Mexico Holiday AAR

[mongers]

The hotel we were staying at was very luxurious and not too expensive, but I noticed something I did not mention to my wife (who made the booking) - it appears most of the other guests there were wealthy Mexican fellows and their "negotiable affection".  Extremely high-class "negotiable affection" I may add. In short, all the dudes were elderly, wealthy men and all the ladies were stunningly beautiful and in their early 20s ...

You don't think she noticed?

Maybe she did; the point is, *I* wasn't going to bring up the topic. 

Indeed.

Maybe you should have said, "We'll fit in well here, just look at all the well off, succesful men who bring their young, attractive wives here" ?

[Malthus]

In case anyone is still interested ...

Chiapas - day trip out of Palenque - Yaxchilan part 2

I had known about this site for ten years, because the first time I went to Mexico, I bought from a Mayan artist his carving of a copy of a lintel from this place - the original of which was taken from the site and ended up in the British Museum. The lintel depicts a noblewoman of Yaxcilan engaging in a hallucinatory ritual in which she pierced herself with stingray spines, poured her blood onto some paper, and burned the paper in sacrifice. The lintel depicts the moment of burning the paper - the noblewoman in kneeling, holding a bowl with burning paper; the smoke rises up and turns into a serpent; and out of the mouth of the serpent emerges an ancestor-warrior, giving her a prophecy that the reign of the newly-installed king will be glorious. All of which is explained in the hieroglyphs on the lintel (which, for some unknown reason, are written in mirror-image!).

Anyway, I thought the carving I bought was very well done, and I became fascinated by the odd imagery - a few years later, I sought out the original in the British Museum; but I never thought I would actually get to Yaxchilan itself, as it is notoriously remote ... but now, here we were.

The site itself is in the most beautiful location - right in a massive bend in the river, so it has river on three sides. The jungle surrounding it is thick and seemingly primordial. You get to the site by entering a structure called "the labyrinth" - a series of dark, bat-filled passageways of unknown purpose (Carl was reluctant to enter, because he said it reminded him of a horror movie! Not sure when he had seen one of those ...). Once through, you emerge onto a large plaza filled with various structures - the buildings are not impressive, after Palenque, but their true glory is the elaborately-carved lintels over the doorways (many, but not all, of which have been carted off to places like the British Museum). Also, some massive carved stele.

However, opposite the plaza is a huge ceremonial staircase built right up the side of a massive hill. This is truly monumental and impressive - particularly as, to get to the rest of the site, you are expected to climb it. Not easy considering how hot and humid the place is. It is a daunting task. Halfway up, poor Carl was getting dangerously overheated - we had to pour some of our drinking water over his head and make him rest in the shade. Then up, and up some more, to a massive temple at the top - with its roof-comb still more-or-less intact. This temple had a carving on the bottom step of scenes from the Mayan ball-game.     

[alfred russel]

Hey Malthus, a few more questions...

Have you been to more prominent sites in the region like tikal and calakmul? If so, how do you think they compare (which sites were better, I assume the more prominent sites, being offset by the more mass tourism), and if not, is there a reason you ended up in Chiapas?

Also, I think Chiapas is an awesome family vacation idea. Your wife must be really awesome or want to kill you.

[Malthus]

These were the first classic era highland maya sites I have ever been to - previously I had been to Oaxaca (monte alban) and to several lowland sites in yucatan like chichen itza, uxmal and kabah.

Of those the most major site is chichen itza. It is impressive all right, but far more similar to 'mexica' type sites than to the highland Mayan. That is, artistically, more emphasis on gory rituals, skull racks, and the like, and the art is cruder - the classic era Mayan stuff is more sophisticated.

Uxmal and Kabah have a unique style very different from either chichen itza or the highland maya - they made mosaics out of stone, which is awesomely cool in its own way. But I still think the classic sites are the best - and I have yet to see Tikal.

[Malthus]

Okay, now I'll attempt to add the photos to the previous posts ...

Mexico City

We started by flying in to Mexico City, which has truly terrible traffic - even by Toronto standards  .

We only had a couple of days there, so we made the most of it - saw the Anthropology Museum (which is stunning - I could have spent a couple of days there), then saw the Tempalo Mayor - the remains of the Aztec temples that the Spaniards knocked down - worth seeing as well, and the onsite museum is great (those Aztecs truly were a wacky bunch).







A must-see was a statue of the Aztec god of death - a grotesque figure with a bloated smiling face and his liver hanging out of his skeletal chest, he's in a pose like he's about to grab passersby in his talons.



The Aztecs liked to make keepsakes out of sacrificed skulls:



Near there is the cathedral, which had a little tour for like 20 pesos that took you up the bell tower - we went on it, thinking nothing much of it - but it was really an amazing experience (though alas the guide spoke no English). Not for the agrophobic! The guide took us up to see the bell tower, which was cool, but then the took us out across the domed roof of the cathedral, hundreds of feet above the ground ... across to the other bell tower. The view was awesome, but terrifying.





The hotel we were staying at was very luxurious and not too expensive, but I noticed something I did not mention to my wife (who made the booking) - it appears most of the other guests there were wealthy Mexican fellows and their "negotiable affection".  Extremely high-class "negotiable affection" I may add. In short, all the dudes were elderly, wealthy men and all the ladies were stunningly beautiful and in their early 20s ...

Anyway, there is tons to see in Mexico City, we barely scratched the surface. After a couple of days, we flew out of Mexico City to Ciapas, directly to a small and very new airport in Palenque itself.

Oh yeah, I forgot - one of the odder experiences in Mexico City itself was while trying to find a short-cut to a restaurant we could see, but not easily get to, from the Tempalo Mayor. We ended up going through a sort of shopping mall of religious trinkets for Mexicans - doing a truly roaring business in stuff like votive candles, big statues of Jesus and the pope, etc. plus some more, um, "traditional" religious stuff - odd herbs and wierd little devil-charms. What was amazing about this place was that it wasn't one store, but literally hundreds of them, on six levels - we were the only non-Mexicans there.





...

Let me know if you are interested in more pics.

[Malthus]

Chiapas

Chiapas is a very different world from Mexico City - might as well be in a different country. For one, the people look different - much more Maya. For another, the countryside looks different - you are now in hardcore jungle: Mexico City looks more like it could be Texas.

One thing you have to get used to, is the Howler Monkies. The term "Howler" does not do them justice - those fuckers sound seriously frightening, more like the bark-roar of something LARGE comming to tear your living guts out. Imagine Bigfoot with his dick caught in a mangle.  It is hard to imagine that level of sound comming from an animal less than 3 feet long. 

Anyway, greeted by this sound, we pushed on to our hotel (once again, a fairly luxurious accomodation - no more backpacking hostels for me! Not with wife and kid in tow). The main Mayan site is also simply called "Palenque" after the nearby town, though obviously this was not its original name - which was something like "Bone".

Palenque was the first highland Classic-era Mayan site I'd ever seen (I'd previously been to the lowland sites in Yucatán, like Chichen Itza and Uxmal), and it is AWESOME. Full descriptions will have to wait until I download picks, but suffice it to say that this site does not dissapoint the visitor.

First, there is the famous "Temple of the Inscriptions", named for a long hierogliphic text detailing the history of Pacal the Great's life and achievements; sadly, you can't climb this one (one of the few ruins you are not alowed to clamber about on).



This was the temple in which the tomb of Pacal the Great was found - the "King Tut" find of the Maya - in a fancy inscribed stone coffin of enormous size - you can see it in the site museum, in the only room that has air-conditioning (  ) but most of the rich burial artifacts are in the Museum in Mexico City (like his massive jade mask). Next to it is the Temple of the Red Queen, which also has a burial - probably that of Pacal's wife. You can climb that one and even go into her tomb - though again, the artifacts are in Mexico City.

[Admiral Yi]

You might have already mentioned it, but how did the rug rat deal with the security presence/danger?

[Malthus]

You might have already mentioned it, but how did the rug rat deal with the security presence/danger?

The danger isn't really much, for ordinary tourists, if you keep away from the drug culture stuff (I mean other than the usual dangers of getting ripped off, pick-pocketed, or mugged). You do see lots of armed cops and soldiers, particularly at checkpoints as you get close to the Guatemalan border - the kid thought that was cool ("I never saw real machine guns before") but took it in stride.

[Admiral Yi]

How did the checkpoint shakedown play out (i.e. did you pay the bribe), did the wee one witness it, and did he have any thoughts about it?

[Malthus]

Chiapas, Palenque, Con't.

After the "Temple of the Inscriptions", there is the Palace - a very elaborate structure, with (unusually) a fairly high stone tower of unknown purpose built into it.







The most beautiful sculptures are found in the "court of the captives", which feature relief sculpures of a very high artistic quality by some Mayan Michaelangelo, allegedly depicting high-ranking captives each with his hand on his shoulder (apparently a gesture of submission).





I was really struck by the sheer artistic quality of these images - many of the Mayan works of art are simply very complex (the Mayas just loved depicting elaborate headgear, like Ladies at Ascot gone insane), but these showed a delicacy of expression and gesture that is rare in any art. I attempted a couple of sketches there, but I'm rusty - I don't think I really caught it. 



I did rather better at the "Pyramid of the Skull", which features a bizzare rabbit-skull relief, complete with bunny ears (and earrings). No idea what this was about, but it made for a fine sketching opportunity.





As an aside, I highly recommend sketching as an occupation at such sites if you have the time: it doesn't really matter if you have any talent or if the results are any good (though that is a nice bonus), it is a good way to really see these objects: in the bright sun, and with the usual tourist hustling from one place to another, actually taking in the detail of Mayan sculpture (which, as noted, is often very complex) can be extremely hard, otherwise. Also, low relief can be very hard to photograph.

Anyway, after the Palace one crosses a Mayan acqueduct (still working!) and through a short jungley path (ignoring the Howler Monkeys barking up a storm) to the "Temple of the Cross" group.









This is a series of very high Mayan pyramid-temples with some very complex relief panels in the small temples on top - as I said to Carl, the reward for climbing all those steps is to see the panels.  The "cross" referred to isn't the Christian cross, but the depiction of the Mayan symbol for the four cardinal directions - which looks very much like it.

The most odd panel lies atop the very highest of these pyramids: it depicts two persons facing each other, the one on the left looking like a typical Mayan lord, the one on the right like an elderly hippie smoking a huge joint. Seriously, it is an elderly chief (or diety) smoking a big cigar of some sort, the fumes streaming around him, a sort of Mayan Marlboro Man. 

There is an interesting story associated with this panel. One of the early non-Mayan explorers of the site was an American named John Lloyd Stephens, who showed up with his artist friend Catherwood. He stayed at Palenque to make a series of explorations and drawings (well worth checking out in his Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatán, Vol. 2). When he arrived, the panel had already been dislodged from its place and re-installed in a house in the nearby town, owned by two sisters. He decided he wanted to buy it - only problem, the sisters would not sell, unless he bought the house itself. However, there was a catch: to own land in Mexico at the time, you had to either be Mexican, or be married to a Mexican ... so Stephens apparently considered marrying one of the sisters, which caused some trouble, as there were two sisters ... anyway, the whole mess came to nothing, and the panel is back on the pyramid and not, as Stephens intended, in New York. 

[Malthus]

How did the checkpoint shakedown play out (i.e. did you pay the bribe), did the wee one witness it, and did he have any thoughts about it?

Never got shook down, never had to pay a bribe. The cops/soldiers were tamer than I expected.

[Malthus]

Chiapas, Palenque, part 3

Another site is the so-called "Temple of the Mad Count". Apparently, or so the story goes, this pyramid temple got its odd name because one of the early explorers of Palenque lived in this place for two years (!) and claimed he was a "Count" - evidently, the locals thought he was insane to live for two years in a jungle-grown ruin in Palenque, when he could be living in his mansion in Paris.



This man, Frederick Waldeck, was indeed a strange fellow. Apparently, he was a quite compulsive liar and pervert - almost nothing he claimed about himself can be verified, including his alleged title of "Count" (at times he claimed to be a duke or baron). He was notable for two "achievements" in the noble art of bullshitting:

(1) After living in Palenque for two years, he produced a book complete with illustrations that "proved" that the ancient Palenquians were Egyptians. One of his obsessions was with elephants - he saw elephants all over the place in Mayan art (none are there in reality). His fakery had a long after-life: for some eighty years, so-called "diffusionists" were arguing, on the basis of his "research", that the Mayans had immigrated from Egypt or India (those elephants).

(2) He produced a famous and best-selling book of hardcore pornography he claimed was the original of a famous lost Renaissance work, which he alleged to have discovered in a convent near Palenque (!!) [there was no convent anywhere near Palenque].

His death was of a piece with his life: he is alleged to have died, at the age of 109, of a heart attack, caused by excessive leering at a particularly a beautiful woman on the Champs-Élysées. 

[Malthus]

Chiapas, Palenque, last

After the Temple of the Count, we travelled down the path to the site museum - which goes down alongside a series of very nice waterfalls (the water comes from that Aqueduct).



By this time, we were so damn hot and sweaty we were willing to dive right in to some pools at the bottom labelled "the Queen's bathing-pools" - a possibility some killjoy had anticipated, and put up "no bathing" signs to prevent.  There is an ancient Mayan building halfway down described as a "sweat lodge". It simply beggars belief that anyone in Palenque, ancient or modern, could possibly want to get *more* hot and sweaty than simply being there makes you - but there it is.

The site museum is worth a visit - some of the better preserved panels are to be found there. What it has, as mentioned above, is a blessedly air-conditioned room with the carved coffin of Pacal the Great - which is enormous and well worth seeing (just standing in the air conditioning is worth the trip!). What it doesn't have, is any food other than a vending machine: if you go, bring your own.

[alfred russel]

Malthus managed to pull off a union of two types of vacations that I thought could never by combined: awesome vacations, and family vacations with youngish children. 

[Malthus]

Malthus managed to pull off a union of two types of vacations that I thought could never by combined: awesome vacations, and family vacations with youngish children. 

Thanks - fortunately, my kid is into the same stuff, at least to an extent, and at nine he's just old enough to really appreciate it. As an exercise we made him keep a journal, which proved very entertaining for us - after visiting the sites in Mexico City, he wrote this:

"At first the Aztec Empire was a land of war and islands; at the end it was a land of survivors an ruins.

I'll tell the story, they fought against many other tribes and had many gruesome customs. Later on, soldiers from Spain came and they tried to befriend them, but the soldiers torched their city to ashes and only spared the strongest for slaves ( happy ending!)"