An Archaeological Adventure in Northern Petén, Guatemala with Dan Griffin.
- Dan Griffin
- May 17, 2024
- 8 min read
Updated: May 18, 2024
Our recent archaeological trek took us into the forests of northern Petén, Guatemala, to see the early Maya centers of Holmul, Uaxactun, Rio Azul, and others. Believe it or not, we started planning this trip more than four years ago. Our initial start date was in March 2020, exactly when the COVID pandemic arrived. We were packed, ready to go, and then the world shut down quickly. Finally, in March 2022, we embarked on our adventure. Because of the amount of rain that had fallen in the Petén area of northern Guatemala, we still did not reach all of our planned sites. We traveled in three 4WD vehicles, carrying everything with us: our food, supplies, camping equipment, chain saws, etc.
On many days, we slogged through muddy bajos that stretched out for literally kilometers before returning to higher ground for a while. At times, we had to use the winches that were installed on the trucks' fronts to pull us through the muck. For part of our travels, we were in the Maya Biosphere, where there is no tree harvesting allowed. It's a wild, wonderful jungle that still hides its treasures within. Another part of the Petén (below the Maya Biosphere area) that we traveled through is operated by forestry concessions. These are areas where permission has been granted to a group of locals from nearby villages outside, but close to the forested areas, to harvest the majestic mahogany, Spanish cedar, and about two hundred other species of trees that I will never remember. There are strict guidelines as to what can be cut and how many trees can be harvested each year. The trees have been carefully chosen and marked before any can be removed. Every tree is tagged and accounted for before it leaves the forest on the way to a sawmill. This type of management is meant to preserve the forest for generations with selective harvesting and also to supply an income stream to support the local communities (and probably an incentive to halt deforestation for cattle grazing lands). Every archaeological site in the area has a complete ban on harvesting any lumber. This is, of course, meant to protect the structures from falling trees, but also to halt the heavy logging equipment that could damage what lies within and underground.
We slept in some of these remote forestry concession camps as we traveled further towards the sites we planned to visit. The advantage of staying in these camps is that someone is there year-round. Other than tree-harvesting time, there is vigilance to ensure that there is no trespassing or illegal logging, hunting, etc. We also spent a couple of nights at the Holmul archaeological site. The camps have rudimentary bathrooms and shower facilities, a cooking area (wood-fired), and the most important commodity for some travelers: a place to recharge their electronic devices. As a photographer, I can tell you that it's nice that your dependable Nikon is with you, but in reality, the newer iPhones have amazing capabilities and can squeeze into tunnels and small openings where a larger standard camera just won't fit. We were able to recharge every night.
An archaeological excursion in northern Petén definitely requires a different mindset when visiting these remote Maya ruins. Most travelers are accustomed to visiting beautifully restored temples and pyramids with clean, open plazas that show the best of years and decades of careful restoration. In our recent forays to these remote sites, almost nothing has been cleared, and very few structures have been consolidated. One must imagine what these ancient cities must have looked like in their prime. Looter's trenches are visible at every site. There had to have been an enormous amount of illegal excavation activity, including cutting up and hauling away the monuments and stelae that contained the precious information of the people that lived there.
Our March 2022 trip took us to some incredible sites: Nakum, Holmul, Sufricaya, Cival, Lechugal, Witzna, El Pilar, El Peru, La Honradez, Chosquitan, Kinal, Rio Azul, Xmakabatun, Pozo Maya, and a few smaller sites. Many of these were cities that had population estimates of 10,000–15,000 per site! The immense size of the Early Classic-Classic structures and the dimensions of each individual plaza are astounding. The level to which they were all interconnected in commerce, political alliances, and internecine warfare is difficult to thoroughly understand. Many of these sites were only 15-20 km apart. By today's standards, it would take only an afternoon to go from one magnificent city to the next, but the physical separation imposed by the jungle terrain and the immense bajos (flooded and impenetrable lowlands) protected these neighbors from each other for most of the time. What remains for the visitor to see today is more than sufficient to stimulate one's imagination.
For any trip into this area, the site of Holmul is one of the best! With permission, we entered two different excavated tunnels to see the breathtakingly beautiful friezes that have been preserved. It makes the trip. They are a window into the deeper past of the site. The ancient inhabitants continued building and adding to their structures, and these stucco masterpieces were buried underneath and protected for more than one thousand years before they were rediscovered. The Holmul site is also well maintained, and with a plaza or two cleared of undergrowth, you can actually see how the city was.
After visiting Holmul, we continued on our trek to see the sites that were in the area.
Cival is another large site that is on the Holmul River plain. Although nothing is cleared here today, we know that there was a calzada (a splendid avenue) that was more than 1 km long, lined on both sides with impressive temples, leading up from the river to the city center. La Honradez and Kinal both have stucco masks to see. La Honradez, especially, has enough architecture standing to really imagine what was there.
Our most northern stop was at Rio Azul. Almost all of the sites in this area of the Petén were constructed to immense proportions. Even with what is left, these structures still rise above the forest floor and above the tree canopy. The level of sophistication in the architecture and urban planning cannot be understated.
Our group did not have any plans to return to the Petén area in early 2023, but by mid-fall we had started seeing who was still interested in going back and trying to see what we had missed in our first adventure. In the planning stages, one of our group members was fortunate to contact Heather Hurst, the director of the San Bartolo/Xultun project. Yes, her fieldwork would coincide with our dates, and she would be happy to show us her work there. We reworked our schedule to include our time with her and what new sites we would attempt to visit.
So, in April 2024, we began our second exploration. Everyone arrived from various locations to meet up in Guatemala City, where we spent the night. The next morning, we flew the short distance from the city to Flores. Our driver was waiting, and away we went to spend our first day and night at El Sombrero Lodge and prepare for our real takeoff the next day. We had ample time to reacquaint ourselves with the wonderful site of Yaxha. The next morning, our little caravan of three vehicles headed towards Uaxacatun for a tour of this important site and our need to stay the night there to get a good early start to San Bartolo. It is a two-and-a-half-hour drive through the jungle to arrive there. Heather was waiting and proceeded to give us a grand tour of San Bartolo. She explained the process and progress that her team has accomplished over the last twenty years. We did not enter the structure where the murals are located. They are sealed for protection from the elements and from random, non-invited visitors. Heather explained the fragility of these pieces and the accompanying dangers associated with bacteria that could potentially destroy the stucco and paint. It was better not to risk entering for reasons of our health and the mural's! After lunch, we continued on our private tour to Xultun. What a site this must have been! With crumbling, towering structures overlooking expansive plazas and pieces of stelae in various locations that the looters didn't haul away, we were still so impressed with this Late Classic site when we left.
Logistically, we had to return to El Sombrero for one night and take a different road into northern Petén to reach our destinations. The afternoon after returning from Uaxactun left us just enough time to do a little more local exploring. We made a quick trip to La Blanca, an archaeological site about an hour south of Yaxha. Then, out of nowhere, heavy rains began to fall. This was a real threat to our trip, as the jungle roads can become impassable. Instead of heading in the direction of Nakum (because of potential road conditions), we took a different tack and began our new journey by entering the military checkpoint at La Perra. We passed through this military checkpoint and assorted logging operations (where we also needed permission to enter) on our way back into the forest. Our first new ruin to visit was La Najanrita. It is completely covered in forest, but the site has a commanding view of Tikal. It's easy to keep an eye on things from far away!
We continued on to Dos Aguadas, another one-time, very big site. The limited archaeological work carried out there found another stucco frieze. After discovery, studying, and recording, the monument was reburied for safety reasons.
Our trip coincided with the tree-harvesting program. On many days, we were on the same roads as the huge logging trucks. There is no room to pass. Either they moved over or we found a little spot to get over. The trees are magnificent! In our travels, we saw some immense, magnificent mahogany trees that have a trunk diameter of three meters that will never be cut. They are the seed trees for the future. We saw wildlife and amazing birds. One tree had a community of 62 nests of oropendolas!
We revisited most of the same sites that we had entered on our first visit in 2022. Honestly, having been to these sites before enhanced my understanding this time around. Having already experienced the thrill of being there, we could take a look around and appreciate details that were not noticeable to our eyes before. The weather turned out to be surprisingly pleasant, and there was no more rain for the rest of our trek.
On our last day, we stopped first at the site of El Tigre. Climbing up a long, steep hill that led us to the base of a pyramidal structure that we then climbed that led to a recently constructed (in the last 20 years) wooden staircase and viewing platform above the treetops that gave us another beautiful view of Tikal. It was well worth the steep climb. And then we headed to visit our last wonderful site on our trip, Nakum. Archaeologists have been pretty constantly excavating there for years. The structures have been consolidated. The site is clean. It's a great way to end a fabulous trip at one of the more photogenic sites that you will see.
After returning to base camp, El Sombrero, we still had the desire to see even more local sites, so on our final last day together as a group, we did what most archaeology enthusiasts would do. Some of the group took a day trip to Tikal. A few stayed back and relaxed after eleven days away. And some of us took the opportunity to see more local sites, like San Clemente and Holtun. Neither of these is on many tourists' wish lists, mainly because they are relatively unknown except to archaeologists and enthusiasts. Holtun has an intriguing stucco mask hidden in one of its structures. San Clemente is a really beautiful site with nice plazas, a ball court, red handprints stuck on the walls, a building with a still-functioning interior staircase, and other little details. That was all we had time for on this trip. There is always more to see. It has been an amazing journey to share our archaeological endeavors with the people that work at the Maya sites and in the forest.
Until next time,
Dan Griffin, Ko'ox Maya Tours
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