Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Our Jungle Adventure



Our adventure began with the decision not to drive our comfortable rigs the 135 miles to visit the ruins of Bonampak and Yaxchilan.  We hired Hector a timeshare salesman turned tour guide to arrange a 2 day, 1 night journey. 




About 40 miles into our trip and 1000 ft closer to sea level he applies his brakes in front of the sign below. The handmade sign is a proclamation by the Indian Rebels that they had taken on the government for the right to be treated fairly and emerged the winner. Since their battle was won in 1995 the Indians of this region now have the right to own land, they have electricity schools and health care. In fact they now have all the human rights the rest of Mexico enjoys






The Bonampak Ruins are in the area under the stewardship of the Lacandon Indians  We were greeted by children of the tribe waiting to sell us handicrafts. The Lacandon children wear the traditional robe, probably to puberty when most choose modern dress.  The boys in solid colors and the girls in prints. We only saw a couple of adult men in traditional robes and they were white. All the teenage and adult women we saw were in modern dress, complete with makeup and modern costume jewelery.


Bonampak is a small ruin known mostly for its carved panels and painted murals.



In 700AD probably all surfaces outside and inside of the palaces and temples were painted in bright colors.  Bonampak has some of the only remaining examples of how bright and colorful all the ruins across Mexico and Central America were.



After our 2 hour drive and our 2 hours of history lesson exploring the ruins we are hungry.  In this little Palapa beside the road we enjoyed probably the best chicken enchiladas ever.


Jaime the restaurant owner says this beetle was a staple in the Lacandon diet.  Some, including his brother-in -law still eat it.  NO THANKS, Chicken please!

With tummy's full we check into our eco resort for siesta.



But first a look around the property.  It is a quite large place.



3 or 4 extended family members live here along with unknown numbers of chickens.


If I were to guess I would say Vincent the Tribe Elder and our host could probably handle 30-40 guests in various levels of accommodations.  The first level is areas to pitch a tent,  up from that you may rent a hammock.



This represents the next level up.  A double bed with netting.  You will share the bathroom block with the tenters and the Hammock dwellers.  This first 3 accommodations are popular with the backpackers.


Finally the luxury rooms complete with cold showers. At least in our room.  Siesta time?  Nay, not for us.  How about a Jungle walk?


We followed signs to a waterfall.  The trail through the Jungle started out quite civilized, crushed limestone footpath,  shrubs tied together overhead to form a arch.  Very lovely.  This gave way to a mud footpath and slippery river crossings.  We found this waterfall after not to long of a walk.  Thing is it doesn't look like the one in the picture, but its a waterfall and its getting dark and dank in here.  So, ya we turn around.


We saw many Ceibal Trees everywhere including on our jungle hike.  This tree can get very large.  It is known as the scared tree of the Myan.  The top of the mature tree towers above the undergrowth and represents the gods and the after life.  The trunk represents present life and the roots the underworld gods.

 
Our hike tired us out so we spread out mosquito netting and hope for a good nights sleep.  Oh. I forgot one thing.  Remember we are in the Jungle, the real jungle, so sleep was interrupted by the growl of the Jaguar and on the flip side remember all those chickens and roosters?  Good Night.

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