Day 7. Escudo Jaguar to Yaxchilan

We were awaken early on February 19 to an awesome sound, an extremely loud bass tone reverberating through the forest, of one long blast followed by descending bursts. A sound that perhaps resembles that made by a vacuum cleaner with a ten foot 4 inch pipe intake. Certainly no need for an alarm clock after that! Howler monkeys had just given us our wake up call. After an early breakfast we walked down to the river for a look around. The lanchas (Spanish for motor launch) were lined up for the morning trip to Yaxchilan, a route that seems to be reserved exclusively as a Lacandon enterprise.



The "eco-hostal" where we spent the night is owned and operated by Willie Fonseca who is from the province of Guerrero. Willie will supply the boats and be our guide after we leave Yaxchilan.

Grounds around "Escudo Jaguar" slop down through a grassy landing strip to the Rio Usumacinta (Sacred Monkey River) where limestone bedrock is exposed. A month earlier the water level had been up to the edge of the landing strip about to where we were standing to take the picture center right. Canopied lanchas are floating in a long lagoon with exposed rock and the river behind them. Rocks in the lower left are a telephoto shot of the river bed. A ticket office for our lanchas is housed in the pink building upper left.



Time had arrived for us to board the lancha. Pictured below is Bibi being helped aboard by Richardo. The next two pictures show some of our group in life jackets with our Lacandon skipper at the tiller. Out away from the bank and in the main channel there were no more rocks showing on the surface. A pleasant 45 minute ride to Yaxchilan allowed us the opportunity to observe the scenery.


The last picture above is our approach to the Yaxchilan landing. Yaxchilan is located on a prominence looped by the river, undoubtedly the reason why the Maya selected this location. The approach was greatly improved over the last time we were here. We scrambled up the embankment in 1996 without any aids to help our climb. Now there are concrete steps built into the bank.



The first row of pictures below was our first view as we topped the bank and proceeded to the entrance which is a labyrinth of rooms and alleys leading to the main acropolis. Many structures line the perimeter of a large plaza and the rest of the collage provides a sample of the buildings ending with a picture of howler monkeys in a tree.