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Days 9-10 A Good Rest at La Capital (continued)

Into Guatemala 1989 [Part 5 of 11 Parts]

Jo
2004-03-09 23:45:04

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[Photo 1]

We spent a few hours at the National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. There was a small but fine collection of Pre-Columbian artifacts here, with beautifully decorated ceramics depicting the gods and myths of the Maya cosmos. As in many other museums, picture-taking was not allowed, but fortunately, illustrated guides to Maya art are readily available. (In the section on Tikal, I include a picture of a famous piece.)

I bought a Spanish translation of the Popol Vuh, the Maya creation myth, at the Museo Ixchel, a museum devoted to indigenous dress. This imaginative and strange tale tells of the Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Ixbalanque, who play a ballgame-- the Mesoamerican variety that culminated in the sacrifice of the losers --with the lords of the Underworld to rescue their fathers from death. Perhaps the world's most fantastic genesis story, the Popol Vuh was, according to modern Mayanists, inspired by celestial phenomena, such as the vanishing and re-appearance of constellations in the night sky. However, the ancient Maya priest's custom of ingesting hallucinogenic psylocybe mushrooms (native to Mexico) during religious rituals must have boosted his myth-making ability.

Also at this museum, I picked up a tape featuring traditional Maya music. At once haunting and exotic to me, an outsider from industrial society, it helped me imagine the fantastic but no less poetic and rhythmic world of the ancient Maya and their enduring descendants. Here is a brief clip from the recording (40 second .wav file; size: 845 Kb). [Download the clip from:

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Exhibit/8033/guat89/tunxul.wav]

[Photo 2]

A final "gourmet" supper with Roberto's brother, Oscar (in this land of volcanoes, strangely enough, a volcanologist), and his wife. We depart for Tikal and the Petén jungle tomorrow, where for almost a week, dinners will consist of canned sausage, biscuits, and the like.