11-17-08 Ruins of Chacmultun

Chacmultun is just a few hours by bike from Tekax. I got a flat from a thorn on the way, the second of only two flats on the entire trip (the other was from my last ride to Nadzcaan).

I was not originally planning on going to this site, but it was so close and I was not able to find much information about this site, other than it has Classic Puuc buildings, and at least at one time has a painted mural in one or more rooms. I was hoping it may have some interesting, like early buildings or any sign if influence from the nearby Chenes Region.

After the ruins I rode on to Oxkutzcab to meet back up with Manuel.

I home now, so I uploaded a lot of photos showning some of the details that I look for, and make many of these buildings unique.

A Classic Puuc building.

The site is among milpas, and you have to pass though feilds to get to some groups like this one.

A carving of a monkeys head. The Maya typically built their stone roofs with wooden beams for additional support, most of these have rottened away. This is funny because this tree is growing from a beam socket. It looks like the wooden beam has come to life.

Tunnels.

This is detail unque to the Puuc region and only remains in a few buildings. It is a hanger built into the ceiling of a number of rooms here, but it is also carved to look like a human foot.

Chacmultun is very unusual in that it has many loop holes on both the outside and inside of the building. The most typical type was to make a hole in a stone placed in the wall and plaster around it to make a nice loop. The end of the room shown above has at least three visable (the pairs of black dots).

The single cubby high on the end of this room is very atypical and the few other exaples are scattered over the lowlands.

Here is an seam were an addition was built.

Part of an interior ceiling built in an Early Classic style. The presevation is so good its hard to believe its very old.

This is the bottom of a door. The drilled dents in the side of the doorway are called rod sockets. These are highly common in palace type buildings throughout the lowlands.

A super rare loop. This one of only 3 examples of loops I saw.

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second leg of big bike trip ...

we arrived in belize city, put our bikes together at the airport, and rode straight to the pier to get a boat to the island of caye caulker where we spent 3 days.

unfortunately for us we arrived during a cold front so it rained every day. still a relief from nyc.

don't worry, the weather was a good excuse to enjoy cheap rum in the room's tip cup. also, phil has been eating cookies dipped in peanut butter at every meal.

we caught this amazing movie called slither ... highly recommended.

we did our/my first real ride to san ignacio which will be our jump off point for day trips to a bunch of ruins (phil will cover obvs). the first 50 miles were fun- nice weather, flat roads, pretty good pace. we stopped and had lunch in belmopan and were feeling great about having only 22 miles to go. of course as soon as we started off again it started raining and for the last 2 hours of the ride it was either drizzling heavily or pouring. and it got hilly. and i realized i hadn't bonded with my bike enough before i left so was not happy with the gears.

it was well worth it though. san ignacio is great, we found a cheap place with a hot shower(!), and my bike works now.

belize: the land of the one buck burrito and empanada breakfast...

11-16-08 Tekax

Tekax, just below Oxkutcab is a very nice town. I took the day to relax, and there was a bullfight in town!

Tekax is the type of town where people sit on the corner backwards in their chairs.

The town center has some great geometric trees.

Bullfighting ring!

A great view from the church.

This bullfight totally was not as good as the last one. First, the ring was huge, the matadors could just hang out and chat when they wanted. Second, the bulls were so well trained they actually tried to get back into their trailers when the cowboys came out!

The snack food at the fights was not so good. Mostly corn type snacks and french fries with slices of hot dogs.

Sweet paint job!

11-15-08 Bus

I decided to see the ruins in southern Quintana Roo in the next leg of my trip, so a bus ride was needed to get back north. I got a ride to Xuphil to catch a bus to Chetumal. Got to Xuphil before 8am. The next bus was not until 11am, but did not actually arrive until 2pm. In Chetumal I transferred to Tekax, arriving about 10pm.

11-14-08 The Ruins of Nadzcaan

Nadzcaan is a huge ruin, one of the largest, but it has been studied very little, but will prove to be very important once research has been started. Only three plazas are cleared, but these
represent only a small fraction of the monumental architecture at the site. Major constructions likely started in the Late Preclassic, and continued though to the late or terminal Classic. Like many ruins in the area it was discovered by looters who removed any carvings they could find.

Nadzcaan is located off the highway up into the hills on a dirt road. I built my bike to take this ride, and it did put my bike to the test. The road had not been traveled in more than a year and there were many downed trees I had to get around, but a great ride.

This is a bridge that must be crossed to reach the ruins.

An early structure with lots of stella. The round stones in front are alters. Stellas are frequently set with alters, a tradition going back to at least 600BC.

An Early Classic temple.

A giant Late Preclassic or Early Classic temple. Not the largest at the site, but the largest I could get to. This is just the bottom of on corner.

A Late Classic structure with a mix of Peten and Rio Bec styles.

Have to love this tetris style stonework. Hard to imagine why somebody would have done such a fine job, but wasted so much time fitting every last stone. I am constantly struck by the Classic Maya spent so much energy on things that appear to have no practical value. Unlike me, THEY certainly knew what they were doing.

Distance rode: 34km

Total: 1683km

11-13-08 Ruins of Calakmul

Calakmul is the largest Classic period city. It reached its height in the Middle Classic (550-700) , a time when it built so many palaces. Calakmul was also a very important Preclassic center. Raised roads connected Calakmul with the giant Preclassic cities in northern Guatemala. The two massive pyramids in Calakmuls main plaza also date to this period.

The ride there approached epic, and put me over 1000 miles!

Calakmul is in the center of a biosphere and there are no hotels anywhere nearby. The campground is the closest place to stay, and that is 55km up the hilly road. Riding both ways and spending the whole day at the very large ruins was very exhausting. The road was very nice though. Many animals including many boars.

Structure 2 is one of the very largest constructions ever made by the Maya. The bulk of it dates to the Late Preclassic.

The base of structure 2.

The base of the main temple atop structure 2. A small section of the horizon is visible.

The base of structure 1, the second super tall pyramid. Calakmul is a modern name which in Maya means 'Two Hills'.

The interior of the Early Classic structure 3. The walls are built of huge well worked blocks, so well built even the wood is still in place after 1500 years.

Calakmul carved more stella than any other site, to date some 120 have been documented. The limestone in the region is very porous , which means it weathers very easily when exposed to the elements. This destroyed most carving, but some did survive. For the most part these preserved stella look like the one above. Its face is smooth because looters used a chainsaw to remove the carved surface.

A few still have glyphs on the sides.

Much work is going on here. Both research and a clear effort to make it an important tourist stop like Tikal.

Distance rode: 105km of hills

Total: 1649km