Uxmal, 8/15/10 - Wow!

Uxmal 8/15/10

Went to Uxmal today, about an hour’s drive south of Merida. The driving experience was much more relaxed, it being Sunday, although there was come confusion about which direction we were going in, but we figured it out eventually, making only one u-turn.

I imagine Uxmal to be one of the premier archeological sites of the world. It is spectacular. It is registered by the world heritage site by UNESCO, an international organization pledged to the preservation of important archeological sites around the world.

This time we decided to hire a guide to show us the site. It is not only a good way to help support the local economy, but it also gives us a chance to interact with a local person. Our guide today was Ricardo and we are grateful to him for his knowledge and kindness as he showed us Uxmal, sweating in the heat as much as ourselves. Ricardo is from a town near Uxmal called Muna and he is trilingual. He speaks Mayan, Spanish, and English. He was a wealth of information. He told us that there are many people in the Yucatan who only speak Mayan and that in the Yucatan both Mayan and Spanish are now taught in the schools. The mystery of the Maya is that in some places like Uxmal, the inhabitants seemed to have suddenly just up and left the big city centers, leaving everything behind. Ricardo told us the story of how his grandfather discovered an old house that had been taken over by the elements. There was an intact kitchen complete with unbroken eggs, plates, utensils, and even some clothes. A stone figurine about 12 inches tall from the discovery is now a family heirloom.

It’s not that the Maya disappeared, it’s that they seemed to have suddenly abandoned some of the sites. Other sites, such as Tulum were inhabited when the Spanish arrived. When asked whether there were any stories, legends, or histories among the locals about what happened, Ricardo responded no. The Maya had a complex written language, but there are no explanations in the records left to us. Of course, that doesn’t mean that they didn’t exist. The Spanish conquistadores destroyed most of the books they discovered. The surviving texts are not the original texts but texts that were written and translated into Spanish by Mayan and Aztec scribes. There are also some texts that were written by Spanish priests from dictations by Mayans and Aztecs.

I can’t even begin to describe how impressive Uxmal is, you’ll just have to look at the few pictures we end up posting. Or better yet, look at a book.

Diego