Hola Tulum Magazine (Second Edition May-June 2018)

Jaguar footprints | Myths, superstitions and truths about sargassum

N A I A A N D T H E E A R LY S E T T L E M E N T O F Q U I N TA N A R O O

HOLA TULUM MAGAZINE

THE MOST COMPLETE MAP OF CENOTES OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

DEFINITIVE CENOTES GUIDE

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DIRECTORY Hola Tulum Magazine Second Edition On the Cover Proyecto Arqueológico Subacuático Hoyo Negro.

SAS - INAH (Paul Nicklen, NGS) Editorial Board Darwin Carabeo, Carmen Rojas, Juan Canul, Olmo Torres, Miguel Cobarrubias, Enrique Terrones, Adrián Mendoza.

Responsable Darwin Carabeo Editor Nicolás Gerardi Design Jimmy Salazar José Antonio Mendoza Carlos Medina Multimedia Jimmy Salazar Administration Karina Zavala Sales Amayrani Carabeo Photography Pepe Soho, José Antonio Mendoza, Paul Nicklen, Daniel Riordan, Amayrani Carabeo, Nicolás Gerardi, Alberto Nava, Uli-Kunz Translation: Michella Lagalla Correction: Débora Ochoa Pastrán HOLA TULUM magazine; a cultural magazine for a global society. It is published in Tulum Quintana Roo by Grupo Editorial-Tulum. Registered with the National Institute of Rights of Author IN PROCESS. Content Licensing Certificate IN PROCESS. Title Licensing License granted by the Certificate Commission of Publications and Magazines from the SEGOB IN TRAMITE. A bimonthly publication distributed in the Rivera Maya with a circulation of six thousand exemplars.

The ideas and other expressions expressed in the articles, reports, and interviews are the responsibility of the person signing them, as well as the veracity and legitimacy of figures and other data included in the same content. The offers, promotions, and incentives offered in advertisements It is from those who offer them, the publishing company expressly disclaims breach of such offers.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The sum of wills, is translated into a force of incredible proportions.

Therefore, valuable specialists from different disciplines, expose, and tell us their most recent discoveries, they do so with the only intention that you find out.

We thank all the researchers who enthusiastically make possible the magazine of all.

HOLA TULUM MAGAZINE CONTRIBUTORS Archaeologist Adriana Velazquez Morlet Archaeologist Dante García Master’s degree in Archaeology Carmen Rojas Sandoval PhD Espeleólogo Jerónimo Avilez Olguin PhD Adrián Mendoza Ramos Ilustrator Martine Dufour PhD Brigitta Ine van Tussenbroek PhD Marta García Sànchez Mario Cruz Rodriguez PhD Olmo Torres-Talamante Restorer Gabriel Severiano Flores PhD Ernesto Vargas Pacheco Engineer Alejandro Álvarez Enriquez Engineer Joanne Barry Archaeologist Enrique Terrones Gonzalez Lili Espinoza Rivera PhD Marco Lazcano Barrero Researcher Raúl Padilla Borja Researcher-Musician Júpiter Alejandro González

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Editors Note

Obsidian mirror F

reedom is a fragile obsidian mirror polished with the sand of responsibility.

Sometimes freedom can be misinterpreted and mutate into decadence, pride or chaos; other times into prohibitions, punishments or sacrifices. In Tulum the tensions between both points intensify due to the growing tourism industry.

To what extent can certain practices be permitted and when should they be stopped? What is the right course of action? How to channel the extravagances and protect the environment at the same time?

All of these questions motivated us to dedicate the second issue of Hello Tulum to Natural Wells or Cenotes.

Cenotes summarize a cosmology. They

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require a specific type of conservation and pose specific sustainability problems. The ancestral cultures of Latin America have articulated their knowledge and rites around them. Currently, these particular formations are one of the biggest tourist attractions at Tulum.

We believe it is necessary to democratize the information about the Cenotes and to enrich the experience of enjoying the tz’onot with articles that are capable to connect the reader with current research about these unique formations.

By taking stock of what is known about Cenotes and what is believed to be known about them, we have noticed a substantial split. There is a disconnection between the real academic knowledge of them and the practical exercise of guides and explorers linked to the tourism industry.

In order to reestablish the necessary flow of information we have prepared this second issue, hoping to present in an appealing way the universe that orbits around the Cenotes and to encourage the freedom to explore them responsibly.

By NicolĂĄs Gerardi

CONTENTS ARCHAEOLOGY 5

Naia and the early settlement of Quintana Roo By: Adriana Velázquez Morlet

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The beginnings of the archaeology in cenotes By: Dante García

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The first inhabitants of Tulum By: Carmen Rojas Sandoval

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Megafauna in Tulum By: Jerónimo Aviléz

ECOLOGY AND SUSTAINABILITY 19

Biodiversity and Cenotes By: Adrían Mendoza Ramos

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Myths, superstitions and truths about sargassum By: Brigitta I. van Tussenbroek, Marta García Sánchez y Alejandro Bravo Quezada

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Jaguar footprints By: Marco Lazcano

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DEFINITIVE CENOTES GUIDE 27

Cenotes: The source of life is not eternal By: Olmo Torres Talamante

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Map of cenotes in Tulum

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Cenotes infographics

TOURISM 33

The wild adventure of loving Tulum By: Mario Cruz

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Inhabit the now, Cocomobay.

ART AND CULTURE 39

Cup to drink cacao

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Teotl, sonic meditations

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Gonzalo Guerrero By: Ernesto Vargas

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Character of the month: Too many coincidences with Alex Álvarez

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Yoga Tribal

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GASTRONOMY 53

Pibil, digging up the flavor By: Lily Espinoza Rivera

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Mayan apiculture By: Enrique Terrones

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NAIA

and the early settlement of

QUINTANA ROO

“The story is made up of small pieces of a great puzzle and we never know where and when we will find the next one”.

By Adriana Velazquez Morlet

Reconstruction of Naia. Chatters, J and T. McClelland (2014).

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lthough in the last years news about the discovery of human Pleistocene skeletal remains in flooded caves in Tulum has become relatively frequent, it should be remembered that the first findings of this type of elements were made very recently. Starting in 2000, the INAH, with the support of numerous speleobusicians and various international academic institutions, began recording fossil and archaeological evidence preserved in the cenotes and flooded caverns of the Yucatan Peninsula and, particularly in the area of Tulum, in the State of Quintana Roo.

The first pre-ceramic skeletons recovered in the area were those of El Templo, Las Palmas and Naharón. They were preserved at almost 80%, and thanks to them, the hypothesis that there was an important human occupation on the coast of the current Quintana Roo at least 13,000 years ago began to be constructed.

Subsequently, those of Chan Hol, El Pit, Muknal and, of course, Hoyo Negro were registered. Hoyo Negro has gained special international relevance due to its age and extraordinary preserved state.

The remains of the human skeleton that the researchers called Naia were found in 2007, when the speleobuzos Alberto Nava, Alejandro Álvarez, Franco Attolini and later Roberto Chávez explored one of the many underwater caves that are found in the area of Tulum, forming the Sac Actún system.

This is currently the most extensive system of caves in the

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Reconstruction of Naia [Modeling paste]. Chatters, J and T. McClelland (2014).

Naia and the early settlement of Quintana Roo

Archaeology

world, with 347 kilometers long and a vertical extension of up to 127 meters.

During their first tours of the cave, which they later named Hoyo Negro (Black Hole), explorers Nava, Álvarez and Attolini found an enormous 62 meters in diameter and 55 meters deep hole, at the bottom of which they were able to see an enormous number of animal bones from the late Pleistocene period (18,000 - 11,000 before the present), including what appeared to be a human skeleton. Convinced that this was a very important discovery, the divers contacted the National Institute of Anthropology and History, particularly Pilar Luna Erreguerena, who, for many years, has led underwater archaeological research in Mexico.

When it was established that it was a human skeleton that, because of the context in which it was found, would have to be very antique, the INAH formed a group of researchers from diverse disciplines and countries of origin, in order to be able to scientifically study the Black Hole and all the remains and evidence it contains.

Initially, the members of the project made a detailed record of the place, enabling them to begin to assemble a photomosaic of the cavern in which they located with precision the diverse bony elements that were registered. They also made chemical studies of the water and the environmental surroundings of Hoyo Negro that helped them draw up a strategy to extract the remains.

Before they were brought to the surface, human bones could begin to be studied thanks to the detailed photographs taken by the speleobots. Dr. James Chatters, co-director of the project and forensic expert, was able to observe that the skull corresponded to that of a young woman, so the members of the investigation team decided to name her Naia, in honor of the Naiads, who in Greek mythology were the nymphs who lived in fresh water.

After careful planning, Naia’s remains could finally begin to be extracted from the depths of the Black Hole. Once outside, a new chapter in this young woman’s history began, as her bones had to undergo a long process of conservation and biomedical studies. That allowed them to obtain valuable information about the first settlers of America and the way in which they adapted to the environment of what is now the Yucatan Peninsula. The research in which Dr. Chatters participated, as well as numerous specialists from INAH and the University of Yucatan, allowed us to know that Naia was between 15 and 17 years old when she died. She was just over 1.50 m tall and weighed just 50.36 kilos. She had growth problems, had led a very hard life, had suffered hunger and had already been a mother at least once.

The analysis of the skeletal remains, and also of the Hoyo Negro cave, have made it possible to hypothesize that Naia walked into the cave, possibly looking for water when it was dry because the freezing of part of the world’s seas caused sea levels to be much lower than they are today. Upon en-

Naia and the early settlement of Quintana Roo

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Archaeology

A diver carefully brushing the skull [Photography]. Nicklen, P. (2015), Quintana Roo, INAH. tering and losing visibility due to lack of light, she would not have seen the abyss and would have fallen, dying almost instantly or shortly thereafter.

The dating of Naia’s remains was made possible by the carbon-14 dating of her tooth enamel, which resulted in a maximum age of 12,900 years ago. The accumulations of calcium carbonate that fell on Naia’s bones over time were dated to 12,000 years ago by the Uranium-Torio method. This reinforces the chronology proposed by specialists and makes it one of the oldest known human skeletons on the continent.

On the other hand, studies of Naia’s mitochondrial DNA have

shown that there was a genetic link between America’s oldest settlers and modern Native Americans, since Naia was found to have the haplogroup D1 (haplogroups are the branches of the Homo sapiens family tree) unique to today’s Native Americans.

Therefore, this discovery confirmed the relationship between the first settlers of the continent, also called Paleo-Americans, who arrived from Siberia through the Bering Strait and the groups of contemporary Native Americans.

In addition to the skeleton of Naia, the remains of 42 animals from the late Pleistocene period have been identified in Hoyo Negro. They correspond to 13 species, seven of which are already extinct, such as the gonfoterium, the sabre-toothed tiger, three types of giant sloths, the tremarctine bear and a canine similar to the South American wolf, according to Drs. Blaine Schubert and Joaquín Arroyo, also members of the project. Like Naia, all these animals fell into the abyss of the cave, some thousands of years before her and others perhaps at the same time.

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Gathering them, the Hoyo Negro findings form an exceptional “time capsule” that will continue to provide very relevant information on the environment and living conditions of the first inhabitants of Tulum.

It will still be necessary to compare their characteristics with those of the other skeletons found in the area, contrast their dating and determine whether they correspond to one or more migrant waves with different characteristics and origins. But for that to happen, it is necessary that we all make an effort to preserve the caves and cenotes of Tulum by not contaminating them or removing any archaeological or paleontological element, no matter how little it may seem.

History is made up of small pieces of a big puzzle and we never know where and when we will find the next one.

About the Author Adriana Velazquez Morlet Archaeologist Delegate of the INAH Center Quintana Roo

Naia and the early settlement of Quintana Roo

Archaeology

The Beginnings

of the ARCHAEOLOGY

IN CENOTES

The Spanish missionary Fray Diego de Landa, would encourage -without thinking it twice- the first underwater explorations of the Mayan area.

By Dante García

Beginning of diving in cenotes, diver next to Thompson dredge, Sacred Cenote of Chichen Itza 190 (Coggins 1992:24).

Scuba diving suit, Siebe suit.

B

efore the ordeal of finding gold, the bearded men who arrived in the Yucatan Peninsula during the 16th century had an urgent need to find fresh water to drink. This would soon lead them to a first encounter with the cenotes.

One of these Spanish missionaries named Diego Calderón, better known as Fray Diego de Landa, would encourage -without intending tothe first underwater explorations of the Mayan area. His descriptions emphasized that if there would have been gold anywhere in this region, it would have been at the bottom of one of these cenotes.

Edward Herbert Thompson.

First diver of cenotes.

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These fascinating accounts of the daily life and rituals of the 16th century Mayas were forgotten until 1864, when French priest Brasseur de Bourbourg rediscovered The beginnings of the archaeology in cenotes

them and published them in his native language. This language was shared by the explorer Desiré Charnay -one of the pioneers of archaeological photography- who, attracted by the prestigious assets described by Landa, would begin the underwater exploration of the Mayan area in the Sacred Cenote of Chichén Itzá in 1882, just 18 years after Brasseur de Bourbourg’s publication.

While it is true that the first explorations for anthropological purposes that were carried out in search of the ancient Mayas would arise around 1773, with the groups sent by the priest Ramón de Ordoñez y Aguilar to the area of Palenque Chiapas and the explorations of John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood, carried out throughout the Mayan area in 1839, the first

archaeological works with method and technique arise in the ancestral waters of the cenotes.

As it happens today, sophisticated, Thompson started from a hypothesis: below the “temple” to the edge of the cenote would find a large number of relics. To verify this premise were transported. heavy and complex pieces of technology were moved to the shore of the Sacred Cenote of Chichen Itza, with the hope of finding out if Diego de Landa was right and the precious metal was present inside this mysterious body of water.

On April 12, 1904 Edward Herbert Thompson extracted, from the Sacred Cenote, a wooden object with the beautiful carving of a richly adorned and ornamented character on its lower end or handle. The face was covered with a gold embossed mask.

THE CONSTANT USE OF CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY IN THE CENOTES

After the long-awaited results, and looking forward to recover artifacts from the bottom of the cenote, Edward H. Thompson began diving training in 1909 with the most advanced piece of underwater technology of the time: the Siebe suit, a scuba diving suit with just 70 years since its completion.

Thompson would descend 22 meters by ropes and pulleys until he reached the water with a diving suit that weighed at least 80 kilos. Once down, he would start a dive where visibility underwater is almost non-existent. From this feat, nearly 30,000 artifacts were recovered and scrupulously catalogued in diverse publications, and many are shared with the rest of the world at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University.

In the years surrounding the birth of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in 1939, new excavations were encouraged in the Sacred Cenote, all of which sought to use the most advanced technological resources available at that time. With the invention of the first Aqualung in 1943 , underwater archaeology took a great leap forward

The beginnings of the archaeology in cenotes

and at only 11 years of its invention, in 1954, the first dives with this innovative equipment would take place in the Sacred Cenote of Chichén Itzá.

Subsequent work raised the possibility of lowering water levels for a “dry” excavation. So once again, sophisticated machines were transported and used to pump liters and liters of water out of the cenote and recover, by suction, as much of the archaeological material as possible.

At the end of the 1960s this context closed with nearly 35,000 pieces and archaeological fragments that make this submerged place one of the largest offerings in all of Mesoamerica.

Included in the archaeological materials recovered from the Sacred Cenote were all the elements that Fray Diego de Landa Calderón mentioned in his stories, and not only that, but a whole representative sample of the quantity and diversity of goods that entered the city of Chichen Itza from the earliest stages between 800-1150 AD. until the latest in 1250-1560 A.D. Dredging proccess of the Cenote Sagrado in Chichén Itzá 1904 - 1905

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Archaeology

A METHODOLOGICAL LEGACY For 136 years, the cenotes have attracted courageous questioners of myths, legends and realities who, equipped with pieces of history, have immersed themselves in the past of the Mayas.

Fifty years after the biggest works were carried out in the Sacred Cenote of Chichén Itza, we, the underwater archaeologists of cenotes know what not to

do, in methodological terms thanks to all the precursors of cenote archeology. The mechanical dredgers, the water pumps to suck out artefacts, and the hasty removal of bone segments from their original context made an important part of the information lost forever.

Despite the destruction caused by ignore the natural behavior of the cenotes (its hydrology, which are excellent preservatives of archaeological materials, etc.) and putting everything in context, the pieces there stored weren’t meant to be damaged.

The archaeology of that time had as its priority the recovery of artifacts and not so much to obtain information on the cultural behavior behind each one of them before extracting them.

Today, underwater archaeology of cenotes does not look for objects; it looks for the people behind the objects.

Where did it come from? Who brought it here? Who made it? How did they make it? How did it get here?

Are some of the many questions that a vessel found in its original archaeological context can help to solve if it has not been moved, altered or modified.

To criticize the precursors of underwater Maya archaeology over 100 years ago is easy. To stand up, putting on the diving suits from the beginning of the 20th century and diving into a sacrificial context, is not.

Hayward dredge used by Thompson in the Sacred Cenote of Chichen Itza

About the Author

Dante García

Archaeologist (Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán) and cave diver by: Technical Diving International (TDI).

Method and technique of radial excavation proposed

by Thompson in the Sacred Cenote of Chichén Itzá (Coggins 1992:17)

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dantepetzl@hotmail.com

The beginnings of the archaeology in cenotes

Archaeology

THE FIRST

Inhabitants of Tulum

For the first habitants of Tulum that used to walk along these beaches, survival implied occasional fishing, fruit and vegetable harvesting from the ancient prairies and… oh yes… hunting ferocious animals the size of a mammoth: the giant one-ton sloths, saber-toothed tigers themselves! By Carmen Rojas

Carmen Rojas in the Chan Hol’s cave, skeleton 1 [Photography]. Uli-Kunz (2006). México, INAH.

W

alking down the beach at Tulum 13,000 years ago must have been very different from the nowadays experience. 13,000 years ago, this walk wasn’t precisely a post card from the ideal vacation, but the difficult survival of small nomadic bands. For the first inhabitants of Tulum that used to walk along these beaches, survival involved occasional fishing, fruit and vegetable harvesting from the ancient fields and… oh yes… hunting for ferocious animals sized like a mammoth: the giant one ton sloths, saber tooth themselves!

Seemingly the hunting was occasional, because their main diet wasn’t meatas isotope studies of their bones reveal.

Personally I imagine that our ancestors from Tulum, 1.65 meters tall, were really smart deciding not to fight those

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beasts every day. But I do imagine them following those ferocious animals with caution, waiting patiently for some sick older adult in the herd to die so they could feast for many days. We have no doubt they hunted peccaries that were not very big. The species of which we have evidence that was consumed by humans is the smallest of its kind.

Their teeth reveal that the sea food was not their principal source of food either, as they didn’t have the sand abrasion typical of those who daily chew fish, bivalves, shellfish and turtles. Because of this we can say that fishing was not their main activity.

How did they lived and were the first inhabitants of Tulum?

The first inhabitants of Tulum

Our Caribbean ancestors came to Tulum forming groups of hunter-gatherers. We assume that these nomadic gangs were made up of small families of up to 3 generations. We do not know how many families moved together, but it is very possible that they returned to Tulum seasonally.

13000 years ago the sea was 60 or 70 meters below the current level. The coast line back then is unknown, but it’s supposed it must have been over a few hundred meters offshore from the current coastline. However, the ideal refuges were the dry caves of the cave systems and the shallow collapsed dolines (vaults).

However, the ideal refuges were the dry caves of the cave systems and the shallow collapsed dolines (vaults). These

dry dolines must have worked in those meadows as the watering holes work in the jungle today. Although they are different environments, the collapse of the soil allows for a cooler and more humid micro environment. In other words, those families had to sleep and eat in caverns (which is the area where natural light reaches the caves) and probably in the collapsed dolines, which usually surround these caverns externally. A roast of peccary or fish, with a good daily dose of vegetables, fruits, grains and occasionally some giant sloth in the caves of the Pleistocene prairies of Tulum doesn’t sound bad...

However, their teeth reveal that infants could suffer significant nutritional deficiencies and die tragically at the age of 14.

It is precisely in the caves of Tulum where nine skeletons of our first settlers have been discovered. These cave systems, now submerged by the melting of the polar ice caps, were dry or semi-dry by the end of the most recent Ice Age 13,000 years ago. Of these nine skeletons, those

with the oldest dates are three: The Teenage Naia, The Young Man of Chan Hol 2 and the Woman of Naharon. By different technologies these skeletons have been dated with a maximum age of about 13 000 years before the present.

The tragic death of teenage girl Naia In the case of Naia’s death, it appears that a tragic accidental fall into a 50-meter well was the cause of death.

The teenager was lost in the cave today known as Hoyo Negro, in the great Sac Aktun system. It seems that many giant animals also fell into that well of death after being lost for days in the absolute

lometer inside the cave of the same name. Apparently it was an early funerary practice, which is also observed two thousand years later in the same cave, with the man from Chan Hol 1.

From the Woman of Naharon there’s not enough evidence to know if she was intentionally deposited or arrived alone at that point in the cave system called Ox Bel Ha. However, a thousand years later, we still find what we suppose was the funerary practice of the nomadic groups in the caves, because in that same system were found the Señora de las Palmas and El abuelito de Muknal who were around 40 or 50 years old.

The evidence associated with the skeletons of Chan Hol and Ox Bel Ha points to the selection of special sites in the caves, where the corpses of the deceased clan members were placed.

Such was the life of our most remote ancestors in Tulum, the ones who came before the Mayans, before us, 13,000 years ago...

Naia, Chan Hol 2 and Naharon connect us with our origins, just like the rest of the nine skeletons studied so far. This same space was inhabited by them in the past and we have been able to give them a new name in the present, thanks to the fact that we respectfully preserve their mortal remains. We are heirs of their experience and responsible for our future. Their study has taught us that every space transforms and every civilization disappears.

The imprint we leave behind reflects the quality of our being: to protect or destroy, to use or abuse, to evolve by preserving and learning from the past in order to adapt or die.

The reconstruction of “La mujer de Las Palmas” [Photography]. Atelier Daynés (2010). México, INAH. darkness of a cave, where a giant well of 50 meters deep was waiting for them.

Another ancestor of Tulum that we suppose suffered the same fate as Naia, five thousand years later, when he was lost in a cave, is The Man of the Temple. The two Individuals of the Cenote Pit, on other hand, could have suffered the same fate as they fell tens of meters to the bottom of the cave, which at that time had no water.

The funerals in Chan Hol’s cave

About the Author Carmen Rojas Masters in underwater archeology INAH (Intituto Nacional de Arqueología e Historia)

It is possible that the young man of Chan Hol 2 was intentionally deposited by his clan one kiThe first inhabitants of Tulum

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Megafauna

Archaeology

in TULUM “The cenotes are a unique component of several tropical ecosystems in the Yucatan peninsula. For hundreds of thousands of years, some species of these ecosystems have adapted to live in or around the cenotes, to the extent that there are several endemic species, that means, that they are only found in this region of the planet”

By Jerónimo Avilés

S

ince the beginning of spelunking in the Tulum area in the 1980s, explorers have made the first discoveries of places with fossil material from extinct animals. In 2002, formal paleontological work began on sites such as Kalimba, the cave where the giant sloth was found.

When I first visited this site in 1997, me and my colleagues became interested in identifying the species to which these fossil remains most likely belonged. Being petrified on the cave floor, it is believed that they arrived when the cave was dry and remained there for a long time; we know this because the calcareous crust that adheres the bones to the rock is formed very slowly and under dry conditions.

The caves of Tulum have been flooded for 8000 years, the minimum for bone material to be considered fossil.

Jerónimo Avilés placing scale on skull of lazy head of egg (Xibalbaonyx oviceps) [Photography]. Unknown (2018)

It became evident that they were from some kind of giant sloths, a group of rare mammals today all extinct and different from the current sloths that are small in size and with tree habits (they live in trees).

We knew it was some Xenarthra (Xenarthra: super order to which the sloths belong) because the large claws are a distinctive feature of the giant sloths’ families, which can still be perfectly admired in shape and size in their original place, but,

Jerónimo Avilés doing photographic study of the phalanges of an egghead sloth (Xibalbaonyx oviceps) [Photography]. Eugenio Acevez (2016)

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what species of giant sloths was that and when did those of their species became extinct? How old is it? What can this animal tell us about the vegetation in the area at that time? Did the pre-ceramics of Tulum know this species of giant sloth?

Megafauna in Tulum

It has been 21 years since I first had the privilege of seeing the Kalimba sloth with my own eyes. Today we know that the species to which these fossil remains belonged is the smallest giant sloth of all and a very well-known species, so much so that it was used as the basis for the cartoon film “The Ice Age”. The character “Syd” is like the Kalimba cave sloth in Tulum, a member of the megatheres family, subfamily of the notroterios, genus Nothrotheriops, shastensis species.

Nothrotheriops shastensis, or Shasta sloth, was first recorded in the Shasta Mountains of California and hence the name of the species described by Sinclair in 1905. They could reach a weight of almost 500 kilos and a height of up to 2 meters upright on two legs. They were herbivores and are known to be yellowish in color thanks to cave sites in the desert of Nuevo Leon and Nuevo Mexico where their fur was preserved.

There are studies based on Shasta sloth excrement with antiques from 10,000 to 40,000 years old that make us suspect, they were gourmets, with a selection of up to 70 different plants of their preference including cat’s claw, nopal, yucca and mesquite.

yx oviceps), large clawed sloths (Nohochichak xibalbahkah), (Equus conversidens) horse, (Hemiauchenia macrocephala), gonfoterio de tieras bajas (Cuvieronius sp), the endemic pygmy peccary of Tulum (Muknalia minima), the sabre-toothed tiger (Smilodon fatalis) and the short-faced bear (Tremarctos sp.). We have also recorded 2 locally extinct species such as coyote (Canis latrans) and lynx (Linx rufus). 18 species still inhabit the area such as the jaguar (Panthera onca), the puma (Puma concolor), the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and temazate (Mazama americana), tapir (Tapirus sp.), coati (Nasua narica), raccoon (Procyon lotor), nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus), bat (Chiroptera), mouse yucatec (Peromyscus sp.), sereque (Dasyprocta punctata), tepezcuintle (Cuniculus paca), peccary collared peccary (Pecari tajacu), the ocellated turkey (Meleagris ocellata), the loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) and lora (Lepidochelys kempii) and a freshwater turtle (Emididae). The fauna registered in Quintana Roo belongs to the North American fauna called Rancholabreana because it has antiques ranging from 10,000 to 300,000 years old.

The more than 10 sites with recorded fossils of giant sloths in Tulum caves are just a small sample of what has been advanced after a decade and a half of formal paleontological work in terms of evidence from the end of the Pleistocene (Ice Age), a period that began 2.5 million years ago and ended 11,000 years ago with the last ice age. We now live in the period called the Holocene, which began 10,000 years ago.

The list of identified species recorded in underwater caves is growing rapidly, currently we count 28 taxa of which 9 are completely extinct, such as the three species of giant sloths: Shasta, (Nothrotheriops shastensis), lazy egghead (Xibalbaon-

Extinct sloth jaw (Megalonychidae) [Photography]. Jerónimo Avilés (2014).

Mexico, Instituto de la Prehistoria de América.

About the Author Jerónimo Avilés

Jerónimo Avilés measuring an extinct sloth jaw (Megalonychidae) [Photography]. Unknown (2014). Mexico, Instituto de la Prehistoria de América.

Underwater speleologist researcher Director of Instituto de la Prehistoria de América A.C.

Megafauna in Tulum

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Ecology and Sustainability

BIODIVERSITY and CENOTES Toh bird (Eumomota superciliosa) [Pencil on paper]

“Cenotes are a unique component of several tropical ecosystems in the Yucatan Peninsula. For hundreds of thousands of years, some species in these ecosystems have adapted to living in or around cenotes, to the extent that there are several endemic species, meaning they’re only found in this region of the planet” By Adrián Mendoza Ramos

Vida [Photography]. Soho, Pepe

C

enotes are a unique component of several tropical ecosystems in the Yucatan Peninsula. For hundreds of thousands of years, some species in these ecosystems have adapted to living in or around cenotes, to the extent that there are several endemic species, meaning they’re only found in this region of the planet. For example, there is an endemic fish

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in the underground rivers of the peninsula, the blind white lady (Typhliasina pearsei) in Mayan, that’s not very easy to observe in plain sight as she prefers to inhabit the darkness of the underground rivers.

There are other species that combine their life cycle inside and outside the cenotes. For example, the toh bird (Eumomota

Biodiversity and cenotes

Composition: Bee: (Melipona Beecheii) Flower: Tajonal (Viguiera dentata) Representation of bee in Mayan codex (Madrid) [Pencil on paper] (Left) Blind white lady (Typhliasina pearsei)[ Pencil on paper] (Down)

superciliosa), one of the 483 species of birds registered in Quintana Roo, and one of the few species that spend part of their life cycle inside the cenotes, in which they nest between the nooks and crannies of the limestone rock walls or domes. Undoubtedly, it’s one of the iconic bird species of the region due to its unmistakable and graceful phenotype.

The domes of these caves are also home to bats, of which there are 50 species reported for the state of Quintana Roo, making it the most diverse group of mammals.

The Yucatan Peninsula is home to 140 species of reptiles, of which 17 species are endemic, including the nauyaca yucateca (Porthidium yucatanicum) and the spiny lizard of Cozumel (Sceloporus cozumelae), to name a few. The diversity of reptiles in the Yucatan Peninsula represents about 20% of reptile species nationwide. When visiting a cenote, it is common to find one of the 39 species of lizards that live in Quintana Roo. Snakes are less frequently spotted, however, there are 51 species reported in the region. Most of these do not represent a threat to humans, but the species of nauyaca, coral and rattlesnakes are dangerous because of their potent venom.

It is advisable not to interact with the local flora and fauna, partly as a measure of respect for the environment and for personal safety. In the cenotes located near the sea, where mangrove areas are usually found, it is possible to find one of the two species of crocodiles that live in Quintana Roo, commonly known as the swamp crocodile (Crocodylus moreletii) and the American crocodile (Crocodyl usacutus), very alike to each other and with similar characteristics.

It is expected that all kinds of insects and arachnids inhabit these ecosystems. Native bees, for example, of the Melipona species, are stingless bees smaller than common bees (Apis mellifera). They play a major role in the pollination of native plants’ species. Known as xunankab in the Yucatan Mayan language, these bees also produce honey that is highly prized for its taste and medicinal properties.

Among the endemic species are some cactuses such as the kanzacam organ (Pterocereus gaumeri), an endangered species, palms such as the nakax (Coccothrinax readii), the kuká palm (Pseudophoenix sargentii), and other plants used in Yucatan cuisine such as the macal (Xantosoma yucatenense), a member of the alcatraces family.

The vegetation also brings unique species to the cenotes environment. Hundreds of native plants can be observed when visiting a cenote, including pitahaya cacti, strangler trees, lianas, orchids and many others that are part of the natural landscape.

In fact, the Yucatan Peninsula contributes to 8.2% of the Mexican flora, with approximately 2,250 species of which 198 are endemic.

About the Authors Adrián Mendoza Ramos Biologist, Doctor in Tourism Cofounder of Razonatura AC

Martine Dufour Ilustrator

Biodiversity and cenotes

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Ecology and Sustainability

Myths, superstitions

and truths about SARGASSUM

The sargassum is a seagrass hidden under a halo of superstitions and speculations that make it impossible to make the right decisions to control its massive accumulation on the coasts of Tulum. What is it?

Where does it come from? What can we do about it?

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elagic sargassum is a dun algae that, unlike other algae species, does not originate from the bottom of the sea but spends its entire life cycle floating in the water column, just below the surface. These algae can form large masses and accumulate in areas of the oceans where the currents form turns, so they accumulate creating “floating islands”. Two species of this pelagic sargassum are known, Sargassum fluitans and Sargassum natans, which reach the Caribbean coast.

Historically, these algae have been found in an area of the Atlantic near Bermuda and known as the Sargasso Sea, records of which exist since 1492. Naturally, some of this sargassum comes off and the ocean currents carry it to the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. This phenomenon has always occurred, so what is the problem now?

It has been detected, through satellite images, that for more than 8 years a new area of accumulation of these algae was being generated between the coasts of Africa and Brazil, place that would be the source of the sargassum that reaches the Caribbean in large quantities.

Photosynthetic organisms such as sea grasses would be the most affected, which have already disappeared from some areas near the coast. Sea grasses serve as a refuge and breeding ground for many species, protect beaches from erosion and help make the waters transparent, so if we lose them, all the benefits they provide will also disappear.

Therefore, leaving the sargassum on the beach is NOT an option.

Ideally, a system should be created to collect it at sea right before it reaches the beach. In case of reaching it, it should then be removed in a way that it does not remove the sand.

Heavy machinery should not be used, as it contributes to beach erosion by compacting the sand.

It’s also important to use places equipped for this purpose to deposit it, burying it in the sand or placing it in sacks without a geomembrane is not advisable, as it contaminates the water table and finally ends up back into the sea. It is also very important to dispel the myth that sargassum turns into sand, which is totally false.

Since 2014-2015, massive arrivals of sargassum have been recorded in unusual amounts to the Mexican Caribbean coasts. Just as something can be good in small amounts, it’s the excess of it that makes it a problem.

Sargassum can be used for the production of biogas, but also as

In the ocean, the sargassum plays an important ecological role in providing shelter and food for many species. But this changes when it reaches the shores in large quantities, where it accumulates and begins to decompose.

Its most visible and immediate impact is on tourism, but its effects go far beyond.

It is not recommended for food use because of its occasional high concentrations of arsenic.

Its decomposition releases gases that can be harmful for health, contributes with organic matter to the system, interferes with the nesting and hatching of sea turtles, in addition to consuming large amounts of the oxygen found in the water and turning it brown, decreasing the light that reaches the bottom.

a fertilizer supplement and as compost, although studies have shown that it should not be used directly as a fertilizer, but mixed in a low percentage with some type of compost.

However, there is still a lack of research on its possible uses.

There is no way to prevent sargassum from reaching the Caribbean, even though warning systems have been developed to predict its arrival in the state with some probability, but so far we do not have a more sophisticated warning system (e.g. at a municipal level). It is important to have an action protocol that minimizes its negative impacts on tourism and human health as well as on ecosystems. This implies a management plan at all levels, from correct collection, processing, storage and potential use.

Sargassum in Xcacel [Photography]. Carabeo, A. (2018).

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Myths, superstitions and truths about sargassum

The origin of sargassum is a response to the pollution of the sea and this situation will hardly be controlled in the short term.

Myths, superstitions and truths about sargassum

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Ecología y Sustentabilidad

Sargassum fluitans (left) y Sargassum natans (right) [Photography]. Marta García (2018)

Surface Reflection Barrier, a technique used to keep the beaches of Quintana Roo clean and to concentrate the cleaning effort on specific points.

Surface reflection barrier, countercurrent effect that the barrier produces [Graphic]. Bravo, A. (2018)

Faced with this phenomenon, we need to learn how to deal with sargassum, with techniques that are non-invasive to the ecosystem and that adapt to the specific needs of the region. The most common technique is to use machinery to sweep the sargassum that is on the seashore, however, it is not considered that the sargassum is breaded in sand and when it is removed, hundreds of kilos of sand are carried away, constantly eroding the beach.

Out of the need to keep the beaches free of sargassum a technique of placing a superficial barrier in front of the beach was proposed. Based on months of experimentation in the coasts of Quintana Roo and with the experience of 15 years in the study of the oceanography of the region and the installation of anchors, an environmentally friendly and very resistant economic model was designed. Said model interacts with the surface and coastal currents (Fig.1) to direct the sargassum to specific points to concentrate the cleaning effort (Fig.2 and 3) and not to have to clean hundreds of meters of coast, employing workers in extremely hard work, under the sun, in contact with salt water and breathing the products of sargassum decomposition.

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About the Authors

Dr. Brigitta I. van Tussenbroek y Dr. Marta García Sánchez Unidad Académica de Sistemas Arrecifales Puerto Morelos, Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnologia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

Lic. en Oceanología Alejandro Bravo Quezada (Universidad Autónoma de Baja California) Master in Project Management and Fundraising (Universidad del Caribe)

Myths, superstitions and truths about sargassum

www.simposiojaguar.com

About the Authors

Dr. Marco Lazcano Director at El Edén (Ecological Reserve) Executive Coordinator of Alianza para la Conservación del Jaguar en la Península de Yucatán.

Raul Padilla Environmentalist Researcher at Río Secreto

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Guía Definitiva de Cenotes

Cenotes: The source

of life is not

ETERNAL

“The terminoly cenote denotes any underground space with water, with the unique condition that it is open to the outside to some degree. It includes every karst manifestation that reaches the water table.” By: Olmo Torres Talamante

T

he word cenote comes from the Mayan word Ts’ono’ot or D’zonot, according to the pronunciation, and means “cavern with water deposit”. The term cenote denotes any underground space with water, with the only requirement that it has to be open to the outside to some degree. It includes all karst manifestations that reach the water table.

The estimate of the approximate number of cenotes on the peninsula is 10,000 and because cenotes will continue to form there will never be a final number. According to the Quintana Roo Speleological Survey (QRSS) in the Tulum and Riviera Maya area there are more than 1,145 cenotes and 359 underground caves or river systems, 1,451.7 kilometers of flooded caves and 313.1 kilometers of dry caves

Tulum is the Mecca of the world’s longest underground rivers and cenotes, equivalent to the Amazon River or Mount Everest. The

longest underground rivers are Sac Aktun with 352,920 kilometers and more than 226 cenotes, followed by Ox Bel Ha with 270,173 kilometers and more than 143 cenotes. Some of the cenotes open to the public that are part of these flooded caves are Gran Cenote, Dos Ojos and Casa Cenote, just to mention the most famous ones.

You may ask yourself, how is this possible?

The first thing you need to know is that the Yucatan Peninsula is a small emerged portion of the great Yucatan continental shelf that lies beneath the sea and separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico. The peninsula was formed under the sea for over 200 million years. This area includes Mexican territory, the Guatemalan Petén and northern Belize. It is a large coastal plain of carbonate rocks.

Carbonate rocks are characterized by a high porosity. The rainwater seeps into the ground and accumulates in the subsoil, forming a thin freshwater lens that floats over a mass of seawater and penetrates inland. The contact between both bodies of water -fresh and marine- forms a mixing zone or halocline

This freshwater lens is the only clean water source on the Yucatan Peninsula, so take care of the water and don’t take more than 5 minutes to bathe!

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The origin of the cenotes is a result of the combined processes of dissolution and collapse of the carbonated rock...and then the stalactites and stalagmites formation.

When the groundwater level drops, it leaves an aerial cavity or cave behind it. In those caves, roof sections can fall down due to lack of physical support, forming a doline or collapse, locally known as the “Cenote” , Spanish-Mayan name.

It all starts when rainwater flows into the subterranean mantle and the water moves towards the sea. A cave is formed or a pitcher-type cenote, due to partial collapse of the roof and a cave-type cenote on the side. The process moves forward from above by rain infiltration and from below by underground circulation. Subsequently, the entire roof collapses giving rise to a cylindrical cenote. From the cylindrical cenote a watery type cenote can be generated by azolve and by slow sinking of the adjacent area.

The degree of porosity and fractures of the rock, as well as the climate, temperature, vegetation, freshwater and salt water mix, and how long all these factors have been present, also play a role. The result is the development of caves and conduits that are underground drainage systems that drain the aquifer and discharge into the Caribbean Sea in coves such as Xel Ha, Yalku, Tankah or Casa Cenote....

It is important to remember to bathe before entering the cenote to remove sunscreen and other cosmetic chemicals that affect the water in the cenotes. The life of the Cenotes is in your skin!

About the Author Olmo Torres Talamante

Biologist expert in cenotes and underground rivers.

Researcher of RAZONATURA AC www.razonatura.org

Cenotes: the source of life is not eternal

Cenotes: the source of life is not eternal

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Cenotes: the source of life is not eternal

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Tourism

The Wild

Adventure of loving

TULUM

“The added value that makes Tulum something inexplicable is the cultural exchange.

We no longer sell holidays but experiences, a very unique tourism that seeks to reveal the latent and unexplored potentialities of our own being”. By: Mario Cruz

D

During 2018 Tulum has become a sui generi tourist destination recognized for its singularities.

The breathtaking nature, the mysterious cenotes and the magnificent Mayan ruins are some of the attractions of our magical town. Those attractions have been refined by an individual, municipal, state and governmental will, consolidating its reputation as a world class destination.

The added value that makes Tulum inexplicable is cultural exchange. We no longer sell holidays but experiences, a very unique type of tourism that seeks to reveal the latent and unexplored potential of our own being.

Since I was very young I always saw in my family’s businesses the links with tourism. Since 2008 I have had the luck to serve different administrative positions in the government of the municipality of Tulum, first as Councilor, President of the Tourism Commission, then Director of Tourism, afterwards Director General of Tourism and currently heading the Tourism Promotion and Marketing Directorate of the Tulum Tourism Promotion Council.

I believe that all these years have had a single goal: to encourage the accommodation offer, to communicate and promote the how and where to arrive here in Tulum so that more travelers can visit us.

Lucid Dreams [Photography]. Pepe Soho. (2018)

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Tourism

Currently Tulum does not have lowseasons, said by the hoteliers themselves.

In 2018 we will be present at the most important tourism fairs in the world. We started the year at FITUR (International Tourism Fair) in Madrid from January 17 to 21. Then we visited the ITB in Berlin, the most important in marketing, we were there from March 6 to 10. Between 16 and 19 April Tulum was present at the Tianguis Tourist Mazatlan Sinaloa.

We are currently preparing for Tourism Expo Japan in Tokyo which will be held from September 20 to 23.

We hope to make an impact on the Asian market by being represented at this fair. We close the year with the World Travel Market in London, England. This cooperative work between the government and the hoteliers to generate international presence allows us to strengthen teamwork and reinforce Tulum’s leadership in European markets.

One of the main achievements of the teamwork between the Tourism and Hotel Promotion Council is the disappearance of that old ailment called the low season. Currently Tulum has no low seasons, as the hoteliers themselves say. By encouraging national tourism and love in Tulum, weddings have become another one of our main dishes. We have positioned ourselves as a fashionable place to get married, not to mention the photogenic nature of our landscapes, immortalized in videos such as Waves (Mr Probz Robin Schulz Remix), Camila (De Mi) or documentaries such as 36 Horas Tulum, a NY Times report.

From 2017 onwards, the European market considers us the Yoga Capital of the World. After a census we discovered that 85% of the hotels offer Yoga classes, if we consider that in Tulum there are 8432 hotel rooms, it is easy to assume that Yoga in our municipality is a lifestyle.

All these unique characteristics have made Tulum the best tourist office in the world in 2017, in 2016 and 2017 it was chosen as the best beach destination in the world and in 2018 we are nominated as the best beach destination in Central America and the Caribbean.

That’s why we always like to remember the visitors and locals: when they enjoy the beaches of Quintana Roo, when they dive into the skull cenote where we went so frequently in our youth, they can’t help but playing some José José’s songs and to use the Hashtag #NaturallyTulum to continue to promote tourism and the cosmopolitan municipality that we love so much.

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Divine Light [Photography]. Pepe Soho. (2018)

About the Author Mario Cruz Tourism Promotion Council of Tulum.

Promotion and Marketing

The wild adventure of loving Tulum

Tourism

Inhabit the now

By Cocomobay

W

hat is to live? How far does the present go?

What is the way to cut off the flow of thought and live in the moment? We would like to have the answers to these questions, but all we got are intuitions.

We believe in architecture as an amplifier of all human potentiality, in immanence and design. We think austerity is luxury’s crystallization. We understand the nature as the zenith of all wealth. Achieving a balance between comfort and sustainability is our intention.

Tulum has become one of the most desirable destinations in the Mexican Caribbean, not only for its hypnotic landscape but also for the eco & chic style that characterizes the buildings in the area, creating the perfect environment to enjoy the present thoroughly. Just 5 minutes by bike from the town, Cocomo Bay combines functionality and exuberance. Suites, apartments, and penthouses with elegant finishes have access to Beach Club, gym, solarium and bistro. All of this is covered by cutting-edge technology aimed at the efficient use of resources. Biological digesters and thermo-solar technology are some of the processes implemented for environmentally friendly construction and significant savings in resource consumption.

Undoubtedly it’s an opportunity for those who yearn for a peaceful life, close to the cenotes and the sea without neglecting the comforts in a sustainable way.

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Inhabit the now

Inhabit the now

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Art and Culture

CUP TO DRINK CACAO “Gabriel Severiano has taken on the task of making historically adequate replicas of the chocolate drinking vessels used by the Mayan emperors. After several years of finding the right techniques he managed to make a first batch of 36 glasses capable of transporting us to the pre-Hispanic world”. By: Gabriel Severiano

T

he Mayans were great storytellers and innovative visual poets. Any surface could be the right place to tell a story and all the stories kept, somewhere in their beauty, knowledge. It is amazing to find into everyday objects epigraphs that are capable to make us travel through time and to imagine the daily life at the Maya Empire.

The creative process of Gabriel Severiano has a lot to do with time traveling. His formation as a restaurateur gave him thoroughness, scientific method and an educated eye. The Dong-kun-do showed him the way to discipline through the katana and the Mayan Culture gave a purpose to his concerns.

One day Gabriel woke up craving to drink chocolate as ahk’uhun (the keeper of the Royal Archives) would have had it. The first thing he must find was a cup, o more specifically, a replica of a Mayan drinking cup. He searched without much success a cup that made justice to the historic reality and he posed the challenge from another perspective.

Why not making my own cup?

The question became a practice and the process of studying and cooking the first cups started at 2015. Following the scientific theories he searches for the right technique, the fitting pigment; making it an experimental process of archeological investigation. This practice has allowed him to discover the mysteries of slips or engobe, away from the actual theories and searching the truth through the craft. “I differ in a certain way from archeologists

regarding the manufacture process. Almost every article mentions that engobe contains an iron base.

That’s what I did but these pigments when cooked into the clay oven turn to pink.” “The black turned into burned red. Afterwards, reasoning, I realized that when they put the XRF (X-ray fluorescence, a study that’s made to inorganic materials) what they are really identifying is the core part and if they do have a big quantity of iron but the Mayan engobes are different.”

Gabriel acquired the taste of restoration from his father, who’s always worked as a cabinetmaker linked to preservation of colonial pieces. He discovered ceramics from mouth to mouth, from teacher to teacher. He recognizes his doubt with the artisans de Mata Ortiz and Tonalá, who helped him through Facebook to improve the modeling and the pigmentation with recommendations that are only crystallized by experience.

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The catch about Gabriel cups are the meticulousness of the writing of the glyphs and the quality of drawing. As a restaurateur he has worked on diverse projects, being one of the most remarkable “El Yathé” for the antiquity of the pieces, nevertheless, it’s at Tulum where he discovers the hypnotic Mayan universe and starts the path towards the chocolate cup. Thanks to the restoration works performed under the instruction of Patricia Meehan (director of the restoration project of the mural painting on the oriental coast of Quintana Roo) in the Temple of the Paintings, he’s been able to know from firsthand the delicate finish of the epigraphists and to synthesize this millenary knowledge on his cups.

Actually there only exist 36 glasses that meet the rigorous quality controls of Gabriel Severiano. Al-

though since 2015 he’s been performing hundreds of experiments, only this small 36-pieces group meet the expectations of the artist, who makes these cups to recreate the delicious experience of drinking Chok’olja (or chocolate), the sacred drink.

As the next step and to take his artistic practices beyond, Gabriel plans to follow the example of his teachers, the craftsmen de Mata Ortiz and Tonalá, and that is to revitalize the pre-Hispanic ceramic language through experimentation. The future lies in telling the history of our present through glyphs , to use the epigraph to be able to translate into Mayans poetic system the turbulent and fragmented histories of our time.

To know more about his discoveries, Gabriel can be reached through his social networks, either to challenge him to a katanas duel or to commission him the making of a unique piece capable of connecting us with our pre-Cortesian identity.

Contact Gabriel @gaboliyo privadiyo@hotmail.com

Vaso para beber Cacao [Fotografía]. Severiano, G. (2018)

Autograph formula Yu’kib Ta’ixim Te’le Kakaw Means: Cup to drink cocoa.

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Inhabit the now

Art and Culture

TEOTL Sonic Meditations

“The drum is the flame that keeps a culture alive”. Júpiter Alejandro González

P

ercussion reminds us where we come from, to live in the present, to return to the source. That’s the reason why the drum has always been present in the history of humanity.

Jupiter discovered these things and other potentialities of rhythm and vibration in an intuitive way. It was ’95, the blaming sea claimed vehemently the atrocities of the nuclear tests carried out by the CEP (Pacific Experimentation Centre) and the CEA (Nuclear Experimentation Centre) in French Polynesia.

Edmundo, Jupiter’s best friend, was passionate about percussion instruments. His hands were ringing day and night on the skin of his drum during 5 days of fellowship, celebration and festivities in Maruata, on the Mexican Pacific coast. When they see a person drowning, they jump into the sea. The atomic swell forced the crowd to join hands in a human chain of solidarity to try to get the bathers out.

Unfortunately, nothing could cope with the swell that swallowed the coast, the human chain and Jupiter himself in the depths of the beach.

As you come out of the sea, you discover emptiness. Edmundo never appeared but his legacy lives in every tribal sonic experience promoted by Teotl (creative energy in Nahualt) in Tulum.

Teotl is a project of cultural promotion through sound, rhythms and frequencies that was born in Tulum as a synthesis of various experiences:

Quartz bowl [Photography].

Unknown author (2018)

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1) The first of these is the seventh Vision Council festival held in Dos Palmas. This event had such an influence on Jupiter’s life that he moved with his drum and a couple of flutes to the caves to live with the Mayan families. That’s how they started playing at parties and birthdays, in a full of virgin beaches Tulum. At the end of 1997, noticing the importance of promoting culture, Jupiter founded with some friends the first Cultural Center of Tulum located in what is now the shoe store Tres Hermanos. He was in charge of teaching martial arts classes as he shared his passion for percussion with body movement, Kung Fu practice and Xilam, a Mexican martial art (reconstruction of the Zapotec, Mayan and Aztec fighting arts made by Marisela Ugalde).

2) The second fundamental experience for the foundation of Teotl are the trips through central Mexico. In them, Jupiter meets Daniel Brower, founder of the Circle of Sound and precursor of the harmonization ceremonies. These ceremonies were carried out through some unique instruments: quartz bowls (one of the fundamental instruments for sonic meditations).

3) The third experience for the realization of Teotl appears in 2013. After years of travelling and merging different native and modern instruments many of them created by Jupiter himself such as huehuetl, spacedrums or teponaztlis flutes - the prodigal son returns to Tulum. All of these efforts are crystallized after years of experimentation, manufacturing and research of the instruments in Holistika, niche where they have performed every Wednesday for 5 years.

Teotl’s main goal is to help people find their rhythm and harmony through sonic meditation while rescuing, promoting and spreading the musical instruments of Mesoamerica.

Going to a sonic meditation session is to perform an exploration of ourselves through the frequencies of the sacred instruments, to dive in the memory and transporting ourselves to the Tulum that many of us have not experienced, with bonfires and drums on the beach, returning to that cave deep in the jungle without electricity and in the company of native animals near the ancestral temples.

JĂşpiter Alejandro Gonzales [Photography] Gerardi, N. (2018)

Art and Culture

Gonzalo Guerrero Neither heroe nor villain

“He was a little-known character. He renounced his homeland, his king and his religion. He stayed with the Mayas to found his own family and fight against his Spanish brothers and sisters by supporting his new Mayan brothers, which is why he was known as the “renegade” according to the Spaniards, and as the father of mestizos in Mexico”.

By: Ernesto Vargas Pacheco

U

n He was a little-known character. He renounced his homeland, his king and his religion. He stayed with the Mayas to found his own family and fight against his Spanish brothers and sisters by supporting his new Mayan brothers, which is why he was known as the “renegade” according to the Spaniards, and as the father of mestizos in Mexico.

Gonzalo Guerrero became part of the life of his captors and has become an icon of cross-breeding and resistance against the conquerors of Yucatan. He’s not known as a hero or a villain. His is a very human story told by a set of chronicles-legends that are not necessarily reliable. Despite this, Gonzalo Guerrero’s story continues to fascinate historians, novelists, filmmakers, sculptors, etc. as a unique character because he was the only castaway survivor who arrived on the coast of Yucatan and was integrated into the life of the Mayas.

NAVIGATION ROUTES TO THE NEW SPAIN

Gonzalo Guerrero is best known as the companion of Jerónimo de Aguilar, shipwrecked and survivors who arrived on the Yucatan coast where they fell into the hands of the Mayans of the region. According to some chronicles, their companions were sacrificed and they, despite fleeing, were again taken captive. Jerónimo de Aguilar spent eight years in slavery before being rescued by Cortés in 1519. The other captive had a very different fate. He ended up in Chetumal, had his ears pierced, tattooed, married a Mayan princess, had children, became a nacom (military leader of the warriors in a locality or batabil) and refused to reintegrate the Spanish.

Gonzalo Guerrero was born in Palos de la Frontera, Huelva, Spain, around 1470 or 1480 and died in Puerto Caballos, Honduras, in 1536 fighting against the Spanish and defending his Mayan brothers.

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Fotogramas Entre dos mundos: La Historia de Gonzalo Guerrero.

[Video Digital]. González, F. (2013). México, UNAM.

Gonzalo Guerrero, neither heroe nor villain

He was more of a soldier than a sailor. He participated in Spain as an arquebusier in the conquest of Granada and in Naples, which means that he had military training before arriving in America around 1510 with Diego de Nicuesa. Once in the Darien, Gonzalo Guerrero goes with Juan de Valdivia to Fernandina Island, Santo Domingo, carrying a load of gold and other materials. They leave Darien on August 15, 1511 in good weather, after three days of hurricane winds and big waves that make the ship run aground at the bottom of the Vipers. Between 13 and 20 people survive, but only 8 will reach the coast of Yucatan and only Jerónimo de Aguilar and Gonzalo Guerrero survive.

Apparently they arrive in Xaman Ha (Playa del Carmen).

Others say they arrive on the shores near Tulum, where some of their companions die and they have to serve as slaves serving their captors. They also seem to be involved in some clashes where Gonzalo is known for his military skills.

He is given away according to some stories and in others it is said that he flees, and arrives at the bay of Chetumal with Na Chan Can, where he apparently acquires his freedom and as a warrior participates in several war expeditions, demonstrating once again his abilities as a soldier. By then he already spoke Mayan, had adopted their ways and consummated his title of father of mestizaje when he conceived descendants with the princess Zazil Ha daughter of Na Chan Can. In 1519, with the expedition of Hernán Cortés that was in Cozumel, a small group was sent to rescue the prisoners who were on the mainland, that is, the survivors of the shipwreck off the coast of Tulum and across the bay of Chetumal. Only Jerónimo de Aguilar decides to return. Gonzalo, married and with children he loves, is a chieftain and captain. He also has his face carved and his ears pierced, which is why he decides to stay with his new family, the Mayas of the Bay of Chetumal.

It is estimated that Gonzalo was dedicated to training the Mayas of Chetumal to defend their territory and participated in several skirmishes. He fought against the Montejos and their captain Davila. He finally dies in 1536 in Puerto Caballos, Honduras, fighting against Pedro de Alvarado, and there he is registered as Gonzalo Aroza, which was his second surname.

In colonial history, he is not given much consideration for loving a Mayan woman, starting a family, mixing his blood with that of his captors and embracing pre-Hispanic culture and gods. Aguilar instead remained chaste, faithful to his king and god. Later he was rescued and he became an important part of the historiography around the conquest as an interpreter between the Mayas and the Spaniards.

About the Autor Ernesto Vargas Pacheco

Doctor in Anthropology Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, UNAM

Fotogramas Entre dos mundos: La Historia de Gonzalo Guerrero.

[Video Digital]. González, F. (2013). México, UNAM.

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Arte y Cultura

Alex Ă lvarez in Hoyo Negro doing photogrammetric registration [Photography]. Nava, Alberto. (2018).

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Gonzalo Guerrero

CHARACTER OF THE MONTH

Too many coincidences

Alex Álvarez

T

he “coincidences” have defined the fate of Alejandro Álvarez.

He decided to study civil engineering at the UNAM and graduated in 1987 with his thesis: “The Finite Element Method”, an attempt to democratize the use of interactive software to analyze complex structures. Also for “luck”, that same year he was able to take his first diving course with the FEMAS (Mexican Federation of Underwater Activities).

In October 1991, after working as an engineer for 3 years, he left Mexico City and its 3 or 4 hours of daily traffic, to take care of the only campsite on the beach of Tulum. During those years the celestial vault did not compete with electric light. The cabins of Santa Fe and Don Armando were the most eclectic options for the travelers, the place with the bonfires and the drums.

Alex had the ability to merge with the environment and reinvent himself in Tulum. After operating the restaurant Santa Fe in 1992, by “coincidence”, there is the opportunity to take the reins of the snorkel rent and the boat rides to the reef on the beaches of Tulum.

We reach 1993 seeing how the first professional diving shop in Tulum, “Acuatic Tulum” is born in a palapa in front of the sea. .

Two years later Mike Madden grants him his PADI Instructor’s license (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) and the following year he reveals the dark art of underwater speleology by certifying him a Cave Diver for the NACD (National Association for Cave Diving) at CEDAM in Puerto Aventuras. Mike Madden was at the pinnacle of his career as a diver through exploration in Nohoch Nachich, the largest flooded cave in the world at the time.

Since the 90’s Alex Álvarez enjoyed the cenotes in a recreational way. It’s in the period between 2000 and 2007 that he combines his job as a diving instructor and tour guide with his vocation as an explorer, visiting the flooded caves of Dos Ojos, Ox Bel Ha and Sac Actun searching for possible connections between the underground river systems. But it is in the Aktun-Hu system where, accompanied by Alberto Nava and Franco Attolini he “coincided” for the first time with Naia.

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Character of the Month

On May 10, following a narrow passage and after 1.2 km of route, they discover by chance the Black Hole, an immense hole where Naia -the oldest, most complete and best preserved human skeleton of the American continent- was found.

From 2007 to 2009 Alex, Beto and Franco dedicate themselves to exploring Aktun Hu and polishing the logistical aspects for the dives in Hoyo Negro, with Guillermo de Anda as a mentor, an eminent archaeologist and underwater explorer. Around this time, the INAH (National Institute of Archaeology and History) was notified of the discovery. Pilar Luna, the director of the department of underwater archaeology of this institution, is pleased to team up with the three original explorers and 7 other invited expert speleologists, who are also part of the GUE (Global Underwater Explorers). With the intention of providing the explorers with tools to reveal the hidden mysteries at the bottom of the cenote, in 2010 INAH is offering two training courses, one on NAS (Nautical Archeological Society) and the other on data collection and methodology for underwater explorations.

Alex Álvarez in Cozumel, first FEMAS certification [Photography]. Unknown Author (1987). Personal collection

In 2011, institutional explorations begin by a group of national and international scientists, led by Pilar Luna, always in coordination with Adriana Velásquez, from INAH Quintana Roo and with Alex’s group as his arms and eyes under the water.

Thanks to this multidisciplinary project, the dating and reconstruction of Naia’s DNA is done, as well as a 3D mapping of the Black Hole in order to study this unique discovery with the necessary strictness.

Alex continues to dedicate three seasons a year to this project and also maintains his diving school Acuatic Tulum’s operation, a world leader in high level diving. He currently combines the experience of dives with yoga classes through the Tribal Yoga studio. Thanks to the possibilities offered by its new headquarters located at Av Coba, Acuatic Tulum is the ideal place to dive into the depths of the sea, the cenotes or your own being, in their residential lofts, in the diving school or in the yoga studio.

(right) Alex Álvarez, Fernando Davila, Jorge Tanguma, Arturo Mora, first team of Acuatic Tulum, Camping Santa Fé [Photography]. Unknown Author (1993). Personal collection

Alex’s story and Tulum’s story are intertwined in such a way that we cannot talk about this magical or tragic town we enjoy and suffer, without encountering the traces of this underwater explorer. Water is still his main concern, which is why he serves as president of BUCEMA (Buceo en Cenotes y Mar Asociación Civil) directing his management to promote two fundamental aspects the conservation and safety of underwater activities in underground rivers. Tourism and residential “developments” have unleashed all kinds of irresponsible interests under rules and ordinances that are ineffective in protecting the environment.

For Alex, if he doesn’t start a planning and regulation process, there won’t be any greater attraction in Tulum in a few years.

The key to transforming this complex scenario is through research, awareness and education, practices that seem to be opposed to the economic interests of the municipality.

Alex Álvarez in Hoyo Negro, Naia skeleton [Photography]. Riordán D. (2007).

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Too many coincidences with Alex Álvarez

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Yoga Tribal

“Be the change you want to see in the world”. M. Gandhi Photography @i_write_light_

Y

oga defines Tulum’s rhythm of life. Since the arrival of this discipline with Osho’s ashram in what is now Maya Tulum, the number of teaching centers has multiplied to the point of positioning the municipality as the world capital of yoga.

As a result of the personal processes and complex situations, Joanne Barry faces, Tribal Tulum arises. Joanne arrived in the wild Tulum with the new millennium after leaving her job as an environmental engineer and advisor to the Pentagon on ecosystem protection issues. Years of struggling with cancer, excesses, disappointments and the theft of almost all of her savings led her to mutate and redirect her potential to yoga.

Tribal Tulum has its roots in an austere beachfront palapa. Joanne was an instructor at Maya Tulum. During the season, she rents her modest home for extra income and occupies a tent a few meters away. By these days she meets Alejandro Alvarez, and he becomes her partner, associate and the founder of Aquatic Tulum, the first professional dive shop in Tulum.

Both decide to merge their endeavors: to mix diving and Yoga practice in one place equipped with lofts to provide an integrated experience.

The Tribal Tulum Studio offers peculiarities, positioning it as an ideal place to abandon ego reflections. Their primary goal is inclusion. Joanne and her group of teachers seek to cultivate diverse groups where feedback is the key. Whether you can levitate or barely stand on your own feet, the practice becomes a party of freedom where individual work is reinforced with collective energy. Another of the peculiarities that Tribal Tulum offers is experimentation. Its practice combines the ancestral tradition of India with Pilates or with a little beat and flow. These characteristics combined with exceptional facilities equipped with tools to facilitate training, large windows and terrace rooms, consolidate Tribal Tulum as one of the best yoga studios in Tulum.

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Joanne has been approximately 12 years at the Riviera Maya and recognizes that the old Tulum of virgin beaches is already extinct and nowadays is only preserved in some of its inhabitants, who are full of love for life and ready to accept the transformations that immanence demands.

While reviewing her book “Map of Life and Beauty” or any of her previous publications on the fight against cancer “I Wish I Knew It” we discovered a woman who was able to adapt and make the most out of every life experience. This is the essence of Tribal Tulum: a place to come out of the box of fear, a place to play with fire without getting burned, a center to discover the strength required to live fully.

Yoga Tribal

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Gastronomy

PIBIL

Digging up the flavor

One of the most emblematic dishes of national cuisine and particularly Yucatecan is the cochinita Pibil.

By: Lily Rivera

M

exican cuisine is a continuous party, an intoxicating explosion of intense and dramatic flavors that are complex and simple at the same time. Just like Mexico.

of ground cumin, half a tablespoon of ground chili and salt to taste.

The day after, add the necessary water in a steamer and cover the inside with cooked or roasted banana leaf (to give it flexibility) so that the edges protrude from the pot. Arrange the marinated meat and distribute 3 tablespoons of lard on top, in small portions. Cover the pork with the protruding parts of the banana leaf. Cover our steamer and let it cook on low heat for three hours without uncovering. It is served on corn tortillas, with red onions and habanero peppers tanned in sour orange. If you have any questions, write to me at riverakitchentulum@gmail.com.

It is a pleasure for me to share our dishes and traditions, in order to preserve them. Enjoy your meal!

One of the most emblematic dishes of our national cuisine, particularly the Yucatecan, is the cochinita pibil. Tacos and cakes are enjoyed everywhere, but the land of the Mayab takes pride on its creation. Pibil in the Mayan language means “cooked underground”, and when prepared according to this ancient cooking method, the taste is delicious and unique.

To marinate the meat it’s used the achiote paste, a mixture of achiote seeds with spices and sour orange. Achiote, also known as Annatto, is the essential ingredient. It is a small red spice with a sweet and nutty aroma. Aside from cooking, this plant is used for its medicinal properties and is now being studied for its antioxidant and anti-cancer effects. Even though the old way is to cook it underground, it can also be made at our kitchens with a steamer, so it can be enjoyed at home anytime. As my grandmother Meya used to say “everything

Achiote seeds [Photography]. Espinoza, L. (2018).

has a solution except death, my child”. So let’s get to work!

First we must buy 2 kilos of pork, leg and rib meat cut into medium pieces. Optionally we can also add ½ kg of ear meat (it gives a great taste).

We salt the pork pieces and marinate overnight in a dressing prepared in a molcajete or in its absence, in a blender.

This dressing is made of 2 cups sour orange juice, 200 grams of achiote paste, half a head of finely chopped garlic, 1 tablespoon of ground Tabasco pepper, 1 tablespoon of ground Castilla pepper, 1 tablespoon of ground cloves, 1 tablespoon

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About the Author Lily Espinosa Rivera

Mexican traditional cook Foundress of Rivera Kitchen Tulum, Mexican cooking classes and culinary tours. riverakitchentulum.com

Pibil, digging up the flavor

Pibil in the Mayan language means “cooked underground”, and when its prepared following this ancestral method of cooking, the delicious flavor is incomparable.

Cochinita Pibil [Fotografía]. J. Kenji López-Alt (2016).

Gastronomy

MAYAN Apiculture Honey used to be one of the key commercial exchange products for pre-Hispanic Mayan groups.

By: Enrique Terrones

I

n the pre-Hispanic era, beekeeping had a significant development among the Mayan people in the Yucatan Peninsula. The knowledge of the habits and nature of wild bee varieties -and their subsequent handling of swarms in apiaries- represented the first step from the use of honey as a temporary and familiar benefit, to the production of surpluses, which led honey to be bartered.

Excluding some pictorial representations of bees in plates 103 and 112 of the Madrid Codex, we currently don’t have any other example of this insect or beekeeping, whether reproduced in mural painting, stone engraving or ceramic.

The general location of the apiaries was limited to strategic points close to water reservoirs and within a surface area delimited by walls, whose expansion along the coast and inland reveals us a significant demographic burst for the last part of Post-classical period. The tendency of beehives may have been linked to the family nucleus within their land as part of the domestic horticultural system, and a source of food necessary for daily subsistence.

The variety of information that chroniclers of the Indes provide us on this subject has great value, showing us the great knowledge and management that the natives had of the known varieties of honey bees, such as the Melipona or the Trigona.

As a resemblance of the past, modern beekeeping in the Yucatan Peninsula is an important complement to regional economy. The introduction of European honey bee and all the technological advances that came with it has overcome the desire to manipulate the native varieties of the insect and its beehives in today’s Mayan communities. Despite all this, we have enough recent ethnographic material that allows us to

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see somehow the progressive knowledge of the work in this area and its cultural features. In his transcendental monograph and ethnographic record for the town and region of X-cacal, Quintana Roo, Alfonso Villas Rojas documents in his publication the circumstances and practices of this industrious occupation in the Mayan ethnic group. “About seven out of ten men have bees. Most of the honey consumed is obtained from domestic bees. The apiary contains ten to twenty hives, each between 50cm long and 20cm in diameter. A hive consists of a hollowed out section of a tree called Yaxnic (Vitex Gaumeri, Greenm) and the ends are sealed with circular wooden lids attached with mud. A small hole cut into the hive will serve as an entrance for the bees. The apiaries are placed in an east-west orientation, with some hives facing north and others facing south. By reference of the Indians, this orientation serves to avoid that the combs are damaged by rain, which generally comes from the East. A wooden cross is erected at the top of the apiary.

The preferred bee for domestic breeding is the colelcab. Sometimes it is the xunan-cab, which produces the best honey and wax. Some varieties of wild bees, such as ehol (xibi-cab) and yax-ich, are accommodated in separate combs and produce good quality honey. The combs of these wild bees are placed in a vertical position and others in a horizontal position. Other types of wild bees are the bool, muul (these build underground honeycombs), nade-cid-cabe, and xii. The honey produced by xii is used for medicinal purposes.

Usually the apiary requires little time and attention from the natives. Individually, and often in groups, people go into the woods to steal the wild combs for their honey. It is a local belief that anyone who eats alive a xibi-cabe bee will have the ability to find wild honeycombs easily.

Inhabit the now

Mayan glyph of the bee

“Honey sweetens the loaves of holy bread called oxdians and the ceremonial drink chalice. It also sweetens the chocolate offered to mothers after giving birth and in the preparation of other “hot” drinks. Its main use, therefore, is ceremonial and therapeutic” (Villa Rojas, 1945: 57-58)

The great creative capacity of the Mayan population led to the improvement of beekeeping. This, along with the skill and handling of natural bee varieties from this region, stimulated the general economic development.

Traditional Mayan beekeeping takes on additional merit today as it is limited mainly by the lack of broader technological support.

About the Author Enrique Terrones Archaeologist INAH

Melipona is a bees genre that contains approximately 40 species or more.

They are located throughout the neotropical zone (almost all of South America, Central America, the Antilles, a part of the United States and a part of Mexico). The meliponas species domesticated by the Mayans was the Melipona Beecheii (Xunán Kab) from which they took advantage of the honey, the wax and is an indispensable ingredient for the Balché, sacred liquor.

Meliponas bees (Meliponos) [Photography]. Perilla G. (2016).

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