MAYAN TREASURES ABOUND ON A TOUR OF THE YUCATAN

Mayan Treasures Abound on a Tour of the Yucatan
by Lenora Hayman

My annual trek to Mexico took me to the walled city of Campeche in the state of Campeche facing the Gulf of Mexico in the southwest of the Yucatan peninsula. Campeche was formerly the Mayan village Ah Kim Pech (Lord Tick) where Hernandez de Cordova and his Spanish conquistadors in 1517 replenished their fresh water. In 1540 the Spaniard Francisco de Montejo founded the port city and called it Villa de San Francisco de Campeche. Pirates constantly attacked ships exporting precious woods such as dyewood, hardwood and henequen, as well as gold and silver. They also attacked the city itself. As a result, from 1686 to 1704 a protective hexagonal wall with eight fortresses was erected.

I bedded down for three nights at the Hotel del Mar on Av Ruiz Cortines no 51,Col Centro Campeche($90US). It had a pool,dining room and balcony overlooking the seawall promenade.

Independence Square

La Pigua Restaurante on Av Miguel Aleman 179-A is famous for its gourmet seafood lunches. Under its thatched palapa roof. I shared shrimp with coconut, fish pate, brine snails, St Francisco squid with almonds, a Campeche sweet potato cake and a mamey fruit drink. Fortified I set out for the San Miguel Fort housing the Mayan Archaeological Museum with a jade mask, statues of Mayan noble heads with crossed eyes and flattened foreheads - intentionally made abnormal at birth.There is also a replica of the interior of a Calakmul temple with a skeleton covered in jade, clay and stucco. Unfortunately wives and servants were sacrificed too.

To see the historic centre I took the $3US trolley tour from the main square with the cathedral on one side and House No. 6 on the other. This 19th- century restored home, now a cultural centre has original frescos and Moorish architecture.

Walled segments form the cobblestone downtown streets. The Soledad Bastion houses the Museum of the Stellas, obelisks etched with eventful stories, which formerly stood in front of Mayan structures. Our trolley passed yellow and blue houses, the San Roman Church with the " Black Christ" carved in ebony, the 7 remaining bastions, the Sea Gate, formerly the only access to Campeche city by water and the Land Gate at the opposite end. Here in the evening I attended the Sound and Light Show which included a slide show, a torchlight walk on top of the wall and down below in the dungeons and a re-enactment of the arrival of the Spaniards and Pirates.

Eszna, 5-floor building. Peten, Puuc & Chenes style.

I visited 3 Mayan archaeological sites, Edzna, Calakmul and Becan whose structures were built either in Riobec, Puuc, Chenes or Peten styles. Twice daily tours leave the Land Gate for the one and a half hour 45 -kilometre. trip to Edzna (600-300B.C). Its drainage system, temple of the Sun God Kinich Ahau stone masks, five- Floor Building and Acropolis incorporate all 4 styles, Riobec, Puuc, Chenes and Peten.

We rented a van with guide and driver for the five- hour, 360- Km trip to the 700,000 hectare Calakmul Biosphere Reserve declared a protected habitat in 1989,for ocellated turkeys, aguarundi, peccary, temazate deer, tigrillo, the black orchid and chicosapote tree that provides chicle for chewing gum.

Calakmul Archeological Site (1000BC-750A.D.), Peten style, located in 1931 by the botanist Cyrus Lundell and chicle gatherers is the largest discovered Mayan city to date with 6750 structures in 100 sq.kilometres.

Structure 2 is the tallest pyramid in Mexico. Becan (550BC-1000A.D.) with its 2Kilometre protective moat snaking around the complex,has high twin Riobec towers with false temples on top and is in Chenes style with masks on the facades.

A full 14-hour day but well worth it!