Journey to the Kingdom of jungle, Calakmul stone and bats

For: Javier Brandoli (text and photos)
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Calakmul is south of the rain and wind and north of the wrath of volcanoes. Where the roads meet in a thick jungle where men walk stealthily to stumble over a new life surrounded by cats and military. Not seen, to nobody, because green when it is dense has the virtue of camouflaging mistakes.

Calakmul is chewing gum and leaf, tamales, panuchos, stew and chocolomo, homeless bats, stone mountains, nameless steles and colored turkeys. Everything is behind a road that borders the border with Guatemala. Up there it would take the path if it were not for the laws of man determined to build walls where there were free flows and trails for the deer. On one side, you almost see, the Mayan city of Tikal, other, as if time had been tamed, the Mayan city of Calakmul. In the middle, perched in the sky, we, on some ruins that seem to belong to no one. Guatemala and Mexico are meaningless here: invented, forced, fictional places created by men who got off those ships. Universal law to grant the delimitation to the winners. It was like that then. The Mayan Tikal and Calakmul also bled to death for dominance. They were conquered, they fought and annihilated to settle who had the right to rule the land of the quetzal, the snake and the jaguars. There we are, in the middle of that forgotten kingdom that redescubrió a gringo in 1931 while he was clearing vegetable skein to find the chicozapote tree with whose resin the chewing gums are made.

The Mayan Tikal and Calakmul also bled to death for dominance

And then you climb structure VII, a pyramid from which you contemplate the environment in 360 degrees and from which you understand that you are in a wild kingdom, surrounded by jungle to infinity, in which the cup of temples and altars stands out. And we enjoy all that alone, with no one around, without the hordes of tourists from Chichen Itzá, or the crowd of the ruins of Tikal, Uxmal or Palenque. I came here in late May for the first time, It took more than three years of life in Mexico to decide to know this unknown land., and I enjoyed so much solitude that I needed to return two months later with my friends Óscar and Juancho to corroborate that it is true that you can still walk alone through a space that is Unesco's cultural and natural heritage. Do you know many places with the virtue of beauty and loneliness? Few left.

And while we're up, contemplating a green cloak and the tips of structures I and II, we see that in the distance a storm is coming. It is so far away that it takes up to five minutes to pounce on our heads and make the rain worse with that speed of the tropics where nature lacks manners.. In the tropics the only slow thing is man.

In the tropics the only slow thing is man

Then we descend those stones, with its narrow steps, listening to the roar of the monkeys. Because this is land of spider monkeys and howler monkeys, guardians of Calakmul, to whom the water shakes their voices. For a few moments, lasts just enough time to hear the voice of the jungle, we feel the clouds emptying on our shoulders and we are reunited with the meaning of the journey. That happens sometimes, few, in which everything happens at the same time so as not to forget it. They're details: water, roars, history and loneliness. Can you imagine such a privilege?

Then we left those ruins, with the feeling of not wanting to understand everything, and we made our way quickly to a bat cave. Meanwhile, in the 60 kilometers of road between the ruins and the entrance door to the Park there is the possibility of the jungle, the safari. The first time I did this way back in May we saw wild turkeys, pheasants, deer, monkeys, a skunk and a badger. The second, nature is more cautious, and shows us a boar, some deer and turkeys. It does, now they touch bats. (Both visits to Calakmul we woke up the next day at five in the morning to take a walk through the jungle to trip animals, with the vague hope of the jaguar, that we can't find. We are content with an anteater).

Tens of thousands of bats are emerging at once, way to heaven, in a spiral dance

Just before sunset we arrived on a path of about five hundred meters, without signaling, that part of the road about ten kilometers from the Puerta de Calakmul hotel, to a cavity. In step, between trees, we see mammals in the sky spreading their wings. Today it seems that when it was cloudy the animals came out before their hiding place. The image when we look into the abyss is shocking. Tens of thousands of bats are emerging at once, way to heaven, in a spiral dance. It is estimated that there are more than five million copies that go out into the darkness every evening to feed and pollinate the fields. Its roar is heard, the blow of the wind with their arms, falling from some branches. It is an open tap of bodies and wings that go as far as the light goes out. A show that we watch no more than twenty people. Dumbed down, undaunted, between the privilege of silence, it becomes dark at night while we understand that he never sleeps in the lost kingdom of Calakmul.

 

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Comments (3)

  • Daniel Landa

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    Ha sido como entrar en una fábula, how to know a secret hidden in the jungle, the bats and those stones that speak to you. Congratulations, Brandoli.

    Answer

  • Ricardo

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    Magnificent story. You can almost hear the screams of the jungle. It has given me back the sounds of other walks through impenetrable jungles… Pure VAP

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