The story continues from ‘The Interior of the Yucatan’

the Puuc route, sites south into Campeche state and the potter Roger Juarez

Uxmal and Senor Ek, the Mayan Shaman

This is Tues, Nov 30. This morning Manny and I went to Uxmal. Wow!!!! It is huge. I thought Mayapan had a large pyramid but the temple of the Magician in Uxmal is really huge. Over 30 meters high, that is about100 feet high.

The nunnery was a giant open square surrounded by four walled sections of rooms. The pictures you see in books only show the outside, but inside the huge plaza each section of the four walls have corbel ceiling rooms inside each of them. The wall sculptured designs were wonderful. The one of Kulkulkan on the field of serpents had his face with water running from his mouth. That translates into ‘’life flowing from the heavens’. One of the walls had statues of two human figures on it. One had a loin-cloth and the other one had it all hanging out. Pretty graphic display with one covered with a loin-cloth and the other one had it all hanging out. We made our exit through the arch doorway and walked down the steps to the ball court. As I looked back I could see the huge earth monster doorway on the top of the Magicians temple and the chac faces on the edges of the staircase up to it. The area was roped off so we couldn’t get a better view than from where we were. We crossed a shaded area and climbed up more steps to the Governors Palace and the ‘House of the Turtles’. I made the mistake of not walking around to the front of the Governors Palace and missed the wonderful architecture of the front of the building. We walked the other way instead around the backside stopping to look through the windows of the House of the Turtles.

We climbed the grand temple pyramid and found Chac masks (Rain god) and glyphs of the four directions and macaw birds (parrots) carved on the temple at the top. The corners had huge Chac masks with the curved noses. Most of the other buildings had the same designs. They were spectacular to see being we were up close and very personal to the carved stone. On our way down the great temple we could see there was construction going on in the dovecote building section and they had the whole thing roped off. We followed a trail and came to the Cemetery Temple and beyond that the clearing with monuments or stelae lying on their sides. We spent all morning there. After lunch in the parking lot I bought a wonderful pair of muslin cotton pants and brocade blouse. I also bought a T-shirt, all for 30.00. I must tell you about the ticket price. I was charged 16.00 for our two tickets. I couldn’t figure out why it was so much until I was to go to Chichen Itza. It was the same price there. The bottom line is: if you enter a site with a light and sound show you are charged for both general admission and the light show whether you attend or not.

Senor Ek, the Mayan Shaman:

We then continued the journey to see Senor Ek.

When we found him, he was riding on the back of a motor scooter bike on the way back from his farm. He took us to his country property just outside Tikul. It had a Mayan house in the middle of an orange grove. He sat and talked to us, with Manny translating into English what he was saying in his native Mayan language mixed with Spanish. The first thing he was saying was how to lower Cholesterol by making a tea of Oregano and a small pod shaped like a tiny devils claw in a liter of water letting it steep for a day then drink it every three days.

The second thing he said was the pit of the avocado smashed and put into a sterile container with alcohol used as a liniment on sore muscles and aches and pains.

He said he was a Mayan shaman that was called to the craft over fifty years ago. He is 79 years old and has no one to pass his knowledge of over 1500 natural medicine remedies on to. His 13 children are not interested and when he dies the Mayan medicine he knows will go with him. Bingo!! The Spirit sitting on my shoulder kicked me in the head and said, ‘that’s it’, this is one of the things you came to Mexico to find and this is what you are supposed to do.

So with Manny’s help he will get Senor Ek to tell him the remedies and write them down. I will take the translation and put it into English and publish a book of Mayan Medicine, both in book form and on the Internet. I will also do the same for Manny in Spanish and he will put it on the Internet. Since the information comes from the Universal almightily, it can’t be sold for profit. This is a work of the heart. This is one of those vision things I get and I knew this one when it came.

When I told him I was an Earth Mother and lived close to the land he asked me if I wanted to speak with a spirit. I told him yes and he lit candles and prayed. Soon the spirit of Jose Daniel Villafaña Martinez spoke through Senor Ek. He wanted to know what I wanted to ask and I told him whatever he wanted to tell me. He proceeded to ask where my pain was. I explained the shoulders, wrists and arms. He then prayed and did a cleansing and recommended a medicine for me to take and a cream to use. It was very powerful and when he removed the debris from my aura, I felt very cool. When he was done praying he sat back and the spirit made his exit from Senor Ek. It was overwhelming. We had a bit more conversation and I took some pictures of him to use for the book of medicine.

I also suggested that Senor Ek write down directions on how to build a Mayan House. I think they are constructed far better than straw bale and cob houses.

I know I am not done yet as this is only one of the several things coming on my way.

I also have been giving Manny ideas on how to start and promote his tour business. He typed the information down and I composed a flyer for him to pass out to advertise his tour business. This was a very productive day. I still feel refreshed after a long hot day of climbing temples and visiting with Senor Ek.

In order to use the Internet I have to do it in Tikul after we are done exploring during the day then drive the 10 miles to where I am staying in Santa Elena at the Flycatcher Inn. That is a long spooky drive at night.

Kabah, Sayil and Xlapak, which are located on the Puuc Route road.

Kabah is the site with all the chac faces all over the front of the temple was great. They have so many chac faces that still have to be restored that the pieces are lined up in the plaza ready to be added to the wall. It must take a long time to match the pieces. The whole top of the platform had noses laying everywhere. A lot of the faces on the wall have lost their noses. On the back of the Codz Poop building, were two statues mounted to the roof frieze. They could have been kings of Kabah. I noticed behind the statues had wings or flowing water carved in the stones. That represents divine kingship or abundance from heaven given through the divine ruler. The same ‘wings’ are found at Ek Balam, only carved in three dimension. A lot of damage was done to the sites in the Yucatan from the hurricane that ravished the whole area in 2002. I keep finding out at each site what damage was dealt to each one. The site of Kabah was very clean and restored to a point that it was easy to see how it looked.

Site of Chac:

We tried to find the latest site they are working on between Kabah and Sayil down a tire treaded path. We walked around the gate and walked several miles. The site wasn’t opened yet and we were trying to beat the crowd. The only thing we managed to get was heat-stoke and find beehives at the end of the trail. We were only one gate away from it we learned later, but too late now, as I'm not going back again. I didn’t take any pictures of the bushes either even though the walk wasn’t too bad under the trees. We continued down the road just a couple of miles to the next place.

Sayil:

Sayil had a wonderful big palace that was a long massive three-story building. It was built on top of a platform and had many out buildings. I liked the columns the buildings were faced with and really enjoyed the Stelae at the end of the trail. Chac may bring rain but a good phallic effigy brings life. I laughed all the way back to car. Reminded me of some dirty postcards I’ve seen before. In the entrance gate building we found some stones on display from the site of Chac. At least we were able to see something.

Xlapak:

Xlapak was a small site but had a complete building that included the roof and decorations of the chac masks on the corners and along the roof top . The site only had a couple of other buildings, but the visit was very valuable to be able to put a visual image of the completed building in my minds eye in order to picture what the buildings in other sites would have looked like. The building also had a huge water well platform in front of it to catch rain drainage.

The border guards:

When we came from Santa Elena down the road to the sites there was a border check point right at the road that turned off to go on the Puuc Route. Manny and I went through this check station at least twice a day for the week we explored the sites in the area. If you continued down the road was the Arch gate that separates the state of Yucatan from Campeche State. Manny was pretty friendly to the guards and they began to recognize us when we came through.

Getting a little ahead of the story, on my last day when I left Tikul to go to Edzna, Manny helped me get some lunch items. We passed a BBQ chicken place on a side street in Tikul that was grilling chickens on a spit. They smelled wonderful so I bought one and split it with Manny. As I was getting back into the VW to leave I decided to get one for the guards at the checkpoint. So with an extra chicken in a bag with rice and hot sauce, I headed for the checkpoint. I stopped and the guard stuck his head in the window and asked where I was going, in Spanish, of course. I told him Campeche. He said ok and waved me on. I picked up the bag and stuck it out the window to him and told him that was comida (lunch) for him and his amigo. He took the bag, kind of surprised to get something from an American and as I pulled back out onto the highway, I looked out of my rear view mirror. I could see both guards standing feet together looking into the bag to see what it was. I chuckled all the way down the road. Bet it was the first time they were served lunch like that.

Chalmultun, Kihoic, ladies with corn and the boa:

The next day Manny and I ventured down past Lotun Cave on a road that took us to Chalmultun, which was a site up further past Oxkintob town. There were some archeologists working on preserving a room that some frescos were found in. It was a row of figures about 10 inches high on top of the ceiling line. They were painted on the stucco on the inside of the room under the second level. There were other figures underneath it, but not very clear. I had the opportunity to look real close, like 6 inches away. The colors of green and red were brilliant and clear with the figures outlined in black. I didn't get a picture, as I couldn't take one with the flash. The next person after me will have to look through a screen door to see it, as a man was installing the door while I was looking. We continued to what we thought was a road that lead to another section of the site, but ended up in a really dirt-poor village that had several Mayan huts and a number of children and adults. The place was so poor the animals were scruffy and scraggily and generally looked puny and sick.

Kihoic was marked with a small sign, but the gate was closed. We walked around the gatepost and hiked 3 or more miles up into the woods. The forest was serene and quiet and very pleasant to walk through. We did find a couple of buildings that were being worked on but not much to speak of. There were barrels of water and we could see some cement had been mixed recently. Some reconstruction had been done, but nothing had a sign to tell what it was. We walked further on and found some other building sections exposed on the fronts with the backs still in various stages of decay and decomposition with trees growing out of them. Maybe in the near future we will find it on the site map as being open to the public. As nice as the walk was going in, it became hot and I was sweating up a storm when we reached the car.

We passed through some villages that had new houses being constructed with cement and columns. (It’s those dishwashers again) We saw many ladies carrying pans of corn on their heads to be ground at the community milpa corn grinder place. Then they would carry it back home ground up into dough to make tortillas to feed their families. It was a very picturesque scene with the ladies dressed in their embroidered dresses.

We also found a boa constrictor snake that tried to cross the road and had been run over, but still moving. When we came back from the site, someone had already picked it up. Probably for dinner, yummy, Boa stew. He was that big and fat.

We tried to find a couple more sites, Xkichmook and Nohacacab. The jungle either had swallowed up both sites, or the road did. We had no luck on finding them and I wasn't about to trek though the undergrowth again, so we called it enough for the day.

Sites south of Bolenchen in Campeche state, then back to Labna

The following day we went from Santa Elena toward Bolenchen in Campeche state to find some sites that were listed in a book written 28 years ago.

Yaxche was not there, Xlapak was not there, Balche lost to the world, Xochkax gone forever, Almuil and Miramar the same, all swallowed up by the jungle and time. We did find Chunhuaymil 1, kind of sorta. We turned down a horrible dirt track of a road and after we went as far as the directions said, we ran across some young boys walking with slingshots and bb guns. They were Big Game hunters. We asked them if they knew the site. They said they would show us if we gave them a ride. Yeah right, in the VW. We told them to hop up on the back bumper and they did. I eased down the road and they hung on without a problem. When we arrived at the place they hollered and we stopped. Okay, now what? Nothing was visible. They hacked us a trail for about 50 feet into the underbrush and sure enough there it was, another pile of rocks with trees growing out of them. We looked at the doorways, into holes and at the loose stones and took pictures. The batteries died on the digital so I had to use the 35mm. I gave the boys 2 pesos for their help and we turned around and went back.

So, with at one accomplished we were game enough for the next one on the list and tried Itzimte. This time it was in a corn- field. The road was another dirt track surrounded by the dry scratchy corn stocks. Beyond this we could see piles rubble perched on top of some mounds, waaaaayy over there. Not even in a million years was I up for tromping through that mess to see another pile of rocks. I took pictures of what I saw and we drove back until we found a tree with enough shade to cover the car and sat under it and had lunch.

On the way back we did find Chunhuhub. Good road, good entrance, free, and fairly well constructed to see what it looked like. They had recently finished working on it, but there was no caretaker. We drove in and parked. What they had reconstructed gave a good view of how the buildings were laid out, even though there were only a couple of them. We walked around the side of the building and up a narrow trail to the upper part of the building. In that area we found some more stones lying around that looked like they were arranged that way in preparation for more work. We found a partly exposed room below the surface that was probably part of a section of rooms. I am sure there is more to come of that site. After all the tromping around we did, we missed another site, Santa Rosa Xtampak, 17 miles off the road that I found out later was extensively reconstructed. I guess the 17 miles of rough road was enough to detour me from going. When we left Chunhuhub we went across the highway to the village of Santa Antonio Xlupak where we found some villagers in the process of shelling corn off the cob. Interesting process they had. The whole village participates as a co-op to prepare the corn for market.

Labna:

We then headed back to Santa Elena and stopped at Labna, on the Puuc Route. What we didn't find all day we did find there. It was magnificent. The Chac face doorways were superb. I really liked this place. The face emerging out of the serpent mouth is not someone being swallowed up by a snake. It means an ancestor is emerging from the cosmic heavens, (the milky way, meaning the feathered serpent.) to connect with the people on the earth level of being. The inner hallway up the steps to the upper level had every corner covered with stacked chac faces that were in the most perfect condition of any site I saw on my trip. Stacks of chac faces mean abundant rain or life from the heavens. The last shot of the guacamole bowl is really a corn grinding stone that has been worn down to make it a bowl shape. I think they set them out to catch rainwater when they were no longer used to grind corn. We ran out of daylight by that time and had to continue the next day to see:

Roger Juarez, the potter, Hochob, El Tabasquerno, Dzibilnocac and Tacoh:

Manny introduced me to his friend, the potter, Roger Juarez who makes replicas of the Jaina figures.

He lives in Tikul and I took some pictures of his work. He has won some state awards and is featured in an Archaeological magazine that a major Mexico company puts out. I will get a copy when I get back to Merida. (Note: couldn’t find it, bummer) His work is wonderful and I came away with 2 plates, which were replicas of ones found in some tombs from Yaxchilan and two figurines replicated of the Jaina figurines. Going to be hard to fit in the luggage, but who cares, I will make them fit. They are just beautiful.

After that we went south on the highway to Campeche past Bolenchen and further south of Hopelchen. There we found four good sites before we ran out of time.

Tacoh was small, located along 261 hwy just outside of Hopelchen. The caretaker there was a volunteer. He was studying his history and giving his time to watch the place. He told us the sites beyond that were good to see and after we left him we went on to see Hochob, El Tabasquerno and Dzibilnocac.

El Tabasquerno was small, but they had just rebuilt the temple that was destroyed by the hurricane in 2002. The chac masks on the corners of the temple were superb. The detail was sharp and freshly chiseled. Too bad some of the other sites couldn’t show the same. On the other side of the plaza there was an unusual ramp that was built up to a round tower building. This was the only site I ever saw that.

Hochob was a small site with Earth Monster mask doorways. We had to climb way up a set of steps to get to the site, as it was perched on top of a hill. There were many cenote holes for water. It was pretty well reconstructed and had several other interesting buildings surrounding the plaza.

Dzibinocac took us longer to drive to than the others as it was at the end of the beaten path. It was being worked on. One of the three tower temples had chac faces on the corners of the upper temple. There was new construction in the process on the middle section. The other end of the temple was a rubble pile with trees growing out of the top. It reminded me of the style I was to see in Xpujil the next week. We arrived almost at sunset so we had to rush before they closed the site. Thank goodness for Manny's help. I would have never been able to do directions by myself as most of the people spoke Mayan and every map had a different name for the place. Note the small round building that stood in the middle of the village. These were built to defend the village during the chaste war between the Spanish and the Mayan in the 1800’s.

We tried for Kancabchen but that was not to be. We either ran out of time or time swallowed the site up. Who only knows?

Leaving Santa Elena for Edzna and Campeche:

To say the least I had to have my last night with 3 weddings going on in the village and as in Mexico City they partied all night. My final send off was with puffy sleepy eyes and a long way to drive. I really enjoyed my stay in Santa Elena for the week and hated to leave such a lovely setting. But as all good things mush come to a close, today I am driving to Edzna, an ancient site close to Campeche.

That last morning I took a couple of pictures of my host and hostess, Kris and Santiago. They were sitting on their porch of the Flycatcher Inn. Kris is from Oregon and visited Mexico many times in the past, as she was interested in the ancient sites. She met Santiago at one of the hotels she stayed. They each had the desire to learn each other’s language, so they taught each other. Somehow a romance developed and they were married. Even after running several businesses over their fourteen years together, they look content and happy. I asked if he had a brother as nice that was single. No luck. Santiago also makes wrought iron furniture and gates.

One of the things that happened at breakfast each morning at Flycatcher was to meet the other guests that had arrived. There were several different ones each day and the last day I met the young newlywed Austrian couple Oliver and Jasmine. They were going the same way as I was and I suggested they check on the possibility of staying at Rio Bec Dreams in Xpujil, as that was where I was heading after a night in Campeche.

I bid my host and Hostess good-bye and made a stop in Tikul to say good-bye to my guide and good friend Manny Morales. He was waiting for me in the plaza square. I took a few minutes and snapped pictures of the amazing statutes and the end of each street. The streets were divided and they stood as sentinels at the end of each median. They were all around the plaza. The town did a good job erecting them, making Tikul very unique in design. I took a picture of the church, but all the churches in the area looked the same. They were all built with the same architecture, big, bold and austere. Enough bulk to make it the most imposing buildings in each town. Not to say how it affected the local population in the 1600’s when they called them to worship. The town of Santa Elena had one and it sat on a hill giving an excellent view of the town below. It stuck up above the tree line and before you even arrived into town you could see it. One of the things Kris told me was that discoveries of tombs were made in the church. They were children wrapped in cloth. It had been determined they were children of German people that had started to homestead and farm in the early 1800’s.

Manny took me to the market and I bought a few things to munch on for lunch. Including the chicken for the guards at the checkpoint. I bought the medicine Senor Ek suggested and purchased more batteries for the camera. I sure was glad to have Manny’s help with the translation. We were in and out of the shops in jig time. It was a tearful good-bye between Manny and I. I had depended on him to guide me through the underbrush and translate everything for me. We laughed a lot and compared life in Mexico to life in the US. I taught him some regular English as his was formal and came from school learning. He is an amazing man, striving to better his community and teach English to the children in his town. Manny took me by to see Senor Ek at his house as he said Senor Ek had something to give me. He gave me a whole bag of the little pods to make the tea with to cure cholesterol. Senor Ek is such a sweet man and even at 79 had a twinkle in his eye and a zest for living.

After I left Tikul and went through the checkpoint, giving the guards their lunch, (chuckle, chuckle). I drove on down the highway and through the gateway arch on my way to Campeche. When I passed through the town of Hopelchen I saw the lady with the corn pan balanced on her head. This lady used no hands. It is a great shot.

Several times on the way I passed runners and bicyclers that were running for Our Lady of Guadalupe. I also passed trucks loaded with farm workers that were being driven by Mennonite farmers. There were many of them. It seems the Mennonite farmers organized the local men to work on their farms. They looked strange being the only white skinned men in the crowd. Mennonite farming families homesteaded the whole area around the Edzna. They were invited to homestead by Mexico and were brought from Europe in the 1800’s. I arrived at the site of Edzna about 2pm. I had plenty to time to look around. Wow, if Uxmal was big, Edzna was as big. Maybe not taller, but it had as many buildings even though they were laid out differently. When you see the pictures of the Edzna site it is hard to tell that the main pyramid is sitting on a really high platform plaza. I climbed to the top and took a picture of the vista. The view was so wonderful and I was glad to have been able to share it with the kings of the past. I left in time to arrive in Campeche by 5pm. I checked into the Pirate hostel and looked for an Internet that was open. I found only one and each of his machines kicked me off the Internet. I gave up and walked around the plaza. I wandered up and down the street looking at each of the stands where the local women were serving cakes and deserts. Each one had their own cart with each of them serving much of the same style baked goods. I looked closely at each stand but in the end never bought anything. I was told the Chamber of Commerce promotes this event to acquaint visitors with the local cuisine. Besides it was the Christmas season and they were featuring fancy deserts. The band in the plaza was getting ready to play some music so I walked around the square to get a look at what was going on. I heard someone holler at me. I was surprised and turned around to find the couple from Austria that I met at Santa Elena when I was there. They had just arrived that afternoon. We talked for a while then sat on the park benches waiting for the music to start. Soon it started to sprinkle so we just bid each other good night and I walked up the street to my hostel hotel. I would be seeing them again as they, too, were headed to Rio Bec Dreams in a couple of days.

The next morning I tried the Internet again and had better luck. I worked on that until I had to leave in time to make it to Rio Bec Dreams by dark. That was going to be a six or seven hour drive. I was wondering how fast I was to be wallowed up by the jungle and lose the Internet facilities. I really enjoyed my stay in Santa Elena on the Puuc Route and Campeche. The town was so clean and well painted. The Chamber of Commerce had been working hard on promoting visitors to bolster their economy. It was working too. Merida should try the same.

The next section of the story continues in ‘Rio Bec and the ancient sites around Xpujil’.