We left early Monday morning in Arthur's de lujo private shuttle from Flores, headed for Cancuén. It was a few hours drive from Flores to Raxruja, the nearest city to the site. Along the way, you drive through Sayaxche, the narcotraficante capital of Guatemala. Imagine this, you're driving through the middle of nowhere Guatemala, when you stumble upon a typical, superpoor village with a strip of tiendas along the highway. Then, suddenly, you reach a strip of gorgeous, two or three story architecturally significant mansions. Behind huge concrete walls. With barbed wire and glass shards on top. Yay for international drug trade!?
Then you reach the Rio La Pasión, which bisects Sayaxche. There, you must cross by ferry. (The Pasión becomes navigable at Cancuén and flows north, through the Petén region of Guatemala, through Mexico, to the Gulf. There is not a single bridge across it.) You must see this river crossing to appreciate it.
And here's a dead cow floating down the river. Unfortunately, this is the drinking water source as well.
It looked way more bizarre in real life. Just trust me.
Once in Raxruja (above), you take a 16km dirt road out to La Unión, on the banks of the Pasión (see below).
Then, you get in a lancha, which wisks you several kilometers downriver to Cancuén. The river is absolutely beautiful (see below).
When you arrive at the site, you see the visitor's center emerge from the amazing high jungle that hangs over the river.
Getting to Cancuén was pretty exciting. Once we arrived, we made our way to the tent.
As we arrived, there was a meeting between one of the local tourism initiatives and the archaeologists, where various complaints and concerns were voiced. It was pretty essential to understanding the way in which the local community interacts with the outsiders at Cancuén.
We spent most of the evening in camp, kicking around clinic ideas with Arthur and a really awesome guy named David, who worked for Counterpart International in the region for the last four years or so. It was a really productive discussion.
Yesterday morning, we headed downriver with Arthur to a community called El Zapote. We visited the school, the debunked health clinic formerly staffed by a lonely Cuban doctor (see below), and a few houses in the community.
El Zapote is absolutely beautiful, and conditions there are absolutely horrible. David estimated that the average family of six can produce forty measures of corn per year on the fertile soils by the river. Currently, a measure of corn sells for about 100 quetzales, placing their annual income at 4,000 quetzales, more or less. That's $533.33. Per year. For six people.
Most people live in simple, one-room houses with thatched roofs and bare floors. Animals and people are not separated. Drinking water comes from the river. I could go on and on. Health education has to be part of the solution here. I'm going to move on now, because this could be a really long section of the post.
After lunch, Arthur took us on a tour of the site, which Kalya and I both really enjoyed. It's easy to see how someone could love living out in the rain forest, digging phenomenal ruins amid orchids and 40-foot palms. There are many, many rain forest pictures on my camera, only some of which made it up on Picasa.
We left Cancuén this morning, leaving behind the very warm and hospitable staff of archaelogists, and headed to Cobán. Cobán is a somewhat charming place, if a bit shabby, from which we will base for the next two days. Tomorrow morning will be a trip to a coffee farm just outside the city, and then we'll head down for a 6km hike in the cloud forest at Biotopo Quetzal.
While I'm on farming, I must mention something about the destruction of the rain forests. We have all heard about it, and the stats on how alarmingly fast it's happening. Arthur has been working in rain forests for 25 years, and it's amazing to hear him talk about what has changed. From Flores to Raxruja, you drive through hundreds of kilometers of fields. Cattle pastures and palm oil farms, mainly. Every inch of that was once high rain forest, and now there is almost none to speak of. When you finally make it to Cancuén, or any other protected swath of rain forest for that matter, the seriousness of what's going on really hits you. It is terribly sad what we are doing to the planet.
The worst culprit right now is biofuels and ethanol production, which just like mahogany harvesting before it, is another way for the developed world to live in oblivion of the terrible ecological consequences that their actions have on the developing world, which relatively unable to protect itself. Rain forest in the Petén, as we speak, is being cut so that African palms can be planted. These palms produce oil which is sold as biofuel. There is nothing green about what they are doing in Guatemala. I was blown away.
Tomorrow I will try to include some more information about life at Cancuén, but I am tired now. It's wonderful to be back to internet and crisp, mountain air.
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