one of the smaller buildings at the Tulum Maya site

We hadn’t anticipated to see the sunrise, on this trip, but we did. In order to beat the tourists in Tulum, we had been advised to be on site well before 8 am, the official opening time. But that meant that we had to leave from our hotel in Coba, about an hour away, in the dark.

access to the Maya site in Tulum is colourful, if irrelevant

And indeed, this plan worked well. We were amongst the first to get our tickets, and walk into this Mayan site, unique for its location at the coast. Of course, the sun had just come up, and was now low above  and behind the most important building – not ideal for photographs. You cannot control everything. But overall the site was nice enough, with various temples spread across the mostly flat plateau, dotted with palm trees. Movement was exclusively via a network of gravel paths, most of the buildings had been roped off to avoid people climbing on, or wandering in between walls. No Indiana Jones feeling here. And the place does fill up quickly, and you know how that goes: soon there are lots of small groups, with guides talking loudly to make sure even the least-interested member of the group could hear him –always a him, never a her. People taking selfies, people taking pictures of each other, some even taking pictures focused on the buildings. Nah, no Indiana Jones feeling at all. A must-see, like all the websites and travel guides claim? Mwah, perhaps a little overrated.

one of the early visitors to the site

overview of the Tulum Maya site, with clear, roped-off paths not exactly the Indiana Jones experience

a small temple in Tulum, at the coast

the main structure, called the Castle

the Castle, from another cormer, illustrating its coastal setting

a two story building

with lots of decorations

like these corner stones

the ancient Mayas are also present, in person

flowers bring a bit of colour to the grey stones dominating Tulum

Although – as you know by now – we try as much as we can to avoid the tourist scene, our plan today is to drive along the coast and at least see Cancun – drive through -, see the strip outside Cancun with all its hotels, see how this fabulous Riviera Maya looks. Just to confirm that that is really something that would not turn us on.

Disappointing, all the way. Along the road from Tulum north-east, towards Playa del Carmen and Cancun, you never see the sea. Every patch of coast has been claimed by one or another hotel, and we pass lots of them, with the most fabulously attractive names; think of Dream Jade Resort, El Dorado Seaside Palms or Secret Jewel Beach Villas. But the hotels are mostly invisible from the road, hidden behind an entrance gate in a wall. A designer wall, perhaps, but a wall nevertheless. And right and left of the wall a barbed wire fence, or some other unfriendly construction to keep non-guests out. What is behind the wall, or the fence, remains hidden.

The country side doesn’t help. It is not particularly attractive, shrubs and shrub-like trees, of a nondescript pale green. All along the way, on the other side of the fence, as well as on the other side of the road. In fact, this is what most of Yucatan looks like, so far, the road to Coba isn’t much different. And what doesn’t help is the rubbish, sometimes more, sometimes less, but quite often not just the stuff you throw out of the window. Whole plastic bags full of rubbish find their way onto the side of the road, too.

the beach in Puerto Morelos

The first significant town we hit along the coast is Playa del Carmen. One huge tourist resort, but with mostly low-rise hotels; soulless, it what comes to mind, there is no atmosphere whatsoever. We drive into town, towards the coast, but it doesn’t get better. Worse rather, when we get to the jetty where the ferries from Cozamul, a popular island offshore, arrive. The boat that just got in dislodges the tourist groups en masse, each of them following their guide for the specific tour to the waiting busses.

The rather smaller town of Puerto Morelos is slightly better, more compact and with more live in the streets. We decide to have lunch here, in a beach restaurant, which doesn’t disappoint. But still, not for a million dollars would I spend my holidays here – by way of speech, that is…

arriving in Cancun, the road to the hotels is clearly signposted

And then Cancun. Cancun has two coasts, one on the inside of the laguna, and one along a narrow strip that separates the laguna from the Caribbean Sea. We decide to follow the narrow strip. And once again we see hardly any beach, the hotels, this time definitely visible, occupy the area between road and sand. I had expected a kind of Vegas-like string of obscene hotels (I have never been in Las Vegas), but in fact quite a few of the hotels have made an architectural effort, although whether you like the design or not is a personal matter, of course. Despite the narrow strip, the set-up is relatively spacious, with enough room for green, mostly lawns and palm trees. Throw in a few nightclubs and shopping malls, and that is Cancun for you, and everybody else here on their package deals. Disappointing, but not enough evidence to call it disgusting – although not for a million… you know.

And then it was still a long way back to our base in Coba. Whereby the landscape didn’t improve from earlier on.

this is how it looks

and this is how it looks at the other side of the lagoon

some of the hotels are actually quite attractively built

Maya masks for sale on the road to Coba

We have set up base in Coba, a little inland from the Costa Maya, with Tulum as its centre. Tulum is three things: a coastal zone full of beach hotels, an archaeological site, and the ‘pueblo’ a bit further back from the shore. We had been in Tulum for lunch, and to change money – we had run out of cash after having been robbed – literally – by the police earlier. Which made us decide to avoid Tulum all together.

long queue to enter the Tumum archaeological site

Well, almost. We still wanted to see the Tulum ruins, apparently picturesque against the background of the Caribbean Sea, so we left our base early the next day, to be at Tulum at around nine am. To beat the crowds. Right! If we had thought that our confrontation with tourism had started in Chacchoben, we need to think again. When we arrived, there was already a line of hundreds of meters for the ticket office. And, as far as I understand, Tulum is a pretty small site. Do we really need to see ruins together with all these people, probably obscuring the view, and most definitely obscuring my pictures? We turned around and left.

these are all the things you are NOT allowed to do – and some you are allowed to do – at the Xcacel turtle reserve and beach

when we arrive, an empty beach, quite something for Yucatan during tourist season

haphazard tourist struggling with fins

and the parking lot is being guarded, too

Off to our next program item, a tiny little secret beach mentioned in the Lonely Planet. A ‘contradiction in terminus’, I know, everybody reads the LP in the expectation to find that last undiscovered secret, and thus it will be overpopulated in now time. But no, when we arrived at the Xcacel beach we were the only ones, and although later more people joined, it remained the type of beach you expect from a little secret. No facilities except for some toilets, a parking, and two wooden tables in the parking where you can eat the food you brought yourself; which is not allowed on the beach, neither is any form of plastic, alcohol, stereos, and a whole lot more. This is a turtle sanctuary, and large parts have been cordoned off to protect them. I suspect the fee we pay is to support the sanctuary work, but at the same time they want to ensure the environmental integrity for those turtles. Great concept, and it works for us. White beach, clear sea water, and protected by a reef not far away, within reach of a swim. With fins and snorkel, to admire some of the corals and fishes – not as spectacular as in Haiti, across the Caribbean some years ago, but a nice enough activity for a long morning. By the time it gets too hot, we pack up our stuff and leave again, from the still remarkably underpopulated beach. So much for the tourist trap.

the ruins of Coba, or one of the many

the temple with paintings

which are all the way at the top, and not that well visible from below

one of the characteristics of Coba is its large number of stelea

some of which even somewhat decipherable

which is greatly helped by a drawing of the stelea

the ball court, one of the two in Coba, in perfect shape

with a ring, and decorations, on one side

the ring was where the ball needed to go through

We head back to Coba, not to our hotel, but to the archaeological site there, a large complex and once an important trading centre, from 600-1100 AD approximately – which is quite late, in Maya terms. Back into the trap. But it looks worse than it is, there are lots of large busses parked, but by the time we get in, halfway the afternoon, most of the big groups are leaving again. Most of the small groups, too, it looks, and at most of the buildings there are in fact very few other people. This site contains two – presumably restored – ball courts, of the type we have seen often in Guatemala, long ago. And indeed, architecturally, the site here resembles more that of Peten in Guatemala than that of Northern Yucatan, or so the text boards say. There is also a corner full of stelae, nine of them, most badly weathered. Yet from some you can actually still make out some of the figures, which is helped by detailed drawings that have been placed next to them. Others are completely undecipherable, which is probably the reason that these are not being accompanied by drawings. The highlight, though, is the large Nohoch Mul pyramid, once again forbidden to climb, but impressive enough to admire from below.

the main pyramid of Coba, called Nohoch Mul – which menas big mound, apparently

which is essentially a mound of stone

with some decoration at the top

a peaceful pool to swim

Nearby we had identified several attractive cenotes. Cenotes are sinkholes in the carbonate bedrock that underlays much of Yucatan peninsula, caused by the collapse of the surface layer. There are hundreds of cenotes here, some well-developed for tourist activity, including jumping platforms and ziplines, and bars and restaurants. Local boat tours take you to underground rivers, and to other cenotes. Other locations are more introvert, just a blue hole in the ground, where you can swim a bit, or put your snorkel on to inspect the underwater life: apparently, there is a fish that occurs in all the cenotes in Yucatan. Nicer even, sometimes the collapse has occurred in the subsurface, with creates a covered sinkhole, like the Choo Ha cenote we visited. Steep wooden stairs take you to perhaps 30 meters below the surface, where a spectacular underground lake, a bit chilly, invites you for a dip. After which you can float on your back through the cave, admiring the stalactites that hang from the ceiling. Oh, and at the end of the afternoon we were all on our own, in this magic place.

stalactites and stalacmites galore in the Choo Ha cenote

our hotel jetty at the lake of Bacalar

It is time for a day off. Bacalar is a relatively quiet town, on the side of a very pleasant lagoon, apparently showing no less than seven different colours during the year. Since we are only going to be here a day or two, we are already happy to distinguish two colours, dark- and light-blue. Somebody suggested that this was because of the presence of cenotes – the sinkholes, of which more later – under the lake. Oh, and Bacalar also has a historical tourist attraction, the Fuerte de San Filipe, an almost 300 year old fort built to defend the town against pirates that used the lagoon as a shelter. But when we turned up, well before 7 pm, the official closing time, everybody had gone home already.

But Bacalar is also being discovered by the tourists, which means that services, from hotels, waiters and whoever else, vary greatly. Luckily, in between a dip in the pool and floating in the lake we manage to locate some fabulous restaurants, with fabulous food, and even a wine list, not something very common in the average Mexican restaurant. We even managed a bottle of Mexican wine, a first for us, aptly called Castillio Rhin.

the Bacalar lake, at least two colours

but also extensively used for boating activities

the town square of Bacalar

and the towers of the fort

another view of the fort, necessarily from the outside

our first Mexican wine, appropriately called Castillio del Rhin

one of the small, neat pyramids in Chacchoben

we have beaten the tourists, so far; the only other people are the cleaners, preparing the site

and there are some people carefully restoring some of the structures

small structure at the foot of one of the temples

The long-feared confrontation with tourists came the next day, at the archaeological site of Chacchoben, which is not far from Bacalar. So far, in the Rio Bec area, we had the sites we visited almost, or entirely, for ourselves. But here quite a few cars were parked already, however, by the time we got back to the parking, 45 minutes later, the fourth and the fifth touring car just arrived, inching their way in between several parked minibuses, whilst swarms of mostly Americans hovered around the souvenir stalls. At least we still managed to see the site relatively undisturbed, but the magic of the earlier sites had gone. The path was upgraded to gravel, clearly an unnatural addition, and lots of workers were either cleaning, or restoring parts of the several pyramids and temples. The buildings and staircases were impressive enough, but the biggest attraction, according to the guide books – that these were some of the few pyramids you could climb – is no more; the stairs have been roped off, and with so many workers around, it would be futile to try to sneak up. The structures here are quite different from the ones we saw earlier this trip, in that there was no decoration at all here, just stone and stairs. I loved the little pyramid, perfectly shaped, with sharp angles, as well as the larger structures, with the round corners which, perhaps, are not so typical for the Rio Bec structures, after all.

there are also several larger structures

the Indiana Jones feeling

small flight of stairs up one of the side buildings, equally Indiana Jones-like (except the rope in front…)

another large temple with wide stairs upwards

and there they are, the masses

brought here by a fleet of busses

On our way further into Yucatan we met with one of those typical situations we are not prepared for. I drove a little too fast, true, in a town I cannot remember the name of, where a stretch of road had a maximum speed of 20 km/hr – the rest of town is 40. Sure enough a police car – which I suspect was waiting for people like me – gets on my tail, stops me, and the policeman politely tells me that I really need to respect the speed limit, you know, with schools around, children crossing the streets etc. He then tells me that he will have to give me a fine, of 2000 pesos, some 120 US$, and will have to confiscate my driver’s licence, which I will able to get back tomorrow, after a lengthy process, amongst others including a two-hour re-education course. Hmmm. This interferes badly with our plans, backtracking several hours tomorrow is not my idea of spending our time efficiently. Ahhh! But there is a solution! If I want, I can also pay the fine here and now, except that they will then not be able to write me a receipt, of course. A classical set-up. What do you do? Call their bluff? Hand over my driver’s licence? Pay up, of course, and bribe the policemen. Both of them looked pretty well-fed, so I will not have been the first one.

I hate wasting money like that. But I hate even more that I contribute to such a despicable system. Makes me feel bad for the rest of the day. Next time, I’ll tape the conversation. And then play it back to the policemen, and ask them for 2000 pesos.

a decorated, and still partly painted, doorway at one of the Maya sites in the Rio Bec area

There are innumerable Maya sites, big and small, stretching from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala to the south of Mexico. The Yucatan peninsula has probably the highest density of sites; many exquisite Maya settlements, large and small. And Ruta 186, the road that cuts across the beginning of the peninsula, from west to east, through what has become known as the Rio Bec area, is as good a start any anywhere.

We start off from Emiliano Zapata, the town named after the famous Mexican revolutionary, who helped overthrow the dictatorial Porfirio Diaz at the beginning of the 20th Century, over improving rights for the poor farmers and reforming land distribution. The day is miserable, overcast and raining almost continuously; the road is almost empty, a two-lane affair with patches full of significant potholes, where everybody steers around liberally. No matter if there is traffic coming from the other way. The trucks we encounter are massive, huge nine-axle monsters, all of them in a hurry. They see nothing wrong in overtaking a slower comrade. Again, no matter if there is traffic coming from the other way. The two-lane road including shoulders is wide enough for three vehicles, including trucks, next to each other, and you just have to adjust to using the full width of the tarmac. Do in Mexico as the Mexican do.

the entrance to the Maya plaza in Balamku, the round corners apparently characteristic for the Rio Bec architecture

it’s official: we have arrived in the Maya area

Towards midday we reach our first Maya site of the trip, Balamku. This fairly small site, the first in the Rio Bec area, is not very popular with tourists, and unjustly so. There are several groups of buildings, some better preserved than others, some better excavated than others, which is pretty much typical for most Maya sites. In fact, three architectural groups have been identified, but one has not even been excavated yet, a situation we will encounter in many more sites to come, suggesting that archaeological discoveries here have not been exhausted yet. The buildings so far unearthed date from 300 BC to about 800 AD; the site was abandoned around 1000 AD, as so many sites, for unknown reasons.

the main Balamku pyramid

But Balamku’s fame comes from a rare series of stucco friezes at the far end of the site, over 15 meters long and 1.7 meters high. It has been described as ‘the death and rebirth of Maya kings as the sun god, traveling into and out of the watery underworld’, something I didn’t manage to recognise myself when I stood in front; I had already difficulty picking out the snakes and the frogs in the frieze, but a helpful guide pointed out several of the details. Even without fully understanding it, this is a beautiful piece of artwork, dating from the 6th Century AD.

inside the pyramid, extensive stucco works

with one of the more-than-life size images

and another one

with decorations underneath

and apart from us, almost no other visitors!

And then for the bad news: we learn in the local village that Calakmul, the most important Maya site in this area, rivalling Tikal and Palenque, is already closed for the day, and also closed the next day – every Monday in February – because of works. And we are not going to wait for Tuesday. Pitty, but there are enough other sites to discover, no doubt.

every Maya site, also here in Xpujil, has stairs to access a building

We base ourselves in the small town of Xpujil – I know, Mexican names are impossible to pronounce, this, apparently, needs to sound like Shpoo-heel. Not a very exciting place, a typical rural town with low-rise buildings, mostly ugly square houses and shops, or combinations of the two.

But Shpoo-heel is also home to a Maya complex, Xpujil, which is known for its three-tower structure, at the far end of the complex. Quite a structure it is, including its decorations at the back of the middle tower, in which some sources have recognised a jaguar. There are several other structures scattered around, and the site is – like so many of the sites we will visit – very well arranged, with a non-invasive path – no tarmac, but stones and earth – winding through the jungle, that leads past each of the areas of interest.

and in some cases their are still extensive paint remains

some steps into a temple have been intricately dcorated

the Xpujil main temple, with its three towers

the back of the middle tower is decorated, with a giant mask

admittedly, colour is hard to find in these grey-stone dominated sites

the Chicanna site has several larger temples, this is one of them

here, too, paint remains and wall decorations

another of the Chicanna temples

again, decorations everywhere, like here the side pillars

and further wall decorations

A little backtracking brings us to Chicanna, once again well organised with a well-laid out, but humble path past the various structures. Despite it being just a short drive from Xpujil, and only a short distance from the main Ruta 186, we are the first once here, today, and we have the site for ourselves. There are several large buildings, with towers and elaborate decorations; the highlight is a beautiful doorway with sculpturing to the left, to the right and above the door. Chicanna, only discovered in 1966, is interpreted as a residential site for the elite, and was occupied from 300 AD to 250 BC.

the most curious building in Chicanna, with a top section full of windows

and the walls, next to the door, once again decorated

and always stairs, in between the various buildings (also Chicanna)

access road to Hormiguero, once a two-lane road, not weeds encroaching such that it is barely one lane

Hormiguero takes a bit more effort to get to. We take a road to the south, and then another road, tarmacked but potholed, and in several places the two lanes that had been reduced to barely one lane, inching our car in between the yellow weeds. We are not just the first ones today, but likely the only ones. Entrance is free, yet, once again the site is well laid out, and the now familiar path leads past a number of fabulous buildings, with the main pyramid more elaborately decorated than we have seen so far. Incredible that such a site, such a splendour, is hardly being visited – because there is so much more to see, I suppose.

the main structure at Hormiguero

with wall decorations

and round towers

another temple at Hormiguero, completely covered in decorations

like this round side pillar

the early Maya must have been pretty small…

As usual, we have spent much more time than planned at the various Rio Bec sites. To add insult to injury, we find out that Mexico actually has several time zones, and that Quintana Roo, the province we have just entered, is one hour ahead. Which means that by the time we reach Kohunlich, another site we wanted to see, it is almost closing. We skip it, also because the Ruta 186 has turned into a nightmare; yesterday, Sunday, was fairly quiet – and yet stressful because of the driving style -, today, Monday, the road is cloaked with trucks, many of which are supporting the two major infrastructure projects here, a new motorway and the Tren Maya, a railway project – the current president’s pet project, apparently – trying to connect various places in Yucatan. Meant to provide transport for the poor, although I understand that the poor will not be able to afford the ticket prices, by a long shot. The truck carry materials for the projects, which have access roads every few kilometers, or so, manned by traffic wardens that stop the cars if a truck needs to turn off, or onto the road. Which doesn’t do much for our progress, and that of everybody else.

the Olmecs’ most characteristic artefact are the colossal heads, like this one on the Zocalo of Santiago Tuxla

The reason for our relatively slow progress towards Yucatan is the Olmecs; Mexico’s first well organized civilisation, which started around 3000 years ago (dates vary wildly in the literature), and according to archaeologists provided the basis, in terms of religion, science, architecture and art, for the subsequent indigenous cultures. As far as physical remains are concerned, the Olmecs are particularly famous for the ‘cabezas colosales’, their colossal heads. A total of seventeen have been found, probably representing powerful local rulers, and they are all different, meticulously carved from basalt. Some have suffered from weathering, but all of them – well, the few we have seen, so far – have a delicate facial expression, very personal. First time we came across them was 20 years ago, when we visited the Parque La Venta in Villahermosa, where four of them are exposed, together with other Olmec stone artefacts, along the walking paths through the park.

The Olmecs were confined, as far as we know, to the area around Veracruz, in the Southeast of Mexico, just before entering the Yucatan peninsula. As we are heading that way, we might as well take a look. Two major Olmec localities are La Venta, the centre of power from 800-400 BC, and Tres Zapotes, which dominated slightly later.

the Tres Zapotas museum

In Tres Zapotes there is no archaeological site to visit, only the museum. Which has a collection of Olmec artefacts from huge to tiny, all found in the vicinity. Of course, we first concentrate on the colossal head, Cabeza Colosal Numero Uno, proudly exhibited. This was the first head to be discovered, in Tres Zapotes in 1938 – although apparently, it had been found before, in 1882, but at the time not well documented and not publicised. It is 1.5 meters high and weights almost 8 tons; it is still unclear how on earth the Olmecs managed to transport the basalt from its source, probably some 150 kms away. It is thought to represent the ruler, at the height of his power. But there is lots more to admire, from huge stelae and roughly hewn figures, which are not always equally clear about subject matter, to very delicate, little sculptures, of heads, of people. The guide claims that those are the commoners, as opposed to the rulers depicted by the heads, but I have so my doubts. Many of the tiny heads are also decorated with headdresses, and as a minimum well-coiffed, which I suppose was not something common people did. All together a lovely small museum.

this is one of the colossal heads

with a real expression of his face

these photos illustrate how the head was found and recovered, in the 1930s

monumento G in the museum, a sculpture with head looking up

a butterfly creates a welcome contrast with the dark basalt of Olmec artefacts

apart from the big head, there are numerous small, tiny heads, too

a small face, from different material, but similarly decorated

like this one, with impressive hair-do

or this, apparently with jewellery on the forehead

and this, with intricate earlobes

the pyramid of La Venta, now overgrown, and several stellea

the stairs to the top of the pyramid, no doubt a recent addition

outside in La Venta, finally some colour

two of the monuments on one side of the museum outside

of which one is another colossal head

La Venta is an actual archaeological site, where we can roam around, climb the pyramid – overgrown with grass and trees, nothing like the impressive stone monuments of the Aztecs and the Maya, but still some 30 meters high. To protect the artefacts, what we see outside are replicas, but carved from the same basalt, and made to look as old as the original. I recognise the one colossal head we have seen long ago in the park in Villahermosa, where the original is being kept. And at the far end of the site are three more, equally impressive (even though these, too, are replicas – I am sure I would not see the difference if they are placed next to the original). There are some smaller figures, and lots of basalt pillars, or parts thereof, are scattered around, once no doubt part of a more impressive structure. Tracks lead into the jungle, where more artefacts, like a huge altar, can be found under the trees. The small on-site museum has a few more pieces, and these are the originals.

two of the three colossal heads at the far end of the outdoor space of the museum

this is one of them

this another, somewhat less expressive

and the third, look at those eyes!

one of the artefacts on the other side of the museum

a collection of small heads in the La Venta museum

two of them, in close-up

and one in more detail

well, and another one, too

this is a recurring theme in more museums, woman and child

part of the museum is in the jungle

but the jungle also harbours more colourful elements

where an altar was dicovered, still in place

the colossal head inside the Santiago Tuxla museum

also with an impressive expression

a stadard bearer, from somewhere 1500-900 AD; note the folded arms

a stone mask from the Olmecs, quite different from the colossal heads

a lovely sculpture, I think Olmec, in the Santiago Tuxla museum

four more smaller heads

A third museum, as well as the largest colossal head, is to be found in Santiago Tuxla, where we spent the night. The head on the village square is some 3.4 meters high; the smallest heads in the museum, once again very well laid out, are in the order of a few centimetres. In addition, there are lots of other artefacts, including a second colossal head found near Tres Zapotes, several other large-scale basalt sculptures, as well as delicate earthenware, suggesting a high level or artistic capacity already early on in Mexican history. And this is all original stuff! Or so they say.

Most of the Olmec artefacts, whether sculptures or clay figures, are focussed on the human figure, others are anthropomorphic and zoomorphic. Very few are of realistic animals. Nowhere mentioned in the museums, but unmistakable, are the almond-shaped eyes in many of the faces, whether colossal or tiny, although mainstream scientists discard an Asian origin.

What is striking, is that these artefact were already appreciated very long ago; some have been found a 1000 years after they were produced, in Aztec and Maya offerings.

We were going to re-visit the Parque Archaeologico in Villahermosa, the park where we were first confronted with these remarkable artefacts 20 years ago, but unfortunately, the park is closed for remodelling, so we have to skip this. But we will try to visit the museum in Xalapa, on the way back to Mexico City, where another seven original colossal heads are displayed.

once more, the head in Santiago Tuxla, the biggest one discovered so far

the little church of Chachalacas, on our way south of Mexico City, to Yucatan

We arrived in Mexico City alright, after a long 12 hour flight. We found the hotel we had booked, and the next day we managed to pick up the car we had rented, all without serious hick-ups. And we started our drive south, direction Yucatan – which means that we shelved our plan to head north-east first, to visit a weird, surrealistic kind of architectural sculpture park, called Las Pozas. This will have to wait for a future visit, we have to make choices.

South thus, direction Yucatan, but that’s far too far to do in one, or even two days. We could have flown, of course, and rent a car locally, but I like the flexibility of a car from the start, and the slow – or, at least, slower – pace of travel that comes with that. Besides, you see a lot more, and that is exactly our experience from the first day. Just outside Mexico City, or CDMX, as it is called, the country side is dry, dusty, and not very attractive. Roads are busy, and the main road passes through villages and towns, which invariably means the topes: Mexicans, or at least their government, are obsessed with slowing down traffic, and they have all kinds of ways to achieve that. The most efficient is the tope, an obscenely high traffic ramp, sometimes clearly marked, sometimes not at all, many of which can only be negotiated at snail’s pace, anything more is an attack on the suspension and on the bottom plate of the car. But efficient it is, and our progress is indeed a lot less than initially anticipated.

Popocatepetl volcano, outside Mexico City, in the hazy distance

a toll station, with another small volcano in the back

A little outside CDMX we spot some volcanoes, a familiar sight, from 20 years ago. The 5426 m high Popocatepetl majestically towering above all others, and another one actually smoking – but it is hazy, and they are pretty far away.

By now we have hit a motorway, or rather, patches of motorway, for which one has to pay toll. This is a major improvement, on the one hand because the road is mostly much better, and on the other because lots of people avoid the toll, and take a parallel road free of charge. Which makes our toll road nice and quiet.

landscape with cacti

The landscape changes, and we cruise through mountains, resulting in a significant drop in temperature. The slopes are covered in trees, including fields of cacti, and somewhat later – and higher – pines, agreeably green, after the dusty plains outside CDMX. The sky, hitherto bright blue, develops some clouds, we even drive through fog in the higher, and more coastal oriented parts of the mountain range.

By the time we have dropped to sea level, the country side has changed once more. We are near the Gulf of Mexico now, and roads are lined with palm trees. Sugarcane is a dominant crop, here, and it is harvesting time: truck are driving up and down with enormous loads of chopped cane, but a lot is still on the fields. Excitingly tropical. A far cry from the miserable weather back in Western Europe.

one of the huge sugercane-carrying trucks

and another, next to a now empty wagon

it is watermelon season

Half-way the afternoon we stop in Chachalacas, which has a pleasant hotel with pool, location at the river mouth, and a significant permanent mosquito population. We take a late afternoon stroll through the village, which is obviously geared towards tourism, but now there are none. The boats that provide river cruises lay idle, the beach chairs are unused, thatched umbrellas are empty. But everybody is friendly, good-humoured, in for a chat – some are disappointed that we, obvious Gringos, actually speak Spanish, they had hoped to show off their English skills. Only problem is the sheer total lack of wine in the shops, let alone the restaurants and the bars. This may actually turn out to be another hardship trip!

a street in Chachalacas, with several hotels

pineapple girl in the village

fishing cum tourist boats in the estuary of Chachalacas

beach infrastructure in Chachalacas

the zocalo of Santiago Tuxla

The next day we continue, through more tropical countryside – more sugarcane, palm trees, the inevitable bananas. Further mountain roads, winding through ever denser forest, approaching jungle. Quite nice, actually, and away from the main motorway. We end up at Santiago Tuxla, a small town with a charming centre around a bright municipality building and a church from 1890, with our period hotel squeezed in between. With a few hours spare, to enjoy a walk through town, and a beer on our hotel patio. Did I say hardship?

laundry in one of the villages

Yucatan is Maya country. Not so much in the Costa May, which stretches south of Cancun and has very little to do with the largest indigenous group of people in Mexico, but more in its many discovered, and probably even more undiscovered – jungle covered – Maya archaeological sites (as you know, the word ‘ruins’ is inappropriate since we have a niece with a degree in archaeology).

What was it again, with the Olmecs, the Toltecs, the Aztecs and the Maya? All those indigenous civilizations that are collectively referred to as pre-Columbian – the last term in itself is incredible, but probably useful: subdividing the history in before and after the arrival of the ‘conquistadores’ that followed in the tracks of Christopher Columbus and his ‘discovery’ of the New World in 1492. But then, I suspect nowhere else in the world was the impact of the arrival of a couple of strangers so profound. And that all thanks to the obsession of one man!

Anyhow, long before the ‘conquistadores’, people already arrived in what is now Mexico. The first of note was the Olmec civilisation, from the Preclassic or Formative era, say 2500 BC to 250 AD. They already had a fairly complex society, and their art, architecture, religious beliefs and cultural practices are believed to be at the base of the later Mesoamerican civilizations. They are best known for their colossal heads, sculptured from basalt, with flat noses, prominent lips, and almond-shaped eyes. We have seen some of those in Villahermosa, 20 years ago.

Olmec basalt head in Parque La Venta, Villahermosa

one of the Aztec pyramids in Teotihuacan, not far from Mexico City

The Olmecs were already in decline, for reasons still unknown – perhaps environmental decline, social unrest, or pressure from outside -, when Teotihuacan was established in Central Mexico, as the first truly great urban society, perhaps 100,000 people. Cosmopolitan, multi-cultural and an economic powerhouse, it dominated what is now known as the Classic period, from around 250-900 AD. The most impressive remains are the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon, north of Mexico City (which we also admired, 20 years ago), but its architecture also influenced the Classic Maya constructions as far south as Guatemala. Unfortunately, because of the absence of written records, there is little known about its people and its rulers, neither about it sudden decline in about 650 AD – which had an dampening effect on many other cities in the region.

Further south, in Guatemala and Honduras, and in Yucatan and Southern Mexico, the Maya civilisation flourished. Its origins from perhaps 2000 BC, the Mayas reached their height also in the Classic period, through impressive city states with monumental structures, including temples, palaces, and observatories, ruled by divine kings who claimed to have descended from gods. They performed elaborate rituals, including bloodletting, human sacrifice, and ceremonial ball games, to communicate with the gods and ensure the well-being of their communities. At the same time they also advanced in areas such as architecture, mathematics, astronomy, art, and hieroglyphic writing; they established one of the few fully developed writing systems in pre-Columbian America. And yet, they, too, mysteriously declined at the end of the Classic period, except that in Yucatan, perhaps through the injection of new ideas, perhaps from invaders, they revived their culture again, and built new cities whilst old ones were abandoned. The most impressive site there, Chichen Itza, is such a later complex, whilst others, like Copan and Calakmul, all in our plans, failed. We plan to see all of those, this time around.

Maya site Palenque, in Mexico

prime Maya site Tikal, in Guatemala, in the late sunlight

The decline of most of the Classic era Maya civilizations may have been due to agricultural failure, or ecological disaster; trade disruption has been suggested, because of increasing political instability, and warfare between the city states for control over territory and resources which may have led to people loosing faith in their rulers, perhaps even rebellion. Rapid population growth and urbanization, leading to pressure on resources and strains on social structures, may have led to increasing inequality, with a ruling elite losing control, resulting in social unrest and resentment among the population, which lost faith in their local leaders. Sounds familiar?

Quetzalcoatl, on one of the complexes in Teotihuacan

The Post-Classic period, from 900 AD until 1521, when the Spanish subjugated the Aztecs, saw initially an influx from the north, several wandering tribes invading the Mexican realm, which was weakened by its collapsing polities. The Toltecs were amongst the first to arrive, and dominated from 950-1150 AD. They were the more militaristic than earlier Mesoamerican civilizations, and also the most blood thirsty, practicing human sacrifice on a much larger scale than had been seen before. Most importantly, though, they introduced the legend of Quetzalcoatl, a feathered serpent deity.

The Aztecs, but also the remaining Maya civilisations, incorporated Quetzalcoatl in their own religion. Especially the Aztecs (also called the Mexica) revered the Toltecs, from whom they claimed direct descent, and to whom they attributed artistic, scientific and religious developments – in reality, the Toltecs copied almost everything from earlier civilizations. The Aztecs established themselves in Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City, and through alliances with neighbouring cities, flowed by a militaristic expansion policy and the introduction of an elaborate tribute system – securing their wealth – managed to create the most formidable Mexican empire.

And then Hernan Cortes landed in Mexico, burnt his ships so there was no way back, and with 550 men, a few horses, a pack of killer dogs and one canon, defeated the Aztec emperor Moctezuma. Helped by alliances with local tribes that were fed up with the Aztec dominance, but also helped by the religious belief that Quetzalcoatl – who was fair-skinned and bearded, and who had vanished to the east – was about to return, which made Moctezuma hesitate when he had the chance to eliminate the invaders.

And the rest is history. Post-Columbian history, I would say.

We’re leaving tomorrow!

Twenty years ago we went to Mexico, – during my working life, so a fairly short and efficient three weeks trip only. We spent a few days in Mexico City, that vast urban sprawl with a whole range of fabulous and varied attractions, after which we rented a car and drove south, to Puebla and Oaxaca to Chiapas. And saw quite a few Maya ruins, including Palenque. But because of time limitations we didn’t get to Yucatan, the vast peninsula that protrudes west into the Gulf of Mexican to the north and Caribbean Sea to the south. Beach paradise, fringed by the second-largest reef in the world, and covered in thick jungle where more and more Mayan ruins are being discovered and cleared. Also: Tourist destination par excellence.

And that last bit concerns me a little. It is time to return to Mexico, and to Yucatan in particular, but the five star hotels and the discotheques, in Cancun and what has become known as the Costa Maya, the smell of sunscreen, the whole tourism business, that unnerves me: I am not looking forward to that. And February/March is high season…

Anyhow, we are going to try to find the undiscovered parts of Yucatan, the smaller archaeological sites that have not yet been included on the bus tours, the cenotes – crystal blue sinkholes – without the zip lines and multi-colour light shows, located slightly further away from the main roads. Maybe a slightly more upmarket no-kids-allowed hacienda for a few days, or an early morning visit to one of the bird reserves, beating the crowds. Or are we just kidding ourselves? Are we just voluntarily going to subject ourselves to that most horrible of experiences, caught in the holiday traps of prime mass-tourism? The very thing we try to avoid at all times?

Actually, Yucatan is quite big. We will be renting a car again, so we maybe able to escape the worst areas. With so many Mayan sites, there must be a few quieter ones around. With over 1100 km of coastline, there ought to be space for our beach towels, too. And if all fails, we are at least looking forward to meeting up with old friends, again, which no doubt is sufficient compensations for the potential vacation misery we have called over ourselves.

the plan, counter-clockwise through Yucatan

Even though I have been working on the site for almost ten years now, it is still very much work in progress. Here you’ll find what’s new on theonearmedcarb.com (and when I added it).

The small, private museum No Hero, in the town of Delden in the east of The Netherlands, presented an interesting and thought-provoking exhibition from April 2023 to April 2024, of paintings – and some sculptures – from the former DDR. Called ‘Die Uberraschung’ – the Surprise -, it shows some 60 works by East German artists from before and after the demise of communism and the fall of the Berlin Wall, or at least it claims to do so.

visitor reflected in the door bearing the name of the museum
the museum, an attractive large mansion, with a work from the permanent collection in front
another permanent work in the garden, seemingly appropriate: a metal army jacket, which I could associate with the DDR
Volker Stelzmann’s ‘Strasse XX’, not a scene I would associate with communist-controlled subjet matter in the DDR (no year given)
Rolf Handler’s ‘Beschneidung der Engel’ (1987), wings being clipped, whilst more angles attempt to cross the Berlin wall in the back
‘Polit-Zirkus’ – political circus -, painted in 1982 by Hans Ticha: a critical message?

And there are indeed works from before 1989, but in reality most works are from after 1989 (I haven’t dome a statistical analysis, but it seems to me the vast majority). Which is by no means a judgement on quality; as the museum owner and curator (?) explains in a video, artists in the DDR were taught a vocation, were trained thoroughly in painting techniques, and were capable professionals – which he, although not with so many words, contrasts with the leading trend in the West at the time, of conceptualism, where accurate figurative representation was not so important anymore. And the artists of the former DDR are clearly talented, no doubt. But it would have been interesting to also compare the subject matter, in how far artists were limited by the political regime, and whether they were trying to find the limits of what was permissible. And how that looks like, today.

The comment in the curator’s video, that they were not suddenly painting other things after the wall came down, is not convincing enough: I wonder whether a painting like  ‘Strasse XX’, by Volker Stelzmann, would have been acceptable at the time, depicting transvestites and gaudily dressed women (unfortunately, this work is one of the few without the year it was painted). Rolf Handler’s 1987 painting ‘Beschneidung der Engel’ (Circumcision of the Angel) does seem to be substantially critical, depicting an angel whose wings are being clipped, to be interpreted as the inability to escape from the DDR, and at the same time as the straightjacket applied in the west for those who fled the east. And what to make from Bernard Heisig’s 1979 work ‘Hure, Morder und Soldaten’. Propaganda? Hans Ticha, with ‘Polit-Zirkus’ does seem to be voicing criticism, as early as 1982, if only in the title of the work.

My favourites are some of the more modern works, 21st-century. Below a few examples.

a 1979 work, ‘Hure, Morder und Soldaten’, from Bernard Heisig, perhaps a prostitute giving birth to soldiers? Around the shoulders of the woman are numbered soldiers – if you zoom in – but one could either be nr 8, or – I think – wearing a Nazi symbol (not really visible on this photo)
‘Kabarettisten’, oil on hardboard from 1995, by Norbert Wagenbrett
view of one of the rooms, really nicely done
‘Der Schausteller’, a painting by from 1992 by Hubertus Giebe
and a detail from the same
another great work by Hubertus Giebe, ‘ Die Mauer’ (The Wall, 2004) definitely not acceptable before the Wende – the fall of the wall
detail of the same, illustrating the technical capacity of the artist
and another detail, most certainly unacceptable to the communists
and a third detail, a bandaged child (?)
Gerhard Altenbourg made this lovely ‘Spatzieren einher’ (1984), which means Walking Along
the night train of Ralf Kerbach, ‘Nachtzug Germania’ (2012), perhaps with a symbolic German eagle?
and a detail of the main character
as well as of the hammer and sickel, discarded at a small table
one of my favourite artists in the exhibition, Werner Liebman, who painted ‘Braut’ – Bride – as recently as 2020
and this one is even better! Werner Liebman’s ‘Das Taschen’ – the handbag, which has been reduced to a minor detail – (2021)
‘Eninnerung an Bagdad’ (1987), from Stefan Plenkers, almost entirely abstract, although the occasional person, building and palm tree can be recognised
Trak Wendisch, painter and sculpturer at the same time, made this ‘Kleine Fischtragerin’ in bronze (1997)