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Published: June 12th 2007
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The Mayan Land
Having travelled over half the country in one Giant leap (26 hour bus ride)
from Mexico City.
I find myself in the land of the Mayan.
Even stepping off the bus in Cancun (hell hole) you can feel the underlying energy.
This is one of the most highly saturated historic regions in the World, over 400 temples are spread between here and the Guatemala border, all have the distinct pyramid shape.
All temples are immediately taken from the Design of Teotihuacán (Mexico city)
To visit all of them is said to take over a year.
Most are placed deep within intense jungle and take days of trekking to reach.
Having spent already a large part of this trip visiting and photographing the most prominent of all the historical sites, you conclude that it is important to find the correct balance between cultural awareness and repetitiveness.
Since they are all taken in design from Teotihuacán, there becomes a point to only visit the most prominent of this region Yucatan.
Chichen Itza being one of the most acutely unique, with it layout, size and most importantly death pillars.
Each pillar represents a sacrifice made to the building, of
this once great city.
It is a reminder to all, of the devotion and power of the great Mayan culture.
Tulum is the most important and dynamic of this peninsular.
In the region of Quintana Roo, set into the rock high above the Mar Caribe, it is the trading centre for the Mayan nation of this region.
This region of Qintana roo is of outstanding beauty and history, with is miles and miles of clean white beaches and its relaxed cabana atmosphere.
It has become a haven for commercial and local tourism, also for people who just want to hangout and recover from their travels.
Even with this tourism, you can still feel the true beauty and spirit that makes this place such a time consumer.
Once you arrive, see and hear the sea you find that days just fly by.
Moving regrettably down the coast, you arrive at the small sleepy Town of Chetumal.
Finding no reason to stay there, we quickly find our way to a small Village forty minutes away.
Bacalar is an extremely sleepy village whose inhabitants are a friendly and hospitable mixture of Ladino and Mayan people.
The village itself is set on the banks
of a fresh water lake (Lake of Seven Colours), giving the village a feel of a beach town.
Staying here you suddenly find yourself dropping several gears and almost coming to a standstill.
The peace and serenity of this place and the openness of its community make it hard to forget.
Having found somewhere where the conversations with people become more vibrant and openly political, suddenly the plight of the Mayan people becomes all too vivid.
With all their social problems brought on by the central government control, the history steeped in unjust abuse by invaders,
has made the people of this country revert like all abused societies to the usual antisocial vices.
Hearing the stories and experiences of the people first hand, has given me a deep respect and empathy with their plight and reinforced my dislike of the Machismo (Bandi) culture.
(This is when Mayans/ Ladino, dress as cowboys and sing something that has been described as “Mexican blues”).
This Style is taken directly from American culture and is all about being the “the big man” which is completely the opposite of what the Mayan culture teaches.
The Mayan culture is about the earth and living at one
with it.
Taking only what they need to survive, working with your environment to survive.
This Bandi culture is about womanising, drinking and being excessive.
This message is probably not the best to create a positive social outlook for a generation who feel that there is very little prospect of bettering themselves.
Education is becoming a social dilemma; children are put to work to help put food on the table instead of attending school.
The government has no immediate answers, to the growing social problems.
They are just intent on making there pockets fatter with the mis-direction of funds. Payments from America to help control the “Drug Trafficking” are a small token in an attempt to solve their own problems.
The general consencus of most is that things are going backwards, crime is worse.
Everyday, papers tell stories of more drugs related killings.
It seems that the way the people are trying to leave the third world is by crime and not through the education system, so the cycle is and will continue.
Having heard first hand, I’m now starting to see the whole country in a different light.
This country is full to the brim of people that are
ready to explode.
One side is the Bandi culture embracing hedonism.
The other you have the Mayan, trying to retain its heritage.
In the middle, you have one of the most corrupt governments pilfering from the top,
Creating political tension in this region of Mexico.
Can we blame them? No.
We should only admire and support.
The time in Mexico is nearly over, one last big journey is to reach the border with Guatemala.
Travelling eleven and a half hours southwest into the highlands, on the road to the frontier you arrive at San Cristobal, in the region of Chiapas.
San Cristobal is set some 16 hundred feet above sea level.
Set on top of the mountain through deep indigenous forests, lie’s the old conquistador capital of Chiapas.
One of the only settlements, of this region, where most of the Mayan dialects are spoken.
This town was the site of the first post-modern Revolution, against the first truly global system (The North American Fair trade Agreement in 1984).
The revolutionary’s EZLN. (named after the original social revolutionary - Emilrone Zapata -1910)
3,000 of them came out of the jungle to bring power back to a community level.
The first soldier
to take the Town Square was a woman; this was all in keeping with Mayan tradition, of women being the egg, the centre of the household.
The Zapatists had declared war against the Mexican government and NAFTA it’s self.
Fronted by a man calling him-self “sub commander Marcos”, clad in his communist stared balaclava he announced their intensions.
As he spoke to the press, it was commented that he was not Mayan but Ladino (Spanish Mexican).
The Government replied by throwing large amounts of firepower at the region quashing the insurgents and sending them back to their jungle roots.
This place has a great energy, with its revolutionary graffiti and cobbled streets.
It has atmosphere and a pleasant feel of underling political Hunger that could easily take control of the local population.
With great vistas of the jungle and mountain ranges you feel very close to the mild mannered indigenous locals, staked high up on the mountainsides.
They are gracious but hard towards their tourist population allowing them to observe their daily survival but with the large police presence for such a small city, they have no choice.
This could be the place of secret meetings and cloak and
dagger conversations, but time is too short to scratch the surface but it is all there, you can sense it.
Taking the last lunge towards the frontier, you travel back through the mountains heading south towards Guatemala.
At the Frontier, you leave the passport control by cab and are driven to the boarder, which is all that can be descried as a shantytown, with one big market stretching from the Mexican side to the Guatemalan side.
This place is called La Mesilla and originates from the Guatemala side, it seems that open trade between the two sides is gratis.
You can walk over from Mexico, buy your product in Quetzals (almost a third of the price) and walk back.
You arrive and it gives you the feel of a cowboy town, with the necessary open trade of currency.
You run for the main land.
Guatemala.
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