August 30, 2010
Canter: Tulija-Lacanja Route - The “Long Valley”

Another chapter in Ron Canter's work on Maya trade routes. Complete text can be read by clicking More.

Tulija-Lacanja Route - The “Long Valley”

Absolutely the easiest land route through the ranges, a continuous
valley stretches 220 km from Salto Agua Blanca [Itzac-ha] on the Rio Tulija
to Lacamtun [San Vincente] on the Rio Lacantun. From the Tulija’s wet
season head of navigation, 3 km from the sizeable Classic Period Yoxiha
site, one could walk east past the Muxculha site to a higher valley level
at San Jeronimo Tulija. The climb, 400 m spread over 20 km, is modest and
gradual. Today a road rises along the foot of massive Nude Diamante.
Ahead are no passes to climb, no gorges to skirt - just a truly flat
valley floor curving far southeast for 115 km from San Jeronimo Tulija to
La Cascada Lacanja. Adjacent to this "Long Valley", the Plan de Ayutla
[Sak T’zi] site perches on the mountainside 6 km southwest of Velasco
Suarez. Bonampak is the best known in a cluster of over a dozen sites
peppering the valley around Chansayab [Lacanja].
Both the San Pedro and the Lacanja valleys complete the long valley
trail with gradual descents to the Rio Lacantun. The sizeable Lacamtun
[San Vincente] site, beside the Rio Lacantun midway between the mouths of
the Rios San Pedro and Lacanja, would have controlled both routes.
Currently modern roads follow the valley from Agua Blanca all the way
to Bonampak, beyond which trails continue at least another 15 km. The road
does not continue much past Bonampak only because one through the Montes
Azules Biosphere Reserve has not been allowed.
The Rios Tulija, Santo Domingo (Chocolja trib) and Lacanja drain most
of the valley. The Tulija is navigable for 110 km above Agua Blanca falls
(Hopkins, Josserand, & Guzman, 1980). There is a short 12 km navigable
segment on the Rio Lacanja around Bonampak, and possibly another 12 km on
the Santo Domingo below Jerico, per analysis of Google Earth photos.
Starting 6 km below the road to Laguna Chansayab [L. Lacanja], ledges
dominate the Lacanja, which is unnavigable (Krustev, 1970) except for the
final 12 km prior to the junction with the Lacantun. Subtracting for
meanders, 75 km (34%) of the long valley route appears navigable.
Though smaller, the “Long Valley” is geographically very similar to
the Great Valley of the Appalachians, which runs unbroken from New York
south to Alabama, a distance of 1600 km. The Warriors Path followed its
long arc. The path was upgraded first to the Valley Pike, and then to
modern US 11, with little deviation from the original trail. The entire
Great Valley was settled, not by people of English descent from tidewater
regions a short distance east, but by settlers from Pennsylvania of
Scots-Irish and German descent, who just kept clearing farms southward in
the direction of least resistance.
Some cross trails connecting to other places: Palenque was linked to
the Rio Tulija in Colonial time by a steep pass across Don Juan Mountain
(Bassie 2001). Stephens rode over it in the infamous “silla”, a chair
strapped to the back of a porter (Stephens, 1841). Farther down the valley
at Velasco Suarez one can tramp west through Plan de Ayutla [Sac T’zi] and
cross high mountain lakes to a pass between the Sierra Cruz de La Plata and
the Meseta Agua Escondida, coming out at Las Tazas in the valley of the Rio
Jatate Central. From near Chansayab, one can veer east through San Javier
Pass to Yaxchilan on the Rio Usumacinta.

Bibliography

Karen Bassie
2001 The Jolja Cave Project. FAMSI Reports

Nicholas A. Hopkins, J. Kathryn Josserand , and AusencioGuzman
1980 Notes on the Chol Dugout Canoe. 4th Mesa Redonda

Dimitar Krustev
1970 River of the Sacred Monkey, Illert Press, distributed by Wilderness
Holidays, Charleston, SC

John Lloyd Stephens
1841 Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, Harper
& Bros, NY, NY. Republished 1963, Dover Publications, New York, NY.

Posted by Dave at August 30, 2010 11:52 AM