A Day at the Pyramids

Pyramids in San Miguel.  Who knew?  Until fairly recently, few non-indigenous people, that's who.  Today, we took an organized tour to Canada de la Virgen.  I chose the tour because of the raves over the guide, an archaeologist, named Albert Coffee.  Albert is a grad of the archaeology program at LSU (again, who knew?) and was very involved with the excavation and study of this remnant of MesoAmerican culture.  \

As it turns out, Albert is a riot.  Seriously.  Our group of 13 was treated to a fascinating, and often funny, exploration of one of the northernmost Mesoamerican sites.  The commentary began as he drove us from downtown San Miguel...providing his credentials and the history of the excavations, to date.  To date, as a considerable amount of the ruins are still unexcavated.

Here's Albert:

This site is 'west-oriented' and is thought to be from a death-view culture, which isn't as morbid or
depressing as it sounds.  All of the 'mystical' magic (and, DAMN, some of this stuff IS magical) revolves around the setting sun, rather than the rising sun.  The main pyramid's apex lines up with the setting sun on either March 4 or June 21 (there were so many dates and important numbers--13, 20 and 52--that I'm already confused).  In any case, at the official 'opening' of the excavated pyramid, someone using a phone app (I cringed writing that) that shows the celestial bodies from any given point, discovered that, on that date, all of the planets--with the exception of Saturn--also line up in the notch in the apex of the pyramid.

 This flat area in front of the pyramid is what defines the culture as a 'patio' culture--the broad, flat patio in front of the pyramid.  All three excavated pyramids have patios, one being round, as is the pyramid itself.

This society practiced both human sacrifice and some limited cannibalism.  There is a push to 'erase' this detail from the official tourism info, as some think it's a bit of a downer.  I thought it was fascinating.

The problem with any group, of course, is the inevitable 'know-it-all'.  You can usually pick him out within 3 minutes of the beginning of the leader's comments.  They have a million questions which are all, essentially, about letting everyone know that they've been to another ruin (in this case, Tulum).  Today's K-I-A was FIXATED on hallucinogenic mushrooms.  If he asked once, he asked 20 times about whether you could find them in the brush or whether they were illegal to buy.  Fortunately, he shut up when his wife began HER diatribe about the many parallels between this culture and the teachings of the Dalai Lama.  Had they been serving alcohol at this point, I'd have gone to the bar.

After the tour, we had lunch at a working farm in the area, which turned out to be pretty cool in and of itself...in spite of being vegetarian. (i'm not sure Terry realized that)

So a great week has come to a close.  San Miguel is so much more (and, pleasantly, less) than I'd hoped.  The city and its residents are beautiful in so many ways.  The pace of life here is rejuvenating.  I'm not sure if I buy into all the mysticism revolving around the pyramids, but there IS something in the air here.  We keep hearing stories about people from all over the world who come for a vacation and never leave.  Come here.  You'll understand why.

The sun is getting ready to set and this is the view from the roof of our house.

Tomorrow, Graciela will make us one last breakfast and we'll be off.  It has been a great trip.
Graciella was mortified that I asked to take her picture.  She's a lovely woman.

Hasta luego, San Miguel!