Campeche and the Rio Bec Route

Edzna - Five Story Building

The state of Campeche, south of Yucatan state, is the Mayan road less traveled. The stark limestone Yucatan Peninsula is gentler here, the hills of Campeche woolly green with elegant cows still wearing their horns, horses, green fields, crops, meadows, fragrances everywhere, even without blossoms. We first visited the Mayan city of Edzna.

With its lofty structures--the loftiest a five story pyramid on top of a man-made acropolis--Edzna is a showplace for visiting diplomats. We had arrived past three in the afternoon, the most pleasant hour. As usual, the placards at the entrance assured us that no, extraterrestrial creatures had not assisted the Mayans. Guatemalan refugees, paid through international funds since 1986, have cleared monumental plazas, (these Mayan cities were in constant

Stucco of Evening God, Edzna

touch and rivalry with the Guatemalan Mayans, hence the "Peten" style of architecture, and the employment of Guatemalans) which have such a massive ceremonial character that the dearth of information and decor is irrelevant. Edzna was the most important pre-Columnbian city in Western
Campeche, occupied from 600 BC till the 15th c. , its apogee 600-900 AD. It once covered 25 sq km.

Some stair stones are carved with glyphs or primitive drawings, but it is the presence of these tall acropolis', higher levels of higher buildings, that awe. How the Mayan laborers must have welcomed Christianity--the Mayans had no draft animals, only humans. The famous five story building is spellbinding. Then we had departed for the sea, the Gulf of Mexico and its sulfurous odors, mountains of salt and lagoons.

Pelicans of Champoton

Cabanas of Mirador Maya

We stayed the night in a cement hotel ("Pook Inn") at the western port of Champoton, where pelicans and egrets nested across on an island while we slept. In the morning we roamed to the port, to find the one cup of real coffee in town at the market and watch the pelicans wait politely for the fishermen to bring in their catch. We drove up and down the hills of Campeche, through the village of Silvituc, a kind of paradise where pigs and their young wandered, herds of goats led themselves around, roosters and dogs ran free, and people seemed deaf and mute to us. Xpuhil is the only place with any sort of, and all sorts of hotels. We passed on a de-vitalized and expensive eco village and a vast empty sad hotel with a desperately affectionate and beautiful little female dog. We found comfortable little wooden cabanas at the Mirador Maya, with its straw roofed restaurant against a rough limestone abutment. Though we were just by the highway, we were also on the verge

Stucco of Balamku, the king disgorged from monsters

of Biosphere Reserve and the stars were remarkably
vivid.

From Xpuhil we made our way through what is known as the Rio Bec region, in eastern Campeche. Our first stop was Balamku, Home of the Jaguar, inhabited 300 BC to 1500 AD, with its peak 300-600 AD. Ruins with Chene masks--the curly-nosed Chaac---scatter along the delicate forest of palms and palmettos and mangroves. At the end, through a Mayan arch, is the great find. Protected by a rebuilt wall of the pyramid is a 7 meter frieze in stucco, an artistic embodiment of Mayan belief. Monsters' heads alternate with fierce exultant jaguars at the sun's rise, and sun's set. From the heads of the monsters rise four grotesque amphibians who disgorge four handsome kings, seated cross-legged like Buddha, still slightly ruddy with paint. It is from the 6th c and the beauty of the stucco molding is remarkable.

Balamku's frieze refers both to dynasties and to and solar cycles. As the kings rise from the earth

Balamku: the Earth Monster

monster's maw, the Sun emerges from the Earth's mouth. The ruler's death is a sunset, a fall into the monster's mouth. The large masks and jaguars express the wealth of the earth, and the amphibians rule the transition between these two worlds.

We drove on to Chicanna, the elite ceremonial site of Becan, where palaces and towers of masks of Itzamna are guarded on the corners by the big nose gods--no longer referred to as Chaac here. Chicanna was the small elitist center of Becan, and had important commercial connections as far as Honduras. Ocupied 300 BC-1100 AD. The last palace is the great open fanged mouth of the monster (Chicanna means serpent's mouth) leading into the bowels of the building, celebrating Itzamna, principal god of the Maya pantheon, the Earth Monster. This is again the classic Mayan symbolism of nature's bounty and savagery, where the earth is a monster that

Chicana: Door is the mouth of the Serpent

disgorges good and evil, who fight it out for mastery, and the ruler appears from the jaws of the monster.

Another day I drove the long road to the International Biosphere of Calakmul, the first 50 km on highway, then 20 km thru the forest. There is a required stop where we visited the beautiful museum which reiterated the millions of years of history of the Yucatan peninsula, with Mayan stucco friezes that refer to entering the underworld, elegant pottery of vulture's heads and models of the famous stelae and paintings. The first Mayas settled in jungles like this, cultivated and gathered food, and saw the native animals as divine forces, with a magical-religious status. They felt bound strongly to nature, their constant companion.

Wild turkey of Calakmul

Calakmul has 94 species of mammals, 300 resident and migratory bird species, 20 species of amphibians , 73 species of reptiles, 18 species of fish and many invertebrates. There are stable populations of jaguar, puma, white-lipped peccary, Guatemalan black howler, ornate hawk-eagle, tapir and great curassow. 47 species of bats play a very important role. For example, the pygmy fruit-eating bat has a membrane on its nose which fascinated the ancient Mayas, who drew it on ceramics and bas-reliefs Calakmul formed partof a regional coalition with the Peten region, in constant conflict with Tikal.

Viewing another structure from a pyramid, Calakmul

Structure II viewed from Structure I

We proceeded another slow 30 km through forest to the sprawling archeological site. Wild turkeys wander, shimmering peacock hues, and fox-like creatures stroll nearby--some people saw apes. The delicate jungle of slippery light and palms and pale earth and enormous deciduous trees hid everything and made orientation difficult. So we followed arrows, blindly, past dark ponderous ruins with little distinction, to areas of unlovely acropoli, till we reached the man plazas, where the Pyramids were broad and high. At the top of Structure I we appreciated the immense height of these raised pyramids that rise above the forest. It is filled with stelae giving the lineages of kings and their dates of ascension. No other site is referred to so frequently by other Mayan cities (80 known times) throughout Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and Mexico, for this was a mighty center of Empire in direct conflict with the Tikal of Guatemala. To imagine the labor, the staggering sacrifice of the workers, to build these mountains of stone. Structure II is even higher, from which the vast jungle

spread below.

5th c official, Becan

Another day we visited the Mayan city of Becan, the capital of the Rio Bec, buried in its forest. Its massive ruins with Rio Bec decor had been occupied from 550 BC, its apogee 600-800 AD, and it was abandoned in 1200 AD. The buildings were crumbling but palacial, with labyrinths of rooms, often laid bare to the sky. A frieze from the 5th c was preserved behind glass, of a high official looking like a Mexican politican, but clear as a statue in a church. Above his head were stacked other monsters. An intruiguing pasageway, covered in its length by a Mayan arch, used to run 60 km through the city, with niches along it for offerings.

Xpuhil

Finally, at the site of Xpuhil, we entered the white way through the shimmering forest to some truly dispiriting ruins, dark and heavy--even the plaque called the site "a mere skeleton" of its original self. We rounded a sad structure to suddenly see Structure I with its 3 towers, crumbling but spectacular. We climbed little crooked stairways to look out from high doorways. Splendid feline masks in remnant form had faced these towers, high above our heads. As I sat alone near the edge of the woods a beautiful fox-like creature trotted along its shimmering leaves,

indifferent to our existence.

Xpuhil, Structure I: Feline monsters face the West