Fuzzy Boundaries

Soon after you arrive at the main entrance gate to Palenque - the one where they take your 20 pesos and ask you what country you are from - you realize that there are other landowners that encroach into the park boundaries. All the painted signs along the road going up into the site are a dead give-away. The boundary for the park was established several years ago, but there are still people who own land within it. I have been told that the government would like to purchase these properties to better protect the site and its archaeology, but they haven't come up with the funds to do this yet.

The first sign you see right at that front gate is the all popular lodging, eating, drinking and music establishment of El Panchan, along with various other businesses. Panchan has some of the best food I have ever eaten and they employ outstanding chefs.

The next establishment along the road doesn't seem to have a name, but has a sign advertising bungalows.

Then there is a youth hostel...

A place called La Palapa...

Next comes Michol Palapa - The word "Michol" is also the name of the nearby river.

Kichanes cabanas and camping

Last, but not least is the Mayabelle. Ed Barnhart and his crew actually mapped part of this property, since the land contains ancient structures.

After 5 Thousand Years

I recently received a new National Geographic magazine collector's item publication in the mail.
As I was flipping through the softbound book, I noticed the messages contained on the inside of the front cover.
And then I noticed the inside of the back cover. Delfino Lopez Hidalgo, one of the administrators at the Palenque site from the INAH (the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia) told me that the governor of Chiapas, as well a the National Secretary of Tourism had spent large amounts of money in tourism advertising in order to promote the state of Chiapas. Visit http://www.sectorturismo.gob.mx/wb/sectur/sect_buscador?q=chiapas

to see some of their information. Since visitation is up this year it seems to be working.

Excusado del Palacio

You may recall a discussion in a previous posting about the possible existence of bathrooms in the Palace. This evening, while looking through many of our old books and enformes about Palenque, I came across the above diagram that was drawn under the direction of Mexican archaeologist, Miguel Angel Fernandez. He excavated at Palenque in the 1940's. The diagram illustrates part of the Palace tower court and clearly shows "la posición" that a man would be able take in order to relieve himself in "el hombre's estación". It even shows the physics of how it might operate. I guess we will have to continue to use our imagination regarding how the women's excusado works. I now have a new-found confidence in our Palenque tour guides because the information that they are giving their audiances comes from a pretty good source!

Autobuses de Turismo

One of the most amazing things that I observed at the site are the number and variety of large tour buses, the majority of which are road worthy, air conditioned and comfortable. They usually seat about 40 to 50 people.
Here is another one that is trying to turn around in the tight parking area that is also used by the vendors, the guides, the tourists as well as other buses.
I love the ones that have the bright colors and that look like they have bug antlers. Those appendages are actually their rear view mirrors. These two buses are trying to squeeze by on the narrow two lane road that leads into the park.
Here I am sitting by the roadway counting each kind of vehicle that comes into the park (bus, car, taxi, etc.). I was a transportation planner in a previous life, so I felt very comfortable taking one hour traffic counts by mode. I did this on various days at various times throughout one week and estimated that there are an average of 4 large tour buses that come into the park every hour - during the SUMMER SEASON. If you multiply that out, it comes to an average of 50 buses each day during vacation season. Un-averaged counts would reflect that, there are more of these buses on Sundays, since Mexican nationals do not pay a park fee on Sundays and there are less buses on some of the weekdays.
There has been a increasing trend in the use of these large coaches over the years that local people have noticed. Their use impacts the local economy, sometimes in a negative way. The tour operator, knowing that he/she has promised the group that they would visit several cities and several sites in X number of days, funnels the people into a local hotel for one day and then the next, takes them up to Lakamha' (Palenque) for a few hours, puts them back into the bus and then they are on their way to the next location, without even seeing or spending their money in the little pueblo of Palenque.I placed the "tourist circuit" on a map to help you see how the people are taken by bus to the park entrance at the top of the hill and then they are lead (or self lead) through the circuit which is a distance of 1.2 miles or 1.9 kilometers downhill. They are given a set amount of time to make it through the site - to be back at the bus that is waiting either at the museum parking lot or the informal lot where it is being washed. Then they put them back into the bus and they are off again to the next destination.
And yes, some make it through the site faster than others and are happy to be able to relax after such a stimulating and very sweaty walk.

Tiendas de Portátiles

I created this map to show locations where the vendors are usually found at the site. I estimate that they use approximately 9,153 sq. meters of space in total.

With the exception of those vendors who are lucky enough to have a real booth with a roof, each person must have enough ground area to spread their goods out for display.

How's this display for an eye catching color burst?

The waterproof blue cloths that you see below the merchandise serves several purposes. They help the vendor lay out his/her territory, they offer protection for the goods as they lay on the ground, they give a nice contrast so that the goods show up well as the tourists pass and most important of all, they are used to bundle up the pretties and carry them back home.

The majority of these people do not live in the Modern City of Palenque. Most of them (and the guides also) come from a small indigenous community called El Naranjo, two miles away. I created this map to show you where this pueblo is located (sorry for the poor resolution, but my digital elevation model is the problem). There is no road to drive to the site from El Naranjo, so each day these hard working people carry their bundled good on their backs for two miles to get to their designated spot.

Here are a few of the men taking a much needed break in the shade.

Selling the Maya Mystique

Chances are good that many of the local people who used to work at the site wielding machates and cutting grass are now site vendors. On Friday, July 25th, I counted 79 vendors spread out on the ground at various locations within the site and this was not an unusual day.

This year, I would estimate that one third of the items being sold are painted cowhide leather works. This vendor has found an opportunity to use an ancient altar next to the palace to lay out his leather ware reproduction of Pakal the Great's sarcophagus lid and explain it in detail. Perhaps if the ancient Maya had cows back in those days, they might have gone through this same routine.

I will not speculate about the source or production of some of these modern leather "paintings" -- whether they are hand or machine made, but I know that all the works from this vendor were carved by him. I watched him expertly work several pieces from limestone.

One of the things that I find interesting is the variety of reactions by the tourists to the vendor's sales pitches. Here is a German couple heavily engaged in a transaction with a proactive and persistent Mexican vendor.
Other approaches at bargaining are more amenable. This man, being very sensitive and observant, kindly questions the indigenous Maya woman about her products and the sale goes down quite easily.

God Bless the Grass

This picture is one from Tikal. One year ago, when I visited Palenque, I witnessed a crew of men with machetes like these, descend upon the terraces of the ballcourt and make quick work of "manicuring" the lawn (thanks again to Flickr for this photo).
However, this time I saw men with lawnmowers!!!
Although, not power driven...
As well as a man with a weedeater. Although more efficient, I wonder how many people lost their jobs due to these "upgrades".
From this map, you can see the generalized areas of garden and lawn maintenance for the park. I used the GIS to figure out the area measurements. There are approximately 2,450 sq. meters (8,038 sq.feet) of gardens to maintain and 85,878 sq. meters (281,751 sq. feet) of lawn and terraces to mow.
Not only do they mow the grass, but they rack and sweep the leaves off the tourist walkways. The leaf blower has not yet made its way this far south.

Rolling with the flow

I fly back to Austin tomorrow, but I will continue to post my work about Palenque to this blog. The research that Anabella and I are doing this summer is not just about tourism, but about the general long term sustainability of the site. Quite a broad subject, you’re thinking? Yes, but we are hoping to at least present some useful suggestions and conclusions that will include other things beside tourism -- for instance, the problem of the destruction of ancient buildings by rain water (to be addressed in the next blog). According to Rudy Larios (2005) water is a “number one enemy” of these ancient limestone structures (see http://www.famsi.org/reports/99026/section16.htm for his report called “Architectural Restoration Criteria in the Maya Area”). But now, lets talk about water drainage across the landscape. Ed Barnhart and his survey crew were able to map creeks and streams of the site and you can see them on this map. In addition, they also mapped the springs. Rest assured that a location with over 50 natural springs and sitting in the path of the warm trade winds, has serious water management issues. For the time being, I am classifying the drainage facilities into four categories with two sub classes each, but there is only room here to show you a few examples.
One type is that of the closed drain, both ancient and modern. Here is a picture of a closed modern drain that was created in conjunction with the walkway. I don’t know how they are able to clean it out, since it is L-shaped.
Here is a map of an ancient aqueduct. As you can see from the blue color of the water, it is both open and closed.
Another type drain is the modern open drain. The red displays the path of this modern structure.
When the drains don't work properly, they deteriorate the walkways and can even wash away concrete if the velocity down this hill is strong enough. In the next time I want to show you some pictures of what is happening to the ancient structures when it rains and what a difficult job it is to prevent the limestone building material from melting away. Thus they will become- one day in the future - only memories of what once was fabulous architecture.

Let's Go to the Palace!

I just realized that I haven't posted a shot of the Palace building - the place where the Tower Court and House E are located - the subject of my last posting. These two young ladies certainly look all spruced up and ready for a royal visit. It may look like I set up this shot, but I swear that I do not know these women.

Here is a top view of the Tower Court and House E. You can see where the tourists have created a path.

There are times when the court is packed with people (yes, looking at the toilets again).

Modern palace rituals – La posición para los sanitarios

If you visit the Palenque Palace, chances are good that you will pass through the Tower Court. House E, the building to the east of the court is believed to have been the royal quarters of Pakal the Great. Here is Linda Schele's drawing of the Oval Tablet inside House E.
Since one of my goals is to assess the impact of the tourist traffic on the palace building, the first thing I have do is to figure out a way to estimate how many tourists actually climb up to visit it. There are several access stairs that lead to it, so if I were to count everyone that uses the stairs, I would have to be in 3 places at once. Instead, I am using House E visitation as “proxy” count. This means that I will use these numbers to extrapolate how many are climbing the Palace structure.


Did you know that the Palace may have had toilets? From my vantage point on the stairs, I have noticed that most of the people who visit the court have a guide with them and the guide always, without fail, brings them over to the two holes in the floor on either side of the west stairs. What are these holes? There is archaeological evidence that they might have been toilets. The guides love to give their demonstrations to show how these devices might work and then they squat into “la posición”, encouraging the visitors to do the same. Above you see a series of “las posiciónes” over the men's "toilet".
La mujeres posición para el sanitarios

And others just gaze down into the hole, expecting to see -- I don't know what.