TULUM
OCTOBER 1974
After I left San Cristobal I passed a few hours in a very small village in one of the little valleys in the hills and there was a big fiesta going on there that took over the whole town with a marimba band and costumed dancers with bizarre colorful animal masks, the whole country and people here are like magic to me. I got on the back of another truck just after dark and rode all the way to Palenque.
The road was very cold and I wrapped up in a blanket and lay on my back looking at the sky and I could see every star in the universe as the tops of the big pine trees whizzed by and just when I got to the point where it was so cold I thought I’d holler, the road suddenly began to drop and kept dropping for the next 100 kilometers and I sat up and watched the terrain changing right before my eyes and in less than an hour’s time we’d gone from the chilly high altitudes of frozen pine tree forests, down into eucalyptus groves and down down into a steamy hot tropical jungle, a primeval prehistoric rain forest with gigantic rock cliffs all covered with vines and creepers jutting out above us and out over the road with all kinds of jagged crazy palm trees and banana forests with waterfalls so I had the impression of being completely surrounded on all sides by this thick dense land and every so often the road would veer off through some little town of straw huts and I’d hear the distant marimba music blending with shrieks and whistles of great parrots and all sorts of crazy birds and animals from the trees, fantastic. I arrived in Palenque just before dawn and walked straight out to the ruins of the ancient Mayan civilization. After traveling all night, I wasn’t at all tired. My energy was redoubled and I watched in awe as the sun came up like a red ball of fire silhouetted against the great mysterious Mayan ruins surrounded by beautiful pristine jungle. I climbed to the top of the Tomb of the Inscriptions where I sat feasting my eyes for an hour until the tourists began to come in their pastel colored droves, spoiling the scene.
Finally, I ran off into the jungle and took a cool invigorating shower under a clear waterfall, then I hiked back to the road circumventing the ruins so as not to have to see their ugliness again, preferring to retain my memory of this magical place unsullied by the image of them swarming and gawking and squawking with their cameras and bratty kids. I had seen what I’d come to see, seen that great city almost as must have been before the Conquest and that’s how I would remember it.
I’ve been here a week outside the far south jungle town of Tulum. I feel like Robinson Crusoe, camping out in a coconut grove near the sea there, about 10 km from the ancient Mayan ruins dotting the coastline, all surrounded by thick tropical rain forest, and not a damn gringo tourist in sight, thank god! I’d been living on nothing but coconuts for a few days until finally I hiked into town and splurged on some eggs and tomatoes. I cooked them with my little frying pan over a fire by the ocean and sat there eating that meal like it was a five-star restaurant meal, I sure had a five star view there, more like a five million star view. I never knew there were so many stars in the sky. The moon was full last night, so I wandered down the deserted coast to explore the ruins at night and it was some experience. I could almost imagine what it must have been like when that place was the center of a thriving advanced civilation thousands of years ago. All gone now. Nothing but ruins after the Europeans came to spread the bloody doctrine of Christianity. I can understand why you always hated the church so. The Catholic church has done more to turn people against God than any medieval devil ever could have.
Your loving son,
J
Last two sentences are so damned TRUE, TRUE, TRUE!!
Love the waterfall shower– nature has everything we need.
Post Script: can hardly wait for “Scabvendor” to come out.