The morning journey provided opportunities for polite introductions to fellow travellers, questions to the guide Federico about the unique itinerary and pleasant lulls of contemplation. Rolling southward along a busy strip of highway, our van radio played a local station’s Yucatecan music setting the stage for our unique adventure. “Los Mayas”, a guitar trio, sweetly harmonized in both Spanish and Maya celebrating their beloved homeland.

Sighting a tree towering well above the tumultuous green jungle, Federico spoke up, See that tree...For the Maya, a Ceiba is the tree of life, knowledge, good and evil. Branching out at right angles, it embodies the Mayan cross, a compass for daily native life, pointing the way to mystic realms.

Coba

Pulling into Coba’s parking lot, we jumped out of the vans packing cold bottles of water, gathering quickly at the entrance to this major archeological site. Coba extends over 30 square miles, with an estimated 6500 structures existing in the jungle. Coba flourished between 400 and 1100 AD. Ancient Mayan traders once walked the notable sixteen white chalk roads (sacbes) radiating from this once-bustling city. One regional sacbe, longest in the Mayan world, connected Coba to Yaxuna over 100 kilometers away. Wheeled conveyances were never used. As enterprising descendants now rent bicycles and provide pedicabs, soon we cycled along shaded sacbes over the main plaza’s 4 square miles to the ball court, observatory, scattered temples and famed pyramid.

After an exhilarating ride, we arrived at Coba’s spacious courtyard for the deadly “Poc ta Poc.” This challenging game was played with a heavy ball untouched by hands or feet and maneuvered through rings high on the walls. Scholars continue to disagree whether the winners or losers were offered as human sacrifices.

Farther along the sacbe, a well preserved domed structure stood in the jungle. Typically found in important Mayan cities, these ancient observatories had brilliant mathematicians, who calculated spot on astronomical predictions and developed extraordinarily accurate calendars.

At our final stop Federico gathered us around a unique stone monument pointing out how this stella linked ancient Coba to Tikal, Stellae here often depict female rulers from Tikal holding ceremonial bars, standing on captives. Presuming Royal wives brought their artisans, Coba’s and Tikal’s architectural similarities can be better understood.

See how Nohoch Mul resembles Tikal’s great pyramid! He pointed to the imposing structure adding. Did you know the Mayans recognized birds as natural their gods’ intermediaries? For you to approach the heavens, climb upward!

Scaling one hundred and twenty narrow steps, we perched atop Yucatan’s highest pyramid in the shade of the stone temple. Carved above the doorway, a diving god represented the sky bearer and god of the bees, “Ah Mucen Cab” (he who watches over the honey). Gazing out at the surrounding lakes and prodigious jungle, we tried to imagine how once this wild landscape supported over 40,000 people. We could guess how beekeeping contributed to the Mayan economy. Honey and beeswax made valuable trade goods. As the Yucatan Peninsula suffers from a general absence of surface water, Coba was built around five shallow lakes and became an important centre for corn and vegetable crops.

Pac Chen

Pac Chen lies twenty-five kilometers north of Coba. In recent years, Pac Chen agreed to replace customary hunting for wild animal meat as well as slash- and-burn agriculture with sustainable eco-tourism. Small groups of visitors are now welcome to experience their unique environment and culture.

Reflecting a new prosperity, some Pac Chen Mayans live now in stuccoed, cinder block houses. Still many native villagers have chosen to remain in their traditional palm-thatched and wattle-sided homes. Evolved over a thousand years ago, this simple oval structure provides cool airy comfort and impressive sturdiness, withstanding seasonal high winds and hurricanes.

Our adventure there began with a hike along an idyllic lagoon. Stopping at a familiar cross inserted in a cluster of limestone rocks, Federico emphasized, This is not the Christian cross. Simply put, this Mayan cross symbolizes sacred directions and protections of native lives. Early Spanish missionaries failed to recognize its true significance.

Entering the jungle beyond, we walked beneath a shady green canopy in the company of colorful butterflies. Bird songs filled the warm air. Federico pointed out several plant species, including an achiote tree providing bark for red dyes and seeds for a delicate spice. We sampled an aromatic ciraela, a small orange-fleshed plum-like fruit. One gnarly tree bore diagonal slashes. Chicle was once collected from this zapote tree, he explained. Local Maya were once chicle gatherers and Pac Chen, a chiclero camp. Maya had chewed the sap for centuries. Discovering its potential in the 1860s, James Adams produced a popular chewing gum. The thriving gum economy ended when synthetics replaced chicle.

Going deeper into the jungle, we arrived at another large lagoon, called a surface cenote. Those interested in an aerial venture hiked around Cenote Caiman, ascending a rocky bluff on the opposite side. Villagers there helped us into harnesses. Clipped onto cables, our birdie lives continued. Jumping from the 30-meter limestone shelf, we zip-lined across the cenote’s open water, “flying” over 70 meters.

Yucatan’s limestone crust covers a network of underground rivers. When this crust first collapses small entrances are created into a supernatural world. Highly valued as spiritual sanctuaries linking the surface world of light and air with a deep, cold secret underworld, most of these sacred fresh water caverns have been hidden, seldom shared with outsiders. We next headed for our own secluded cenote, categorized as a jar chamber. We learned that villagers located it by following a flock of blue-headed tos, akin to magpies.

Hiking onward we came to a rustic shelter with appreciated drinking water. Just beyond villagers stood ready to help us plunge downward into the “mythic underworld” on rigged and pulleyed wooden structures. Rappelling three stories into turquoise water, I swam about the temperate pool contemplating this mystic cenote. Thirsty root tendrils had bored through the bedrock, dropping downward sipping up the glorious water. Had ancient pilgrims used these rope-like roots to descend into this fantastic sanctuary of their gods and ancestors?

Named for the most powerful animal in Mayan culture, Jaguar (Belaam) Cenote could well be a gigantic Jaguar skull. The dual openings above formed craggy eyes that focused sunbeams into the pristine depths of the cranial pool and onto the shimmering water. Two fiery spotlights were reflected dancing upon Belaam’s bony dome, diffusing into a tremble of colors. Bats shrieked, darting, looping, returning and clutching the chalky ceiling.

Village women wearing traditional white cotton dresses (hipiles) richly embroidered with vivid red, orange and blue flowers welcomed our arrival back at the village. Under a breezy thatched palapa they served a traditional lunch from decorated clay pots. Howler monkeys called out in the distance, motivating many of us to canoe the lagoon below, wanting to glimpse an indigenous monkey, toucan, peccary or coati mundi. In a large nearby palapa, other visitors remained swinging gently in rainbow colored hammocks hand-woven in the community.

At the canoe dock I asked an elder in Spanish, Do your villagers enjoy guest activities? He grinned and answered, Life is good! Problems seem well managed in this natural paradise. He assured me that, The Pac Chen community ritually purges bad spirits that guests may have brought. In what Federico revealed as the ultimate Mayan direction, this community often reflects inward. Practical considerations and comforting ceremonies resolve modern anxieties.

Upon leaving the village we gave a young boy a lift to rejoin his mother who sold honey at a tiny stand along the roadway. We had heard that Europeans highly prize and import Yucatecan honey. As poor soils hinder extensive gardens, many families continue the traditional art of beekeeping as a mainstay of their earnings. Several of us bought bottles of this amber nectar, noted for its rich distinctive flavor.

Our adventure had been filled with explorations, extraordinary new experiences, and mystic revelations. In just one day we had visited the Mayan supraworld from the heights of Coba’s twelve-story pyramid; the infraworld of the forty-five foot depths of the jaguar cenote and the peaceful inner world of Mayan life. Our future travel may take on new directions using the Mayan cross as a powerful compass.