Discovering the Maya
Meeting
an ancient people, still very much alive in the highlands of Guatemala
Every year tens of thousands of tourists visit the
magnificent Mayan cities that lie buried within the jungles of lowland
Central America. Each person leaves spellbound, their imaginations
aflame with dreams of a lost culture. Little do they realize, but
there is no need to dream. The descendants of the builders of those
cities are alive and well, leading an existence much as their ancestors
did in the highlands of Mexico and Guatemala.
The history of the Maya stretches back thousands
of years; they were once the proudest and most advanced civilization
in the Americas. But in the 500 years since the Spanish conquest,
their story has been one of hardship and, frequently, violent struggle.
Yet, somehow they have prevailed – stubbornly refusing to be
assimilated into the culture of their conquerors. If anything, it
is they who assimilated their masters.
A visit to Guatemala today will reveal a country
whose every inch suffused with the irrepressible spirit of the Maya.
You will get to know an ancient culture, not by studying its relics,
but by experiencing its vivid mélange of tastes, sounds, smells
and colours. During the shortest of visits, you can witness the worship
of ancient gods, hike spectacular foot trails between isolated villages,
or purchase garments whose designs once adorned the Mayan Kings.
Of the many different ethnic, linguistic and cultural
groups that make up the modern Maya, three quarters of them, about
4 million people, live in the western highlands of Guatemala –
a land of fertile plains, mist-filled canyons and could-wreathed volcanoes;
a place whose mild, sunny days and cool nights have earned it the
moniker, “The Land of Eternal Spring”. The neighbouring
Mexican State of Chiapas is home to the rest, seeming more like another
part of Guatemala than a separate country.
You could easily spend a lifetime exploring this
diverse land and its people. But given time and budget constraints,
the five destinations described below are easily accessible and have
a well-developed tourist infrastructure. A visit to any one will be
an unforgettable experience. A visit to all will give you an unparalleled
insight into the lives of these remarkable people.
Antigua
Antigua is the colonial jewel of Central America. Arabesque and stucco
houses of all sizes and colours line peaceful cobbled streets. Each
rooftop is a subtle mosaic of orange, ochre and russet tiling. Wrought
iron balconies, dripping with flowers, overlook quiet plazas and bustling
markets. Beyond the town, verdant fields drenched in coffee scented
mist, stretch up to the majestic cones of the volcanoes ‘Agua’
and ‘Fuego’.
Antigua
is Guatemala’s most tourist-friendly town. Thousands come from
all over the world to witness the spectacular parades of ‘Semana
Santa’ at Easter. The town also has a large population of foreign
students enrolled in the dozens of cheap Spanish immersion programs.
Strolling among the hotels and gift stores, sampling decadent pastries,
piping hot espresso and a dozen varieties of international cuisine,
you could almost forget where you are. To really experience the world
of the Maya, you need to go a little deeper into the highlands.
Chichicastenango
Since the days of the conquest, when the Spanish conquerors burned
the Maya capital of Utatlán to the ground, Chichicastenango
has been the unofficial spiritual centre of the highlands. It is one
of the few cities where the majority of the population still identify
themselves as being of pure indigenous blood.
Chichicastenango is also host to the biggest, boldest
and most colourful market in all of Guatemala, every Thursday and
Sunday. The market starts out in the town plaza, but rapidly expands,
like the writhing tentacles of an octopus, until every tiny street
and alley is a gorgeous melee of sound,smell and colour.
To walk the streets of Chichicastenango is to immerse
yourself in the boisterous world of the Maya. Tongues cluck and cackle
a dozen ancient dialects. Steaming pots bubble and hiss on the open
fires of impromptu restaurants. Strange artefacts and peculiar vegetables
thrust at you from every direction. The beseeching cries of street
vendors fill the air, imploring any passer-by to purchase their wares
with the fervour of a religious incantation.
The
variety of merchandise will delight, surprise and occasionally disgust
you, but the Maya themselves stand out most of all. Their skin of
polished mahogany is enveloped in rich layers of coloured cloth. Eyes
like obsidian jewels sparkle beneath the broad spectrum of a tzute,
or head-cloth. Hair of the finest black silk spirals through a twisted
rainbow of magenta, indigo and green, exploding in bows and pom-poms
that hang in the air like freeze-frame fireworks.
These symphonies of color are not merely decorative;
textiles are of untold importance within Maya culture. The hand woven
huipiles, or blouses, are the continuation of a two thousand year
tradition, depicting the spiritual world in which these deeply religious
people dwell. Each thread weaves a living history.
Lake Atitlán
From Chichicastenango, the Pan-American Highway snakes its way through
pine-bristled hills and eroded canyons to the shores of Lake Atitlán.
This twelve-mile stretch of cold black water, hemmed in by steep cliffs
and a trio of perfect volcanic cones, inspires awe in all who see
it. British writer Aldous Huxley once proclaimed that is was, “the
most beautiful lake in the world.”
Lake
Atitlán is a perfect example of the dichotomy that is at the
core of modern Guatemala. The main town of Panajachel is so popular
with tourists that it has been nicknamed ‘Gringotenango’,
yet on the far shores of the lake are some of the most traditional
communities in all the country. Vacation homes, replete with swimming
pools and satellite dishes, spring up between ancient terraced villages
of cobbled streets, thatch roofs and crumbling stonewall.
Speedboats and jet skis share the choppy waters with
cayucos, dugout canoes used since before the birth of Christ. At Las
Piramides Yoga Retreat in San Marcos, you can practice crystal healing,
cleanse your aura, or study an extensive library of new age philosophy,
while just across the water the natives of Santiago Atitlán
still worship a millennia-old pagan deity known as Maximón.
Yet,
none of this is new to the lake’s occupants: Atitlán
has long been the meeting point of two worlds. The Maya know it as
the navel of the earth, where the dual forms of the earth deity join.
The intrusions of modernity are of the sky – as beguiling as
each exquisite sunrise, as impermanent as the clouds that caress and
coddle the slopes of the volcanic ridge. The Maya are of the earth
– at times as dark and inscrutable as the cone of Volcano San
Pedro against a starry sky, yet as enduring and life sustaining as
the golden fields of corn that sway above the shores in an afternoon
breeze. Just as the high rim of the lake seems to enclose the sky
when you are standing on its shores, so the Maya provide the foundation
for life within Guatemala.
Trekking in the Highlands
In the mountains to the west of Lake Atitlán, the distractions
of the modern world rapidly disappear. Isolated communities cling
tenaciously to steep mountain ridges, connected only by countless
miles of narrow foot trails that teeter on the brink of deep ravines,
freefall through precipitous cloudforest and ford the sparkling waters
of mountain streams.
The extreme vertical topography makes for very challenging
hiking; getting around requires a good guide, a few days’ supplies
and some strong legs. But this is no wilderness; every turn will bring
you into contact with hard-working Maya.
Middle-aged
men, laden with sacks of coffee or corn, hop up the steep ridges with
the agility of a mountain goat. Laughing children burst from the undergrowth
in pursuit of errant livestock, vanishing into tall fields of corn
as quickly as they appeared. Groups of women pound and scrub enormous
bundles of clothing in streams, the staccato rhythm of their gossip
peppering the air like a glottal spitfire. The ubiquitous sounds of
village life waft through the air like a gentle melody – the
soft slap-slap-slap of tortilla making; the earthy sound of a stone
grinding corn; the metallic screech of machetes being sharpened.
San Cristobal de Las Casas
It is eight years since the Zapatista rebels of the Mexican State
of Chiapas rose up and captured San Cristobal in protest of the government’s
policies toward the indigenous majority within the state. To this
day, the conflict has not been fully resolved; but life in the city
has returned to normal.
Tourists once again enjoy the beautiful colonial
architecture, shop for colourful Mayan crafts and absorb the peaceful
atmosphere of what is perhaps the most pleasant and interesting of
Mexico’s cities. Ubiquitous here are the Chamula Maya, natives
of one of Mexico’s largest indigenous communities. They throng
the streets, selling fruit, flowers, handicrafts, and even tiny dolls
of the Zapatista guerrillas - complete with rifles and ski masks.
No
visit to San Cristobal is complete without a visit to the neighbouring
town of Chamula, and its church in particular. Just step through the
door and you will enter the fascinating spiritual world of the Maya.
The first thing to catch the eye is the dazzling
trio of blue and green arches, studded with floral rosettes of yellow,
pink and purple, which welcome worshippers into its doors in a truly
pagan celebration of life and colour. Beside the entryway is a wooden
cross that is decked in green pine branches and a delicate arch of
white flowers – far more like the Maya tree of life than a crucifix.
Inside the church, small groups of men and women
kneel before clusters of tiny flickering candles. The murmur of prayer
in the Tzotzil language washes over the nave, rising and falling to
its own natural rhythm. Copal and ocote (Mayan incense) burns beneath
every shrine. Blue smoke spirals gently up through the still air,
performing a languid dance in the narrow shafts of light that strike
down through the gloom from above. Occasionally, a crackle and flare
pierces the quiet as some sugarcane alcohol, or perhaps gunpowder,
is sprinkled over the candles in an offering to the earth. The air
is thick and intoxicating; a sensual fusion of sweet pollen and sultry
incense, tinged with an edge of fire and brimstone.
Despite 500 years of adversity, the ancient religion
of the Maya has undergone little more than a superficial change. The
Spanish built churches atop ancient temples; the pantheon of Mayan
gods became interchangeable with the Catholic saints; ancient festivals
changed their names, but remained the same in their nature. To use
the analogy of the Mayan Tree of Life, new branches may have sprouted,
but the trunk remains intact. The Maya are alive and kicking.
