We’ve made it to 15 Heads!!!

Wow!  Okay … yesterday was a very rainy, wet kind of day.  I mean, it started as a literal gale force wind in Veracruz, which then turned into rain by the time we got to the state of Tabasco.  Very gray; very wet, on and off.  Definitely not suited for shorts and t-shirts any longer; happy to be back in jeans, for sure!

At any rate, we got up this morning, and while the forecast was for more rain most of the day, it turns out, so far at least, that the rain has held off – thankfully, as we wanted to do some outdoor exploring!  We had two objectives here in Villahermosa – the Parque Museo La Venta, and the Museo Regional Anthropologica Carlos Pellicer Carmona.

Decided to Uber to the Parque Museo first, as it opens at 8 am.  Not that we were there then; we actually got there closer to 9 am.  But as it was such a gray day, we didn’t think there would be a huge crowd waiting to get in.

But first, R tells me I need to write about La Venta, after which the park is named.  It turns out that the Olmecs had three great “cities” – Tres Zapotes – where we had the tire issue, and truthfully, there is so little left there because of all the agriculture in the area, it’s even difficult for me with my very vivid imagination to picture a great civilization!  The second was La Venta, which is about 30 km from Villahermosa, and the third is San Lorenzo Tenochititlan.  Those were the locations where the colossal Olmec heads were found.  In the case of La Venta, the most important of the three cities, it was located on an island in the Tonala River, and was a ceremonial center featuring the Great Pyramid, a 100-foot earthen mound.  The problem was, though, that it was also on top of a very rich oil field that Pemex decided it wanted in the 1950’s – and of course the government permitted it.  Before the site was totally destroyed, a poet/artist/activist named Carlos Pellicer Carmona assisted in the excavations as well as the movement of artifacts (and they were huge, believe me!) to a place of safety in Villahermosa, and opened the Parque Museo La Venta at that time.

Since then, it has been expanded into a zoo, ecological park and archaeological park in one, but honestly, we were only interested in the artifacts.  Our Uber dropped us off right in front of the park, but interestingly enough, the ticket windows weren’t open – but the front gate was!  A nice lady was sitting there and asked us what country we were from.  We told her, and she welcomed us inside!  For a while, I think we were the only people there, other than the groundskeepers!  Interesting – Oh!  And, of course, the mosquitos!  Lots and lots of mosquitos!!!  Honestly, I don’t think I have EVER seen so many mosquitos anywhere!  We both wore our jackets full-time just for protective reasons; these things were really fierce!  As Robert says, we’re definitely in the tropics now!! UGH!  

 

Beautiful Jaguar!

An "official greeter" at the entrance? 

We were welcomed into the parque by several very cute Mexican coatis that were just walking around loose!  Very interesting!  We passed by several very large cages – and I hate cages for animals, but these at least had the benefit of being really huge, so at least the animals we saw had plenty of room to move around in.  However, it being such a gray day – although not raining! – it was very wet from the prior days’ rainfall. 

As we weren’t at all interested in the zoo part of the parque, we headed as quickly as possible for the archaeological section.  It was well laid out, mostly with original artifacts (although some were replicas, but at least they were labeled as such) and of course, we were most interested in the heads.

Note here:  While I guess I thought that head-hunting had originally been Robert’s idea, he tells me that that really isn’t so … that it was my idea, just like the Etruscan tombs.  So, while I’ve been concerned that he would be upset if we missed a few heads along the way, apparently, he won’t.  So …

  

Colossal Head known as the Young Warrior

Basalt stakes used to make a Royal tomb

Monumental stele

Monument known as the Grandmother

 

Colossal head known as the Old Warrior

Olmec altar as seen from the front

Same Olmec altar from the side

Olmec monument known as the Governor

We had quite a ramble through the parque, as there was much to see and explore – the Olmecs were quite the experts with basalt, and in addition to carving the Colossal heads out of it, they also carved their altars and thrones out of the same stone.  Additionally, they used huge basalt blocks to delineate their sacred areas from non-sacred areas, and used them also almost as menhirs for tomb construction.  Very interesting to see and walk through! (all the while fighting off mosquitos, let me tell you…)

  

Olmec mosaic floor

Another Olmec altar from the side

Same altar from the front

Olmec monkey looking up to the sky!

Colossal head!

Olmec statute of a woman

Looking at the river that runs through town!

Once we had seen everything in the archaeological area, we decided to Uber to the Regional Anthropological Museum, which is on the campus of the university here; really a lovely area.  Very quick Uber service here, which is great, by the way!

 Beautiful museum, too!  My only complaint is that the regional museum is a mixture of primarily Olmec and Mayan artifacts, with the occasional Nahua thrown in as well.  It turns out that the Olmec and Mayan met in this area c. 1000-400 BC and, while the Olmec civilization pre-dates the Maya by roughly 500 years, the two cultures existed simultaneously for several centuries, allowing for significant trade and cultural exchange.  I have found, though, that the easiest way to tell the artifacts apart are as follows:  Anything HUGE and in basalt is almost always Olmec, and anything really small and delicate is almost (but not always!) Mayan. 

 

Colossal Head #15 for our collection!

 

Stunning jade mask!

 

Loved the markings on this pot!

Mayan effigy piece

Olmec face carving

 

Olmec basalt carving

Mayan carving on bone

Thought this makes interesting reading!

Really loved this Olmec scorpion!

An example of Mayan writing; glyphs

Mayan mask

Exterior of the Regional Museum

 

At any rate, the museum had many wonderful pieces and we had a good look around the two floors. Interesting that here too we had the place to ourselves, which really makes it enjoyable, that’s for sure!

Finally, with lots of photos taken, we decided we would head back to the hotel for a sit-down!  (And to count our mosquite bites…). Ubered back with no problems.  Once we got there, though, we wanted to do a “head count” and make sure that all our numbers matched up.  I had thought we were up to 15 “heads” but of course, when we counted them on my official “sheet” I was missing a couple!  Bummer!  That meant, of course, that we had to go back to the very beginning – Mexico City Anthropology Museum, and look at all the photos over again.  First time through, we wound up with 16 – which I was fairly certain wasn’t correct, but then we realized that one of the heads at La Venta was a replica – the original was in the museum – so now we’ve identified 15, with two outstanding.  One is supposedly in the Xalapa Museum, although we never saw it, and we covered that museum very thoroughly.  The last one is in San Lorenzo Tenochititlan … which is down another very narrow and twisting unpaved road … so we’ll see about that one … not sure if I’m up to it at this point!  But you never know!

 (To add a note here:  San Lorenzo Tenochititlan isn’t even on our GPS …)

 So, more later!

Much love,

m

xxx

 Just back from dinner, but first:  the laundry saga!  Having no access to a washing machine since we left Mexico City, R has finally run out of clean clothes!  So, today, we took two large bags down to the lobby to be laundered by the hotel, with the promise that everything would be back by 6 pm.  We were both getting more than a little nervous when nothing was back by 5:15, so R went down to the lobby – where he was told, for the first time, that he first needed to pay!  I mean really – do people send laundry out and then don’t pay for it??  So, back upstairs for his credit card, and then back downstairs to pay for it … and then, voila, in about 10 minutes, miracle of miracles, all our laundry was suddenly delivered!  If he hadn’t gone down to ask, were they ever going to tell us?  I mean, is this a secret???  REALLY folks??  However, he now has completely clean everything, so is definitely good until we get home!  I would certainly have preferred to do the laundry myself, which I was prepared to do – but these Hiltons in Mexico don’t seem to come with do-it-yourself laundries, which is really unfortunate!  Oh well! 

 Dinner at the hotel was again, excellent!  R had pasta alfredo, with some tomatoes on it, which he found odd, but delicious.  I had a chicken quesadilla with guacamole, and it was outstanding!  Why do things taste so much better here??  Washed down with limonada, a sparkling light lemonade, which was great!  For some reason, it seems they really haven’t heard of white wine here at all, and while the vino tinto (red wine) we had last night was very good, we decided on limonada tonight for a change!

 

Excellent guacamole and chips!

My chicken quesadilla!

R's pasta alfredo!

Limonada -- makes a change!

 

Back upstairs and out the door tomorrow to Miniatitlan and, hopefully, San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan – if it can be found (the village doesn’t even appear on our GPS) and if the roads aren’t too bad after the rains!

 Much love,

m

xxx