Semuc Champey

Semuc Champey is an utterly stunning spot, a set of pools at the bottom of a deep gorge, formed over eons as the river diverted itself underneath, eroding a tunnel underneath the pools through which the majority of the flow takes place. Below is the view from the Mirador. The hostel was at the entrance to the national park, although in a pretty spot and touted as an eco lodge, it was more a venue for prolonged piss ups in the evening. Sad because it would have been beautiful to experience the peace of night falling in the depths of the gorge. I would say that I'm now showing my age, but there were a number of young people who felt the same too. At least the 2nd night was better, and we were able to get some sleep, after the party animals had moved on... despite the best efforts of the staff to start another debauch.

It was a real adventure to dive off the waterfalls from pool to pool and swim in submerged caves under the overhangs of rock. There was a guide full of joie de vivre who led us on an exploration. Although I tagged myself to his group for free, I just had to tip him well after for a fun, exciting, but safe time. The limestone was treacherously slippery, probably as a result of some kind of algae growing on it.

Standing in the pools, little fish would come to nibble the dead skin off our feet. It was really idyllic. Americans pay fortunes for that kind of therapy.

The waterfalls where the flow from the pools spilled into the main body of the river underneath, at the end of the line.

Lanquin Caves

When I was at Tikal, I started chatting to a woman who gave me a recommendation to stay at "El Portal" when I went to Semuc Champey. The hostel was full on the day I arrived, so they put me in a sister hostel for the night and drove me out to Lanquin caves for free. The caves are deep and have electric lighting for something like the first 400m, just as well as I managed to leave my torch on my bed in a fit of absent mindedness. (Frightening to think what would happen without a torch in the event of a power failure; too easy to get lost in the labyrinth!) The stalactites and stalagmites are incredibly dramatic, and with the difficult light quite hard to photograph....

A stalagmite that appeared to me like a crouching jaguar on a pedestal.

Deep in the cave and dripping with sweat before making the return trip to the cave mouth. The rocks were incredibly slippery and hazardous, making progress slow. Another group came into the cave, the girls coped with the heat by removing their T shirts which of course enhanced the experience on the way out. Their guide had this talent for blowing down the handrails which were on the sides of some of the cat walks, making these moaning monster noises that echoed around the cavern and which were at first quite scary.

One of the highlights of the visit is to wait for it to get dark outside, and sit at the mouth of the cave. Some of the bats (and there are many, many) were already streaming out of the cave, but when the internal lights were switched off, it turned into a flood of bats moving so fast above our heads. All we had to do was to point our cameras in the dark towards the the cave roof to capture many of the bats. They are such fast and talented flyers, I loved the whooshing and high pitched squeaks as they swept by and how they were able to evade each other, us and rocky outcrops with rapid darting changes of direction. Didn't witness even one wipeout! A really lovely experience, although I couldn't help feeling a bit relieved to be outside again. The idea of being trapped and lost did not appeal, although the girls might have helped mitigate it.

Lacandon Forest Walk

The inspiration for this hike followed a visit to "Na Bolom" or the "House of the Jaguar", erstwhile home of Frans Blom Danish archeologist and explorer and Gertrude Duby, Swiss conservationist and photographer. It is now a museum and hotel dedicated to their life work of conserving th last rain forest in meso America and the way of life of the Lacandon "Indians" who were untouched by the conquistadores and had no contact with the outside until Frans Blom came across them on one of his trips. Many of the rooms in the place have exhibits of archeological finds from the Lacandon forest as well as examples of artifacts and clothes that the Indians were using in their daily lives, all made from the local plants. The best thing apart from the place itself which still had echoes of the very vibrant relationship that the couple had and their intellectual life, was the myriad photographs that Gertrude took of the Indians during their trips into the bush... So you see why I just had to go and see it for myself.

However, the reality was that I had a stinking cold in the stinking humid heat, but didn't want to miss the walk, which turned out to be a rather tame trek with other tourists to some unexcavated ruins in the forest, with a bit of a commentary on plants we saw along the way and then a dip in a brook on the way back. So the Indians remained undisturbed in their village which was apparently much deeper in the forest, in retrospect a fine thing.

The little accommodation area adjacent to the forest was owned/run by the local Indians, though their hospitality was legendary. Supper was a mingey 3 tiny quesadillas with spoonful of guacamole. We were offered a choice of a glass of water or some chamomile tea. I said I'd have the water and the tea after dinner. I was curtly told that I had had my one drink, and that was that... Really felt like Oliver Twist with a begging bowl. One cup of coffee for breakfast, no seconds....

The Huarombo[?] tree. The leaves are smoked to put you in touch with your ancestors. Smoke too much and you go loco for good...

Leaf of plant that handily grows close to the base. When dry this acts as good roll up paper for the Huarombo leaves...

Strangler fig [parasite] taken upwards through the inside, the host tree had long since died

An unexcavated temple on our walk, the pyramid underneath is buried by the forest

The swimming place. By sitting under the waterfall, you could have a refreshing shoulder massage, the water had such force and turbulence

Mayan Sites - Palenque, Tikal, Yaxchilan, Bonampak and Yaxha

Having read in a cursory fashion "In the Forest of Kings" which really inspired me and having been thoroughly fascinated by the ruins I'd visited so far, it was only natural that I'd make the pilgrimmage to the Mayan site of Palenque. I opted to take a tour which passed by the water falls of Agua Azul and Misol Ha, but given my penchant for pottering around, it would probably have been better to have given myself all day there.... The ruins are amazing structures in themselves,, made only with hardened wood and stone tools, yet the most poignant fact for me was that Palenque was the site where Linda Schele, one of the authors of "Forest of Kings" was fired up, when she saw the waterfalls there and the ruins. I made a pilgrimage to the little falls just because of that.

Agua Azul on the way to Palenque Don't be deceived by the apparent tranquility and solitude of the spot. It was over commercialised with stalls and food places squashed next to eachother and crammed full of Mexican families enjoying their Mayday puente.

Tlaloc mask at the base of Pyramid, Palenque. Tlaloc was the god of rain in Teothuacan, Xac in the Mayan lore.

Pakal's magnificent tomb, as seen from the Palace, Palenque here is a wonderful reconstruction along with the original artifacts at the Anthropology Museum in Mexico City

Stalgtite formed in over a 1000 years in the base of the T shaped window in the Palace at Palenque

Courtyard of the prisoners, in the Palace, Palenque. Where the hapless captives were displayed before meeting a grim fatem the record of their names together with the dates engraved on the monoliths

Engraving of a King in front of a captive pleading for clemency, with the glyphs that tell the story, Palenque

View from Temple of the Cross, Palenque, so called because of the beautiful fresco on the rear wall of the temple. The cross predates christianity in Mayan lore, relating to the creation myths where the gods fashioned humans out of maize. The cross arms had corn cob ends with human faces, the four cardinal points of the universe representing the north south east and west. East represented the birthplace of the sun...

The boat ride out to Yaxchilan on the Río Lacanjá

Bat in the "labyrinth" Yaxchilan

Beautiful engraved lintel in the doorway of a Temple Yaxchilan. Carved so that only the priest and the nobility allowed access to the temple at the top of the pyramid would see it.

Stela at the base of the Acropolis, Yaxchilan

Butterflies drinking on the river bank, just above the stones next to the water. Didn't know that they needed to drink...

Fresco with its colours after more than 1000 years of neglect, Bonampak. Although the pyramids appear white or grey, apparently they were once a very vivid red, with the sculptures and masks picked out on them in yellow and blue, black and white

Fresco showing captives begging for mercy having been tortured. The foreshortening in the painting is very sophisticated and would do Matisse or Picasso proud, Bonampak

Ornate lintel, Bonampak

The tall, restored Pyramid 5, Tikal

View from the top of Pyramid 5, you have to turn your head sideways to the right to see down the stairs, as I forgot to rotate the image (sorry!)

The view over the canopy from Pyramis 5, Tikal

Making friends with Inksy-Winksy. I have an aversion to creepy crawlies, but figured the best way to get over my fear of spiders was to hold a tarantula. I later went "fishing" for one, fortunately unsuccessfully! Tikal

Tlaloc mask, North Acropolis, Tikal

View from Temple of the Masks looking towards Temple of the Great Jaguar

Weaver birds' nests in the North Acropolis. These birds are much bigger and more colourful than their Zim counterparts, called "Oro pendula" here, because of the gold stripes down their bodies. They do this half somersault on the branch making a cry, quite spectacular, real show birds. Their nests are made of moss.

View through the canopy, Yaxha (Blue Water)

The top of the Pyramid from which we watched sunset, looking toward the Blue water lake, Yaxha

Where I am now

I'm struggling to get up to date with this blog, and not having a laptop is a real barrier. I'm in Flores right now, having recovered from a lousy cold, which somewhat blighted my visit to Tikal. However, I was struck by the sheer scale of the place as well as the awesome views oiver the forest canopy from the towering pyramids. The museums which hardly any one visits has magnificent stelae with intricate carving, ceramic and bone artefacts as well as photographs of the site before it was excavated. It is truly staggering although overwhelming with all that there is and no detailed knowledge of the contexts. Our guide reeled off dates but did little to bring the buildings alive. Maybe another time.

I have been toying with the idea of going again, but in the end decided to keep moving, as I have a lot of ground to cover... and nothing is perfect. So tomorrow I'm off to Semuc Champey

San Cristobal

San Cristobal is a very laid back town and very pretty. Much like Chimanimani in the 90s, it attracts all sorts of hippies and buskers, lots of barefoot Europeans selling jewelry amongst the Maya selling their handicraft...


Some lovely pedestrian thoroughfares
The Zocalo
Childbirth display at the Museum of Mayan Medicine. The wife kneels in front of her husband and hangs on to his neck, the midwife is behind. The placenta is buried in the floor of the hut, one way up if the next is to be a boy, the other way for a girl. Amongst medicinal plants I was interested to see lantana camara, banned and punishable by fine in Zimbabwe, it is used here as a remedy for diahrea. Artemisis, the ultimate antimalarial drug is used as an anti parisite remedy, which figures.
Calle Guadalupe, scene of many buskers

Hiking in the Sierra Norte Oaxaca

After a brisk walk down to the 2nd class bus station on the south side of town, we finally installed ourselves on a bus to Cuajilomaoyas. Ludwig seemed to have as his personal credo "knowledge is power" and was reluctant to share relevant details such as our destination,only that he knew where we were going. As his accent in English was difficult to understand and his accent in Spanish a lot worse, this made for great frustration. A youngster of 20 on a gap year trip before university, he was apparently following in his father's footsteps, emulating a trip that he had done in his youth. Without me, he would not go hiking on his own and without him I wouldn't have contemplated going in the first place. We were thus joined at the hip so to speak. I found his opinionated intensity and need to talk a lot difficult, (although I might have been similar when I was his age) and was wondering whether I would survive the 2 days without wringing his neck..... His heart was in the right place though, even though he was gauche and we both lived to tell the tale.

Althought he distance was relatively short, something like only 56km away from Oaxaca, the bus ride was 2 hours, the 2nd half of the journey on spectular winding country roads taking us into the mountains to an altitude of 3200m.

The village of Cuajilomoyas has no mere than 1200 inhabitants and is perched almost on the crest of a mountain. The tree line in this part of the world exist at about 4000m, so even at this altitude, we were surrounded by pine forests. We had a bite of breakfast, which turned out to be quite pricey by Mexican standards, we were the cash cows who had come to be milked.. so we soon learned to order the basics or pay with good grace. It was here that we encountered our guide, who walked with us for the first 8km or so, where he handed over to a guide from the next village who walked us the next 8km to his village. The guiding was done in a kind of relay between villages and our fees went to the municipality. From what I understood, there is a kind of compulsory communityservice in these villages, where one has to give 2 years service, but it can be done a year at a time, and one such service is to be a guide. The revenue from our tour which was tiny went to the local municipality, which also provided cabins and had plugged into the ecotourisn zeitgeist emphasising separating rubbish, conservation etc, although it seemed as though there was no facilty or abilty to recycle anything much except to reuse water bottles. It looked as though the separated garbage was dumped in one tip...

The comedor in Cuajilomoyas. The orange juice freshly squeezed with a lot of huffing and puffing, the meat (res) which was home to many flies inedible, the eggs ok and the bread expensive and stale. The tortillas were ok.

We set off on our walk a long a beautiful vehicle track through the pine forest with the occasional paddoc with grazing horses or donkeys. Along the way we saw a number of plants which had interesting medicinal propertiesLirio, parasite with yellow flowers (seen hanging off the upward curving branch on the left of the trunk) that eventually kills pine trees

Used to help new mothers to lactate if they are unable. Not sure if they made an infusion of the petals or the leaves - lechugilla
This leaf used to counter obesity (how?) - hierba de sapo
Chewing this leaf counteracts altitude sickness - saus
The Mirador at the 8km point, looking across to Latuvi village where we were to spend the night.
The view from the MiradorBromeliad, or "air" plant, this is not a parasite but feeds on deposited nutrients. Flowers are different colours depending on the altitude ranging from crimson to yellow to white
Orchid on a tree stump
The view of fertile valley below Latuvi
The fertile valley below... the labour came from other households in the village and was unpaid except for the provision of food, on the understanding that help would be forthcoming in return when needed. The 3 villages boasted zero crime, because they forbid traffic after 10pm until 6am. It's a cooperative way of life that's dying as more drft into the towns in search of money. Latuvi's population was about 600, sown from over 1000 a couple of years ago.
The wonderful hammocks and cabaña at Latuvi
Going to school on the "camino real" the old footpath linking the villages to Oaxaca
Cabeza de bruja, the thorns are barbed and extremely painful and difficult to remove
Natural arch on "camino real"
A break before crossing the river
Owl's eggs laid by the path. We saw the owl in a nearby tree. Unbelievable that she laid them in such an exposed place, a great meal for a passing rat or snake
The view from Amatlan to Ixtlan, where we caught a hair raising ride back in a collectivo taxi. I thought I was in good shape in the front seat with a seat belt until they crammed a pregnant lady in the front with me, so I wound up sitting on the gearshift, no seatbelt and we were hurtling around bends ominously marked with crosses, at a good multiple of the speedlimit