10-23-08 Santa Elana to Hopelchen and the Ruins of Tahcok

I road about 70km to Hopelchen. Fewer and fewer towns and constant hills. Chenes is the Maya word for a well. Nearly every town ends with chen, as the places where people live is based on where the wells are. The wells today still supply the towns with water. The Chenes regions is also a distinct archetectual region, largly a mix of Puuc (to the north) and Rio Bec (to the south). It is unclear who the Chenes people where in relation to the Puuc and Rio Bec people, some think they were Rio Bec people, but with current research it is simply unclear.

The church at Bolenchen (I will have to post a some pictures later of Hopelchen). Many ruins around here too, but they are mostly Puuc.

I went out to a ruin on the edge of town, Tahcok. Honestly i was a bit disapointed, but it was easy to get to and the care taker was great, so I ended up hanging out with him for a while talking about ruins and eating oranges which grow everywhere there.

The main, and only uncovered structure. All that I could see was Puuc architecture, with Chenes style wall and vault masonry.

This was actually pretty intersting. 99% of vaults come have a flat top where a vault stone is layed flat across the sloping walls. This vault comes to a point. I think there is one of these at Uxmal, but otherwise i think these are the only two examples.

Distance traveled: 70km
Trip total: 792km