DAY TRIPPING TO THE MUST-SEE MAGNIFICENT MAYA PYRAMIDS AT EK BALAM

Ek Balam Gateway to the Underworld (En-Yucatan Travel)

Day Tripping

Excerpt Chapter 17, Where the Sky is Born—Living in the Land of the Maya

On the paid highway just outside of Valladolid we stopped at the toll booth to pay the fee. All around us the monotonous landscape of the eastern Yucatan prevailed. Flat and dry with the occasional crecopia tree, ranch or small hacienda, there was little else. In five minutes we were at the city's outskirts, driving on a narrow one-way street past tidy cement block homes. A mustard-colored stone wall hugged the road all the way into el Centro.

Crecopia (Useful tropical plants)

Our rental car bolted towards the square where wrought iron benches with wooden slats were crowded with locals and tourists alike. I gazed at an ancient stone church with two tall spires that stood on the south corner of the square as we rounded the wide traffic circle, looking for a sign that would direct us to Ek Balam.

Although its past history was ominous, present day Valladolid was that pleasant contradiction one so commonly finds in Mexico—a busy city with one foot in the past and one in the future. Commerce prevailed and the streets were lined with shoppers and vendors taking care of daily chores and business.

Valladolid

One more time around the traffic circle and el Centro and we spotted the sign directing us to the pyramid site, only 15 kilometers away. Another one-way street led out of town and we followed it past small pharmacies, neat houses and the occasional tienda. 

Once on the city's outskirts the road narrowed considerably but was smooth and newly paved. Several kimometers later another sign pointed to the right and we took a turn that dipped and led down to an empty creek bed, then back up the other side into a forgotten pueblo. Packed dirt streets no more than 12 feet wide were bordered by rock walls dividing the street from tiny yards with ancient stone houses coated with rough plaster. Some lots had twig huts with palapa roofs. At one crossroads, two squealing pink piglets ran dangerously close to our tires, chased by a squawking red rooster, tail feathers bobbing. A hunched old woman eyed our late model rent-a-car cautiously as we inched our way through this time warp in history.

Countryside near Ek Balam (PxHere)

Finally out of town, we welcomed the freedom of the open countryside. In the distance I saw a pyramid temple peeking above the low shrub landscape. A simple green sign with an arrow and picture of a pyramid pointed down a side road to the north. We turned onto the sacbe, an ancient Maya pathway, and drove slowly towards what we hoped was the site entrance. 

At a primitive palapa a caretaker appeared. He explained there was a ten peso donation and asked if we wanted a guide. We said yes and he pointed to a raven-haired boy of ten.

"Mi hijo, Jorge." His son would assist us. We dropped the pesos in a handmade wooden box and followed the boy down the road.

Entrance to Ek Balam (photo Loco Gringo)

Except for his size, Jorge had all the attributes of a serious 40-year old. He was reflective and deliberate in his speech, and as we walked, he began telling us the history of Ek Balam. Construction started around 100 B.C. The site was named for Maya ruler Ek Balam, bright star jaguar. Ek to the Maya is the brightest star in the heavens; balam is the word for jaguar. The first excavations of the site were carried out by Frenchman Désiré Charnay in 1886, and more recent work had begun in 1987 when INAH (National Institute of Anthropology and History) funding was granted. Although the city was compact, there was still much to be done. He explained that the number of buildings on the site suggested Ek Balam had been rich and powerful at the same time, possibly holding the position of agriculture center of the northwestern Yucatan.

Statues at Ek Balam (Yucatan photos)

We walked through an amazing four-sided gateway arch that, Jorge explained, connected to a sacbe (road) which connected to all the Maya kingdoms. Ek Balam had numerous sacbes, he explained, to all major sites in northern Yucatan and beyond. The views from the arch landing were breathtaking.

Arch of Ek Balam (photo FinalTransit)

Front Ek Balam arch (photo Mauricio Marcelin)

"Paul," I said. "This is fantastic."

A three-sided wall, either ceremonial or defensive, surrounded the city, similar to the wall at Tulum. Ek Balam was known to contain an astrological observatory, palace, tower, a ball court, two cenotes and a building archeologists named the Acropolis, most likely due to the sculptures found inside—full figure statues that looked more Greek than Maya.

From the 10-foot high stairway at the gateway arch, Jorge directed us through the ball court and onward to the remarkable Acropolis. He told us the Acropolis was twice the size of El Castillo at Chichen Itza, with tunnels inside leading to tombs. A unique stucco fresco had life-size statues intricately carved into it. These were definitely rare in the Maya world. They appeared Asian, closer in appearance to Angor Wat than Chichen Itza. I'd not seen anything like it before in Mexico. 

Acropolis at Ek Balam (photo 123RF)

We climbed two-thirds of the way up the edifice, to get a closer look at the statues. Burnished in time to a golden brown, it was almost impossible to believe we were here in Ek Balam. Paul stood before the stucco fresco. "They seem Grecian, or Indian. Look at the lotus position on that statue," he said as he pointed at a character with a Shiva-like headdress.

Hindu comes to the Maya at Structure 4 (photo Yucatanmagazine)

Statues (Mediawarehouse.com)

Through a hallway leading to the tomb of the ruler, Ukit Kan Le'k Tok, who coined Ek Balam, was a 12-foot high stucco mouth with teeth, representing the gateway to the underworld, the Maya version of the River Styx. Archeologists theorize most of the Acropolis was built around 800 A.D. by Ukit Kan Le'k Tok.

The Maya so well preserved the stucco in the Acropolis tomb that no modern restoration was required. After the ruler was buried, the tomb was filled with powdered limestone and rocks, and the entire facade was covered with the same material for preservation.

Ek Balam (photo CancunAdventure.com)

Jorge was a perfect guide, very absorbed in the details of the site and its history. He confided that his dream was to one day become an archeologist. We paid him for his guide work and he followed us out to the car, not wanting to end the conversation.

Within minutes he became a ten-year old again, excitedly asking where we were from and where we were going. He gallantly opened my car door and in so doing, spotted my Maya Ruins Guide in the back seat.

Maya Ruins Guide

Noting his look of longing I asked, "Quieres mi libro?" Would you like my book.

"Si, si!" he said, looking terribly excited at the prospect.

I told him it was in English, but I was sure that since he was going to be a famous archeologist some day, he would soon learn that language.

He agreed wholeheartedly and the last image I have of Jorge was his hugging the Maya Ruins Guide tightly to his chest as we pulled onto the ancient sacbe leading us away from Ek Balam.

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Side note: Where the Sky is Born was written in 2003 and many of our Maya travels happened much earlier, late 1980s, so much is now changed—pretty much everywhere in the Yucatán. Ek Balam, however, is still a site to be reckoned with. The foliage surrounding it is lush and gorgeous, and the real plus is it's not as touristy as nearby Chichen Itza. The statues are so very different from other art found at Maya pyramid sites. They're quite exquisite.

If you enjoyed this excerpt from my memoir Where the Sky is Born: Living in the Land of the Maya, it's available on Amazon with many more tales about ex-pat life, living within 100 miles of four major pyramid sites for many years, owning a bookstore in Mexico, and Maya culture and Mexico travel. Subscribe to my bi-monthly blog posts above, or check out my website at www.jeaninekitchel.com. Books one and two in my Mexico cartel trilogy, Wheels Up—A Novel of Drugs, Cartels and Survival, and Tulum Takedown, are also on Amazon.  My journalistic overview of the Maya 2012 calendar phenomenon, Maya 2012 Revealed: Demystifying the Prophecy, is also on Amazon. 

WHY WAS FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT OBSESSED WITH THE MAYA?

 

The Ennis House, Los Angeles (photo TripSavvy).

Frank Lloyd Wright, considered by many to be the greatest architect of all time, never attended a formal architectural school. Wielding an avant-garde edge, he thought of interior and exterior places as one. This concept extended to his building forms and construction methods. Wright's signature on a certain type of architecture became not only an embellishment but a trademark. 

During a career that spanned 70 years, he designed over 1000 structures, created in harmony with humanity and the environment in a philosophy he dubbed organic architecture. His early beginnings were in the midwest where he was born and raised. That too is where he began his formal career as an architect in Chicago in 1893, after moving from rural Wisconsin.

THE PRAIRIE STYLE

From early on he experimented with different styles, incorporating one or more into his commissions, and by 1900, had developed a style that was to become his signature, the Prairie Style.  

Taliesen West (Architecturemagazine.com)

Coonley House/Prairie Style (Curbed Chicago)

1893 WORLD'S PRE-COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION

Though it's believed that Wright never stepped foot on the Yucatán Peninsula, home to numerous Maya pyramids, when he arrived in Chicago, lore has it he was inspired by the display of Maya artifacts and replicas at the 1893 World's Pre-Columbian Exposition in Chicago. It was there he glimpsed plaster castings from major Maya sites, Chichen Itza and Uxmal. A feature of the lesser known Labna site, in the Pu'uc Region in southern Yucatán, became important to his work due to his recurring use of its meaningful arch.

Nunnery Quadrange, Uxmal site (Archeology.eu)

Wright's interest in the Maya was piqued early on, from childhood. He was drawn to the Maya world when his mother showed him pictures in books about Central America and Mexico."Those images stayed in his mind most of his life," said Thomas Hines, UCLA architectural historian.

INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL BEST SELLER 

Las Monjas, Chichen Itzá (Frederick Catherwood)

In the 1840s, two books about Central America archeology became best sellers: Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatán, and Incidents of Travel in Yucatán, Part 2, by explorer John Lloyd Stephens and British artist Frederick Catherwood. The 1893 exposition's display of the ancient Americas lauded the indigenous people who first called this continent home. It was one of Stephens' books that drew Wright into the world of the Maya.

GOLDEN DOORWAY

Wright and his employer, Louis Sullivan, had contributed a monumental golden doorway for the Transportation Building at the fair and during his many visits to check on it, Wright would have seen Stephens' casts and photos of the Maya buildings. Both he and his employer were drawn to the style which would eventually be known as Mayan Revival; they both distained the European Neo-classical style that dominated other buildings at the expo.

Golden Doorway for Transportation Building

Eventually Wright broke from his employer and established his own firm in Oak Park, Illinois, where he designed numerous commissions, gaining ground and at times notoriety with many well-heeled clients. By this time he was married. With his wife, Catherine, and their six children, he settled into a white picket fence existence.

Edwin and Mamah Cheney house (compositiondelascasa.com)

THE CHENEY HOUSE

While designing a house for local residents Edwin and Mamah (Mamey) Cheney, Wright and Catherine began socializing with his clients at the precise moment that middle age, ennui regarding his Prairie style designs, and a craving for change and greener pastures collided. Mamah, a feminist and free thinker, could keep up with Wright intellectually. She intrigued him. Change won. She and her husband divorced almost immediately, allowing Mamah to escape the confines of her marriage. The couple soon left for Europe to avoid the brouhaha and the tabloids. They spent time in Germany and Italy, where he viewed various architectural styles. On their return to the US and despite his wife refusing to grant an immediate divorce, Wright was determined to build a house for Mamah in the rural fields of Wisconsin near his childhood home. It would be transformational and a beauty, and he would name it Taliesin.

Taliesin (Wisconsin Visitor Bureau)

TALIESIN 

Love and happiness, however, were short lived. At a nearly completed Taliesin in 1914, his lover Mamah Bothwick Cheney was murdered by a household staff member along with her two children and five others. After the heinous massacre, Wright sought solace far from the midwest. Los Angeles, known as a place for reinvention and recuperation, beckoned. He headed west.

Mamah Borthwick Cheney (history.com)

After the murders, he was again exposed to Maya architecture and pyramids at the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915. As the displays at Chicago had stimulated Wright, mentioned by Thomas Hines, the Panama Pacific Exposition glimpse of Maya culture made a lasting impression.

Though the displays were based on a Maya fantasy world, they cemented the Maya link between architecture and death, "Which was not only the setting for a fantastic pyramid palace but also for human sacrifice; part of the complexes displayed where humans were buried."

WRIGHT IN LOS ANGELES

"A place where the living could communicate and remember the dead," said Hines. "And after the loss of his lover, Mamah Cheney, death was much on the architect's mind. The exceptional architectural style of the Maya sites must have greatly intrigued him, for it was an outsized influence on his Los Angeles architectural style," continued the UCLA historian.

A.D. German Warehouse (franklloydwright.org)

Prior to his exodus to LA, Wright tried out his Mayan Revival style on a Richland, Wisconsin commission in 1915, —the A.D. German Warehouse. On completion, the site hardly looked like something that would house the wares of a green grocer in a small Wisconsin town—it more resembled a temple pulled from a Catherwood drawing of the Maya Nunnery at Uxmal.

This commission helped test the Maya motif that would become the basis of his residential work in Los Angeles. On completing Wisconsin, he accepted an offer to design the Imperial Hotel in Japan.  

Hollyhock House (photo Curbed LA)

MAYAN REVIVAL STYLE

Today five iconic LA houses render his Maya look. While constructing the first, Hollyhock House, he worked simultaneously in Japan on the Imperial Hotel which helped shape his vision as an architect.

Though the houses Wright designed in Los Angeles pre-dated the Art Deco movement that began in the 1920s, they have the undeniable air of deco. We'll never know if Wright influenced the movement or vice versa. And though the Mayan Revival style itself had begun at the turn of the 20th century, its popularity accelerated once Wright got on board. This style is most notably seen in his Southern California open-concept layouts built from concrete stackable blocks molded with local materials and natural color schemes, and stamped with bold geometric motifs.

Hollyhock House, his first LA commission, was completed in 1921 for oil heiress Aline Barnsdall who had purchased 36 acres on the eastern edge of Hollywood. Wright's finished design was above all a Maya temple. Barnsdall had planned on a multi-arts center, and never intended it for residential use.

The hearth at Hollyhock House (photo Curbed LA)

HOLLYHOCK PLUS FOUR 

With its 17 rooms and seven baths, it's often noted as a bridge of Wright's two prominent styles: Mayan Revival, with textile blocks inspired by temples from Palenque, and Prairie Style, with its low-pitched roof line. 

In 1927 she gifted it to the city. But it was at Hollyhock House, named for the flower that Barnsdall most loved, where Wright began working with natural materials. 

A "cultural nationalist," according to leading Wright authority Kathryn Smith, Los Angeles, he strove to define an original American architecture and shied away from Victorian and Spanish colonial styles. Though of Welsh origin, he believed an indigenous architectural style would better suit the Americas rather than a European style architecture.

Kathryn Smith said he sought out traditional materials on the lands where he was building, making the concrete blocks from sand and granite, stamping them with motifs resembling Maya symbols. His open concept layout led to massive rooms and enormously high ceilings, in some cases creating the feeling of a mausoleum, as people who actually lived in his houses had been known to say.

Next came the Alice Millard commission on one acre in Pasadena, La Miniatura. This is where he truly refined the concrete molecular block system, with his stamped Maya patterns. Flat-roofed and mysterious, a wall of blocks stamped with equi-distant diametric crosses greets one at the property's edge. One historian said the cross is a reference to the MesoAmerican understanding of the cardinal directions, pointing to the cardinal elements that establish the shape of the universe. Some called the Millard House a small temple in a eucalyptus grove.

The Millard House

The placement of the house is in a ravine, with two towering eucalyptus trees standing nearby, and gives the feel of being at a jungle pyramid site, much like Palenque. 

After the Millard commission came the Storer House in 1923. Built on a steep hillside, the house is dominated by a large upstairs living room with a high ceiling. Maya inspired columns and tall narrow windows dominate. It's believed that this house was built on spec. It was owned by Joel Silver, Hollywood producer, from 1984 until 2002. He gave it a thoughtful renovation including a pool that had been in the original plans. Brendan Gill, one of Wright's most thoughtful biographers, said it was more like a home for a Mayan god.

 

The Storer House (Californiahomedesigns.com)

Probably the best known FLW house in Los Angeles is the Ennis House, built also in 1923, for Charles and Mabel Ennis. It very much appears to be another Maya grand palace, but the Ennis' insisted that Wright incorporate some of their desires into his design. Notably seen in a handful of movies—Blade Runner, Day of the Locust, The House on Haunted Hill—it overpowers the environment and looms over the neighborhood like an ancient ruin, visible for miles around.

The Ennis House (TripSavvy.com)

Ennis House stamped wall of concrete Maya blocks (photo Galerie)

And last of the FLW LA five is the house built in 1924 for dancer Harriet Freeman and her husband Samuel, the Freeman House. Donated to USC, the daughter and son-in-law of the Dean of Architecture lived in the house while attendeding university. "It felt like a ruin," she said in 2002. "It was crumbling down all around us."

The Freeman House

Of Wright's LA houses, the Freeman House had the happiest existence. It was home for 60 years to the Freemans, a Bohemian couple who befriended him and scraped together the money for Wright's commission. Notably it was the only Wright house in LA to hold long-term occupants. The Freemans lived there until 1986 when they donated it to USC. According to Harriet Freeman, the house was dense and introverted, but it well suited their purposes. Along with being their home, Harriet, a dancer, used it as a dance center and salon where she entertained and performed.

GRANDSON ERIC WRIGHT

Eric Wright, 91, the architects's grandson who lives at FLW's unfinished Malibu property high in the hills, was interviewed by Christopher Hawthorne, architecture critic for the LA Times, for his documentary on Wright, That Far Corner. When Hawthorne asked what drew FLW to Los Angeles, he was candid. "He was very upset about the loss of Mamey and the adverse publicity because they weren't married," Wright said.

"What was his state of mind when he moved to Los Angeles?" Hawthorne asked. 

"Sorrow," Wright said. "He had a wonderful life until her death."

Eric Lloyd Wright in Malibu (Los Angeles Magazine)

Hawthorne asked Tim Samuelson, Chicago's cultural historian, what he made of Wright's LA Mayan Revival look. "They seem like, the houses, almost mausoleum-like. They are heavy. One critic described them as dark and macabre—like the drama of Sophocles. The LA homes were. . . brutal, romantic, fantastic, and—strange."

FUNEREAL ASPECTS

Filmmaker Hawthorne continues, "The LA houses have funereal aspects. They're sinister, lacking joy. But scholars are hesitant to embrace the crude character of pre-Columbian death cults. These ideas, however, shaped Wright's understanding of pre-Columbian design and their meaning."

"His architecture," historian Blair Kamin said, "and this mission helped him to recover from personal tragedy. His architecture saved him in the end."

"His LA houses," continued Hawthorne, "stand apart from his work overall and apart from the rest of LA architecture of the period. They are not just heavy, but heavy-hearted—their starkness, and in some cases, their state of ruin. I don't think it's because the houses look crypt-like and that is why they are empty. It's because they are crypt-like that none are used as full-time residences. They are off-putting. The houses are shadowed by violence and even death.

"At the time, building these houses was a means for Wright to put a troubled period behind him for good. It exemplified his own uncertain state of mind. I believe they were a catalyst for putting aside that very troubled period.

"Wright buried Mamey in the Unity Chapel Cemetery in Spring Green, Wisconsin—but she's also buried in Los Angeles."

                        

                                                                  

Unity Chapel, Spring Green, Wisconsin—FLW's first commission

Who knew that Wright's ongoing obsession with the Maya would rescue him as he worked his way out of grief by creating mausoleum-like, cathedral/pyramid tombs over and over and over again in reverence of the woman he loved and lost. As the historian said, his architecture saved him in the end.

Gravestone for Mamah Borthwick Cheney in Spring Green, Wisconsin

Resources for this post came from Curbed LA—Demystifying Frank Lloyd Wright's Most Eccentric Homes; Coming Around to Frank Lloyd Wright—Architecture Magazine; Getting it Wright: Today's Prairie Style; Trip Savvy's Frank Lloyd Wright LA Homes; Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation: Peek Inside 7 Iconic FLW Houses; ChicagoCurbed.com's Take a Walking Tour of FLW's Oak Park Homes; WendyCity'sChicago.com's World Fair Moments: Sullivan's Golden Door; Sunset Ranch in LA: Frank Lloyd Wright in Los Angeles; Los Angeles Magazine's Inhabiting a Legacy; Curbed LA—Frank Lloyd Wright's Forgotten Hollywood Sand Castle; Artsy.net's How Frank Lloyd Wright's Take on Mayan Temples Shaped Hollywood; Loving Frank, by Nancy Horan; and the documentary That Far Corner, by Christopher Hawthorne.

If you want to read more about the Maya, Mexico and the Yucatán, sign up at the top right for my bi-monthly blogs, or check my website at www.jeaninekitchel.com. Where the Sky is Born: Living in the Land of the Maya, my memoir on life as an expat is available on Amazon. Also there check out my Mexico cartel thrillers, books one and two in my Wheels Up trilogy: Wheels Up—A Novel of Drugs, Cartels and Survival, and Tulum Takedown. For a journalistic overview of the Maya 2012 calendar phenomenon, check out Maya 2012 Revealed: Demystifying the Prophecy.

 

WHAT IS THE EQUINOX?

We're living in the 21st century. Those in western civilization are far removed from the jungles, the plains and the tundra. So why is the equinox important to us today? Called the first day of autumn, the equinox—when day and night are equal in length all over the world—occurs this year on September 22 and marks the autumnal equinox.

At equinox, the sun crosses directly over the equator and as the Earth orbits, it tilts neither away from the sun nor towards it. Because the equinox is based on the Earth's movement around the sun, there's a three-day window in which it can occur—as early as September 2o and as late as September 23.

HOW IT RELATES TODAY

But why do we take an interest in the equinox? Could be because we humans, going back to the Egyptians, the Maya, and Polynesians for starters, have always been stargazers. Early on in our coming of age, the ancients made up the constellations and stories about the night sky. Today we still gaze at the same sky but with more oomph—we send out advanced satellites, telescopes, and Rovers to retrieve information from the stars, the planets and far-away galaxies. And we're writing scientific documents, basically new stories, extolling what lies outside our atmosphere.

Nectarine blossoms (photo John Kitchel)

Even though we live in a sophisticated high-tech world, we still celebrate the importance of the relationship between our sun and planet Earth. In agrarian times, spring was ushered in by the equinox which meant it was time to plant, and at the autumnal equinox it was time to harvest. That may not be so important to us today, but have you ever wondered why Easter is also a floating date rather than fixed?

EASTER

Easter today, as in pagan times, is the first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox. This year that full moon is March 28 and Easter falls on April 4. As sophisticated as we are with technology at our fingertips, we still follow some traditions that originated when humans were still hunter-gatherers. Though we may think the equinox has no influence on us, we're still rooted in a pagan cycle of historic events due to the date of that celestial occurrence. 

Because the spring equinox has ties to Christianity's most important event, Easter, many believe it centers on not only the Earth's waking call from a dark winter, but also the theme of resurrection.

CHICHEN ITZA AND THE EQUINOX

One of the most famous equinox ceremonies in North America takes place at the Maya pyramid site at Chichen Itza in Mexico. Around 4 p.m. the sun casts a remarkable shadow onto the most prestigious of the pyramids there, Temple of Kukulkan (Feathered Serpent). Due to the sun's position in the sky and the building's position thanks to precise mathematical calculations prefigured more than a millennia ago for the event, a shadow slithers down the staircase, ending at the tip of a serpent's mouth at the bottom. This feat was made possible by the Maya's ability to calculate the sun's effects on the earth at equinox.

In the Maya world many buildings are built to specifications that coincide with the equinox. Some scholars believe the importance placed on it relays to the resurrection of the Maize God, Hunahpu, and the turning from winter's darkness towards the light of spring, ushering in planting time. The fall equinox no doubt pays homage to the harvest.

The Hero Twins Consult with God (University of Virginia)

WORLDWIDE RECOGNITION

On the other side of the globe in Egypt, the equinox also represents a time of resurrection for the god Osiris. Because of this it's said the Great Sphinx of Giza is positioned to look directly at the rising sun on spring equinox. In Cambodia, scholars say the equinox represents the winning of forces of light over darkness, so the main temple at Angkor Wat also aligns with the equinox sun. 

Angkor Wat (photo the Ultimate Guide)

A certain theme continues to be played out with the equinox in the myths of the world—rebirth, awakening, and light overcoming darkness—exactly what takes place as Earth tilts into spring. 

So even though we're entrenched in this modern world, uber-connected through smart phones, computers and all forms of social media, it's important to remember there's a bigger picture out there and it affects all humanity on our green Earth. It is a thing as simple as how the sun and Earth relate, two days a year, on the equinox.

For more info on Mexico, the Maya and the Yucatán, subscribe to my bi-monthly blog above or check out my website, www.jeaninekitchel.com. I'm also author of a travel memoir Where the Sky is Born: Living in the Land of the Maya, that tells about my expat experience in buying land and building a house in a fishing village on the Mexican Caribbean coast. It's available on Amazon, as are books one and two in m crime thriller trilogy, Wheels Up—A Novel of Drugs, Cartels and Survival, along with Tulum Takedown.

HOW MEXICO'S YUCATÁN SINKHOLES AND UNDERGROUND RIVERS WERE FORMED

 

Photo MexicanCaribbeanTravel

CENOTES

PART 2

The Yucatán Peninsula emerged 65 million years ago as a vast coral reef according to geologists. As the oceans receded, mollusks died, creating the limestone shelf that now covers the Peninsula's porous land. Rain waters filtered down into the substructure and created underground rivers. After the last ice age, the oceans rose to their current levels and flooded the caves left by the lacy limestone shelves, collapsing some, creating sinkholes, commonly known as cenotes in Yucatán. Though not unique to the Yucatán, cenotes are fairly uncommon geological formations, and they can vary considerably in shape and size.

Image from CenoteFinder

Although cenotes are plentiful in the Yucatán, with thousands known, exploring them is a fairly new phenomenon. In the 1980s, geologists identified 21 variations and have since narrowed these down to five basic types: open air, angled wall, vertical wall as at Chichen Itza, cavern pool with stalactites, and underground domed.

Open air Carwash Cenote near Tulum (photo theworldisaplayground.com)

CAVE SYSTEMS

Some cenotes have small surface openings but unfold into an intricate cave system that can literally run for miles. This cenote type is popular with cave divers and tackled by professionals like diver Mike Madden, formerly of Puerto Morelos. Madden did some of the first explorations near Tulum, Quintana Roo, under the auspices of CEDAM (Club de Exploraciones y Deportes Acuaticos de Mexico) earning a spot in the 1988 Guinness Book of World Records for documenting the world's longest underwater cave system—168,400 feet in all—called Giant Birdhouse or in Mayan, Nohoch Nah Chich. Madden's explorations proved that an intricate series of meandering underground waterways exists, connecting cenote to cenote.

Nohoch Nah Chich Cenote (photo Steve Gerrard)

Considered an extreme sport, cave diving is gaining popularity and it's not uncommon to bump into serious divers on Yucatán's cenote route.

In colonial Valladolid, 28 miles east of Chichen Itza, Cenote Zaci can be found. A cavern pool 150 feet wide, its turquoise waters show off stalactites and there is a walkway around the entire cenote, to better view the massive pool. An adjoining restaurant lights up the area at night for diners who can either eat inside or on an expansive deck overlooking the fresh water pool.

MOST PHOTOGRAPHED CENOTE

Four miles south of Valladolid off a narrow, two-lane road is Centoe Dzitnup. An underground cenote with angled walls, it has a hole in its ceiling where sunlight streams in at mid-day. Tree roots stretch down from the rocky ceiling to reach the clear, still waters below. One of the most photographed of Yucatán's cenotes, a steep slippery descent leads one into this underground cavern.

Underground Cenote Dzitnup (photo Cliff Wassman)

Ten miles north of Merida, Yucatán's capital made famous for manufacturing Panama hats at the turn of the 20th century, Xlacah Cenote can be found at the Dzibilchaltun ruins. A popular cooling off spot, this open air cenote is not connected to any underground pools and seems more like a local swimming hole than a cenote.

AMAZING CAVES IMAX FILM

Dos Ojos (photo HiddenWorlds)

Leaving Yucatán and entering Riviera Maya territory, cenotes dot Highway 307 south of Playa del Carmen, 42 miles from Cancun. Dos Ojos, south of Playa, was the site of the Amazing Caves IMAX diving film. The film shows stunning footage of underground caverns with stalactites and stalagmites, and was the highest grossing giant screen documentary film of 2001. Well worth a watch.

IMAX Journey Into Amazing Caves (Blu-Ray review)

Aktun-Chen combines both a cenote and the area's largest caves within a massive rainforest park, ten miles north of the Tulum pyramids. A bit further south at the Coba pyramid turnoff, Car Wash Cenote is located on a road dotted with sinkholes. A wide pool, unspectacular at first sight but good for swimming, Car Wash opens into an underwater cave where freshwater tropical fish cruise alongside turtles.

SOUTHERN CENOTES

Heading south to Belize, Cenote Azul is located in Bacalar, 25 miles north of QRoo's capitol, Chetumal. Situated near Bacalar's famous Lagoon of the Seven Colors, the second largest fresh water lake in Mexico, Cenote Azul is Mexico's largest cenote. Stretching 600 feet in diameter, this stunning turquoise-colored cenote is a perfect spot for a swim. 

Cenote Azul near Bacalar (photo LocoGringo.com)

This vast peninsula, comprised of low scrub jungles and knockout white sand beaches, was considered "the most savage coast in Central America" only 60 years ago. No paved road existed in Quintana Roo, now home to Cancun, which was then just a territory.

 

It would not become Mexico's 31st state until 1973. Trying hard to overturn their mediocre at best ecological record, the Mexico government established the 1.3 million acre Sian Kaan Biosphere Reserve in 1986 in Quintana Roo, in hopes of preserving this outstanding piece of Mother Nature.

Sian Ka'an Eco Biosphere Reserve (photo UNESCO)

SIAN KA'AN UNESCO SITE

Named a World Heritage site by UNESCO, the biosphere encompasses hundreds of species of local birds, plants, mammals and fish along with acres of mangroves, lagoons and savannas. Sian Ka'an is all about eco-tourism and the preservation of this massive stretch of land, which covers one third of the Caribbean coast of Mexico. The reserve contains a buffer zone where limited human activity is allowed, such as bone-fishing or boat trips through the lagoons out to the Great Meso-American Reef, the world's second largest reef.

These cenotes are but a handful of many the Yucatán Peninsula has to offer. Local tour guides and guidebooks can lead to spur of the moment or planned cenote adventures, plus ensure a cool dip in a crystal clear fresh water pool for your efforts as a reward.

For more information on Mexico, the Maya and the Yucatán, subscribe to my bi-monthly blog above or check out my website, www.jeaninekitchel.com. I'm also author of a travel memoir, Where the Sky is Born: Living in the Land of the Maya, that details how I bought land, built a house and became an expat in a fishing village on the Mexican Caribbean coast. It's available on Amazon, as are books one and two in my crime thriller trilogy, Wheels Up—A Novel of Drugs, Cartels and Survival, along with Tulum Takedown. 

MEXICO'S MARVELS—CENOTES OF THE YUCATAN

 

Cenote in Yucatan 

Tangled green vines brush against my face as I trek behind our guide deeper into the low-lying Yucatan jungle. The narrow, gnarly path—recently cut by machete—oozes damp, musty smells.

It is July, rainy season in Mexico, and temperatures are in the nineties, a veritable heat wave. We’re in search of a cenote, a clear fresh water pool, also known as a sinkhole here in the Yucatan, a place the Maya named Sian Ka'an or Where the Sky is Born.

Although the Maya used these ancient wells as their water source in an arid land that offered few rivers, our search is for recreational purposes. We plan to cool off in the cenote’s crystal waters, to swim and maybe snorkel.

Traipsing through thick forest growth alongside a mangrove swamp, little did I realize this jungle spot forty miles south of Cancun and just seven miles north of Playa del Carmen (Tres Rios) would many years later become a major resort. With a wave of the hand, our guide motions us to follow.

Tres Rios cenote (haciendotresrios.com)

We ford the stream behind him and into a clearing. Now surrounded by brilliant green foliage, the scene becomes a primeval forest. The clarity of the cenote is beyond comparison. Gazing into it I see mangrove tree trunks reaching up from the pool’s bottom, breaking the waterline and stretching high into the tropical sky. 

Cenotes are plentiful in this part of Mexico and have become a favorite tourist attraction as vacationers discover they’re an ideal place to cool off in the sultry climate of the Riviera Maya. Nearly five hundred are known to exist in the Northeastern Yucatan where Maya civilization flourished for 3500 years from 2000 BC to 1521 AD. 

Cenote Bang by USGS.gov

To the Maya, a culture made great by ruling dynasties and strong religious beliefs, cenotes were more than just a water source. The Maya believed cenotes were the sacred entrance to the underworld of spirits where Chaac, the rain god, lived. On a parched peninsula, Chaac ruled in a long line of spiritual dieties. Water is life.

Of the Yucatan’s numerous cenotes, perhaps best known is the Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza, a ceremonial center known for towering pyramids and spring and fall equinox displays of shadow and light. The vertical wall cenote has a diameter of 160 feet and measures 60 feet from its lip to the water surface below. Made famous by archeological explorer Edward H. Thompson, this well brought forth its diabolic history when Thompson dredged it in 1904.

Thompson knew Maya life intertwined agriculture, religion and water. Due to agricultural needs to feed a burgeoning  population, the Maya calendar was developed to determine auspicious dates for planting and harvesting. Thompson also knew the calendar was interpreted by the priests, but as their promises failed to bring rain, he’d heard human sacrifices were thrown into the cenote to appease Chaac. He was also positive that along with the maidens, other offerings would also have been made.

The Boston explorer tested his theory by creating a diving aparatus and taking diving lessons, hiring a Greek diver to assist him, traveled to Boston to buy a derrick and thirty-foot boom, designed his own diving apparatus, and shipped it all to the Yucatan.

Edward H. Thompson (photo americanegypt.com)

On his return, he dove and dredged the Sacred Cenote daily. Finally, about six weeks in, he came up with gold and copper discs, figures of Maya gods and the clincher, human skeletons. His exploration of the cenote proved that human sacrifice was indeed a part of Maya life, with human sacrifice hopefully giving them access to the rain god and his whims.

Chicen Itza's cenote is but one of many in the Yucatan. Part 2 will explore how cenotes were formed and give details on some of the more popular ones on the Peninsula. Stay tuned.

For more information on the Maya, Mexico and the Yucatan, check out my website, www.jeaninekitchel.com. My travel memoir, Where the Sky is Born: Living in the Land of the Maya, is available on Amazon.com. Also on Amazon, are books one and two in my Mexico cartel thriller trilogy, Wheels Up—A Novel of Drugs, Cartels and Survival, and Tulum Takedown. Subscribe to my blog above for my writings on Mexico and the Maya.