OR YOU’LL NEED TO TAKE OUT A SECOND MORGAGE FOR THIS SAD SHOW
I really don’t know why I bothered apart from the excitement of a new city found up the road from Calakmul and Xpujil called Valeriana. Literally I thought that people would be able to amble in and I vaguely remembered security being lax around most sites, but more importantly there being a few gates of access. Not just the one.
By the way I’ve thrown in some random vids because I was aware of the rather negative content he he.
Things seemed so groovy and casual back in the day in Mexicos Yucatan and now it’s turned into little America but with military presence everywhere. It’s tragic how history repeats itself and the Latin Mexicans are busy victimising the indigenous groups and destroying just a little more of their homeland and also smashing down huge swathes of virgin jungle. Ooh the new president Claudia Sheinbaum, she’s so cool and green, although she’s not though is she?
See bottom of page for full howling experience!
Anyhoo, it would seem that the relationship with America will now be a sore topic so I doubt she will be giving any thought at all to other issues apart from building camps for the huge amount of deported Mexicans that are being deported. I suppose it will be ‘watch this space’ as to their policies with the States go from now on.
Calakmul. IN 2021 ALL CLOSED UP AFTER THEY LURE YOU IN.
The brief mention given in 21.
“This is another example of closed sections at famous pyramids. Another scam in times of ‘plague
OR,CHICANNA IN SPITTING DISTANCE OF BECAN, AND HORMIGUERO A RIGHT OLD TREK
The much lauded serpent portal but on the top of a high turret
HORMIGUERO A FORGOTTEN SITE IN MANY WAYS.
Three buildings very much like this
Whilst halfway through writing this I suddenly remembered that in fact my adventure started first thing in the morning with a booked cab that I had organised the day before to go to Horminguro dammit! You see what happens when you’re a bad, tired and grumpy old bird and don’t write your journal? I had totally forgotten poor old Hormiguero (Anthill) and possibly if you have a busy agenda so should you.
A few stacked Chaacs (rain gods) as well as many other motifs
I had in fact got very excited and planned this trip with a cabbie. I had heard it was a very unusual and nearly never visited set of ruins only partially excavated. What they mean to say is only the big interesting intact bits were bothered with and the place is a very shady quite sad place.
My impression was that the three misaligned very similar imposing structures, unimaginatively called South, Central and North Structures were almost like a bunch of bureaucratic beasts of the jungle. They are very sturdy and practical looking but they do surprisingly contain a lot of elaborately embellished doorways and panels. One also has the largest serpent doorway but that was up on high and the ground was slick with dew. I didn’t fancy a tumble so just took my images from below. If you were to come her I again would come for the atmosphere and maybe a walk in the jungle where there’s a lot of wildlife, I think you can even camp there which would be splendid!
I take it all back this was an amazing site
I just couldn’t shake my unfair immediate reaction to it being municipal and less Gormanghast and more Croydon, but then again I am very instantly judgemental about these things.
I have researched a bit but can’t get any straight answers except about what a lovely example of Chenes blah blah blah. I felt cheated although it was imposing in its own way but a bit boring and that was the reason I left early moaning to myself. On the way out I just had a nice chat to the two chaps who are its guardians but were very young and not a bit interested in its history or their ancestors work. This was annoying as I thought they might at least shed some light on its history. It was all rather sad and damp and dark and unloved.
OR, A BIT OF JUNGLE AND ATMOSPHERE AFTER THE NEWLY RUINED YUCATAN.
I’m not going to bang on today about the shit stuff that I experienced wandering around Mexico at the end of last year, oh I’m not a whiner, you know me better than that. Yesterday is yesterday, fair does.
Becán
While researching this I came across RománPiña Chan, a very famous archaeologist, a tragic afterthought in Mexican research history, specifically that of Becan where he had the accident on that ill fated day. I wanted to include him as he sounded a dear, meek man who suffered hugely for his passion. Bedbound for seventeen years after the spirits of Becan let him fall to his fate.
A unique quiet moment to enjoy the classical arched corridor
Below is his small obituary, as modest it would seem as he was, and although translated quirkily I feel fitting for the man who it seems also discovered the Olmec figures and contributed hugely to the field
✔ Posthumous tribute to the archaeologist in the National Museum of Anthropology
Piña Chan was a generous being and always needed know yourself loved and accepted, says Beatriz Barba
ത Locate the recent find in Becán, Campeche, as part of his legacy
JIMENEZ ARTURE
In 1984, Román Piña Chan fell from a pyramid from the archaeological zone of Becán, an accident that although not managed to remove him from the investigation, the reflection and teaching did limit their ability to move.
OR, FINALLY RETURNING TO MEXICO, AND FLYING AFTER ONE YEAR OF CLIPPED WINGS.
On the road again folks!
Hello my old birds! Sitting here with a big sloppy grin on my face after having finally purchased my ticket, booked a flat for the first eight days and got some Pesos in my trembling hands after two long years.
I’m very chirpy and, well, not really believing it. I’ve scraped together enough money if I starve a bit, for a month there. One week in my beloved Tulum for a little reconnaissance with old pals hopefully, and much needed beach, sun, swimming, mojitos and rest. It’s been a foul year so I really need this.
What my new accommodation might look like this time. Joking cave paintings near Mitla 2021
The angels approve as I don’t know if you’ve seen, but they’ve just discovered a huge ancient city in the jungle in Campeche area just ten minutes away from where I stayed in Xpuhil. This was on my road trip (bus trip) to as many sites as were open in the year of lockdown (you know what I think of that!) It was after the terribly disappointing trip to Palenque where they had closed the on site museum with all the real treasures in and herded us round a small circuit that was not very interesting to a pro like me. So a quick reminder below.
OR, HOW I FOUND MY MATE ELIF FROM KENT MUSEUM BUSILY STARTING THE ZEYBEK MUSEUM UP THE ROAD!
New museum in Tire.
NEVER TIRED OF TIRE!
Me and Elif outside the museum.
This beautiful old house has a collection of historical artefacts running through from approximately the 16th century up to the era of Attaturk. Its proud history has been well-curated and was an eye-opener to me! Strong and wily people the Zeybeks are worth a good look at and you can clearly see the resistance of the ancestors in those who live here now. I must add that I also said to Elif, that a lot of the showcases and items had the aura and feel of the Mexican bandits of old. She agreed. The anecdote about the purple bolero in the womans showcase was also hers.
Apparently, if a woman was beaten by her husband she would don that purple bolero as a sign for the rest of the village to shame him and also give him a beating. Sounds a very good plan!
The purple bolero that signed a man was a wife beater.
OR, A LARGE WELL-CURATED EXHIBITION AFTER LAST PERUVIAN DISAPPOINTMENT. Hello my beauties how are all of you faring in this sunny hopeful patch? Have you dusted off your feathers and are you ready for a […]
Alert: This is last years offering which I’m adding to. I’ve rejoined the British Museum so I’m back in the members’ room to write and edit photos. So happy to be back in my second home which is more condusive to work-like endeavours. They also have an eclectic library so I’ve just managed to cross reference information on the Zapotec, Mixtec and Mayan with some art photos which are lovely because old and I don’t recognise them so probably they are hidden away in some basement these days. Enjoy
British Museum members room
JULY 2021 OAXACA MEXICO.
OR, A MOUNTAINTOP ZAPOTEC CITY LINKED CLOSELY TO Teotihuacán and mitla
It’s huge, it’s Zapotec and it’s completely different to what I expected. I hadn’t researched at all so it was a huge learning curve from my usual Mayan sites.
A LITTLE HISTORY OF THE ZAPOTEC AND MIXTEC.
In parallel with the rise of Teotihuacan, Zapotec civilisation encompassed much of the southern highlands. In the course of the first millennium BC, early chiefdoms of the Oaxaca Valley coalesced into a militaristic Zapotec state centred on the commanding hill-top capital Monte Albán. Zapotec scribes invented one of the four independent Mesoamerican writing systems (the others being Maya, Mixtec and Aztec) and refined their own variant of the 260-day ritual calendar which was in widespread use throughout Mesoamerica.
From about AD 1200, Mixtec peoples began to assume control of key Zapotec sites through conquest and political alliances. Knowledge of metallurgy, which had been introduced a few centuries earlier from South and Central America, was employed in the production of copper and gold objects to reflect rank and status. During the fifteenth century AD, the Mixtec resisted the Aztec imperial advance, but the consummate stoneworking and metalworking skills of many Mixtec artisans were redeployed to serve the Aztec kings.
The Zapotecs were a sedentary culture living in villages and towns, in houses constructed with stone and mortar. They recorded the principal events in their history by means of hieroglyphics, and in warfare they made use of cotton armour. The well-known ruins of Mitla have been attributed to them.
(I will write another post about the fabulous jade and gold discoveries, that are housed in Oaxaca Palace Museum. This is closed at the moment but I’ll be able to dig up some photos from before. I really need to write a bit more about the amazing Zapotecs)
Castrated man?
CLOSED PLACES AND CHANGED PLANS
I had got up ready to go to the archaeological museum but it has been closed. No signs on the door except the opening hours, and through the peephole a man informed me that they didn’t know when they’d open again to which I replied rather hotly I must confess well put a sign on the door then and change the bloody Google details. He said that’s a good idea I’ll put a sign on the door as if he’d just thought of it. Yes, some people have travelled thousands of miles to see these artefacts I whined. His beady eyes perused me as if I was mad. And sort it out on Google and your site this is the second time I’ve come here. He was making me cross and I felt as if he might just let me in if I kept banging on about it.
Top Tip: With the distraction of what was open or not, and jumping on buses every five minutes as places decided to close some, or all of their historical sites and museums, or basically anything of any interest whatsoever, I learned some bitter lessons. When in times of crisis don’t trust any info gleaned by Google et al. You need to speak to proper locals or call tour guides of the area that you are planning to go to. Nobody bothered to change their details online while I was there so I was disappointed many times. So due diligence is essential, don’t just assume they will tell you any changes especially in casual places like Mexico. Make the calls before you get on that bus, or drag over to the other side of town for that special gallery because they will close when they feel like it!
Alert: Here I am still looking back at a year ago this week, so don’t you think I snuck off again! I am simply trying to get my mojo back after being back here and not travelling since my hideous experience with Heathrow’s ‘quarantine’ hotel hell on my tortuous return from Mexico last September.
ONE YEAR AGO….
OR BLOODY XEL-HA IS STILL NOT OPEN AND APPARENTLY HASN’T BEEN FOR NEARLY A YEAR.
OR AN INTRODUCTION to ITS PRE CLASSIC ROOTS. PART ONE. WHERE IT ALL STARTED. AN INTRODUCTION Dear reader, after my extensive travels within the Yucatan Peninsula in 2019 and 2021, I can finally start to […]
OR, HISTORY REWRITTEN. Below are six new documentaries that I’ve found which are adding nails into the coffin of how old civilization actually is, and from whence we actually did come. They come from very […]
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In 1984, Román Piña Chan fell from a pyramid from the archaeological zone of Becán, an accident that although not managed to remove him from the investigation, the reflection and teaching did limit their ability to move.
Old Bird Travels Solo! 