Tikal

After the sketchbook course in Antigua, Christina and I took a short trip to visit the Mayan ruins at Tikal.  We took a half-hour flight from Guatemala City to Flores, Guatemala.  We heard that the bus ride was 18 hours so we chose to fly.

I have always had an interest in Mayan culture because my great great grandfather, who was a Danish missionary, married a Native American woman from Merida who we believe may have been Mayan.  Our history is a bit murky...but it is very possible I may have a drop or two of Mayan blood.

On the right side of this spread I sketched the Great Jaguar temple.  It was the final stop on our tour of Tikal and I was hot and tired, but I  managed a quick pencil sketch. (You can see Christina's sketch here.)  I added a famous image of a Jaguar shaman to the upper right.  It is from a vase used for drinking chocolate found at ceremonial site not far from Tikal called the "Altar de Sacrificios."

While we were in Antigua we visited a small jewelry store where a man had a book that would tell us our Mayan nahual.  Nahuales are Mayan spirits or totems, sort of like the zodiac.  A person's nahual is determined by their date of birth and has an influence on your character and demeanor.  Each nahual is associated with an animal of importance to the Maya as well as associated traits, qualities and tendencies. It can be spelled "nahual", "nagual", or "nawal."  (Source: The Guatemala Insider).  If you would like to calculate your sign click here. 

My sign is "Ajpu" which is associated with a conch or snail.  It is also associated with the sun, king, Lord, time, energy and the blowgun. (I find this funny because I used to be pretty good at using a blowgun when I studied bears.)  Ajpu also "represents the holiness in life, the divinity in the physical world, and our search for it" (Source: The Four Pillars).  

After I sketched the Temple of the Jaguar I decided I wanted to dedicate the left page to nahuales and another famous classic image, the "Mayan Vision Serpent."  This image is from "lintel 15" from a site not far from Tikal called Yaxchilan.  The Vision Serpent  was often depicted "with the spirit of a god or ancestor emerging from its jaws" and was thought to serve as a direct link between the spirit and physical worlds (Wikipedia).  There are twenty nahuales and I only had room for three around the vision serpent, so I chose Ajpu (the conch shell), Ix (the jaguar), and Kan (the serpent).  

Source for hand-written text is from the Four Pillars.

"Ix is possibly the most feminine of the nawales. It represents the spirit of Mother Earth and could easily be seen as a Mayan representation of Gaia. Ix can be seen as a mothering energy, nurturing all things, but this should not be confused with weakness – the animal totem of Ix is the jaguar and it is as the jaguar that Ix is often known. The jaguar is, of course, powerful and stealthy. Ix also embodies these qualities. The jaguar is an animal of the night, slipping magically through the darkness, the spots of her back a representation of the milky way. She carries the sun on it’s nightly journey through the underworld." -The Four Pillars


We had perfect weather the day we went to Tikal.  It was hot and dry as we followed our tour guide through the jungle.  Below is a photo of the Temple of the Grand Jaguar.

For all those Star Wars nerds out there, Tikal was used as a filming location for Yavin 4 in Star Wars: Episode IV, A New Hope.

I should have counted how many pyramids we climbed.  Below is a photo of Christina looking fresh as we climbed our first pyramid. 

Of all the things we saw in Tikal, the giant head of Chaac, the rain god, was one of my favorites.  This head was maybe twenty feet tall and very impressive.  It was under one of those palapa huts you see in the photo above.

Below is a carved stela of a Mayan figure wearing a large headdress (and an unfortunate-looking person laying behind them).

I had to take a photo of Christina with this giant leaf behind her.  The jungle was full of monkeys and all sorts of bird life. 

If you look closely below you can see me taking a rest break on the steps of a pyramid.  I think I drank all of the water in my water bottle and three Cokes that day!

Worn out by our day of pyramid-climbing, Christina and I celebrated a wonderful trip and our last night in a restaurant overlooking Lake Petén Itzá. 

Watching the boats and the sun slowly slip into darkness it is easy to see why the Maya settled in this area.  I have always been fascinated with the Maya, their rituals and cosmology and their mysterious demise.  I just spent the past hour searching for the perfect quote to end this post but couldn't find one.  I usually take that as I sign that I should write what it is that I am looking for...so here it is.

La Tela Maya

Although echoes now live in the pyramids
They are still very much here.

We are woven together through time and space.

Our eyes both spy the same big dipper.

The patterns repeat over and over.

The fabric is living and breathing...

Made of tooth and bone and blood and sinew

Mountains and rivers, caves and oceans

Men with big brooms, jaguars carrying the sun

Women balancing baskets on their heads

Wooden saints, magical doors, crumbling ruins

Processions of saints, mermaids and millstones, breathing volcanoes

The long arms of galaxies woven through and through.

And who is weaving this masterpiece?

You and I.

We are the warp and the weft.

Through the eye of the needle

Over and under we go

Weaving the world into being.

If you would like to read the other posts about this trip here are the links:

Guatemala Sketchbook Trip - Part 1

Guatemala Sketchbook Trip - Part 2

Guatemala Sketchbook Trip - Part 3
Guatemala Sketchbook Trip - Part 4
Ixcacao, Fruit Vendor, Tuk tuk