Writings and Links

EXPEDITION FROM PAAMUL, QUINTANA ROO TO PIEDRAS NEGRAS, GUATEMALA

January 15, 2010 to January 25, 2010 – Paamul to Xpuhil

We departed from Paamul in a rented car on January 15 about 10 AM and arrived at the fort of Bacalar around noon. Our party included Lyda and Castor Puleston, Roberto and Gloria Ghisolfi and myself. Bacalar is a small for but quite significant historically for it was defended by Spaniards and their dependent “peons” but fell to the rebels in 1948. The rebels gave them the choice of joining or leaving and they chose to leave settling on Albion Island in Belize, where I studied their descendants in the village of San Antonio Rio Hondo. The church in San Antonio is surrounded by the graves of the Spanish immigrants as this one of Bonifacia Castillo who was born in Bacalar.

We reached Cenote Azul at 1:10 PM where we had lunch and the children swam. I had not been to the Cenote for over 30 years so it was quite exciting. The place had not changed except that the wild animals that used to roam free around the restaurant were no longer there. Also, a big cement parking lot extended the area above the cenote making for a diving area and vertical ladder which the children loved climbing up and down upon.We had the usual fish and all was when we used to come here with the villagers from San Antonio and sit at a central table, eating a huge fried fish and drinking beer.

The cenote has become somewhat of a center of controversy according to Roberto who was interviewed on local TV about it the year before. There is criticism that it is a sacrilege to use ancient sacred places for frivolous fun. However, as far as I can see, there is no evidence of ancients regarding this area as sacred. Not all cenotes were sacred.At 2:30 we left for Xpuhil. The road is straight but lots of villages have grown up around it and there are topes everywhere. Dusty little towns have grown up advertising an internet café, a loncheria, abarrotes shops with hanging buckets and spades, lots of chanclas (plastic flip flops), and other necessities mostly for locals. Not too much tourist stuff and what is there is mainly painted bowls in vivid colors of gaudy Mexican legends.