At 6:00 am we are in front of our hotel waiting for the mini-van to arrive. It was slightly delayed and arrives about 6:15. There are about 12 passengers: the two of us, about 6 exchange students from France (that were studying in Guadalajara for the semester, a couple from Germany, two Mexican young women on holiday, a young French woman on sabbatical from her teaching job and a honeymoon couple with tongues down each others throat for most of the journey.
After we were on the road for about 1 1/2 hours, we stop for a buffet breakfast at a roadside restaurant in the middle of nowhere along the Carretera Fronterza. There were several of these type of simple restaurants along this part of highway - apparently created solely to serve the needs of coffee-deprived, early morning tourists. The buffet breakfast is included in any of the Bonampak-Yaxchilán package tours.
The Carretera Fronterza (Border Highway) did not exist when we last visited Chiapas. It was a dirt and gravel road then. Now, it is a paved highway looping through the entire southern section of the state of Chiapas. The road was completed to secure the border area with Guatemala and for the military to gain access the Lacandón jungle - where Zapatista rebels often retreated. As we travel down the highway, we pass at least five military checkpoints. They search cars, combis and trucks. The tourist vans are not stopped or searched. The military were looking for drugs or illegal immigrants.
The area had once been dense jungle. The Lacandon forest was one of the most remote areas in Mexico. Now, it is hemmed in by a modern highway. Much of the area along the highway has been cleared and settled. Many my other Mayan emigrants who came in the 1970's.
The Lacandón had never been conquered by the Spanish and therefore were never Christianized. In the 1950's that changed. Protestant (Evangelical) missionaries invaded. The Lacandon are now split into two distinct groups: the Protestantized Lacanjá and Lancandón of Nahá and Metzaboc who follow the traditional ways.
Bonampak is within the Lacandón lands. When we arrive at Bonampak, our minivan transfers us to a Bonampak minivan (run by the Lacandón) that takes us into the site. The entrance fees to each of the sites is included in the total cost of the tour. No guide, though, is provided. You can hire a Lacandón guide to take you around.
The Bonampak site is smaller than Palenque. Like Palenque, it is enclosed by jungle. Unlike Palenque, the surrounding terrain is flat - no lush mountain backdrop. The site feels like the park-like setting of Copán in Honduras.
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| Bonampak |
Bonampak is famed for its murals. They are in three small rooms atop Temple 1 - the largest excavated building in the complex. They are smaller than both Ross and I had imagined but we are amazed that they had even survived. It seems the white residue - that leached from the limestone rocks and covered the murals - had inadvertently help preserve these remarkable artifacts.
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| Bonampak mural |
We spend about an hour at the site - that is sufficient - before getting back on the vans and heading further south to Yaxchilan. Oddly, the couple who had been French-kissing their way down the road to Bonampak are not on the minivan. No one seems upset. The driver takes off without them. They are probably still making out somewhere in Bonampak. A mystery.
At Frontera Corozal, a tiny riverside community, we board lanchas (motorized, wood longboats) and speed 45 minutes up the Río Usumacinta to Yaxchilán.
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| Lanchas |
There is no other way to reach Yaxchilán except by boat but that is part of the allure. Only jungle borders the river. One side is Mexico; the other Guatemala. We a dropped off at the Yaxchilán dock. We are given two hours to explore.
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| Yaxchilán - Building 33 from its rear side |
Yaxchilán is enshrined in the jungle. The roars of howler monkeys ricochet around the site. At times they sound so close. We are sure we will glimpse them. But no, they never emerge.
The air is still; the mid-afternoon heat is at its apogee. We climb and sweat. We down more water. No breeze. We climb so more and sweat even more.
We approach Building 33 from the rear side - as suggested in one the guide book. It is easier than ascending to it from the front. It towers above the rest of site; its roof comb stretches towards the sky. It is the most impressive structure at the site. The other buildings pale in comparison. The edifice was intended to be awe-inspiring - to impress and intimidate anyone approaching the site from the river. But the building is no longer visible from the river. Too bad. The jungle has thickened between it and the shore.
As we wander around the site, a giant cieba tree - stretching hundreds of feet to the jungle rooftop - catches our eye. We each pose in front of it - at its base. The roots are tall enough to close completely around us.
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| Ross at the base of ceiba tree |
We return to Frontera Corozal by lancha. It begins to rain. We eat a communal late afternoon lunch at a simple palapa-roofed restaurant in town. At lunch, we learn that the German couple - who are on a three-week holiday - had all their belongings stolen from their rental car within the first few days of their trip. They were parked at a fast food restaurant and only away from the car for a few minutes. Clothing, cameras, phones, drugs, passports - all gone. But they did not give up. They were able to get money wired, buy some clothes and continue on. It will be a vacation they will never forget.
We get back to the hotel at about 7:30 pm. Time enough to grab another tasteless meal from one of the nearby hotel restaurants in the La Canada area of Palenque and go to sleep.
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