SPECIAL FEATURE: GUATEMALA
STEPPING INTO THE PAST
Following the ancient Mayans across Guatemala — from ruin-strewn rainforests to volatile volcanoes — reveals as much about modern society as it does a lost civilisation. WORDS: Gavin Haines
H
iking through the ruins of a near-2,000-year-old sports stadium — parrots flying
overhead, jaguars roving unseen in the surrounding jungle — I recalled an oſt-trotted-out quote from the late Liverpool manager, Bill Shankly, who said: “Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I can assure them it’s much more serious than that.” Poor old Bill, I reflected, probably
hadn’t come here, to the abandoned city of Tikal in northern Guatemala, where the ancient Mayans played a game that really was a matter of life and death; as in those who lost, were killed. Not sacked or floated on the transfer market, but bludgeoned. Slain. Shown the sharp end of a sword. That’s life and death. Not the English Premier League. Much mystery still surrounds this
murderous Mesoamerican sport — if we dare call it a sport — but my guide, Mario Ruano, reckoned it was played with a heavy rubber ball (ouch), which competitors had to strike with their hips (again, ouch).
We can learn a lot from the ancient
Mayans; not about sport, perhaps — although the Premier League would probably garner even more attention if losing to Crystal Palace carried the death penalty — but about life, and how not to live it. At least that’s the conclusion I
reached as I roamed the ruins of Tikal, which, in its heyday (200-900AD), was one of the most powerful kingdoms in the Mayan world. Like most Mayan cities, Tikal is
packed with loſty, limestone pyramids, which, in echoes of Ancient Egypt, were built as funerary temples for deceased rulers. Mario and I had spent the morning scaling some of them, saving the largest, Temple IV, until last. We climbed tentatively and without
looking down, and at a sun-bleached ledge near the top, we sat in silence. We looked out across the jungle, which stretched to the horizon in every direction; an endless carpet of green, punctuated by the stony summits of Tikal’s other pyramids.
From our loſty vantage point we
watched emerald toucans dart between trees and listened to the distant roar of what sounded like a Hollywood dinosaur, but was in fact the din of a howler monkey. “Loudest land animal in the world!”
exclaimed Mario, wiping the sweat from his brow. Later I would record the sound, which still brings me out in goosebumps. The demise of Tikal and other
Mayan cities, which started occurring around the ninth century, should serve as a cautionary tale for modern man. For while the Mayans, like us, had an understanding of complex subjects such as engineering and astronomy, their societies were unsustainable, which ultimately contributed to their downfall. “To build Tikal the Mayans needed
lots of cement, but to make cement they had to burn limestone,” explained Mario. “This required huge amounts of firewood, which they got from cutting down the forest.”
Adventure September 2018 53
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