La historia se cuenta desde los
hoteles de Mérida

If you travel in search of interesting destinations for gays, there are a variety of locations to choose from. For those who enjoy spending time at the beach and enjoy the water, Mexico coasts of present many engaging ways. However, there is a lot more fun in the water, in Mexico as the finding was off its coast. For many visitors enjoy the unique and fun sights and sounds of a cenote holiday in the region of Yucatan.

What is a Cenote? A cenote is anatural sinkhole, which is in an underground network of caves and rivers. Yes, you read that correctly. They are available in the range of 60 meters below the surface of the earth from a subterranean, are carved deep natural world. Cenotes were formed in the course of several thousand years due to the collapse of caves and caverns. This led to sinkholes captured that water runoff. This yielded a tremendous opportunity for the ancient Mayans as a source of water in acquiringAreas where current waterways were dry or limited.

These cenotes are also used for ancient rituals and were once regarded as the gateway to the spiritual life after death. As a result, they have been properly maintained, which enables them to survive until well into the modern age.

Now, look, a few words such as "U" and "underground" cenotes and think embody dark, foreboding environments, in which hardly going to present a fun holiday destination. Actually, it's exactly the opposite, that isTrue. This cenote resorts are a lot of fun and have much to offer travelers. In addition, there are literally thousands of them and the Yucatan cenotes and caves are the most attractive and unique targets for even the most discriminating traveler.

There are many reasons to visit a cenote in the Yucatan. The crystal clear waters themselves are quite entertaining, since they are the most beautiful and pristine waters throughout Mexico.

These waters are making completely free of currentsthey are very calm and quiet. Temperatures reached the waters and an average of 75 degrees makes it much more enjoyable to indulge in. Of course, adds to the metro area to the unforgettable atmosphere. These services are almost impossible to find in lakes and rivers on the surface of the world, and a trip to a cenote, an original concept makes holiday.

When it comes to actually visit a cenote is it important to do a little research first. Finally, there are masseschoose among them in the Yucatan and you want the right one for your holiday requirements.

Even if you visit a cenote you, do you want to be prepared for the trek down under the surface. If you walk down the spiral walkways, enjoy the experience from a historical perspective. Some of the passages are hundreds of years old and the rock formations in the caves have a minimum size of thousands of years old. So, take the time to pass them. Stop and enjoy it for a second!

You can also validateJoin a tour group, as a guide through the cenote may prove quite fun, fun and memorable.

This was shot from the bottom of La Sima de las Cotorras outside of Ocozocoatla Chiapas. It’s a big dry sumidero or cenote (great big hole in the ground) about 200 meters across and about 120 meters deep. In the early spring to summer it is home to some 1500 parakeets who sleep there every night, fly out squawking in a big groups in the early morning and then fly back at sunset, spiraling down to their nests.

I rappelled down there and then almost couldn’t get out. When you rappel the edge is overhung, so you are suspended in air, hanging on a rope unable to touch the edge of the cliff. To get out you have to climb the rope using a jumar. I had never done that and had a very hard time of it. In the end the guys that run the concession had to haul my ass out of there; there were three of them hauling and me jumaring and they finally manage to get me out. It was very embarrassing.

In April I wrote three posts on sacbeob (causeways). These posts lined up with another series of posts on posthumanocentric/polyagentive archaeology where I used causeways to explain my idea of polyagency. Since my dissertation I have elaborated upon posthumanocentric archaeology. I have ditched the polyagency term for the time being but I will reuse it in my future studies that focus more on “materiality” (I am beginning to dislike that term more and more, matter is simply enough, I am on Ingold’s side here). In my articles published after my thesis I have introduced much more Deleuzian/DeLandian stuff, which has taken me further away from my “original” ideas. The end product of this process will be published in Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory sometime next year (with the causeways at Ichmul and Yo’okop as examples).

However, an opportunity has opened up to combine my approach with chaosmological ideas (chaosmos is from where chaos and cosmos emerge). This potential emerged when I begun to sketch on the similarities between “animism” in Ingold’s sense and “neo-realism” in DeLanda’s sense. I will post more on this later. This gives me reason to revisit data that I more or less dismissed in my thesis and in my published and upcoming articles. In my Cambridge Archaeological Journal article I was quite hostile to cosmological models based on direct historical analogies. It has mainly to do with the overall framework of a generalized Maya Culture and its associated cosmology rather than the fact that there are continuities here and there. One such possibility is the relation between the Classic period God L, the Postclassic period Ek Chuah, the Colonial Black Christ and merchants/travelling/roads/causeways throughout several centuries.

The triadic causeways (or the triple-triadic assemblage) at Ichmul are used as examples here.  These are three Terminal Classic causeways that connect central Ichmul with older settlement. At the termini, a new plaza and new structures were built, forming small triadic formations. These are most likely part of a joint construction effort, hence the reason why I see them as a triple-triadic assemblage. The origins of the causeways in central Ichmul are not known since they show evidence of having been used for Colonial, Caste War and modern constructions. However, if one traces their alignments further into Ichmul they all intersect in the altar area of the Black Blister Christ church. Early Colonial sources mention two cenotes in central Ichmul. These are nowhere to be found in the village today and the villagers do not know of their existence. If the Colonial source is reliable, then the cenotes may have been concealed by later structures (not completely uncommon in Colonial Mexico). The church(es) dedicated to the Black Christ is/are of special interest here.

The Black Christ is often related to trade, water, caves and cenotes (Navarrete 1999). The Black Christ is further believed to be a “syncretic” version of the Postclassic Yucatec merchant god of Ek Chuah, who was depicted in black colour (Flores and Normark 2004a; Navarrete 1999). It is believed that Ek Chuah was God M, a god that did not exist in the Maya area before the Postclassic (Taube 1992:88-89). Merchants travelling along the roads set up stones on which they sacrificed incense to the merchant god Ek Chuah in search for a safe journey (Landa 1959). Present travellers also leave stones at the crosses at the entrances to towns (Forrest 1997:227). However, God M/Ek Chuah shows similarities with God L, the Classic period merchant god, which also was painted black. This aged god was connected to the Underworld, cenotes, rain, and lightning (Taube 1992). The Black Christ is also found elsewhere. The most famous place is Esquipulas in Guatemala. Apart from visiting the Basilica of the Black Christ at Esquipulas, pilgrims stop at a nearby hill, crosses, and caves along a river (Adams and Brady 2005:311). The Black Christ has also appeared in a cave near Zinacantan (Manca 1995:224; Vogt and Stuart 2005:175).

Thus, it is possible that the current Black Christ church stands on a funnel-shaped cenote/cave. If so, this feature that was also the focus for the Terminal Classic causeway system. It may have been a important location, but maybe not the only one (remember that there may have been two cenotes at the site). In fact the Black Christ is believed to have been kept in the nearby L-shaped church during the 17^th century when Ichmul became the centre for this “cult” (maybe this other church cover the other cenote?). The miracle figure was brought to Merida sometime between 1657 and 1676 and this led to Ichmul’s demise (Casares, et al. 1998:356). A new church, north of the monastery, began to be constructed in 1742 (Bretos 1987:196-198). This white church is where a replica of the Black Christ is kept today and it is also where the causeways intersect.

The Black Christ on the left side and the convent on the right side.

Now, I would not dream of creating a linear history where Maya religion becomes syncretised with Spanish/Catholic religion in order to explain this connection. A usual Mayanist strategy would be to bring in a general Maya cultural background to fill in the gaps (such as the lack of substantial Postclassic data at the site). But we need not rely on standardized cultural models. I see connections between various materialities and ideas without the overall cultural structure/model.

Brady (2004) argues that all Prehispanic sites have a natural or artificial cave to symbolize a center. Using such analogies may seem to rely on a cultural model, but here I see the Black Christ as part of a Deleuzian machinic assemblage that includes the Church as a widespread organization. This assemblage has overcoded earlier regime of signs associated with the location. The white church (and maybe the L-shaped church) may therefore stand upon a funnel-shaped cenote, as this is where the projections of the causeways would have intersected. The size of the church makes it possible for a funnel-shaped cenote to be located below and within the walls of the church. This means that the roof of a possible cenote would not have needed to support the weight of the church walls (Flores and Normark, 2005b: 96).

To be on the safe side, since no evidence currently exists of the existence of cenote(s) below the church(es), all we can say is that the location of causeway convergence was important for both Terminal Classic and Colonial assemblages (the triadic causeways and the church respectively). Now, I only need to figure out a way to combine chaosmological ideas with these buildings. No problem I hope.

The Yucatan Peninsula emerged from the sea million years ago as a platform of deríos limestone rock where the existence was practically impossible. Later, throughout thousands of years, rain pecks this immense rock and the water filters to the subsoil, where it forms true channels that are as well drilling the deepest layers. The natural wells are indeed the result of this process; they arise when the water of the subsoil is exhibited when taking place landslides of the cavities created by the underground currents.
Cenotes are surface connections to subterranean water bodies. While the best-known cenotes are large open water pools measuring tens of meters in diameter, such as those at Chichén Itzá, the greatest number of cenotes are smaller sheltered sites and do not necessarily have any surface exposed water.

The Sacred Grand Cenote

Amigos, acabo de encontrar esto en unos foros y se mi hizo atractivo. Espero sea de su grado.

Creo en mi Yucatán como el centro del universo y en el sol y las estrellas que giran a su alrededor.

Creo que Chichén Itzá es la primera maravilla del mundo y que las otras seis son Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil, Labná, Ek Balam y Dzibilchaltun.

Creo en el *Tolok** *que respira el calor del medio día y en el *xhail*que trepa las albarradas, creo en la laja del suelo que pisamos y en el meteorito de Chicxchulup que borró a los dinosaurios de la faz de la tierra.

Creo en las cinco estrellas de mi bandera, en los murales de Castro Pacheco, en las bancas confidentes, en el Paseo de Montejo,en la Catedral más antigua en tierra firme y en el Convento de Izamal.

Creo en las olas del mar de Progreso y en las playas de Chelem,creo en los secretos de las grutas de Loltun y en el agua pura de los cenotes.

Creo en la chaya y la pitahaya,en la dulzura del saramuyo, en el culto al chile habanero y a las chinas de Oxkutzcab.

Creo en la ceiba, en el pich, el Chacá,el flamboyán y en la fibra del Henequén que nos dio nombre en el mundo.

Creo en el faisán y en el venado,en los flamencos rosados de Celestún.

Creo en el X´Tabay, en los aluxes y en el enano de Uxmal.

Creo en la vaquería, en la bomba yucateca y en la jarana con sus mestizas de terno, rebozo y rosario de filigrana.

Creo en los sueños de Felipe Carrillo Puertoy en los ojos de la ´Peregrina´, en el canto de ‘Guty’ Cárdenas y en las palabras escritas de Ermilio Abreu Gómez.

Creo en los panuchos, los huevos motuleños y los lomitos de Valladolid, en el frijol con puerco,la cochinita pibil y los papadzules, en el dulce de papaya con queso de bola y en el mazapán de pepita, en el refresco de lima, la horchata y el Xtabentun; y por sobre todas las cosas, creo en el *mucbilpollo* y el *relleno negro* que encontraré en mi altar cuando regrese mi alma desde el Xibalbá en la noche sagrada del Hanal Pixan.

Amen…

La historia desde la época precolombina a partir de los
hoteles de Chetumal

La ciudad de Chetumal es famosa por el nombre de Chactemàal en lenguaje moderno maya. Esto significa Lugar de Madera Roja. La mayoría de los cargos políticos en la ciudad de Chetumal se encuentran en varios monumentos históricos como el pasado histórico de esta ciudad ha estado muy ocupado debido a la presencia de distintas dinastías, que siguieron luchando guerras contra otros.

Los indicios muy inicial de la existencia de Chetumal son durante la época precolombina. Se le llama así a ese período cuando los países europeos no había empezado a entrar en América. El período precolombino terminó cuando los europeos entraron en América. Fue durante la época precolombina que los arqueólogos encontraron los indicios de una ciudad llamada Chactemal que estaba siendo utilizada como la capital del estado de Maya. Esta ciudad se encuentran situados en casi el mismo lugar donde se encuentra hoy la ciudad de Chetumal. Incluso en muchos casos después de la llegada de los europeos, esta ciudad era conocida como Chetumal.

Sus confusiones han estado en la originalidad de la solución de Chetumal como otra teoría sostiene que la histórica ciudad de Chetumal se encuentra en el lado diferente de Río Hondo, en el lado moderno de Belice. Siendo la existencia precolombina de la ciudad de Chetumal se considera la mejor prueba de los tiempos en que se sentaron las bases para esta ciudad.

La histórica ciudad de Chetumal fue parte de la guerra contra el Ejército español durante el siglo XVI como media durante esos días, el ejército español estaba tratando de entrar en la ciudad de Chetumal. Fue en el siglo XVI cuando la ciudad de Chetumal, finalmente perdió contra el Ejército español, y cuando bajo su control.

Oficialmente la ciudad de Chetumal se formó en el año 1898 y fue nombrado como Payo Obispo. Fue cambiado a Chetumal en el año 1936. Esta ciudad también ha sido testigo de una revuelta durante la década de 1840 que, como resultado obligó a todos los que la población hispana a abandonar la ciudad.

Chetumal es una ciudad encantadora, donde usted puede montar en bicicleta por el boulevard o dar un paseo y disfrutar de la vista, la brisa y el trino de los pájaros. Una visita que se maravilla por las fiestas y las tradiciones, lagunas, cenotes, playas, la abundante flora y fauna, y sitios arqueológicos de origen maya.

Para visitar Chetumal no es sólo una visita al principio o al final de un país, es descubrir y disfrutar de una zona mágica bañado en colores de la selva y el mar. Aquellos que consideran que su ciudad de Chetumal se han cuidado de él para ayudarlo a crecer en una ciudad próspera, que puedas transmitir a sus hijos.

Aquí es también donde muchas cosas importantes en la historia sucedió como la conquista española y la ruptura del imperio maya. La leyenda dice que la primera mezcla de razas que ocurrió cuando el soldado español Gonzalo Guerrero se casó con la princesa maya, Zani Ha. Esto llevó a la interacción entre los pueblos y la clasificación final que Chetumal es el lugar donde la primera mezcla entre estas dos culturas tuvo lugar convirtiéndose así en el lugar de nacimiento de la mezcla de las culturas.

Chetumal y Belice son los puntos intermedios entre México y América Central, la creación de un fuerte vínculo entre las dos ciudades, que incluyen la cocina, la arquitectura, la música y las tradiciones locales. Reggae, Zanebay (música de samba festivo) y Punta Rock (música con letras en ambos Inglés y dialectos africanos) son sólo algunos de los tipos de música. También hay pasacalle y calabaceado, que son algunos de los tipos más populares de la música de baile en la zona.

An older post, Chicxulub – slayer of dinosaurs and slayer of Maya?, was the first of three posts on the importance of the Chicxulub fracture zone. This zone is crucial to my research on changes in cave use, settlement strategies, and climate in the Cochuah region which is located on the border of the greater Chicxulub fracture zone. The first post concerned the effects this Late Cretaceous impact had on the flora and fauna at that time. This second post concerns the geology of the area as it is today and probably during most of the human presence in the area. My final post will concern how the fracture zone has affected the settlement patterns in northern Yucatan from the Middle Formative to the present.

The northern Yucatan plain consists of karst development, composed of uplifted sections of Early and Late Tertiary platform carbonates. A stretch of Quaternary beach and lagoon deposits surround the coast. Sinkholes (cenotes) and caves are very common throughout the area. There are also two fault lines, the Ticul zone directly north of the Puuc hills and the Holbox fault in the east, associated with extensive wetlands. This was pretty much the general view of the geology of the region until the late 1970s when Pemex (the Mexican state-owned oil company) began to search for places to drill oil.

It was Penfield and Camargo who first proposed the existence of a large impact structure on the Yucatan peninsula. They based this on gravity and magnetic data. It was later linked to the K/T boundary mass extinction by Hildebrand and Boyton. The geometry of the impact structure has been mapped by drilling, radiometric and palaeomagnetic dating, and petrologic and geochemical studies. Geophysical studies like gravity and magnetic exploration, rock magnetism, magnetotellurics and heat flow studies have provided information on the shape and dimensions of the Chicxulub structure. Below is a gravity anomaly map of the Chicxulub impact structure. The coastline is shown as a white line. A series of concentric features reveals the location of the crater. White dots represent cenotes.

The overall structure of the Chicxulub multi-ring basin consists of at least four documented topographic rings. Radial positions of the topographic rings follow a square root of 2 spacing rule. The inner ring (the so-called Ring of Cenotes) has a diameter of 170 km, and within this area lie the central basin. The Ring of Cenotes is associated with the largest peripheral gravity-gradient feature in the figure above. A broad gravity low that defines the Chicxulub basin extends roughly 140 km from the center where the fourth broad ring is located. This fourth ring is a fairly discontinuous pattern of local gravity highs. Based on observations of large multi-ring basins on the moon, geologists suggest that the diameter of the Chicxulub multi-ring basin is between 260 and 340 km. The cenote in Sacalaca lies roughly 170 km from the center of the impact and marks more or less the edge of the cenote zone in the southwest.

The vertical structure of the Chicxulub basin differs within the impact crater and in the area outside the Ring of Cenotes. The rocks above the impact feature consist of layers of marl and limestone reaching roughly 1,100 m in depth. These rocks date back as far as the Paleocene. Below these layers lie more than 500 m of andesite glass and breccias and these are only located within the impact feature. Quantities of feldspar, augite, and shocked quartz, normally only found in impact-melt rocks, are present. Outside the Ring of Cenotes the thickness of the Tertiary carbonate rocks are 200-300 m.

Along the edge of the crater is the Ring of Cenotes, which has more than 200 cenotes, ranging between 50 and 500 m in width and 2 and 120 m in depth. There are 3 cenotes/sqkm in a 3 km wide band in the southwestern part of the Chicxulub structure. This decreases to a chain of single cenotes, 3 km apart in the southeast part of the structure. The Ring of Cenotes was formed by post-impact subsidence in the rim of the crater. The subsidence would have occurred during or after the late Tertiary. Seismic studies indicate that no major tectonic movement took place in the impacted area after a few million years. However, some form of tectonism has occurred after the impact since the Ticul fault formed in the Tertiary period.

The area that is of main interest to my research is beyond the Ring of Cenotes. Differential fracturing caused by the thickness of the Tertiary rocks may be another explanation for regional stresses. As mentioned above, the Tertiary strata that overlie the crater floor are three times thicker than the strata outside the rim. Thinner strata are more likely to fracture and the abrupt change in thickness near the Ring of Cenotes make the stresses concentrate in this region. However, stresses occur in a greater area, all the way down to the Cochuah region. The Holbox fracture zone is outside the postulated zone of ring faulting, but geologists do not rule out that the curvature of the Holbox fracture zone may be partly controlled by buried impact structures. If so, the Chicxulub fracture zone covers most of the northern Yucatan peninsula. It is strange that few archaeologists have investigated what this large feature do or did to the acquifer in Yucatan. More on this in the final post.

Of the estimated 2000 caves, caverns, and cenotes (sinkholes) in the Puuc region in northwestern Yucatan, 300 have been surveyed by Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia (INAH). Eunice Uc Gonzalez has been directing the investigations and she says that they have found masonry walls, subterranean accesses with lintels and jambs, ceramics, metates (grinding stones), petroglyphs, and a mural. During the 11 years of research the project has classified the caves into three groups based on ancient usage: ritual spaces, domestic work, and mines for extracting minerals.

Most caves were used for rituals and related to these are chambers with lintels and petroglyphs and drawings in blue color. Entrances to some caves have painted signs of deer and Ch’aak, the rain god. Uc Gonzalez says that inside the caves the people sought suhuy ha’ (virgin or holy water), water that has not been touched by humans. Here she relies on older ideas that states that the suhuy ha’ was collected from the dripping water from stalactites. This I believe is an idea that Brady and Prufer finds to be not well supported by archaeological evidence. Anyway I have not seen the evidence for the Puuc area yet. Uc Gonzalez says this is a practice that continues today, such as at  Aktun-Usil and Calcehtok in the municipality of Maxcanú and Aktun-Sabakhá in the Tekax region. At Aktun Usil they encountered red paintings of cardinal directions and glyphs and these are associated with astronomy and calendars related to planting and cultivation.

Domestic spaces are open areas illuminated from the surface or from skylights that illuminate interior spaces. Engravings, glyphs, metates, haltuns, ceramics and other artifacts used for grinding and habitation have been located in these spaces. A cave like this is located in Ramonal, in the Tekax area. However, I doubt these were domestic spaces or activities, the metates were probably used to grind corn for ritual activities. Uc Gonzalez also refers to sources from the 16th century that states that people disposed their domestic utensils in the cave during certain period endings or New Year renewal ceremonies. These discarded items are used to establish the chronology of the sites.

In the third kind of cave they found clay deposits (ok’at) which were extracted for pottery making. The pottery has a polish that is reminiscent of a stalactite. Another kind of mineral extracted from the caves was híb or hí, a kind of carbonated mineral or gypsum also used in pottery making. People also extracted red cancab clay that served as construction material in buildings. Aktun Ho’on in the municipality of Tekax is an example of this.

The bulletin from INAH does not mention if the use of each caves changed in time. I doubt that one can easily define the caves into three categories and that each cave belonged to this category from time immemorial until the present. In the Cochuah region there are substantial changes in use through time. I would like to know more of the Colonial impact of cave use in this area.

Occasionally he would take a consignment of wooden painted and gilded saints, a badly tortured Christ, a doll-like madonna with swirls of golden drapery, and retablos; thank offerings, folk paintings on tin, made by those who had been saved from death by intercession of a saint, visual acts of faith, stolen from unlocked churches, and these were popular, particularly with the interior decorating crowd. Still most of his imports remained pre-Columbian. This was the life he had dreamed of in Eureka, adventure, not too much thank you, foreign travel; living with beautiful things and a succession of beautiful men.

“Don’t hold out on me now, Stuart. There’s no Ah Kin Xib Chac in here. No rape. Let’s see the rest.”

She was flushed with excitement, alive, beautiful. Standing where he was he became aware that the top two buttons of her blouse were undone, giving a glimpse of what was beneath that green material, and he remembered that hotel room, the meeting in Detroit. He struggled briefly with his rights of Codex ownership, but with the intimacy of the moment, the alliance that had sprung up, the two of them against Van Raemdonck, and his resistance collapsed. He smiled shrugged, and went back to his room, where he unlocked his bag and took out the envelope with the photographs and the copies, sorting out a complete set of copies, which he put in a separate envelope. In for a penny, in for a pound.

“Bandits? They look like Indians.” “They’re about to be good Indians,” the man with the machine pistol said, firing with one hand into Jose’s body, driving him jerkily to the side of the road with a full clip of ammunition. The smell of gunpowder was acrid. Stuart reacted automatically. The stock of the shotgun was against his cheek, his finger found a trigger and he fired into the nearest man, the one with the pistol who was no more then ten feet away. The buckshot had no time to spread, and the man’s head went red in the light from the car. The other man had a look of astonishment as he attempted to jam a fresh magazine into his weapon-something wrong with his left arm- all brilliantly lit, and his chest opened under the slam of the second barrel, his arm went wide, and he was down.

El Martes madrugamos para ir a Chichen Itza , contratamos paquete porque los martes y jueves son espectaculo de luz y sonido en la noche.

El kulkulcan

Al llegar vi uno de los lugares más sorprendentes que tiene Mexico y quizas el mundo, para esto les recomiendo ropa comoda (porque sudas como cerdo) y zapatos comodos porque caminas como nunca y dinero porque ahi un monton de recuerdos baratos de verdad baratos y la gente de ahi son de verdad muy humildes y viven de lo que les compren.

Hotel Mayaland

Despues de eso nos llevaron a comer al hotel Mayaland (hotel que esta pegado a Chichen y que dicen se hospedo Luciano Pavaroti y Placido Domingo) en el hotel nos brindaron espectaculo.

Les dejo unos videos

Despues nos llevaron a un cenote donde se nos permitia nadar y yo por primera vez en mi vida me puse valiente y me lanse al cenote (dicen que estos lugares no tienen fondo que conectan al mar) fue una de las experiencias mas emocionantes de mi vida lo disfrute como no tienen idea.

Y para terminar el dia nos llevaron al espectaculo de noche en chichen una cosa sorprendete la noche, las estrellas de verdad sentias que estabas en ese instante en el tiempo, te convertias en un habitante mas de Chichen Itza.

Dato extra:
Chichen Itza significa boca del pozo de los brujo (o algo asi)

Investigations by the CRAS project have detected a fluctuating settlement pattern in the Cochuah region (Shaw in preparation). Larger sites with a large or a more or less permanent water source (Ichmul, Sacalaca, and Yo’okop) have a far more continuous settlement through time compared to smaller sites without permanent water sources. These smaller sites were largely settled during drier periods, not during wetter periods. A substantial proportion of these small sites have karstic features.

The chronology of the use of karstic features in the Cochuah region below has been established from test pit excavations, dating ceramics through typology, survey and mapping. The dates are accompanied with dates of proposed droughts listed by Bracamonte (1994), Farriss (1984), García-Acosta et al. (2003), Gill (2000) and Mendoza et al. (2007). Maps can be found here.

• 600-300 B.C. The rejollada (a sinkhole not reaching the water table) at Chakal Ja’as had substantial activity during this period but there is no documented activity at the surface site (Shaw 2005). Dry periods occurred around 480 B.C. and between 370 and 265 B.C. (Gill et al. 2007).
• 300 B.C.- A.D. 250. Other sites with karstic features in the region were settled at this time. Punta Laguna had low water levels at the end of this period (Hodell et al. 2007). Two peaks of droughts are noted in Chichancanab between A.D. 120 and 190 (Gill et al. 2007).
• 250-750. The settlement at smaller cave sites and the larger site of Sacalaca were scarce with a possible exception for Xmakabha near Ichmul (Johnstone 2006). Ichmul and Yo’okop had substantial settlement. There is a documented drought at Punta Laguna (535-550) (Hodell et al. 2007). Otherwise, this was a period devoid of known droughts.
• 750-1100. This was the period of substantial settlement expansion/dispersion to caves. All sites with settlements at caves were occupied. A series of droughts have been proposed for 760, 810-818, 860-862 and 910-915 (Haug et al. 2003). At Chichancanab there is evidence of droughts in two phases, 770-870 and 920-1100 (Hodell et al. 2005).
• 1100-1544. Some caves were used for rituals and perhaps for pilgrimages. The evidence for settlement near caves is scarce with the possible exception of Gruta de Alux and Huay Max, both cave sites visited this year. Gill (2000) proposes several dry periods for the Postclassic; 1110-1160, 1240, 1330-1360, and 1450-1500.
• 1544-1847. The Colonial settlement at Sacalaca was located fairly near a cenote. The possible cenote(s) at Ichmul may have been covered by later architecture (Flores and Normark 2005). However, there is no known settlement around the “peripheral” caves during the Colonial period and the early independence. This could reflect the influence of the Church or the early congregación policy. However, the caves themselves appear to have been used. Droughts are known from these dates: 1535-1541, 1551-1552, 1564, 1571, 1575-1576, 1648, 1650-1653, 1661, 1725-1727, 1765-1774, 1800-1805, 1807, 1809-1810, 1813, 1817, 1822-1823, 1834-1835, 1837 and 1842.
• 1847-1901. The San Pedro Sacalaca and Santa Cruz caves may have been used during the Caste War (Normark 2003; Shaw 2004). Caves became important to the Cruzob religion that emerged in 1850 (Reed 1964). Droughts occurred in 1854, 1881-1882, 1887, 1889 and 1896 (Mendoza et al. 2007).
• 1901-2008. The main way to date modern cave use is through graffiti. Carvings and paintings with alphabetic writing exist but they are difficult to differentiate from similar texts from the Caste War or the Colonial period. This concerns for example Chakal Ja’as, Huay Max and Yo’aktun. Droughts occurred 1903-1906 according to Gill (2000) and 1923-1924, 1928-1929, 1935-1936, 1962-1963, 1971-1972 and 1986-1987 according to Mendoza and others (2007:163).

The above dates of droughts show somewhat different frequencies of severe droughts. Hodell and others (2007:235) have detected a frequency of 50 years between severe Prehispanic droughts. Haug and others (2003) propose a frequency of 40 to 47 years. These proposed frequencies have been used by Gill (2000), and more recently Gill and others (2007), to propose a collapse in four sequences with fifty year intervals (760, 810, 860 and 910). Gill suggests these sequences are related to volcanic eruptions above a certain magnitude that affect climate patterns (Gill and Keating 2002).

However, Mendoza and others (2007:166), based on historical written documentation, suggest a somewhat longer periodicity of roughly 60-64 years between severe droughts, and notes that there were some time periods during historical times that had no severe droughts (1577-1647, 1662-1724, 1728-1764, 1774-1799 and 1855-1880). Most frequent droughts occurred between 1800 and 1850, just before the outbreak of the Caste War and its initial phase. However, if one look at the table in Mendoza et al. (2007:155) one can see that there are 10 recorded droughts during the earlier 240 years (1535-1774) and 15 droughts during the later 96 years (1800-1896). This suggests a sampling problem since earlier records are fewer than later ones. Either the written records describing droughts are less preserved, or earlier people made fewer notes, or the parameters for droughts have changed among officials through the centuries, or it reflects a real trend of increasing droughts (perhaps related to the emergence of industrialization and its initial effect on global warming). However, the table also shows that droughts are much more common than every 40 to 64 years. Mendoza and others also show that most modern and historical droughts only lasted one year but some could extend for up to ten years. This means that people for sure had both knowledge of and strategies to cope with this very frequent problem.

Of course, as Gill (2000) argues, if the drought was severe enough no knowledge and strategy would be sufficient. There is clearly a decrease in archaeological remains during the later part of the Terminal Classic, even in the Cochuah region. But there are too many flaws and assumptions in the palaeoclimatic models for us to attribute the drying trends seen in nearby Lake Chichancanab as the sole causes for this decrease. Our parameters of what constitutes a drought may be different from the ones used by past officials and farmers. Further, how can we know what amount of rain that actually fell or did not fell in a particular local area from sediment cores? Here Hodell and others (2007) have a more nuanced approach than Gill (2000) and Gill et al. (2007).

My current research deals with the issue of climate change in the Maya area. One can say that I basically criticize the all too linear and reductive palaeoclimatic models for the so-called “Maya collapse”. I intend not to discuss whether there is a global warming today that is anthropogenic or “natural” (although Tainter [2008] recently has argued that even archaeologists views are taken into account in current sustainable development analyses). All I do is to look at the actual evidence that exist and how researchers build up their arguments to argue for their own cause (including myself of course). On the surface it may seem that I join the climate skeptics, but I am mainly concerned with the lack of studies on how social, political, economic and religious changes may undermine strategies to cope with climate changes. There are plenty of blogs belonging to the climate skeptical branch of this debate, some of them are the most popular of blogs often with a political agenda (The Climate Scam, Klimatbluffen, Klimatsvammel, Climate Change Fraud, Climate Sceptic, etc).

I suggest that palaeoclimatic models need to take into account settlement changes that have occurred for reasons other than the climate. Such changes were, for example, caused by politics and religious doctrines introduced by the Spaniards. These changes affected the way water resources were conserved and utilized. This is a situation that remains today. Despite long lasting and devastating droughts during Prehispanic times (Gill 2000; Gill and Keating 2002; Gill et al. 2007; Haug et al. 2003; Hodell et al. 2001; Hodell et al. 1995; Hodell et al. 2007), people dealt with these water shortages in ways that the Colonial power made impossible to continue. However, some of these recent explanations for the “Maya collapse” emphasize ecological and climate related causes or catastrophes and the “collapse” has been seen as a warning example of how fragile both environment and society are. Other recent perspectives have made similar general analyzes in different parts of the world, sometimes referring to the Maya area as an illustrative example (Chew 2007; Fagan 2004, 2008).

Thus, climate has once again become an explanation for sociopolitical changes in the past, often with an underlying catastrophism (Demarest 2001; Webster 2002). In light of the contemporary climate debate in society, partially popularized by former US vice-president Al Gore and his documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” (Gore and Guggenheim 2006) it is important to show that from a historical/ archaeological context this catastrophism is highly problematic, particularly for the Cochuah region. We face grand problems today but once we project contemporary ecological factors and problems backward in time, other factors that may have affected settlements and our analyzes of these patterns tend to be ignored. Not all palaeoclimatologists agree with the message of “An Inconvenient Truth”: that we are facing a disaster today. Some see the emergence of the industrialization and increasing global warming as positive, stopping an otherwise inevitable ice age (Franzén 2001).

Although there is evidence that drier periods have occurred, the palaeoclimatic models on a “Maya collapse” have substantial flaws and some of them are the lack of sociopolitical and religious perspectives of past societies (Normark 2006). Since the effects of climate changes on society in the Maya area largely are based on modern and Colonial analogies, it must be noted that the Spaniards had a serious impact on the water conservation and settlement strategies in the Maya area.

Last year we (the CRAS project) surveyed what was a border area during the Colonial period (1544-1821), the early Mexican independence (1821-1847) and the Caste War and its aftermath (1847-1901). From the indigenous perspective, this border appears to have been fluid, but less so for the Spaniards or at least for their political system that was tied to the agricultural and sociopolitical strategies they brought over from Europe. As mentioned in an earlier post, this situation was partly affected by the Chicxulub fracture zone, created from an asteroid impact 65 million years ago (Campos-Enríquez et al. 2004; Connors et al. 1996; Corrigan 1998; Lefticariu 2004; Morgan and Warner 1997; Pope et al. 1993; Sharpton et al. 1993). I argue that karst features within the Chicxulub fracture zone were important attractors in the Prehispanic settlement expansions during droughts and there is compelling evidence that these locations were not settled during the Colonial droughts. All the karst features within the fracture zone were not formed by the effects from this impact, but at least the deeper features, such as cenotes (sinkholes with water) may have their origin in the morphology caused by the impact. There are also karst features outside the fracture zone but they are less frequent within the research area.

Settlement near karst features, apart from cenotes, is without exception Prehispanic and not Colonial. The result of last year’s survey shows the importance of the fracture zone for the Spanish politics and its transparent nature for the indigenous population (in both Prehispanic and Colonial times). This has implications for the palaeoclimatic models since they partly work from how climate affect people today rather than taking into account past sociopolitical and economic changes that have created the contemporary situation.

Tubing in a Cenote

While Cancun is more associated with the spring break, beer-swigging crowd (a Ft. Lauderdale south of the border, if you will), its neighboring city of Playa del Carmen is more low-key and offers some unexpected ecotourism and socially conscious tourism experiences.

When we went to Playa in 2000, the company Alltournative was only a year old.  Even so, we had a great time on our tour, combining lunching at a traditional Mayan village, swimming in a cenote (an underground, fresh water cave), ziplining, and visiting the ruins of Cobá, home of the tallest pyramid in the state.  We also did a little shopping, canoeing, rapelling, and rope-ladder climbing.  It was a full day!  (And let’s just say that climbing a rope-ladder looks a lot easier than it is.)  While their offerings have changed slightly, Alltournative has only gotten better over the years.  We know this because our friend Levana took a tour with them in December and it sounded just as juicy as ours. 

Alltournative’s (get it?) vision is to be the best alternative for adventure expeditions in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, and an example of sustainable recreational tourism. 

In 1999 the Mayas of the isolated jungle community of Pac-Chén were on the brink of selling off their natural heritage in the face of an extremely bleak economic future. However thanks to an enormous creative effort on the part of both parties the groundwork was laid for what today has become an internationally-recognized success story in practical sustainable development.

Yes, just as important as the “fun” aspect is the fact that this is true sustainable and socially conscious tourism.   Alltournative works with local communities to understand how best to collaborate on tourism initiatives.  They rent land from the communities in order to provide ziplining and other adventures for tourists.  Alltournative hires local guides to run tours and local women to cook the traditional Mayan lunches.  Through their website and tours, they aim to educate tourists: their sustainable development and Mayan web sections give a timeline and history of the ancient Maya and talk about the Mayan communities with which they work, explaining their histories, how they came to work with Alltournative, and their current situations. 

Finally, they are also a true ecotourism provider, steering away from popular, yet damaging, adventure tours that include ATVs or jet skis, and instead focusing on eco-friendly approaches (hiking, biking, kayaking, etc.) to tourism in Playa and its surrounding areas.  Bravo!

If you’re in the Yucatan and going to the (amazing) ruins of Chichen Itza, you need to go to Ik-Kil afterwards. If I remember correctly it’s a right turn out of the ruins a couple of minutes. Get there and you’ll find well-developed locker-rooms and a staircase down to the natural well, all for a few dollars. When you get down there jump into the cool blue water and feel relief from a day of hot sightseeing. There are little black fish in the water and birds in the air, and roots and vegetation hanging down complete the tranquil scene. You can take as long or as short as you like, and it really makes the drive home easier and the day generally more enjoyable.

During the final two days of the field season 2003, Alberto Flores and I passed by a cave called Santa Cruz (“Holy Cross”;) by the people living in Sacalaca. The name is apt since inside its narrow vertical entrance is a chamber with several charcoal paintings, one of them with the text “Santa Cruz”. We do not know the date of these paintings since they could be from around 1550 up until the present (the ceramics in the cave are Prehispanic as are the nearby mounds). However, this is also in the area where the Caste War broke out and this gives me the opportunity to discuss the “talking cross”.

Santa Cruz

In the period after independence from Spain (1821-1847) the oppression of the Creoles (Mexicans of European descent) against the Yucatec Maya increased and the Creoles in Yucatan also declared independence from Mexico. Maya groups rebelled against the Creoles in what has been called the Caste War. The early successful campaigns by the mazehual (“Maya”, 1847-1848, which almost drove the Creoles out from the peninsula, ultimately led to a series of setbacks and approximately 40 percent of the population of Yucatan died between 1846 and 1850.

In 1850, the Caste War was almost lost for the mazehual. At this time, a spiritual mobilization and a revivalistic movement appeared. José María Barrera and his band came to a place called Lom Ha (Cleft Spring), which was a small cenote, 60 km southeast of Saban, one of the southernmost larger settlements. He found a small cross carved in a mahogany tree at the edge of the cenote. One of the members of the band was Juan de la Cruz Puc, who was trained in priestly duties. He heard the voice of God coming from the cross in the tree. This cross became a santo, the Santo Jesucristo, an intermediary with God, which had the capacity to speak. Juan de la Cruz Puc could hear the voices in his head, but in order for others to hear the Talking Cross he needed the ventriloquist Manuel Nauat to project the words as if they came from the tree.

The Talking Cross told its followers, the Cruzob, to continue the fighting. The town Chan Santa Cruz (contemporary Felipe Carillo Puerto) grew up on the location and became the centre for resistance until 1901. However, the last skirmishes between cruzob and the Mexican state occurred in 1933. The religion still exists at some places between Saban and Felipe Carillo Puerto. Maybe the painting in the Santa Cruz cave depicts the Balam Na church at Chan Santa Cruz (it could of course depict other crosses as well and may be unrelated to the cruzob).

Located along the “church route” is the village and ejido of Sacalaca. It has become the basis for the CRAS project (after leaving Saban in 2007).

Welcome to Sacalaca

The colonial settlement at Sacalaca dates back to at least 1579 when there was a small chapel at the site. There are now two churches at the site. On the picture we have the southern one which has been restored in recent days (many of the churches in the Cochuah region were destroyed during the Caste War (1847-1901).

The southern church in Sacalaca

Near the northern church lies the Prehispanic acropolis of Sacalaca. It can be seen in the reconstructions in an earlier entry. Here Alberto Flores and I excavated a test pit in 2003. Most of the floor levels were Terminal Classic and we had to halt our excavations when we encountered a Late Formative stairway with thick layers of plaster.

Operation 1 at Sacalaca

Near the acropolis is a platform with an interesting subvault that ends in what appears to be a cave.

Subvault and cave(?)

East of central Sacalaca is one of the southernmost cenotes in the region. This is roughly where the Chicxulub fracture zone ends.

Cenote

During the 2008 season the Cochuah Regional Archaeological Survey (CRAS) project surveyed what was a border area during the Colonial period (1544-1821), the early Mexican independence (1821-1847) and the Caste War and its aftermath (1847-1901). From the indigenous perspective, this border appears to have been fluid, but less so for the Spaniards or at least for their political system that was tied to the agricultural and sociopolitical strategies they brought over from Europe. My hypothesis is that this situation was partly affected by the Chicxulub fracture zone, created from an asteroid impact 65 million years ago. I argue that karstic features within the Chicxulub fracture zone were important attractors in the Prehispanic settlement expansions during droughts and there is compelling evidence that these locations were not settled during the Colonial droughts. All the karstic features within the fracture zone were not formed by the effects from this impact, but at least the deeper features, such as cenotes (sinkholes with water) may have their origin in the morphology caused by the impact. There are also karstic features outside the fracture zone but they are less frequent within the research area.

The Chicxulub fracture zone and the Spanish colonial border in 1680

Settlement near karstic features, apart from cenotes, is without exception Prehispanic and not Colonial. The result of this year’s survey shows the importance of the fracture zone for the Spanish politics and its transparent nature for the indigenous population (in both Prehispanic and Colonial times). This has implications for the palaeoclimatic models since they partly work from how climate affect people today rather than taking into account past sociopolitical and economic changes that have created the contemporary situation.

Cenotes are available within the extensive Chicxulub fracture zone. The cenotes are partly formed by subsidence of the limestone that was formed on top of the impacted older bedrock. The extent of this fracture zone is still debated. Originally it was argued to have a radius of 90 km, counting from the center near the port of Chicxulub. This is the 5-km-wide band called the ring of cenotes. The ring of cenotes is permeable and affects the flow of groundwater and hydrogeologically it isolates Merida from the rest of the peninsula. This fact should also be taken into consideration since Richardson Gill uses Merida’s meteorological record from the 20th century in order to describe how droughts affect society. Areas outside Merida had access to more groundwater due to the fracture zone and hence were less affected by decreased rain (even if water levels decreased in cenotes).

Researchers have detected three other rings caused by the Chicxulub impact and the outer edge of the outer ring has a radius of roughly 170 +- 25 km. However, this is not a homogenous ring since to the west we have the Ticul fault zone that reduces the extent of the fracture zone in this area. The fracture zone extends further away to the southeast (into the Cochuah region), and possibly even more to the east. The concentric Holbox fracture zone has been suggested to be part of the greater Chicxulub fracture zone as well and this area is more than 170 km from the center of the impact. This fault zone in the Yalahau region has cenotes and wetlands.

Map of the Cochuah region after the 2008 field season

The border of the Chicxulub fracture zone (the fourth ring) cuts through the Cochuah region in between the two largest known Prehispanic sites (Ichmul to the north and Yo’okop to the south). The area within the fracture zone is the area the Spaniards controlled. If we overlay the greatest extent of the proposed fourth ring (170 km from the center) with that of Farriss’ proposed colonial border (in 1680) we see that they partially overlap in the Cochuah region. The two kinds of borders are roughly 10 km apart and neither one of them were or are clearly delimited. However, the proposed extension of 170 km does not include the cenote at Sacalaca and the large rejolladas at Chakal Ja’as and San Pablo. These karstic features are, however, within the radius proposed by Sharpton and others (1993): 145-195 km from the port of Chicxulub. The distribution of caves in the region partly follows the concentric rings of the fracture zone. Yo’aktun, the cenote at Sacalaca, Santa Cruz and Xtojil are in line. The southernmost alignment known in the region is between San Salvador, Abuelos, and Gruta de Alux. These are also aligned with the Colonial border in 1680. If these caves form the edge of the fracture zone than only Santa Rosa and Sak Chikin are truly outside the fracture zone.

In any case, the Colonial extension beyond the 170-km limit in the eastern peninsula can partially be explained by the need of a coastal control. In the interior of the peninsula, there seems to be little extension of the early Colonial border beyond the fourth ring. The fracture zone formed the border of Spanish control but it was possible for the indigenous population to move across the border during the Colonial period droughts, something pointed out by Farris. In the Cochuah region, the area south and east of the fracture zone lacked permanent water but had better agricultural opportunities due to deeper soils. This area lacks larger Colonial and Spanish derived settlement, but as the survey in 2008 shows it has several Prehispanic sites despite its lack of permanent water sources. The density of Prehispanic settlement on both sides is more or less the same.

As of yet, no cenotes have been encountered south of the fracture zone within the CRAS area (that is if we extend the fracture zone another 10 km). The Prehispanic inhabitants in the southern part of the Cochuah region used a seasonal aguada at Yo’okop and perhaps haltuns and chultuns at other sites. Two chultuns are located 250 and 600 m from the large well at Sisal. No mounds were directly associated with the chultuns in this year’s survey, with the exception of Chumkatzin. Apart from these possible water reservoirs, there are few known water sources for the inhabitants south of the fracture zone.

After a turbulent period of making arrangements, we are proud to announce that our official participation company “Orange Line Transportations” is now a fact.

Orange Line Transportations 'The easy way out'

Playa del Carmen counts since the beginning of this year with the strict local law which prohibits any company of any branch to provide touristic transportation, including PICKUPS and the actual TOURS without the explicit licensing and special service plates (Green and white plates stating: TURISMO). Especially the first meantioned service (guest pickups in the hotels) is strongly limited and excludes the use of all pickup trucks.

In the past few weeks there have been numerous cases of vehicle confiscation, (travellers aboard the vehicle) by the authorities when providers continued delivering their regular service, which caused very inconvenient situations for many people.

We considered that this is not the type of service we desire to offer, and therefore worked on the creation of a brand new company, entitled to transport anybody, anywhere within the republic.

Believing strongly in the importance of customer service, our initial policy continues to be respected; Diving is our passion, and we like to share it with you… from your hotel lobby and back.

Ask for your free hotel transportation from- and to your local hotel with an online reservation. Or be informed about our very competative rates for the resorts out of town.

las primeras ruinas mayas ke encontre la carretera… otra generación y otra imaginacion..

un cenote ke es la brutalidad…

los cenotes son cavernas donde ves el cielo y las raices de grandes arboles y entran lxs pajarxs y ademas en algunos te puedes bañar… son de agua dulce y en yucatan hay muchos… y vaya…. hermoso….

y mas arkitectura maya… las de chichenitza…. las ke me costaron 111 pesos verlas y luego carajo fotografiarme… pero era ahora o nunca… en fin….

salud por lxs mayas
buenas noches…