Second Week

On Tuesday the culture classes took a field trip to CICY (Centro de Investiga Cientifica de Yucatan) which was like a botanical garden or arboretum. It was really nice and made me think of how much I enjoyed just walking around the arboretum and nature trails when I am home. The purpose for the excursion was to review and practice recognizing plants from our taxonomy for the plant quiz on Thursday. This was a very useful exercise because we saw many of the families that we needed to learn as we walked along the trails identifying orchids because of their specialized petal that attracts pollinators to them, their thick tongue shaped leaves, their pseudobulbs, and that many orchids are epiphytic, meaning that they live on another plant. While we were there we saw examples of many epiphytes and members of the families Bignoniaceae (which have tubular flowers resulting from the fusion of petals), Bombacaceae (specifically Ceiba pentandra, the Ceiba, the sacred tree of the Mayans which can be identified by its swollen trunk and spines on younger trees), Burseraceae (specifically Bursera simaruba, also known as the Gumbo Limbo tree and can be identified by its peeling reddish bark), Fabaceae (commonly called legumes. We actually saw a Bull-thorn Acacia, in addition to many other types of legumes), Araceae, Arecaceae (commonly known as palms), Bromiliaceae, Ochidaceae (orchids), Zingiberaceae (ginger), Heliconiaceae, and after we left we saw a Musa acuminate (banana plant). In addition to seeing all those types of plants some of us also saw a turquoise-browed motmot!

The biggest downside to the whole trip to CICY is that were was an extreme amount of mosquitoes which made me really paranoid about adding to my already rapidly increasing number of mosquito bites which before we went had already reached a count of over 30 bites so far. As soon as we walked into the garden there were mosquitoes everywhere. I was so paranoid about getting more bites I swore I was still getting bit even though I was wearing repellent. These mosquitoes here are beasts. Everywhere I looked I saw a mosquito somewhere or on someone. I decided to take out my revenge for all my mosquito bites by attempting to hit every mosquito I could get a good shot at. Killing mosquitoes hasn’t been that satisfying since the El Diablo mosquito attack four years ago.

Friday during culture class we went to the Museum of Anthropology to learn more about the history of the Yucatan. The museum is located on Paseo de Montejo and is in what used to be the house of the governor. The building was so enormous and spectacular I couldn’t fathom how a place so grand and huge could have been the residence of one person or family. The architecture and the interior were absolutely stunning with beautiful decorative designs on the walls and marble floors and staircase.

In the museum we learned more about Mayan culture and saw many artifacts that have been recovered from archeological sites and ruins. Some artifacts were even recovered from cenotes because the Mayan viewed the cenotes as sacred because they were how the Mayans could reach the water under the ground because there are no lakes and rivers. Because of the reverence shown towards cenotes the Mayans would throw items into the water as offerings to the gods, especially the god of rain who was believed to live in the cenotes. The museum also had artifacts of different idols of the various Mayan gods that have been recovered, weapons and tools that were used, utensils, and jewelry. One of the interesting things about the Mayan jewelry is that they used jade a lot, but jade was not present in the region, which signifies that the Mayans had a trade system with other groups of people. I also thought it was interesting when we came across examples of deformed skulls which the Mayans had deliberately altered by strapping weight to the heads of children and infants so that the head would change. Walking through the museum made me more excited about starting the Mayan course and learning more about the purposes of such strange actions and just to learn more about the ancient Maya.

On Saturday we went to Dzibilchaltun, our first Mayan ruin! Dzibilchaltun is a smaller ruin site to the north of Merida about ten kilometers from the coast. It was constructed about before the time of Christ and has continuously had people living close to its vicinity ever since it was first erected. There was more to Dzibilchaltun than what remains today, but as a result of the colonization of the Yucatan and building on Merida, people would dismantle the Mayan ruins and use the stones to use in new construction. Because it is located closer to the coast, Dzibilchaltun is also located in a scrub forest with low growing vegetation and trees. We learned that the range of the Mayan civilization consisted of a range of climates and habitats: the further north towards the coast you go the drier the land is resulting in scrub forests with smaller types of trees and vegetation. As you move more inland you move the more moisture there is and as a result the vegetation becomes larger and denser.

When we got to the ruin site there was a small museum that contained artifacts and information about the pre-Hispanic period of the peninsula and of the early colonization of the area. The pre-Hispanic artifacts was just as interesting as the ones we had seen the day before at the Museum of Anthropology, there were other idols of Mayan gods and another hoop from the game of ball the Mayans would play, along with many other interesting artifacts. In the other wing of the museum there were examples of the types of weapons and armor the conquistadors brought over, representations of the crosses and alters that were set up by the Europeans in the attempt to Christianize the New World, along with many other artifacts and examples of products that was useful to people after colonization. Once we left the museum area there were reconstructions of Mayan huts that we could walk through to get an idea how that Mayans lived. The living arrangement was very simple and consisted of two oval shaped huts. One hut would have walls made from sticks and filled in with stucco, or mud for insulation, and a straw thatched roof. There were only doors in the hut, no windows, and the inside would have a hammock for sleeping. The other hut was for cooking and was made from sticks but was not filled in with mud so that smoke and heat from cooking could ventilate. In the cooking hut we could see an example of the way the Mayans used to cook there meals using the arrangement of three stones on the ground in which a fire was started between, and then another surface or stone was placed on top of the other three stones to be heated by the fire and cooked on. Although there descriptions sound like primitive ways to live to most of us today we were also informed that some of today’s Maya still live in huts like these and still lead very rustic lives. As I was walking through the huts I kept thinking to myself how hard it would be to imagine a large family living in this small, one room hut made out of just sticks and mud, and how much we all take our conveniences at home for granted.

When we reached the site of the first part of the ruins I was astounded. We had been walking on a trail through the scrub forest and then came to a clearing with a Mayan monument, and as we turned to the left there were the ruins of the building that was used to study astronomy. Although I know that it was not very large in comparison to some of the other ruins we will be seeing throughout the semester, this first taste of the ancient ruins was nothing short of extraordinary. I could not believe that I was there, standing at the base of ancient ruin that had been constructed over 2,300 years ago. I had remembered seeing pictures of ruins like these in the past and thought to myself how incredible they were but never thought that I would get the chance to see them with my own eyes, but there I was. After I climbed to the top of the steps and looked out over the land and I was hit with a second wave of amazement. The room on the top of the ruins was used to study astronomy and had four doors, smaller windows, and a smaller raised room within the room that was built so that the main room could be extended.

The top of the ruin was great for biological observations as well. On top of the ruins we found a black vulture, and saw several ctenosaurs. Inside the room we also found an owl dropping that contained the skull of a small mouse it had consumed that we could identify by its elongated chisel-like incisors.

When we left the first ruin we walked down the ancient Sacbae, which was the road that connected the main buildings in the Mayan cities to other ruins. From there we walked to the nearby cenote. This cenote was imperative for the Mayans that inhabited Dzibilchaltun because it would have been their source of water that allowed them to live there because there are no lakes or rivers on the peninsula. This cenote was very different from the two that we visited last week. Instead of the subterranean, cavernous cenotes we visited before, this one was more like an open pond, complete with lily pads and many little fish that were so accustomed to people that they would swim right next to you. The cenotes have been so much the past two weeks. Jumping in from the edge (or getting pushed in by Aakash), splashing/dunking each other and even just leisurely swimming in the cenotes just feels amazing.

After such a great trip to Dzibilchaltun, I can’t wait to see what the trip next Saturday will be like with even more ruins, a cave, and a cenote!