Fatal Ascent
“…to honor the Maya ball game gods of the underworld, those to be sacrificed were often bound into symbolic ball shape and tumbled down stairs. Undoubtedly this practice wasn’t lost on Maya priests as they recognized this most magnificent method of spattering blood. So stairs were built on great scale, attached to grand limestone pyramids that reached the sky, increasingly higher and steeper – too steep to ascend and even more treacherous on the way down. The spectacle was perfected after centuries by any number of gruesome additions. Pumping hearts were ripped from chests, heads were indiscriminately lopped and all was hurled from atop one and two hundred-foot platforms in a flailing mass of awfulness.”
On the Trail of Stephens and Catherwood
“On the trail of Stephens and Catherwood, I’ve chosen to illustrate my findings, not only with ink but with a camera as well. Catherwood was the first to introduce the Maya civilization to the world through two published books of his drawings in 1843. Only twenty years later, in 1862, and armed with world-changing technology, Désiré Charnay confirmed Catherwood’s strikingly accurate claims as he took the first photographs of hidden Maya splendors at Uxmal. I’ve been obsessed with their discoveries since I started planning for the trip. I often wondered how my own images and experiences would compare and contrast to theirs and what dramatic or minimal transformations the peninsula might have undergone in those 160 years.
Channeling the spirit of these pioneering explorers, we dove head-first into the virtually unknown. The past two days had been a long slog through an untamed environment of thick vegetation and stifling heat, sparse accommodations and millennium-old vehicles of nourishment, pleasant locals and bewildering outsiders, tracking and trudging into dark jungles and across a relentless terrain in the footsteps of long lost peoples. I’d say our experiences are quite comparable to those first discoverers and I declare an obligatory reward is long overdue. Luckily for us I had reserved a suite at El Meson Del Marques, yet another 17th century colonial mansion in the Yucatán’s most charming old-world town, Valladolid. Stephens and Catherwood, eat your heart out.”
My Maya travel narrative: The Travel Companion from the Realm of the Maya
Fossils of Kabah
“. . . the first sign of the spectacular lies thirty kilometers due south of Uxmal. The claustrophobic canopy is broken by a large grassy expanse several football fields square and shorn short enough to be fit for a Saturday scrimmage. Laid out like a piece of green pool table felt it supports the still relatively lost city of Kabah. Anticipation grew as we pulled our car into the empty pull-off parking and grabbed cameras and guidebooks. A coral-style gate, a small one-room stucco “ticket booth” and a few shirtless attendants accompanied by a handful of chickens and dusty dogs, mark its entrance. In the distance, a man with a machete straightened his bent back, wiped the sweat from his forehead and squinted to examine the newcomers. His job – the backbreaking task of manicuring the perfect lawn with the single sword. Certainly a chore with an unachievable completion. It’s unclear whether Kabah is part of an official and organized park system or if it’s simply on Joe Bare-Chest’s property and Machete-Man is the excavation team. Either way, the forty or so peso fee is a steal, no matter who the recipient.
Laid out on that fine carpet of greenery are complexes of massive monuments – a stunning fossil of a once magnificent city. The beauty and tranquility of the ruins is remarkable. To my own surprise, this was the first time this day that I stood speechless, in relative awe at the massive, glistening white limestone structures and the even more remarkable setting. Thinking back to the Dovecote, I envisioned this clearing as only the visible tip of a potential iceberg of courtyards, colonnades and quadrangles.
Obviously wearing my wonderment on my face, a soft-spoken man grinned and waved with his arm to the south and to a large complex with a steep staircase – the apparent locally preferred starting point for navigating the grounds.”
My Maya travel narrative: The Travel Companion from the Realm of the Maya
Jungle Corridor
Some of the most intriguing and inspiring locations in all of the Mayan empire are those that haven’t yet been discovered. This arched passage is in Uxmal (oosh-mall), smack-dab in the middle of the jungles of the Yucatan. The structure is referred to as the Dovecote and from the other side of the passage is completely cleared and excavated, revealing the full extent of its elaborate roof comb structure. However, from the side from which this photo was taken, the jungle remains in full, unforgiving force. It crawls all over the back of the Dovecote and relentlessly pulls it down to the vegetation twisted floor. Through the thickets, signs of more ruins lurk and give a haunting sense of mystery. It’s an enlightening and clear look at the realities of the magnificent Maya resiliency, the choking power of the jungle and the limits of our knowledge of it all. We realize how little we actually know and how small we are in the vast Yucatan jungles.
Follow Me