Contemporary humans are not the first culture to wipe themselves out through environmental degradation

When we arrived in Cancun, it was pouring with rain, though it was not, apparently, the rainy season. I went to the car hire counters all in a row at the airport, to be told by one after another that no cars were available. At the last counter, we found a VW Beetle that was for hire, at USD75 a day. Made in Mexico, the car seemed like a cross between a sar­dine can and a lawnmower, though its petrol consumption was that of a 10-ton truck. But at least it had wheels and an engine of sorts.
We eventually found our way out of the airport, back­packs piled on the back seat, my two teenage sons with whom I was travelling looking a little squashed. I wondered how we were going to endure three weeks of tropical weather in this cute but distinctly uncomfortable vehicle.
As it grew dark, we reached the outskirts of Cancun, which looked nothing like the stunning movie ads and posters.
With our puny Rands, even Mexico is alarmingly expen­sive. The fancy resorts on the coast would have set us back around R4 000 a person for one night. So we kept to the less trendy areas wherever possible. At any rate, off the beaten track has always been my favourite way to travel.
Suddenly the gear stick felt wobbly, and then came right out of its socket. Attempts to push it back in were futile, so we pushed the car, light as a tin can, into the nearest place offer­ing accommodation. I called the car hire company, who came to fetch the remains of the little Beetle, and persuaded them to give me the only other available vehicle - the mechanic’s Nissan. Air conditioning! A trunk for the luggage! And best of all, automatic transmission!
I returned to our over-priced lodgings, to find my sons smirking. “Look at the folder on the dresser,” they said. I did, and felt a little perturbed. Room service was available, in all shapes, sizes, colours and speeds, and that was just the equip­ment. There was also the human variety, in several races and genders.
Our first night in Mexico, and I had brought my innocent lambs to a motel of ill repute! “Wait till you switch on the TV,” they crowed happily.
“Don’t touch that TV set,” I yelled, and spent a sleepless night listening to the extremely busy activities of the rest of the clientele.
At first light we set off, Lonely Planet Guide and map in hand, to explore the forested Yucatan Peninsula. We went west, to take in the Mayan ruins that I had long dreamed of seeing.

Back to the future...

To say the ruins are impressive is an understatement. From our very first sight of Chichen Itza, we were hooked. These archaeological sites have a grandeur, a magic that is inde­scribable. They are simply magnificent.
Chichen Itza is the most famous and best restored of the Mayan sites, and is best visited early in the morning or late afternoon, as large buses full of tourists visit between l lam and 3pm. This is also the muggiest time of the day.
Over the next three weeks we visited every archaeological site we could get to, with even the smaller, more obscure sites proving to be extraordinarily beautiful, radiating a tangible aura of mystery and power.
Palenque is the most mountainous site, and is spectacular. It is also the area that yields the greatest riches from its tomb and cenotes, or natural wells that were sometimes used for human sacrifice.
But the lesser-known sites are possibly more powerful, because they are desert­ed. Each one is different, and the set­tings, carvings, architecture and structures vary considerably.
The Mayan, Toltec and Olmec civilisations encom­passed highly evolved belief syste­ms, and probably originated from tribes people believed to have crossed the Beiring Strait around 60,000 BC.
The earliest human traces found in Mexico date from 20,000 BC, when large herds of animals roamed the grasslands. When temperatures rose at the end of the Ice Age, people began an agrarian existence, planting chillies, squash and wild maize from around 6,500 BC. Beans and better hybrids of maize were planted later, with pottery being created from around 2,500 BC.
The Olmecs were the first cohesive civilisation to emerge in the humid lowlands of the jungle, and are famed for the awesome Olmec Heads. These stone sculptures are up to 3m high, featuring pug-nosed faces combining humans with jaguars, and wearing strange helmets.
Jade and obsidian tools and ornaments also made their first appearance at this time, and were to provide a significant contribution to the spiritual and historical records of succes­sive generations.
The helmets, and the fact that the heads were found more than 60km away from the nearest volcanic stone from which they were carved, gave rise to beguiling theories of help from extra-terrestrial beings. The highly developed numeracy, cal­endars and architecture of these and later civilisations have stimulated this conjecture, combined with the amazing feat of building huge cities from stone, without the use of the wheel.
Strangely enough, small-wheeled toys have been found, but there is no evidence that the wheel was used in construction.
Theories of extra-terrestrial assis­tance have their  adherents, but they are essentially racist. The premise is that no civilisation that is not of European extraction is capable of the intellectual feats, architectural skills, technical expertise and hard work that would create civilisations of this magnitude.
The fact is that these civilisations evolved over millennia, and died out before the Spanish got to Central America in the 15th century. Though the Spanish were possibly the most brutal and destructive of the European colonialists, they were not responsible for the collapse of these cultures.

Environmental Destruction

Contemporary humankind is not the first to practically wipe itself out through environmental degradation. The most credible theory of what became of these Central American civilisations is that they gradually collapsed through unsustainable agricultural practices.
They felled the forests, exposing the poor soils to erosion and drought. They planted a few crops, destroying biodiver­sity, and their cities were most probably over-populated.
Though rain is fairly plentiful in the south, there are few rivers. Their main source of water came from natural springs called cenotes, which were also used as a repository for sacri­ficial victims of all ages and both sexes. This could well have resulted in the spread of diseases.
They were warlike people, and also wore themselves out through continual inter-tribal aggression, which decimated the youngest and strongest.
A typical Mayan city functioned as the administrative, cultural and economic hub of the surrounding agricultural areas. Its ceremonial centre focused on plazas surrounded by tall stepped pyramids, many of which were the burial sites of rulers who were regarded as deities.
Palaces with smaller rooms surrounded the temples, with ball courts, stelae and altars, all elaborately carved with brightly coloured human and animal mythological figures and intricate symbols. Stone causeways led out from the plazas, for ceremonial use.

The Mayan World

Modern Mexico

Unfortunately, the poetry and beauty of the ancient world is not echoed in the contemporary towns and cities.
Aside from some delightful little towns such as San Christobal de Las Casas in the mountains of the south-western Yucatan Peninsula, most Mexican towns are a horrible, ugly mess. Many buildings and houses are left unfinished, due to a misguided law that allows people to avoid paying tax until the structure is finished.
This results in even old areas looking like a building site, with dust, wires, rusty cables, iron metalwork and rubble all over the place. Mangy dogs and unkempt children selling their wares wander all over the roads, making driving haz­ardous.

Story: Arlene Cameron    Photos: Sean Cameron