Tag Archives: Yaxchilan

Yaxchilan: Remote Mayan Site in Chiapas Jungle–Get There By Boat!

 

Yaxchilan (Yash-chee-lahn) is situated on the high banks of the Usumacinta River that borders Mexico and Guatemala, three hours southeast of Palenque.  The secluded ruins are in a dense jungle only accessible by river boat, a good 30-minute ride from the launch site.  The boat ride is a wonderful transition from now to then.  In years past, Lacandon Mayas made this passage in open dugout canoes.  Today, the wood-planked boats are covered in palm thatch.

  

Alligator or crocodile?

 

Yaxchilan rivaled Palenque (Mexico) and Tikal (Guatemala) as these three “super-powers” vied for control over the surrounding lesser Mayan centers that provided food, tribute and able fighters.

This magnificent archeological site is worthy of several hours of your time.  It is a space that is dark jungle, moss-covered, limestone rocks tumbled and crumbling, and with only the beginnings of a restoration in process.

 

As you walk into the space you feel as if you were an archeologist discovering it for the first time. It speaks of antiquity.  The howler monkeys calling back and forth across the river are haunting, adding a sense of mystery to the place. I pass through a compact Mayan arch into a vast plaza.

 

Situated high on a river bank, the site offers a strategic location on the wide and magnificent Usumacinta River, testifying to the power and influence of this once-great city.   Huge bromeliads hang from hundred foot high trees with mahogany colored trunks.  I walk beneath a tall canopy of leaves, vines, roots and flowering succulents, careful not to trip on toppled stones.

 

 

Yaxchilan is probably like Palenque was 30 years ago.  The only nearby lodging is at the boat launch site, where there are also a couple of good restaurants.  If you contact Daniel Chank In, the Selva Lacandon guide, he can help you make lodging and boat travel arrangements instead of taking the cookie-cutter day trip.

My journal scrawlings about the Palenque to Yaxchilan passage:

The languages of travel are Czech, German, three varieties of English (Brit, American, Aussie), Spanish, French, Dutch. These are my traveling companions. In Palenque they speak Chol. We stopped for breakfast at a simple comedor with tree trunks for stools and a dirt floor and GREAT coffee, dark and rich, locally grown and organic.  I have not been sick since I arrived in Mexico a month ago.

We are western women taught to cover our breasts, be modest. From the window of the van I see a woman at the water source, one large breast exposed, suspended, full of milk walking toward a toddler waiting for nourishment.  Plank wood and palm thatch cover the humans at night.  Shelter is simple for man, woman, cows, chickens.  Chiapas, siempre verde is the state motto.  It is always damp here.  We are on flat land now, clear-cut for growing corn and lumbering, heading toward the frontier.  Maize scrabble, hard-scrabble, bare feet, dirt, bare chests, men at work with machetes.  We pass a sign: This is Zapatista country.  Land of campesinos.

Grazing land, cattle, horses.  Ceiba trees, overcast skies, animals are thin I see their bones.  We pass through pueblos of resistance, a village sign announces this, the sign is rough wood with white paint. The land is flat, vast, green scrub.  This is the road to the Guatemala border.  We pass military sentries, checkpoints, men heavily armed, some masked.  Put your cameras down and cell phones away, says the driver, as we approach one. They wave us through.  On the way back, away from the border, we are stopped and I show my passport.  Of course they are checking for drugs and I know that the pipeline works its way across the river through the jungle to the vast cities and towns of America where demand keeps this business in business.  Did I feel in danger?  No.

 

 

Bonampak Archeological Site: Mayan Treasure in the Chiapas Jungle

Bonampak is at the farthest reaches of Chiapas near the Usumacinta River in the Selva Lacandon — a rainforest jungle that is almost three hours from Palenque.  It’s one of those magical places that I have dreamed of visiting but never imagined I might get to.  To get as far as Palenque and not go another three hours to Bonampak would have been a mistake.

At the Palenque archeological museum and gift shop I bought Arqueologia Mexicana magazine, Vol. X, Number 55, that features the most recent reconstruction of the Bonampak murals.  Since not all the paintings are clear and have degraded over time, archeological artists have attempted to reconstruct them using accurate colors and now infrared drawings.  The magazine discusses (in English and Spanish) past interpretations, controversies and the most current reconstruction that uses the natural plant and mineral pigmentation.

Bonampak was part of the Yaxchilan alliance and was a smaller Mayan center.  However, the discovery of the murals in the 1940’s overshadowed its more magnificent neighbor which I will write about in my next post.

  

 

It takes a special effort to get there and plenty of patience.  The tour vans leave Palenque at 6 a.m. and you don’t return until 7:30 p.m.  It’s a long day, but definitely rewarding.  I took more than 80 photographs at Bonampak and can only show you a few of them here.  Plus, there is lots of information online about the political, social and cultural history of place if you are interested in reading more.

 

 

As I mentioned in the previous post, I’d recommend staying at a lodge either at Yaxchilan or Bonampak so you have two days to enjoy these two extraordinary sites. One day is too rushed since day tours give only two hours at Yaxchilan and one hour at Bonampak. I told them we didn’t need an hour for lunch or 45 minutes for breakfast!

  

 

Selva Lacandon Territory: A Chance Meeting

My journey into the Lacandon jungle along the Usumacinta River that is the boundary between Mexico and Guatemala began simply with a top-of-the-list visit to Na Bolom (Jaguar House) in San Cristobal de las Casas.  Here I was fascinated by Gertrude (Trudi) Duby-Blom’s descriptive black and white photos shot in the mid-1950’s of Lacondon people.  Na Bolom is dedicated to the Lacandones, who retreated deep into the rainforest to preserve their ancient practices in the face of the Spanish conquest.

The Selva Lacandon, a dense jungle rainforest, is where you will find Yaxchilan and Bonampak — two glorious and significant Mayan archeological sites.  To get there isn’t easy.  It’s three hours southeast of Palenque by van.  Palenque is five hours north of San Cristobal de las Casas IF you take a direct bus and don’t sign up for the tourist trip that stops at Agua Azul and Cascada del Misol-Ha along the way (extending the trip to eight hours one-way).  But I digress.

The day before I was set to leave for Palenque, Fay and I were on Real Guadalupe pedestrian avenue window-shopping.  I noticed an indigenous man and woman in the doorway of one of the shops who looked familiar, as if I had seen them somewhere before.  I asked the shopkeeper which indigenous group they belonged to and she said Lacandones.  I stepped into the shop and approached them with a “buenos dias.”

Carmela Chan Ak In and Cayhum Yuk Masha introduced themselves and told me that they lived in the jungle and had been friends with Trudi Blom.  I asked if I could take their photos and he agreed.  They requested and I agreed to send email copies to their nephew who has correo electronico.  As I set my lens, I realized that they may be the same people who were the primary subjects of the photos I had seen at Na Bolom and in the published books — taken at least 40 years ago. Our conversation ended with an invitation to me to visit their village.

Just yesterday, as I exited Bonampak, I met Daniel Chank In, a Lacandon native and registered eco-tourism guide who takes visitors through the jungle and arranges overnight stays.  Daniel is part of a Lacandona owned/operated eco-tourism cooperative called Jaguar Ojo Anudado certified by the Mexican Tourist Board.  He knows Carmela and Cayhum and says they live about 2 km from the ancient ruins and told me that, yes, they had been friends with the Bloms and subjects of her photography.

If you are interested in a guided visit with overnight stays (I highly recommend this, since one day to see both Yaxchilan and Bonampak are not enough), please contact Daniel at jaguarojoanudado2@yahoo.com.mx.  His website is www.jaguarojoanodado2.com.mx

Daniel introduced me to his wife, Victoria Chank In Chana Bor, his son Esteban Daniel (males wear white tunics, females wear floral tunics), and their newborn son wrapped and sleeping close to his mother’s heartbeat.