
Sea.
Below right: Tulum castle is a popular stop
for cruise ship
passengers.
Above: At one time, all the buildings at Tulum were covered in
stucco and
painted a bright red. Maya wall paintings remain from the 13th century
showing Chac (the rain god) and Ix Chel (goddess of the moon and
medicine).
The Maya produced stucco by burning limestone to make quick lime, which
they mixed with powdered limestone.
Above: Tom & Carol explore a handicraft store near Tulum,
Mexico. Next
to us is a wood replica of the Aztec Sunstone, which was originally
found
in Mexico City in 1790, measuring 12 feet in diameter. Also known as
the
"Aztec Calendar" (a misnomer), the Sunstone actually depicts Aztec
cosmology.
The Aztecs derived their calendar system from the Maya calendar, which
was accurate to 1 day in 6000 years! The Maya also developed the most
sophisticated
writing system in the Western Hemisphere, and precisely charted the
path
of Venus.
Above: Beneath Tulum Castle is a pretty sand beach.
Left and below right: A male iguana forages for fruit at Tulum.
Left: a female iguana.
Left: Rattlesnakes and "El Castillo" pyramid hewn from limestone
by the
Maya civilization. Chichen Itza.
"Maya country" is culturally distinct from the rest of Mexico. The modern Maya are mostly provincial peasants, and few move out of their homeland. Maya men wear slacks (no shorts), with pleated white shirts worn untucked. Out of respect for conservative Maya areas, I also wore long pants, despite the heat and humidity. Many women wore traditional huipiles, or white cotton tunics, embroidered at the square neck and bottom hem, with a lacy white skirt flounce exposed several inches at the bottom, plus long shawls over their shoulders and looped down their backs. We felt like giants in Yucatan, because the Maya are very short (probably due to poor diet). Yucatan was formerly one of the richer parts of Mexico because of the sisal fiber grown here to make rope, but now rope is mostly made from synthetic materials, and the area became impoverished from lost cash crop. The predominance of conservative Maya country families here make crime lower than the rest of Mexico. Even Merida felt safe at night.
My friend Nancy R. and I flew into Merida and traveled in Maya country by bus and taxi, January 14-29, 1983. We learned that before accepting a hotel room at the medium to budget price, always check the room first to make sure the toilet still has a seat, and that the shower water runs! Health wise, we felt queasy for a few days scattered through the trip, but were mostly healthy, taking the usual precautions such as not drinking tap water.
The first class buses were surprisingly comfortable. The second class buses were exciting for cultural submersion, but noisy. While waiting for a late bus, we met a Japanese man who had visited every continent except Antarctica in the past 7 years, starting by bicycling across the United States for its Bicentennial Birthday, continuing by camel in the Sahara Desert, diving into local cultures everywhere, asking village leaders where to overnight, hitch-hiking Australia & New Zealand, and camping every night in 2 months in Mexico. Only two months remained before his return to Japan. Meeting fellow travelers is one of the best parts of travel. I am thrilled to hear stories like this from travelers who submerse for an extended time in another culture. The more we personally connect with people in other cultures, the more we support world peace and understanding.
Not knowing Spanish at the conversational level, Nancy and I were limited mostly to English in forging closer cultural contacts. I got by okay with basic phrase book words where locals didn't speak English. I have taken several helpful Spanish courses, but cultural submersion is the best language teacher. Each trip improves my Spanish.
The Spanish brought the lime (lima) fruit to Mexico, but for some reason in Yucatan, limes are called lemons (limón) and lemons are called limes (lima). The food was wonderful in Yucatan, such as: poc chuc (grilled pork with tomato & onion); venison; turkey; pollo pipil (chicken wrapped in banana leaves); breaded conche; baked fish; corn soup; palm hearts in butter sauce; grilled shrimp; cilantro soup; lime soup; banana-pineapple liquado drink; and Lebonese food. Our day guide for the Sayil, Labna, Xlapac, and Kabah ruins near Uxmal told me about an illegal Yucatecan shadow lottery (played using the numbers of the national lottery), which was run by Lebanese Arabs. Many Lebanese had escaped World War I and settled in Merida (capital of Yucatan state) where they filled a niche selling goods from town to town and became wealthy citizens.
Maya country offers great bird watching: orange breasted orioles with hanging nests; flycatchers, yellow with black mask; herons; and many others. The lush tropical vegetation includes fig, magnolia, and acacia (legume family) trees.
Travel Tip: If
you are in the Yucatan area, I recommend expanding your trip into a
full
"Maya Explorer", and include Guatemala (where I have not yet been) plus
Belize
(visited in 1997).
Chichen Itza, in the
state
of Yucatan:
Chichen Itza receives heavy tourist visitation from bus
fleets
coming
from the Cancun mega-resort on the Caribbean Coast, so the best time to
visit was the cooler morning hours before they arrived. I was impressed
by: the big El Castillo pyramid; the large rattlesnakes hewn from
stone;
the sacrificial well (where drugged 9- to 13-year-old maidens were
tossed
into a 42 foot deep salty cenote reaching sea level); and the wide
pelota
ball court (a game played by bouncing a latex basketball with
elbow,
knees
and hips through a stone ring 15 feet above ground). In 1988, UNESCO
declared
the Pre-Hispanic City of Chichen Itza to be a World Heritage Area.
Left: El Castillo (the Castle) pyramid (79 feet high) and nearby
plaza
were hewn from limestone sometime between 500 and 1200 AD. El Castillo
may be a calendar in stone, with four staircases of 91 steps each plus
a top platform making 365, the number of days in a solar year. Chichen
Itza became an important Maya capital between the 10th and 12th
centuries.
Archeologists have only uncovered 5% of the wonders of Chichen Itza.
Other
large sites such as Coba (inland from Tulum) have 15,000 buildings!
Above: Maya Pyramid of Kukulcan (El Castillo) built from limestone,
Chichen Itza.
Above: An eagle holds a human heart in its claw in this stone carving
at Chichen Itza.
Above: This stone hoop (carved with intertwined
rattlesnakes) is the goal in the middle of a Maya ritual
ballcourt. The game of pelota is played by bouncing a latex
basketball with elbow, knees and hips through this stone ring 15 feet
above ground. This is the best preserved court in Mesoamerica, with
such great acoustics that a whisper can be heard the length of
the court, 545 feet from end
to end.
Above: I'm standing in front of the Chichen Itza Observatory or El
Caracol (the snail, named for a spiral stairway inside), where the Maya
studied astronomy.
Right: Skull and crossed
bones at Uxmal cemetery.
Uxmal, Yucatan:
The ruins of Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil, Labna, and Xlapac are
all located near each
other in the Puuc (or hills) region, known for its Late Classic Maya
architectural
style, marked by finely cut veneer masonry and intricate facades of
carved stone. From our hotel near Uxmal, we enjoyed a day tour of Kabah,
Sayil, Labna, and Xlapac with a hired guide & car.
Many of the structures at Uxmal (say "oosh-MAHL")
were built 500-600
AD, renovated in the Maya Renaissance 800-900 AD, evacuated 1000 AD,
then
reoccupied in a period of decadence until abandoned for the last time
about
1450, 90 years before the Spanish conquest of Merida. Periods of
drought
and soil exhaustion may explain the frequent Maya migrations and their
ultimate societal disintegration.
Most of the northern two thirds of
Yucatan
is a riverless flat shelf of sieve-like limestone covered with very
little
soil, and dotted with natural sinkholes, called cenotes. 25 million
years
ago the Yucatan was undersea.
In 1996, UNESCO declared the Pre-Hispanic City of
Uxmal to be a World Heritage Area, describing it as follows: "The
Mayan
town of Uxmal, in the Yucatan, was founded in about 700 and had about
25,000
inhabitants. Its buildings, which date from between 700 and 1000, are
arranged
according to astronomical knowledge of the period. The Pyramid of the
Soothsayer,
as the Spanish called it, dominates the ceremonial centre which
comprises
carefully designed buildings richly decorated with symbols and with
sculptures
depicting Chaac, the rain god. The ceremonial sites of Uxmal,
Kabáh,
Labná and Sayil together represent the pinnacle of Mayan art and
architecture."
Above: The Pyramid of the Magician rises from the
tropical forest at Uxmal. The structure is also referred to as the
Pyramid of the Dwarf, Casa el Adivino, and the Pyramid of the
Soothsayer. I shot this photograph about an hour after
sunrise on January 18, 1983, from atop a nearby unexcavated Maya
structure.
The name Uxmal means 'thrice-built' in Mayan, referring to the
construction of its highest structure, the Pyramid of the Magician
(117 feet high). The Maya would often build a new temple over an
existing one, and in this case five stages of construction have
actually been found. Uxmal was one of the largest cities of the
Yucatán peninsula, and at its height was home to about 25,000
Maya. Like the other Puuc sites, it flourished in the Late Classic
period (around 600-900AD). Indications are that its rulers presided
also over the nearby settlements in Kabah, Labná and Sayil, and
there are several sacbeob connecting the sites (Sacbeob, or
"white ways", is the plural of Sacbe, which is a
raised paved road built by the Maya). The area is known as the Ruta
Puuc or Puuc route, named after the nearby hills.
Left: Chac rain god motif at Uxmal.
Below right: Climbing steep steps of the Pyramid of the
Magician (117 feet high), Uxmal, Mexico.
Above: The Pyramid of the Magician.
Above: I am sitting on the steps of an impressive temple at Uxmal. Blue
chairs are set out for the evening sound and light show.
Above: Maya rain god Chac, and rattlesnake motif, on temple wall at
Uxmal,
Mexico.
Kabah, Yucatan:
Above: This impressive limestone mosaic of the Chac rain god motif is
found at the ruins of Kabah, Mexico.
Labna, Yucatan:
Left: Labna has one of the largest known stone renditions of the Maya
rain god, Chac, shown here.
Below right: The Maya
came close to independently inventing the keystone arch, as shown by
this corbeled arch at
Labna below (see also Xlapac further below):
Above: The Maya ruins of Sayil, in the state of Yucatan, Mexico.
Xlapac, Yucatan:
Above: The Maya ruins at Xlapac, Yucatan, Mexico.
Below: the Maya came close to independently inventing the
keystone arch, as shown by this wide arch at Xlapac below:
Palenque, in the state of
Chiapas:
Located in tropical forest foothills away from the main
tourist routes,
Palenque was my favorite Maya ruin of our trip to Mexico.
In 1987, UNESCO
declared
the Pre-Hispanic City and National Park of Palenque to be a World
Heritage
Area, and described it as follows: "A prime example of a Mayan
sanctuary
of the classical period, Palenque was at its height between 500 and 700
A.D. and had a great influence in the entire basin of the Usumacinta
River.
The elegance and craftsmanship of the construction, as well as the
lightness
of the sculpted reliefs illustrating Mayan mythology, attest to the
creative
genius of this civilization."
Left: This sculpture panel is on
the west side of the doorway of the "Temple of the Cross". K'inich
Kan B'alam II, also (formerly) known as Chan Bahlum II (23
May 635 - 20 February 702), was king of the pre-Columbian Maya polity
of Baakal in the Classic period of Mesoamerican chronology, now known
as the Maya archaeological site of Palenque. Kan B'alam took
the throne on 10 January 684, several months after the death of his
father and predecessor, Pacal the Great. He continued the ambitious
project of adorning Palenque with fine art and architecture begun by
his father.
Above: The sarcophagus of Maya leader Pacal the Great
(615-683 AD) is located down a steep stairway deep within the
Temple of the Inscriptions, at Palenque. Pacal's tomb
was opened in 1952 and became
one of the greatest discoveries in Maya archaeology.
The widely accepted interpretation of the
sarcophagus lid is that Pacal is descending into Xibalba, the Maya
underworld. Around the edges of the lid are glyphs representing the
Sun, the Moon, Venus, and various constellations, locating this event
in the nighttime sky. Below him is the Maya water god, who guards the
underworld. Beneath Pacal are the "unfolded" jaws of a dragon or
serpent, into whose mouth Pacal the Great descends. This is a common
iconographic representation of the entrance of the underworld. Sprouting
from Pacal's body is the Mayan sacred tree, a "world tree" which
embodies the four cardinal directions, and is a symbolic axis mundi
(world center) which connects the planes of the Underworld and the sky
with that of the terrestrial realm.
Below: the Temple of the Inscriptions
(horizontal).
Left: A
temple at Palenque.
Below right: Maya stone carving at
Palenque.
Above: Stone buildings at Palenque.
Above: A Maya stone man wearing modern sunglasses.
|
In the Yucatan Peninsula 65 million years ago, an asteroid struck with such catastrophic damage to force worldwide extinction of the dinosaurs, scientists believe. But don't let "bad press" bias your travel plans, since your chances of being hit by an asteroid are the same anywhere you travel. An asteroid will destroy just one city every 30,000 years.* You are unlikely to be there at that fated time and place. [ *based on 8 years of asteroid orbit data; see scientific journal Nature, November 2002. ] In this article I hope to replace your fear with curiosity. News headlines may unduly scare you away from travel to other countries. For example, would you visit a country which suffers 45 murders/manslaughters per day; has 70 active militias and 16,000 gangs in 800 cities; has two guns for every three people; has been at war with someone for most of its existence; and has a 1-in-4 historical chance of the elected president being killed, wounded or shot at? I am referring to my home country of the United States of America, where I choose to live and love to travel. If you live elsewhere, don't be afraid of visiting United States, since it offers a great kaleidoscope of sights and experiences, in one of the most safety-conscious societies on earth. If anything, Americans are overly fearful and risk-averse compared to other cultures. Below, I describe how we tend to fear the unfamiliar, out of proportion to actual risk. How Risky is World Travel? » Traveling
to the tourist areas of the world can be about as safe as staying home:
If, like me,
you spend most of
your time at home, then
you will more likely encounter crime or other problems at home
rather than
on vacation. For example, compared to the USA, street crime is
lower and people are friendlier in countries such as Turkey,
Egypt, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, and Pakistan, due to the predominance of
socially conservative Muslim family bonds & accountability. These Muslim countries still have a strong culture
of warmly welcoming strangers. Due to bad press, most Americans fail to
realize this. Go and you will know.
Simple precautions can keep you safe while traveling. Your most likely problem overseas will be a stomach ailment. To avoid sickness in areas with poor health conditions, take the guidebook-recommended inoculations & precautions, and wash your hands frequently with a convenient waterless hand cleaner (or soap and water). When traveling, I often ride on buses, trains, and commercial airlines, which are much safer per hour than cars. Avoiding areas known for social anarchy or high crime will also lower your risks.
Let's put
risks in perspective: Statistics show that lightening,
which
kills only 1 in 4 million Americans per year, is actually more
likely
to
kill you than a commercial airliner (1 in 8.4 million), terrorists
(1
in
9.2 million), sharks (1 in 281 million), or bears. Automobile
accidents are hundreds of times more likely to kill you than most
other threats. Of every 18,800 Americans, one will be killed every year
in the "lottery" of automobile accidents. This adds up to a carnage of
42,000 people killed every year (nearly equaling the 10-year death
total of the Vietnam War).
» Flying is much safer than driving: Statistics in the past decade say that flying on a US commercial airliner is five times safer per passenger hour than riding in a car! And while aircraft smaller than commercial airliners are not quite as safe, small planes are safer than driving (per person per hour). You may be surprised that only 460 people died in the worst year ever for US commercial airline accidents, back in 1974. Even more surprising, 2001 was an average year for airline fatalities per departing passenger, including the catastrophe of September 11, 2001. We have long known about hijacking risks, which peaked in the years 1967-1976. Since then, we should have paid more attention to basic security measures, such as are used by El Al, the Israeli airline, which has not had any successful hijackings since 1968! The September 11, 2001 tragedy in the US could easily have been prevented with some basic domestic airline security precautions such as stronger lockable cockpit doors, which have since been added. Flying has been very safe for decades, and new airline safety regulations now make flying safer than ever.  » Terrorism is rare and usually comes from within: Horrible events such as September 11, 2001 in New York, or the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, suggest that staying in the United States may be no safer than traveling abroad. "You could already make a good case that we have a lot more to worry about from right- and left-wing groups inside the US than we do from al-Qaida.... By far the largest number of attacks have been domestic -- domestic outnumber international by 7-to-1". -- quoted October 2005 from Gary LaFree, director of the National Center for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, or START, funded by the US Department of Homeland Security. Perpetrators design terrorism to heighten your fear and draw attention to their cause. Don't let their rare attacks influence your political or economic decisions. President George W. Bush's so-called "War on Terror" is misguided -- the roots of terrorism are in poverty & hopelessness, which needs to be addressed economically & politically, not militarily. Terrorism is actually a very rare cause of death in the US. Over the past 25 years, a total of only 3222 people have died from terrorist attacks on US soil (including September 11, 2001). In the year 2002, the numbers of Americans dying from all major causes were: 286,000 from cancer; 65,000 from alcohol and drug-related injuries; 60,000 from chronic lower respiratory diseases; 43,000 from domestic motor vehicle accidents; 29,000 from influenza & pneumonia; 14,000 from AIDS; and 5000 in boating/swimming accidents. Bad eating and physical inactivity alone caused 26,000 American deaths in 2005. Knowing this might motivate more people to go on an active vacation using public transportation. "Our
species has never mingled so freely, and this exchange of
experience is what terrifies the terrorists.
Travel is liberalizing, and is accelerating global change and homogenization." - William Dietrich, the Seattle Times, November 5, 2006 » Fears of firearms, animals and violent events should be put into proportion: US cities have some of the world's highest homicide rates, and easily-available firearms cause two-thirds of the 15,000 yearly American homicides. Since acquaintances or family members cause half of all murders, Americans may actually be safer when traveling to see strangers in another country! I have met a number of British travelers who fear visiting the USA due to random gun shootings they read about in the news (a fear shared by many Europeans, who prefer their system of strict gun control laws). I assure my European friends that in the US, as in most of the world, traffic accidents should be feared much more than shootings. Ever since Henry Ford mass-produced motorcars in 1913, more than 2.5 million Americans have died on the road. Compare this with about one million Americans dying in all wars since the start of the American Revolution in 1775 through 2005! We tend to fear the unfamiliar, out of proportion to the actual risk. For example, grizzly bears freely roam Waterton Lake National Park, and a guide who lives there told me that unlike city people, he has no fear of bear attack, but when he goes to the "big city" of Edmonton, Alberta, fear of crime makes him afraid to get out of his car! I also have some "big city" (Seattle) friends who have been afraid to visit Yosemite National Park, California, due to a rare serial killer reported in the news; but notice that their home city exposes them to a murder rate twice that found in any national park (or rural area). Surprise! The most dangerous animal in America (aside from humans), is the common deer, which collides with cars and kills hundreds of people. Serial killings, bear attacks, and lightening injuries occur so rarely and spectacularly that news media often report incidents from far away. Sensational news reporting often colors a whole country by one violent but isolated event. But in reality, travelers in that country would likely have missed the event because of distance or timing. For example, in our 1999 trip to Turkey we missed the big Istanbul earthquake because we were a few hundred kilometers away at the time, and upon returning to the shaken area a few weeks later, the tourist areas (built with sturdier buildings than poorer areas) were back in business. When worldwide headlines broadcast a rare bombing from Indonesia or a freeway shooting in Florida, then outsiders may unnecessarily fear travelling to that state or country. Fear and extreme events sell more news, so the media overemphasizes the extremes of the world, often ignoring the prevalence of peace & safety. News headlines should be put into proper perspective. For example, many Americans may think that schools are unsafe after reading shocking headlines about terrible mass shootings at schools. But children are actually much safer per hour in schools than in their homes. Violence or sexual abuse will more likely happen by family members or acquaintances at home, whereas schools offer safer controlled environments. What we fear most usually comes from within: 9 out of 10 cases of sexual abuse of children are caused by family members or close acquaintances. Only 1 of 10 sexual abusers are strangers. Knowing where problems actually fester will better direct solutions. Don't let your decisions be ruled by knee jerk reactions or fear. » You actually have control over most risks: Choosing safer habits can significantly lower risks. Driving a car is 16 times safer than a motorcycle, per mile traveled. Riding public transportation is much safer than a private vehicle. In descending order, the top preventable causes of death are: tobacco, alcohol, germs, toxins/pollutants, car crashes, guns, and obesity [according to 2005 US Center of Disease Control (CDC) statistics]. Ironically, the US government allocated $3500 million for terrorism preparedness in 2003, but only $96 million on obesity prevention! Americans, tell your congressional representatives to get priorities back into proper order! The
Joy of
Travel.
Travel expands the mind, enriches our spirit, and can create great photographs. Personally, I love travel and have structured my life around it. My wife and I can afford more international trips because we have chosen not to have children. (Human overpopulation is degrading the world of nature that I love, so I encourage people to adopt existing needy children instead of conceiving new babies.) Most people I have met worldwide are like me: peaceloving, friendly and more humanistic than nationalistic. When I visit other countries, most people eagerly welcome my visit, gladly accept my tourist dollar, or want to practice their English, as I practice their language. By traveling with humility and submitting to the kindness of strangers, I hope to encourage mutual understanding, economic interdependency, human rights, and ultimately peace. |
Index to this Page: Summary , Touring Maya Country , Tulum , Yucatan ( Chichen Itza , Uxmal , Kabah , Labna , Sayil , Xlapac ) , Palenque , How Risky is World Travel?
See also: Mexico Page 2: Baja California
(touching
gray whales)
See also: Belize: Belize Map , San Ignacio , Ambergris Caye & Barrier Reef
, When to Visit , Maya Trip Suggestions
Copyright 1983, 1998 by Tom
Dempsey. Photographs or text may not be copied without permission.
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