Itching and Scratching Our Way Through Mexico...

Mexico is home to lots of creepy crawly things, some of which we have in the states, some off which we don't. Lots of insects, mosquitoes, biting flies, and other biting bugs. And scorpions, of course.

We pretty much have itched our way, especially our ankles, through Mexico.

Recently, while we were still in the rain forest, J got some kind of super-irritating rash growing around his eye. We weren't sure if it was a rash, or a mite living in his skin, or what…

We went to doctor, who diagnosed it as a rash, and prescribed a couple of pretty gentle topical treatments. The doctor cost $25. The prescriptions $10.

J's face is slowly, steadily, clearing up. Here are some photos of the patient. He has been a trooper. The rash has been itchy and a little gooey. Yum!

Remember those scary photos from your high school "health education" class?

Mexico's National Elections - July 1

Mexico will hold it's elections on Sunday, July 1. This seems to be all offices, at all levels - President, federal senators and representatives, and state and local offices too. Here is my quick, poorly informed take on Mexican politics in 2012.

Our whole time in Mexico has been 'blessed' with lots of roadside banners, painted walls, and VW bugs with large, low quality speakers mounted on the rack blasting the virtues of one candidate or another. Because not everyone reads the paper (can read the paper) or has access to television, lots of campaigning happens here on the streets: signs, speakers, billboards, etc. This public space communication is far more prevalent (and thus more annoying…) than in the states.

This is a big election cycle because a new President will be elected. This only happens every six years. A president in Mexico can only serve one term.

The state and evolution of Mexico's democracy is very much a topic of discussion in the media - that it has made strides in recent decades, but that it also has a long ways to go. What is interesting for me is that the state of democracy in Mexico is an explicit discussion - with prescriptions for what is still needed, and what still imperils it. (This is hardly a discussion in big media the United States, but so very necessary today, in my humble opinion...).

Since the Mexican Revolution nearly 100 years ago, until the 1990s, Mexico's "democracy" has stretched the limits of the definition of the word. It has been one-party rule by PRI - Partido Revolucionario Institucional. Other parties did not exist or were irrelevant. Reforms in the 1980s laid the groundwork for the evolution of multiple competing parties. Vicente Fox's election in 2000 was considered historic, since PRI (I think that he was with PAN) lost for the first time since its inception 70+ years prior.

Mexico still has a ways to go. One example: A number of different people independently have described to us how the votes of people who fail to vote in an election get assigned to PRI candidates. This sounds completely ridiculous, but several different people have described this, saying that it is thus really important that everyone vote, or your vote will be used by others.

My impression is that while the economy seems pretty stable here, without extreme swings up or down (nor is it growing or accessible to many), most people have little faith that politics can improve their lives. The last Presidential election is considered by many to be fraudulent (a large number of votes disappeared and reappeared with a different, ultimately winning candidate (Calderon) in the lead), and there is little faith that the people's choice will actually win, or much change will occur. In this final week before the election, lots of papers and media are urging people to stand by election outcomes, apparently anticipating dissatisfaction. Interestingly, though there seems to be less calls for election transparency and integrity.

There are four Presidential candidates competing in the election:

Enrique Pena Nieto: PRI (leading in the polls according to the media), described by many as a return to the old days; would rollback progressive reforms from the last 2 decades. Good-looking and telegenic. Interestingly, the Green Party has aligned itself with Pena Nieto. Not sure of their strength here in Mexico, or their platform.
Manuel Lopez Obrador: Many consider him the legitimate winner of the previous election. He represents the Left, PRD.
Josefina Mota: She represents the party of the current President, PAN. super-conservative. People are not happy with current Adminstration (Calderon) so she seems an unlikely candidate to win. TO note, she is the first female Presidential candidate in Mexico.
Quadri: the far left candidate, I think, polling in single digits. Not competitive.

Looks like Pena Nieto will win. Many people we talk to distrust the polls that show him in the lead, that the polls/media are setting up for a fraudulent outcome before election day.

Tight media control, and the media's collaboration with powerful parties and interests is a big concern of many people in Mexico. Think of two Fox News stations collaborating with the Republicans in the United States, and no other significant national media presence. It indeed appears a serious problem. The internet as a source of independent information is really critical, but still inaccessible to many, many people in Mexico.

Anyways, that's my quick take. On July 1, we'll know more. It will certainly be interesting to be here for the election. Some people are anticipating unrest. I think that it unlikely, but what do I know...?

Below are some photos from a rally in the zocalo in San Cristobal the evening that we left.

Manuel Velasco - just 32 years old; never held elective office; is running for governor of the state of Chiapas representing the PRI. He obviously has the backing of big money, since his picture is ALL over Chiapas. Amy and I thought his banner photos were a little creepy, frankly, but that's just us...

Agua Azul and the Zapatista Territory

On our final day with the little Mexican rental car, we left Misol Ha, drove through Zapatista country to visit El Parque de Agua Azul, and return to San Cristobal.

Agua Azul featured a long walk next to a river with a series of beautiful cascades and pools. Almost the entire walk was accompanied by little restaurants, and booths selling souvenirs, sliced fruits, textiles, etc. Not exactly a wilderness experience... And because of the recent rains, the agua was not azul - but more of a murky brown-green.

Some will remember the Zapatista Uprising that began on January 1, 1994 in Chiapas. Commandante Marcos was the movement's charismatic, media-savvy spokesperson who helped garner international attention for months. The goals of the armed uprising by mostly indigenous Mayan people here in the mountains of Chiapas was the pursuit of basic human rights: food, housing, land, heath care, increased political autonomy and access the economic pie; ultimately a re-making of democracy in Mexico by establishing a new civil society where all the people of Mexico were active, empowered participants, not the heavily entrenched parties. The movement's leaders hoped their activities would trigger similar uprisings all over Mexico. While there was significant popular support for the Zapatista's goals and there was/is broad discontent with the political and economic system in Mexico, the uprising did not spread. There was no national appetite for armed revolution.

The 1994 uprising took over San Cristobal and a number of other smaller communities. The conflict drew international attention (something the Mexican elite are very sensitive to) and created a dialogue for many months, but the government did a good job of defusing the situation by making promises and starting "talks" with the Zapatistas. As talks replaced the armed uprising, media attention faded, and in the end, very little appears to have changed. I have not quite been able to figure out exactly where Marcos is today.

When one visits Chiapas, it is easy to see why this movement originated here. There is indeed tremendous poverty and inequality. Today, I have the impression that Zapatista organizing and activities continue, though it is not particularly visible or impactful at this point.

The main falls of Agua Azul.

The family at the falls. Liesl scratching bug bites on her legs - lots of scratching bug bites in Mexico.

We walked the trail until it ended; there was a defunct cable crossing structure on the bank of the river. The cart is behind the cement base.

This was a roadside sign on our way back to San Cristobal. "You are in Zapatista territory in rebellion. Here, the local community is in control. The government obeys."

Mountainous tropical landscape.

One of the key demands of the Zapatistas was land redistribution. Land resources have been dominated by people of Spanish/European descent (and their ancestors) since the Conquest 500 years ago. The original inhabitants have very little access to land. Over the last century or so, very small land redistributions have occurred, and some recently, in response to the Zapatista demands. These new communities and lands given to indigenous people are often called 'ejidos'. We saw a number of these signs in travels through Chiapas. From what I understand, these lands are often small in size, in the mountainous areas, not prime growing lands, and far from markets. Better than nothing, perhaps, but it is hard to see how this could address the larger set of issues...

Palenque!

We drove from Misol Ha thirty minutes to Palenque. We started in the museum, then we went to the ruins themselves, after, of course, some delicious, cheap, roadside tacos, mango, and tamales. We hired another great guide, Edgar, and shared him for two hours with a couple from Australia.

Here are some quick facts about Palenque:

***It was a Mayan city-state that flourished in the 7th century. The Palenque ruins date back to 226 BC to its fall around 1123 AD.

***Palenque is a medium-sized site, much smaller than such huge sites as Tikal or Copan, but it contains some of the finest architecture, sculpture, roof comb and bas-relief carvings that the Mayans produced.

***Historians now have a long sequence of the ruling dynasty of Palenque in the 5th century and extensive knowledge of the city-state's rivalry with other states such as Calakmul and Tonina.

***The discovered area covers just 1 sq. mile, but it is estimated that less than 5% of the total area of the city is explored, leaving more than one thousand structures still covered by jungle!

***An ancient name for the central core of the city currently consolidated was Lakam Ha, which translates as "Big Water", for the numerous springs and wide cascades that are found within the site.

***One of the main figures responsible for rebuilding Palenque and for a renaissance in the city's art and architecture is also one of the best-known Maya leaders - Pakal, who ruled from 603 to 683. At the time Alberto Ruz Lhuillier excavated Pakal's tomb it was the richest and best preserved of any scientifically excavated burial then known from the ancient Americas.

Liesl and Jeremiah in Palenque museum.

Everything in the museum was found on the grounds of Palenque. This was a fearsome representation of a Mayan God, in a sitting (meditation?) position.

J is in front of a model of the main palace that we would soon visit.

These are reproductions of Mayan hieroglyphs - part symbol, part word or part of word (syllable) that could be read (I think) left to right, top to bottom. Mayans filled their palaces,stellae (large, public stone monuments), etc with these hieroglyphs to record history. The elites in many of these big city states created huge books, codices, that recorded their histories: leadership, religion, astronomy, warfare, etc. Only a very few of these codices remain, as everything else was destroyed by the Europeans. What is amazing is that these hierglyphs have been slowly deciphered over time. Today, virtually all these glyphs can be read, and this has deepened profoundly our understanding of the Maya and history and development.

They are pictures, complicated pictures that represent words, ideas, and/or syllables.

Pictures of leaders engaged in specific activities are often coupled with glyphs to explain what is happening and when (in accordance with the Maya calendar, of course). Based on our understanding of these symbols, we know, for example, on what day and year specific elites were born, ascended the throne, succeeded in warfare, married, died, etc.

This is a perfect replica of King Pakal's sarcophagus. Made of solid stone, it measures roughly 2 meters by 4 meters. The top and bottom together weigh roughly 30 tons. The tomb of Pakal, Palenque's grandest leader, was only discovered in the last several decades, deep inside a pyramid tomb that he modestly built for himself before he died. This sarcophagus is covered with symbols of agricultural gods - for maize, corn, avocado, nance, and others. It was intended as an offering to the agricultural gods, to encourage their blessings. For the leaders of settlements like Palenque, the line between humans and gods was blurred. These leaders were physical manifestations of gods on earth.

This shows Edgar, explaining the Palace of the Skull. Palenque was abandoned in the 12th Century. Locals knew of it, and showed the Spaniards in the 16th century, but they were not impressed - no gold! It was "rediscovered" in the 1920s, when locals led Franz Blom, a European explorer and archeologist to the area.

The skull, in the palace of the skull.

J in front of Pakal's tomb on the left. On the right, under tarps, is a brand new operation that began just two weeks ago, with the discovery of a new tomb. We weren't allowed to get close.

In front of Pakal's tomb.

More from Edgar, with the main palace in the background. Hard to imagine how this would have looked at its apogee: the main plaza where we are standing was pure stucco - no dirt, to trees. Perhaps it was painted red with cinnabar, a mercury-based mineral that prevented growth of moss, plants, etc. The palace was also covered in stucco, bright red, with lots of paintings and images designed to intimidate, awe, and inspire.

Inside the palace meditation chamber. The king, at the start of the planting season, would meditate in the dark, apparently in yoga-like positions, for 9 days - the same amount of time that it would take just-planted maize seeds to break the earth with green shoots. The king's job meditating was to encourage a full, rich crop.

This is graffiti on the palace walls from Spanish explorers - Augusto I. D. Channey?

Placido Gomez...

This is dragon on the palace wall that looks strangely similar to Chinese dragons. Pre-European trade is well documented between Asians and First Nations of the Americas. Is this a Chinese-inspired sculpture?

The aqueduct serving the elite of Palenque. Water still runs through it. It had been covered. Mayans brought water up to the Palace from the aqueduct by using progressively smaller pipes...

This tower in the palace leans several degrees to the south. At first, it was thought to have been poorly constructed or had settled over time. Then it was discovered that the lean was intentional. This tower was built specifically so that on the equinoces (March 21 and Sept 21),  a beam of sunlight would penetrate a hole in the roof that would shoot straight down the tower and hit a central spot on the tower's floor. And, with the exact lean, with the sun at its zenith on these two days, it would cast no shadow. Pretty sophisticated stuff.

A small plaza inside the palace. You can see the tower in the back. See the slight lean?

More curious howler monkeys - saraguato.

Iguanas.

And plants with some very big leaves.

Final Days on the Road - Misol-Ha

We drove two hours north from the tiny, fairly isolated pueblo of Lacanja in the low-lying rainforests of eastern Mexico to Misol-Ha, a little tourist depot where we stayed two nights.

It was a decent road - the protected biosphere jungle accompanied us to the west, though the road itself was bordered by tiny communities, clusters of buildings, maize fields cut out of rainforest almost the whole way. Not many people. not many cars. A few military security outposts on the road, mostly looking for U.S.-bound Guatamalans that had snuck over the border by crossing the Usimacinta River. We encountered a majestic crested caracara and a few vultures scavenging roadkill from the highway (the usual - two lane road with absolutely no shoulder).

Speedbumps come with every community - to slow traffic and, I think, to generate a little local income. Kids and women wait patiently at many of them to sell food - cups of sliced coconut, jicama, and mango (with chili sauce sprinkled on top!), bags of elote (cooked corn) or avocados, etc. These are very poor people, isolated in a far reach of Mexico, seeking a little income however they can manage it.

Along the road, we also passed boys and men singly or in pairs - dragging planks of hardwood, on mountain bikes with machetes, hoisting backpack sprayers for their crops, or waiting roadside for a collectivo to drive by to take them to or from work.

As we traveled north, poblados grew in size and traffic on the road increased, though we are still in a very rural, remote section of the country.

We arrived as Misol-Ha - a tiny Mexican tourist destination sequestered in the mountains (we are back in northern Chiapas, in the mountains, just 4 hours from San Cristobal de Las Casas to the west), centered around a 30 meter waterfall - it pours off a cliff into a huge rock bowl. We swam at the base of the falls in the afternoon, watched Spain beat France in the quarterfinals of the European Cup (Yeah!), had a late dinner at the only restaurant (yet another meal of fried chicken, beans, quesadillas, Fanta and Corona with lime), and headed to bed.

The falls at Misol Ha. Much of Chiapas consists of water and the color green.

Walking behind the falls.

Another view of the falls.

Looking downstream

Grasshopper studies map of Chiapas.

This couple (mid-twenties) on the right were in the midst of a 3.5 year bike trip around the world. See the custom-built german bikes in the background. They started 1.5 years ago - Germany to Scandanavia to Iceland to Canada to U.S. to Mexico. From here to Central and South America, to Africa and Asia. 50 - 60 km a day. Very nice, very adventurous. Amazing undertaking.

"On the Road"

This was our trusty steed in Chiapas. Driving in Mexico is a little nerve-wracking. It requires higher levels of concentration than in the states: due to road conditions, oncoming traffic, and zapatista liberation fighters. Not really.

There are lots of potholes, some large enough to swallow our little car. There are washouts. There are also lots of "topes" or speed bumps on the highway, which enforce slow, controlled driving especially through the poblados.

We didn't see enforcement of speed limits by humans, rather slow safe speeds in populated areas are well maintained by the speedbumps. Interesting model really.

No night driving. No reasonable people seem to drive at night. Due to road conditions at least as much as concerns about bandits, I think.

It was a relief for me to return the car, intact, to the car rental agency. $50 a day, plus gas, but this car was super-efficient. It was really the only way to do what we did in 8 days.

Lacanja II - with the Lacandon and Las Ruinas de Yaxchilan

Yesterday, we visited Yaxchilan on the Usumacinta River on the border with Guatamala. Yaxchilan is one of the great Mayan cities, along with Bonampak to the east a few miles and Palenque, two hours to the north via car. All these cities (really city-states, technically) rose to greatest power, prominence, sophistication, and size during the Classic Mayan period - roughly 300-900 AD.

Theories for the reasons for the collapse vary, but most scholars consider the cause a combination of factors: overpopulation, environmental destruction that led to the interconnected issues of decreasing capacity to produce food, increased warfare, and destabilized political structures. Perhaps exacerbated by a series of droughts. Our guide in Palenque told us of recent soil core sample studies outside of the city center indicated high toxin levels that would have occurred about the same time as the fall of Palenque. The toxins (likely caused by excessive burning of green wood to make their stuccos and mortars for their monuments - they were deforesting large areas at this time) were at levels that would have severely diminished agriculture production.

A cautionary tale for the current generation, to be sure.

Back to Yakchilan - it was a 30-minute car ride from our cabana to Frontera Corozal and the Usumacinta River, which flows from the mountains of Guatamala north through the Yucatan lowlands into the Gulf of Mexico. It has played a huge role in the region historically as a thoroughfare for commerce, communications, and cultural exchange. Control of the river provided a tremendous hegemonic advantage in the Mayan heartland, and Yaxchilan was perfectly positioned for this.

The road to the river was like many side roads in Mexico - curvaceous, no shoulders, with no shortage of ruts and holes and occasional slides (debris onto or road collapsing away from). We caused a little traffic jam once as we stopped to help a migrating turtle off the road to safety. The Mexicans behind us were patient and friendly (though they probably thought we were slightly crazy).

We hired our boatman in town and then followed him on bike to our launch site on the river's edge.

Our launch to Yaxchilan, only accessible by river. The trip downstream took 35 minutes. The return, upstream, took an hour. Given the strategic importance of the river, it was an appropriate way to enter the site, and is good economic development for the community as well,

Near the river, Juan approached us and we hired him as our guide. We generally sought out guides at these types of sites and were always glad we did. They were almost always great - well-informed on historical and current events, articulate, friendly. Their personal stories, when we had a chance to get them, were also fascinating.

L and J in our long, narrow, motorized boat on the Usumacinta River.

Liesl welcoming us to Yaxchilan.

We started at one of the largest, most important structures for religion, ceremony, and meditation. Much of this area was intact when rediscovered.

This is the eastern face of the building above - the doors and hallways inside were carefully constructed in orientation to the solstices, when sunlight would illuminate the doorways, down stairways, and into the lower levels.

Inside the pitch-black corridors, with spiders and bats. This room was apparently used for meditation by the priests and elites.

A view of what was once the main plaza.

A Yaxchilan stele recounting some historic accomplishments or occurrences during its reign.

Looking through a stone doorway.

On our way up to the palace.

This beautiful palace was situated atop a low mountain, and probably had a 360 degree view of the landscape. While here, we saw several howler monkeys in the trees and a pair of Tucanes Reales - gorgeous Royal Toucans.

It is hard to imagine how these cities would have appeared in their heyday - all these buildings were completely covered with stucco, painted white or with bright colors, often with powerful images telling stories, honoring gods, issuing warnings, etc. No or few trees would have been growing in the area - having been cut down for construction, agriculture, mortar production, etc.

Jeremiah and Liesl talking with Juan. Afterward he commented that "they speak pretty good spanish, don't they?"

L and J in the embrace of the sacred Ceiba- the tree of life - on the former Grand Plaza of Yaxchilan.

After our visit to Yaxchilan, the four of us hopped on a trail through the forest near our cabana back in Lacanja to visit a clear spring that flows into a nearby river. It was pouring rain, flashing lightning and crashing thunder the entire time; we wore as little as possible, and swam in the spring - cool, clear (rare in this season), water. A rich, rain forest experience.
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The following morning, Amy and I will took an early walk in the selva, had a nice conversation with Miguel, a local Lacandon who is also a guard/vigilante for the forest in this area (we talked national and international politics, we thanked him for protecting the forest, and paid him 60 pesos for use of the trail), and then returned to our cabana to gather up the kids and head off to Palenque - the region's crown jewel of Mayan ruins, in the northern part of the state.

Amy and the Ceiba.

Scientists have called the tropical rain forests the lungs of our planet. There are some similarities in appearance, as well as function.

Las Cascadas de Las Golodrinas (Swallows). During certain times of the year, when the water is a little lower, swallows next behind the waterfall.

Another Ceiba.

Amy and Miguel. We got an early start on the trail, and Miguel walked up behind Amy. He scared the bejesus out of her when we started talking suddenly, and loudly. He was a very energetic man, more of a screamer than talker, had lots of questions and ideas. So, it was Miguel's ancestors who were living on Caribbean coast 500 years ago when Spanish landed, and it was then that they began this long journey south and west into what is now eastern Mexico.

This is an example of a "milpa" a traditional indigenous farming system in the rainforest that uses scores of different plants, often at the same time or in sequence. This style of farming is far more sustainable than "modern agriculture" which generally burns out the soil in 3-4 years, and often leads to massive erosion and soil loss. Here and below, you can see corn, beans, squash, and banana trees. There was probably more here, but we couldn't recognize it.

 It had rained the night before, and the forest was pulsing with water. you can see how it is flowing right around and through the vegetation, swollen. At times, the water literally seemed to be flowing in all directions at once. it could be a rather confusing landscape.