Cenotes

The Yucatan peninsula has no rivers and very few lakes or surface water, except for a few marshes. It's only about 80 feet above sea level at it's highest point. So where do they get a their potable water? The answer is cenotes. (Seno'tes.)

Cenotes are places where the ground sinks when the water table drops and leaves a void, and the sinkholes opens up a cavern filled with water that's been filtered for ages. Chichen Itza is built on a large cenote.

Cenotes are a big part of life on the peninsula. Tourists love to snorkel and scuba dive in the cenotes, which can be inhabited by eels, fish, frogs, and catfish. There are 4 different types of cenotes, from caves to caverns to simple sinkholes. But did you know there's a ring of sinkholes around Chichen Itza?

The ring of cenotes makes up the circle of the Chicxulub Crater. This crater has been dated to between the Cretaceous and Paleogene periods, 66 million years ago. It is the site of a huge meteorite impact. This meteorite impact happened at the point when the Cretaceous period gave way to the Paleogene period and is associated with the mass extinction of the dinosaurs. It's known as the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. Yep. You read that right. The cenotes were created because of a meteorite hit that blasted the Yucatan and likely contributed to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Who knew?

The cenotes were believed to be a Gateway to the afterlife, by the Mayans. So although they used them for water, they also threw everything from valuables to humans into some of them. Just during the 20th century, explorers found mastodon bones in the cenotes along with skulls and skeletons of human beings, including one known as Eve of Naharon and the skeleton of a teenage girl, dating from around 13,500 years ago. Remember, the Mayans didn't show up until 11,000 years later!

Explorers have been scuba diving in the cenotes and are only now trying to map them. The caves in The Yucatan are the largest connected complex of caves in the world. And when divers get deep enough, they come across what's called the heliocline. That's where the fresh water mixes with the salt water from the ocean. I don't understand how these bodies of water interact, but apparently the scholars don't consider the ocean to be "connected" to the cenotes, per say. I can't explain it. They mingle but aren't connected. Like frat boys with out-of-their-league college girls. I don't understand and I'm not going to try.

Just imagine swimming in a cenote, diving to 300 ft and coming across the heliocline! It's a cloudy, swirling plane of sea water mixing with fresh water and they say it's hard to see there because of the swirling saltwater. I don't have any dive certifications so I won't be diving on my trip, but I bet it's an amazing experience. For that matter, I bet swimming in a cenote is an amazing experience even if you're not diving. I'm so excited to try!

I just saw a commercial for "Sinkholes! Swallowed Alive" on my television. Weird.

Yucatec and whom?

With a quick trip planned to Tulum in the Yucatan peninsula, in March, I'm sitting here reading about the geology and the history so I will know this stuff during our trip.

I'm reading about all this while it snows here at home. I-5 is shut down due to the snow. I hate snow. I spent a decade in heavy snow, with winters that boasted so much snow, you couldn't see the snow plow coming towards you on a two lane road because the berms were THAT HIGH. I'm not a snow pansy. I just hate snow. So instead of thinking about the snow, I'm doing my travel homework.

I love history, but I've never really studied the Yucatan beyond the Spanish conquest. I seem to get confused between Mayan and Aztec, so studying this stuff will do me good. So I start with reading the basics.

The Mayans were hunter gatherers who migrated to the Yucatan in 2500 BC. The Yucatan was fairly isolated from the rest of Mexico until recently, so the Yucatec people developed their own culture. They built great cities including Chichen Itza.

From about 250 AD to 900, the Maya built city-states in Central America that included huge pyramids and temples and public plazas with huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the oldest Maya centers, revealed thousands of structures and artifacts including temples, pyramids, ball courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In this way, it reminds me of Budapest and their limestone quarries, which were a shock to me on my visit. I'm glad I'm reading about the Yucatan because I would never have pegged it as a limestone mecca.

The Inca began settling in a valley in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. (Interesting side note: there's a commercial making the rounds right now about DNA.  In it, a woman gets her DNA report and it lists "Native Indian - Andes" which means the Inca! Who knew?!) Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Aztecs also emerged around 1200. The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a large high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

So the Mayans came, built a culture, and lived peacefully until the Toltecs arrived in the tenth century. The Toltecs influenced the Mayans and dominated them. Then, around 1200 CE, the Mayan period ended. Most of the cities were abandoned but nobody knows why. This is the period of time when Aztec and Inca cultures flourished..

Then, in the 1500's, Cordova and Cortes found the Yucatan. The Spaniards finally conquered the people after several failed attempts, and built 30 churches in the hopes of converting the natives to christianity. A Fransiscan monk ordered all the handwritten records destroyed, and smallpox killed almost 2 million natives, so the culture suffered terribly under the Spanish.

In 1761, a church-educated Mayan led a rebellion against Spain, but the Yucatan didn't win independence until 1821. Even then, they were still part of Mexico until 1840 when they succeeded, then rejoined in 1843, and then annexed again in 1846.

The Yucatan was neutral during the Mexican-American war, but by 1848 the Yucatecans drove all Hispanic citizens out of the area except those in the walled cities on the peninsula. The government of the Yucatan asked Britain, Spain, and the US to stop the Mayans, and the US actually considered intervention. In the end, the US did not intervene but told Europe "look but don't touch."

The Yucatecs fought with Mexico on and off for years. Up until recently, elections have been held for 100 years with only Hispanic politicians gaining political support based on their Hispanic purity. The first governor of Yucatán born of pure Mayan descent, Francisco Luna Kan, was elected in 1976. His victory represented a political break from tradition.

I had no idea the Yucatan was so oppressed and dominated. We as tourists have only really been visiting the area since the 80's. I can't imagine how they can stand us. But what's fascinating is the geology, which I'll talk about in my next post.

Why the history lesson?

So before my trip to Eastern Europe, I did a lot of research and it paid off. I would find myself in some site or other and all of a sudden it would hit me like a ton of bricks where I was. I'd look around and the historical significance of where I was standing would suddenly become crystal clear. That happened in Prague, standing on the bridge at the golden hour of twilight with the whole visible world around me bathed in mellow gold light. I began to weep. The Charles Bridge was built 550 years ago during the reign of King Charles IV, King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor.

From Wiki: The Charles Bridge has suffered several disasters (including many devastating floods!) and witnessed many historic events. Czech legend has it that construction began on Charles Bridge at 5:31am on 9 July 1357 with the first stone being laid by Charles IV himself. This exact time was very important to the Holy Roman Emperor because he was a strong believer in numerology and felt that this specific time, which formed a palindrome (1357 9, 7 5:31), was a numerical bridge, and would imbue Charles Bridge with additional strength.

Invaded by Swedes, Russians, Germans. Destroyed. Rebuilt. Used as a major trade route. So yeah, there's a ton of history. It was amazing to stand there and feel the roots twining from me straight into the past. I want to do that with the Yucatan.

By the way, there is an old legend about one of the Saint's statues in Prague and you can read about it here:

http://www.prague.net/blog/article/26/make-a-wish-on-the-charles-bridge

And yes. I rubbed the statue.

I doubt there will be saints statues in the Yucatan, but I want to utilize every opportunity available while we're in Quintana Roo to see and feel it's history. Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. History matters.

"Historians are often asked: what is the use or relevance of studying History? Why on earth does it matter what happened long ago? The answer is that History is inescapable. It studies the past and the legacies of the past in the present. Far from being a ‘dead’ subject, it connects things through time. **All people are living histories.** To take a few obvious examples: communities speak languages that are inherited from the past. They live in societies with complex cultures, traditions, and religions that have not been created on the spur of the moment. People use technologies that they have not themselves invented. So understanding the linkages between past and present is absolutely basic for a good understanding of the condition of being human. That, in a nutshell, is why History matters. It is not just ‘useful’, it is essential."

Penelope Corfield, 2007

The Yucatan.

So I've decided to write about our trip to the Yucatan. It's more for myself really, than anything. But I'm like a bus passing by your house headed for the mall. If you want to come along, hop in!

My boyfriend and I have cabin fever this year. We live in a small apartment a block from campus so my son can go to school. Mix that with constant Pacific Northwest rain and it's a perfect storm, setting us up for a bad case of Spring Fever every March. And I've got it bad this year.

So Robert, ever the generous boyfriend, starts talking about taking a trip somewhere warm. It caught me off guard and took me about 2/10ths of a second to agree. Hell, yes.

We started looking in Puerto vallarta based on suggestions from my mom, who travels a lot. I've been there, so it seemed like a decent idea. Sun. Sand. Snorkeling. Then came the hotel reviews.

Baja has been the victim of 50 years' worth of American tourists, coming across the border looking for sun, sand, and alcohol. And Baja is showing the effects of that. She's like an old whore standing in florescent light. 

The worst hotel reviews detail being drugged, mugged, and raped. Usually in that order. I know it's only 200 out of 1000 on any given review site, but what if I was in that 200 and not the 1000? No, thanks. 

We looked at Cabo San Lucas. Booked it. Canceled it. The All-inclusive hotels and flights left us with 23 hour flights for a 7 hour trip.  Who on earth thinks THAT is a great idea?? We looked at Vegas. Robert decided that would work. Great food, cheap hotels, no passport required. Then we found out it's snowing in Vegas. OH HELL NO.

So I started over. I googled "best vacations sunny" and started scrolling through the lists. Somewhere along the way, I stumbled on Tulum. Ye, Gods! Sunshine, sand, snorkeling! We finally agreed on a fabulous boutique hotel and booked everything from flights to the hotel. We have a plan.

Now I just need to research the location and the culture before we go! I'm so excited!