Wet Noodle Posse

The Other Cancun: The World of the Maya

Like most people who live in the Pacific Northwest, I love it the rest of the year, but come about January, the gloom, rain, and more rain have me ready to bolt. Give me some place with sunshine. I've wanted to see the Mayan ruins since my college days, so when my husband mentioned how much he'd like to visit the Caribbean, we knew where we wanted to go – the Yucatan, and the Riviera Maya. I was a little concerned about leftover damage from Hurricane Wilma, but the reports were positive. So in early March, we got on the plane.

From the air, the Yucatan Peninsula looks like a completely different world. Everything about the Yucatan Peninsula is influenced by the limestone that lies just inches below the soil. It's totally flat. Limestone dissolves in water, and the heavy rainfall absorbs into it like a sponge, and you wonder within an hour if it rained at all. Real rivers, on the surface at least, are scarce, and sinkholes form, like water-filled pockmarks on the landscape. Trees and shrubs sit with their roots exposed to catch any available water before it soaks away. Even their color seems strange for someone from the land of lush, tall Douglas firs.

As we land in Cancun, I see the gray skeleton of trees in the surrounding jungle and begin to worry if the tourist sites have deliberately misled us about the great recovery. Our driver told us the jungles near the tip of the peninsula were hit hard, for those shallow-rooted trees didn't withstand the winds well. Massive recovery efforts have been in place for the resort area, however, including trucking in sand in some areas. A few hotels on the beach were so badly damaged they will likely have to be torn down, but most were already back in service by February.

I was just as glad we had decided to go farther south anyway, since I like a less crowded area. Our resort, the Mayan Palace, is about ten miles north of Playa del Carmen. It’s one of many beautiful resorts along this beautiful coast, and like the others it caters to Europeans as well as Americans. Perhaps one of the most delightful aspects is the staff, the members of which are all friendly, helpful, and eager to please.

Getting around is easy. You don’t need a car. We hopped the local bus down to Playa del Carmen, a thriving tourist-oriented community right on the beach.

Playa del Carmen

Only a block away from the Caribbean Sea is Avenida Cinco (Fifth Avenue). Playa (short for Playa del Carmen) has built this long, walking market that stretches for blocks, no cars or buses allowed, with open-fronted stores. The shops are typically tourist attractions, including several silver shops selling Taxco Silver. Pareos (flowing rayon or silky fabrics, often in beautiful batik prints) that everyone wears on the beaches are everywhere, and if you bargain a little, you can get them for $5-6.

Jeff and Delle at 100% Natural Restaurant

There are many open-air restaurants with delicious local-style food. The one we found that we loved most, though, was very Americanized. But look for it. 100% NATURAL. Yes, that's the name. And yes, natural food. Even if you aren’t a natural-food person, you will love the food there. It is almost entirely outdoors, rain or not, and is like eating in a lush jungle garden. Ask for Glendy, and tell her Delle sent you. And check out a drink called Chiapa. It’s green and very fruity. On a hot day, it is just the right thing.

For anyone getting a first taste of the Mayan civilization and its architecture, Chichén Itzá is the most organized site and covers a wide range of time periods and architectural types. The drive through the dusty jungle is worth the effort. Along the way, you’ll see many tiny Mayan villages, their populations the remnants of the once-great Mayan cities. Our guide told us that at the height of the Mayan culture, the population was probably once around 16 million, but today barely 4 million Mayas live in the area. They are a short, stocky people, with dark brown skin and beautiful, huge, round eyes. Many have a somewhat classical Mayan profile, but not the way it used to be centuries ago when aristocratic babies’ foreheads were deliberately deformed to make them slant back.

The vendors are everywhere at Chichén Itzá, as they are everywhere on the Yucatan. I enjoy the bargaining when I’m interested in the merchandise, but if bargaining is not your thing, don’t buy here. You’ll do better at your hotel, and that’s not doing very well.

I’ve read about Chichén Itzá and other Mayan sites for years, but nothing could have prepared me for actually being there. I expected just a huge tourist trap, from which I intended to learn anyway. But it’s far more than that. It’s a large site, and it’s being meticulously restored with great reverence for its past. And with good reason. This is a ceremonial site that existed and had continuous building going on for more than a thousand years. When my European ancestors were going through their Dark Ages, this city was in its heyday.

Chichén Itzá Kukulcan Pyramid, restored side

The first thing you see is the magnificent centerpiece of the site, the giant Pyramid of Kukulcan. Two sides are restored, but two others have been left without restoration except where needed, to shore up the sides for safety. Each side has 91 steps, with one extra step, a platform, at the top, for a total of 365 steps. At this point, I really began to comprehend the connection to the calendar, which had such mystic importance to the Mayas. Everything, in fact, seems to relate to ritual based on their scientific discoveries, mathematics, and their calendar, which is more accurate than the one we use today.


Unrestored side of Kukulcan Pyramid	Ball court wall and hoop

You may have already heard of the Ball Court and the Mayan games, which are said to have ended with the winner being sacrificed to the gods.

There’s still a lot of controversy over this. See the stone ring high up on the left wall? Kind of a small hole, isn’t it? Imagine tossing a six-pound rubber ball through that hole. Many people like our guide don’t believe it is possible at all. But if not, then, they don’t know what that ring is for. But the sacrifice is likely to be true, because bas-relief murals along the slanting panels at the base of the vertical walls show pictures of sacrifice, and the dress indicates the victim is highly revered.

I don’t think I quite grasped the concept of human sacrifice before going to Chichén Itzá. Walking among the enormous structures so carefully built, so perfectly oriented, the feeling came to me of how very serious the Mayas were about their beliefs. Funny thing, I think, that we can take our own belief system so seriously but have trouble realizing other cultures believe their own with equal depth. Before this, I didn’t grasp how a person might willingly participate as the sacrifice. But everywhere at Chichén Itzá, the stone murals venerate those who are sacrificed as well as the gods themselves. There’s a low wall with skulls carved all along it. Every single skull looks different. Every one an individual. Chipping away on stone to form a picture is not exactly easy work. So why bother with portraits of heads if they weren’t valued?

In my mind, I compared the sacrificial victims to the suicide bombers of today, who are also difficult for the Western mind to comprehend. The one thing we know about them is that they believe in their cause and in the reward in the promised afterlife. I think something similar must have been in the minds of those who accepted what they considered an honor.

Chac Mool and Serpent's Head

Something felt really sad about seeing this crumpled Chac Mool folded in upon itself on the ground. But I was glad for the opportunity to see one up close, since I couldn’t climb the Temple of Warriors where the most famous one is. Chac was an ancient god among the Mayas, preceding Kukulcan, or Feathered Serpent, which came to them through the Toltecs. The Chac Mool was not a god but received the sacrifices of the human hearts, which probably was believed to bring the rains and thus sustain the crops and, therefore, the continuance of their way of life.

Leaving this area of Post-Classic architecture, we next walked to the older section of Chichén Itzá, built in what is called the Classic period. There’s another pyramid, the first to be excavated. And there’s the Caracol, or Observatory, the only round structure, which was used for astronomical observation. And then there’s what’s called The Nunnery, which appears to have been a residence of some kind, but not for nuns. No room for all of those here, but I have one more picture from Chichén Itzá before heading on.

Unexcavated pyramid

Our guide pointed out to us the flatness of the ground, as you can see back in the picture of the Chac Mool. “If you see a hill around here,” he said, “it’s not. It’s a pyramid that hasn’t been excavated yet.” And those shallow-rooted trees grow right over them, sometimes with not even an inch of dirt to support their roots. This is what one of those pyramids looks like before the archaeologist begin with shovel, toothpicks and tweezers. Amazing, isn’t it?

Tulum overlooking the Caribbean

We managed to spend a couple of days lying around in the sun on the beach, and yes, did get thoroughly burnt without realizing it. Yes, that did mean we came home a darker shade of white, but it would have been better if we’d gotten the sunscreen on early enough. I’m convinced anything more than half an hour is dangerous in this climate. The second day, we found a great palm tree and moved with the shade.

One last place to visit: Tulum. It’s a tiny, walled city sitting on a cliff above the Caribbean Sea— perhaps the most beautiful location in the world. But it’s a sad place, picturesque, but only a bare echo of the magnificent civilization that spawned it and then collapsed, leaving this commercial trading center to continue on its own for several more centuries. Tulum was still a thriving trading city when it was first spotted by Spaniards in 1518, with connections to the interior villages and distant seaports.

Tulum against the Caribbean sky

Take a look at the buildings, then go back and look at the incredible symmetry of the Kukulcan Pyramid. This was not a ceremonial site but was a city where people lived and plied their trades as merchants and traders. So maybe the same sort of care and precision in building wasn’t as important. But nothing’s square. Things just look coarsely thrown together. They knew how to build out of stone, but the great architectural significance is gone. The central building, called El Castillo, likely served as a temple but may also have been a lighthouse with a beacon to guide home the traders who plied the Caribbean. So even the luxury of a building with a single purpose was gone. On the left, that funky structure that seems all the wrong proportions in the wrong places is the Templeof the Warrior. On it is the symbol of the Descending God, who may be the ancient Chac, or maybe the honeybee god, or very likely all three. Perhaps, with all the aristocratic priests long gone, the Mayas had returned to their roots. Or perhaps these coastal people never did revere the Feathered Serpent in quite the way the central Maya, the Itzá, did.

Catherwood engraving

You might wonder why any group would worship a serpent, which clearly was the case at Chichén Itzá. But take a look at one last picture, from an engraving made in the early 1850s by Frederick Catherwood, one of the first Europeans to see the Mayan ruins and who was known for his attention to accurate detail. Look at the dead snake in the middle of the picture. It’s some species of rattlesnake. And if that critter is anything less than eight feet long, I’d be shocked. Imagine a snake that could stretch from floor to ceiling in your house. Who wouldn’t be in awe?

I have hardly touched on all we saw and learned, and I can’t wait to go back. Next time, Cobá is at the top of my list. I’d like about two weeks instead of one, and I’ll get to Palenqueand Ek Balam. That’s for starters. But if you’d like to know more about the Riviera Maya and the Mayan sites, here are some good places to check on the Internet:

Playa del Carmen

http://playaguide.com/

http://www.cancunsouth.com/cit_playa_main.html

Chichén Itzá:

http://www.differentworld.com/mexico/places/chichen_itza/chichen_itza.htm

http://www.internet-at-work.com/hos_mcgrane/chichen/chichen_index.html

http://www.cancunsouth.com/cit_chichen.html

http://historylink102.com/mesoamerican/chichen-itza-2-chac.htm

Other Mayan ruins in the Yucatan area. One you should be sure to check out is Ek Balam.

http://www.yucatantoday.com/destinations/eng-chichen-itza.htm

Tulum

http://playaguide.com/tulum.html