Cancum, Mexico, 31 August 2016

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The last post was colour infrareds of the journey from Flores to Cancun.  I also took a few regular images.  In this and the next one we are taking off from Flores.

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Over the Caribbean.  There was also an infrared from the same location.

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From the air, one of the tourist resorts on the coast at Cancun.

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A view of the beach from a tourist resort.  Normally, I would never stay in one of these by choice, but it was close to the airport and we had a flight to Cuba the next day. They really represent modern commercial colonialism.  They monopolise the beachfront and are designed to encourage you to stay within their economic zone.  We are in Mexico and yet the ATMs only deliver American dollars.  We encountered them in several places in the Caribbean.  They often deny local people their traditional access to beaches for recreation and fishing.  In Jamaica we were told how some drove local people out of their roadside stalls, depriving them of significant income, in the interests of providing a homogenised experience for their clients.

In this case, as well as convenience for the next day’s flight, we were also close to a Mayan museum and some local ruins.

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Glyphs on this stela mention Yuhkno’m Ch’e’n i, who ruled Dzibanche in the southern Yucutan Pensula in the sixth century. The reliefs also show lords from neighboring cities of El Resbalón and Yo’okop, captured  in a war of conquest.  Yuhkno’m Ch’e’n i was the founder of the Kaonor or “Serpent Head” dynasty. After 636 AD, they moved to Calakmul, from where its rulers conquered Tikal and controlled the central area of Petén.

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Design outline of a similar stela.

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This is a figure from the facade of a Mayan building, which were lavishly decorated and painted with scenes associated with divine rulers and supernatural beings.

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A censer (object for burning incense) associated with a cult of the ancestors.

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“The Maya were skilled mathematicians and astronomers. One of the most observed planets was Venus, since its transit predicted ominous auguries with the war. The Mayans recorded their cycle of 584 days in codices and stone panels like this one.”

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“A constant in the figures of the culture of the West is the representation of characters with vessels. Interestingly, both men and women carrry them. In agricultural societies, the vessel is a vital element as a container, for cooking and storing food.”

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“The rnaquetas are three-dimensional representations showing the way of life in the West, personalising gender roles and some who served. The detail and the purpose with which the pieces were made allow to visualize the expressiveness in bodies and faces, facilitating the identification of their gender.”

(Some of these translations may be a little garbled).

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“Exalting the continuous search for beauty has always been a defining characteristic of humanity. In the West, painting the figures combines the divine and the earthly. In this Ameca style piece you can see a black decoration that serves to represent body aspects such as the hair and the iris of the eye.  Also to settle the beauty of the face and in the case of the breasts is a symbol of the cyclical.”

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There was also a dragon (?) in the entrace of the museum.

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Outside was the remains of some Mayan dwellings and buildings.  This is a recreation from a notice board.

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The Mayans may have gone but the iguanas remain.

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This is the remains of the building shown on the notice board.

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The steps of a small pyramid.

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Another iguana.

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Next was Cuba, but another trip is fast approaching (more on that soon) and I have run out of time for the moment.  To be continued at some later date….