Mexico: Cenotes in the Yucatán – A Photo Essay

Cenotes, a Native American word that refers to sacred water sources, occur when underground caverns through which water flows collapse, leaving a hole in the surface of the Earth.  They are most often found in areas with limestone substructure.  In Mexico they were considered especially significant to the pre-Hispanic cultures, although they are also found in Florida, which has a similar geology, and they are famous for sinking cars, houses, streets, even sub-divisions.  One such feature near Gainesville, Florida, called the Devil’s Millhopper, was once subject to local supperstions, and attempts were made to fill it with concrete.  To no avail, it goes without saying.

Many of the cenotes in Mexico are well-known.  We were fortunate to make the acquaintance of a Viet Nam veteran who had lived in the Yucatán for many years and was willing to guide us to remote sites in the bush,  where we saw incredibly unique versions of this geological wonder.

Probably more of these formations await discovery, both in the Yucatán and in Quntana Roo.

1) The big one at Chitzen Itza, where the Mayans threw gold, children, young women, and whatever else they considered useful as sacrificial objects

2) Lots of bats flew out of this one, after we trekked a couple hours through the bush to find the spot.

3) Occasionally, thoughtful locals made pathways to the cenotes, most of which were miles off the nearest road.  A Viet Nam vet (pictured here) who had resettled in Mexico showed us many of the more remote sites.

4) A good spot for cliff diving

5) Flora run wild

6) Murky but very swimmable

7) Deep in the jungle

Costa Rica: Isla de Caño and the Stone Spheres

In 1993 I was assigned by the Costa Rican Tourist Board to photograph a large swath of the country for their glossy tourist brochures.  The area of the country that interested me greatly was the Osa Peninsula.  Here, I had heard, were to be found amazing artifacts dotted throughout the jungle; stone spheres, perfect in design and execution, whose purpose was utterly unknown.  Theories ranged from the spheres being the result of volcanic activity – as if volcanoes would spew perfect spheres during geologically symmetrical eruptions – or they may have been the work of a lost civilization, although to what purpose these spheres may have been carved baffles the imagination.  Some of them are as big Volkswagen cars.

Most have been removed from in-situ.  The Spanish conquistadors, in their relentless search for riches, got the idea that if they split them apart gold nuggets would be magically embedded in their centers, so a great many of the objects were long ago destroyed.  Others have been “borrowed” by various modern locals to grace their front lawns and so forth.

But, on the remote island of Isla de Caño, many of the spheres are still in place.  This island, located a few miles off the Osa Peninsula, was not often visited in the 1990s, and so the spheres were safe at the time.

When I hooked a ride on an outboard skiff to visit the island, the movie, “Jurassic Park” had just been released.  Visions of velociraptors flooded my imagination.  In fact, soon upon disembarking the boat – the driver declined to accompany me so I spent the day by myself in the jungle – I spotted the largest lizard I have ever seen.  It must have been five feet from head to tail.  The Costa Ricans refer to it colloquially as the “Grandma Lizard” a perfectly understandable appellation.  I decided not to make friends with it.

1) Isla de Caño – uninhabited primary growth rain forest, perfect for dinosaur experiments a la Steven Speilberg

So I tramped through a variety of barely visible paths, spotting rare amphibians, venomous snakes, and all the usual rain forest denizens.  I was careful to trod lightly.  But at one juncture I decided to step off the path, such as it was, and within a couple of minutes was thoroughly lost in the jungle.  Only by walking in concentric circles was I able to regain the foot trail.  A good lesson in jungle common sense.  Never leave a path;  the forest all looks the same, even within a few feet of safe territory.

But finally, with no map to guide me, I came across a few of the famous spheres.

2) A sphere, partially buried at the foot of a tree

Scientists have measured these spheres and found that they are virtually perfect in shape and dimension.  No known culture could have had the ability to make such perfectly and mathematically precise forms.  So who sculpted them, and to what purpose.  The mystery remains.

3) Another example

The Costa Rica Tourist Board, in its wisdom, took from me as proprietary most of the images I shot of the spheres – most of which had been cracked open like nuts by persons unknown seeking that yellow metal.  Perhaps the ancients used them with primitive catapults while engaging their enemies.  We are unlikely to ever discover their real purpose.  They can also be found inland on the Osa Peninsula in a few locations, which would indicate that the people who made them had a far-reaching territory.

Meanwhile, if the tourists who now visit the island on small cruise boats haven’t stolen them all, I guess it’s possible to see them still.

Peru: Second Ascent of Mt. Shubet, 1999: A Photo Essay

In that year, I had the opportunity to embark on an expedition led by the renowned archeologist (and now mayor of Chachapoyas, Peru) with Peter Lerche.  The trip was organized by Paul Beaver, and while there were quite a few of us who participated, the trek involved a unique chance to visit areas in Amazonas seldom seen by outsiders.

Mt. Shubet was a sacred mountain to the Chachapoya culture.  All access to the summit had been blocked by rock barriers, leaving us to scramble to the top as best we could over sheer cliffs, led by Gordon Wiltsie, sometime photographer for National Geographic and a world-class climber in his own right.

In some of the villages we passed through, the locals could barely remember white people having come this way in many years.  Some of the children had never seen gringos before.

I took my son on the trip.  He was 15 years old at the time, and it was his first visit to Peru.  His first comment when we arrived in Chachapoyas, was, “Dad, this looks just like the history books we study in school!”

1) Beginning the trek. Peter Lerche is on the right side of the photo

2) I never cared much for horses but this little guy was fun: Photo by Davarian Hall

3) Old mill used to grind sugar cane to make aguardiente (moonshine)

4,5) Climbing from the town of Chillo

6) Ascending nearer the mountain

7) Farmed land and wilderness

A fellow trekker

9) The final ascent; we had to use ropes

10) Near the summit

11) My son on the summit.  The cairn is pre-Colombian

12) Sacred wheel or snake figure on the summit.  One thing is certain; the Chachapoyans didn’t want any visitors

13) Yes, that is me, taking my leisure at the summit, 12,500 ft.

Varanasi, India: 1976

This is a shot I took of some friends on the roof-top of a hotel in Varanasi, in India.  For better or worse, this is how we presented ourselves to the world.

I wonder if there are more people like us on BlogSurfer.us

On the left, a French friend; on the right, my traveling partner Tony from New Zealand

Peru: Cahuachi, the Sacred Nasca City – A Photo Essay

Most people are familiar with the famous Nasca Lines, those wonderful geoglyphs that can only be properly appreciated from the air.  Less famous is the city of Cahuachi, an adobe brick complex most visited now by grave robbers, who over the decades have trashed the innumerable burials in their relentless quest for gold.  Objects of great archeological value are lost to these “huaceros” as they are called in Spanish.  During my visits there we often came across looters digging, and they would run upon seeing our arrival.   An Italian team headed by Giuseppe Orefici has been working for many years to excavate the city, unpaid by either the Peruvian government (naturally) or by their home institution in Italy.  Here are some photos of what the casual visitor can find there.  The ruins are difficult to access, and require a long bumpy ride over dirt tracks, many kilometers from Nasca Town.  In 2001, the last time I visited Cahuachi, no road existed to the site.  Interestingly, the area is one of the last refuges of African-Peruvians, originally brought to the country as slaves.  They have their own culture, music, and way of life, but live outside the mainstream of society, looked down upon by both Native Americans and Mestizos alike.

1) Hunan bones from looted graves are omnipresent

2) Femur and skulls

3) We surprised a group of huaceros at this grave; they had smashed a chicha, or corn beer, pot in their hurry, but we pieced it back together and left it in place

4) Checking a looted grave

5) Portions of a body that had been wrapped in simple woven cloth

6) An exquisite piece of Nasca pottery depicting an orca, also smashed by robbers looking for more valuable objects

Most famous of all the remains at Cahuachi is the so-called solar clock, a group of ancient huarango tree trunks, sunk into the ground in some kind of alignment.  Researchers have posited that this monument was used as a some kind of solar clock, or perhaps as a kind of drying rack for human bodies to assist in their mummification.

A great number of pyramids dot the landscape, but are too melted and devastated by the periodic El Nino rains to be obvious to the casual observer.

7) Almost nothing remains today of the city, except the mounds that once formed pyramids.  In the background you can see the oasis, home to the few African-Peruvians who remain in the area