2017 - 2018:  Punta Mita Mexico to Quetzaltenango Guatemala

Dec 13, 2017.  Conhuas, Cabanas la Selva, Yucatán

• Another cold night.  Wore pants, shirt & socks to bed.  Is the interior much colder than the coast?  I’m only at around 800 feet above sea level.

• Chicanná (“House of the snake’s jaws”, or “La Casa de la Boca de Serpiente”).  Once more, a silent walk through the jungle, with the temples gradually appearing amongst the foliage ahead.  This is my most favorite part of a visit.  Buildings are precursors of Chenes style, with elaborate decoration and repetitive masks of the hook-nosed Chac, many still covered with red-painted stucco. Late Classic.

• Balamkú (“Jaguar’s Temple”).  Small temple with a great frieze, the best yet, decorated with toads, crocodiles and jaguars.  Tipped the caretaker 50 pesos for unlocking the door to the frieze for me.

• Capped the day off with an early evening visit to a bat cave down the road, Volcán de Los Murciélagos, “volcán” because they swirled out of the cave’s mouth and into the sky like a volcanic eruption- or a hurricane.  Amazing sight.

Becán

Becán (“path of the snake”; also Mayan for “moat”.  Large site, mostly unexcavated.  Surrounded by 2 km dry moat, accessed by 7 causeways.  Occupied 550 BC - 1000 AD.  Mostly residential rather than ceremonial buildings.  May be the site of Tayasal, an early capital of the Itzá, who later ruled Chichén Itzá.  Tightly packed structures, sort of like modern day apartment blocks.  Really tall steep temples, with ropes to assist climbing the steps.  Stucco mask with red paint.