Here's a historic document from 1993, outlining that era's mobilization to prevent dams on the Usumacinta.

I'll post the whole text below in case it disappears from the web for any reason.

Date: Sun, 27 Feb 94 01:29:58 EST
Subject: E-Link;_Rainforest_Rivers.txt
Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1993 11:05:57 -0500 (EST)
From: Student Enviro-Link
Subject: E-Link: Rainforest & Rivers
Date: Thu, 18 Feb 93 8:32:50 PST

_GRAction_ #1/93 February 9, 1993
Usumacinta Hydroelectric Project--Mexico

-box-
*"The Usumacinta is essential for the natural circulation of water in
the rain forests of the region....Its well-being and fate are
inextricably linked to that of the Lacando'n Forest."* -Homero Aridjis,
President of the Mexican environmental organization "Grupo de Los
Cien", at a press conference calling for the cancellation of any
destructive development projects along the Usumacinta River.
-end box-

*Global Response* members are asked to write letters to help protect
the *Usumacinta River* from the negative effects of a proposed
hydroelectric dam project.

In 1989 the Mecican government, bowing to domestic and
international pressure, shelved plans to build a series of dams on the
Usumacinta River. Mexico has _reintroduced_ the project and has
scheduled construction on the first dam to begin in 1994 at *Boca del
Cerro*, at the mouth of the *San Jose Canyon*, 20 miles from the
Guatamalan border. Environmentalists and archaeologist are concerned
that this "dangerous and costly scheme of multiple hydroelectric dams"
will severely damage the ecology of North America's largest surviving
rainforest and destroy ancient Mayan civilization centers.

The project was originally estimated to cost between $2.1 and $3.7
billion and would have flooded an area of 500 square miles. The
*Inter-American Development Bank (IADB)* is currently funding a $2
million feasibility study for the development of a regional power
network. Electricity from the proposed Usumacinta dams is included in
these power grid schemes.

The Usumacinta is the largest river in Mexico south of the Rio
Grande. Draining an area of more than 40,000 square miles, it is the
backbone for the *Lacandon Rainforest*.

The Lacandon Rainforest is home to endangered species such as
ocelots, jaguars, crocodiles, howler and spider monkeys, toucans, and
tropical songbirds. Its incalculable archaeological and cultural
resources include the largely unexplored *Classic Maya* ruins of
*Piedras Negras* and *Yaxchilan*, and the *Lacandon Indians*, a small
band of several hundred nomadic gatherers and rudimentary
agriculturalists. The Lacandon are the purest descendants of the Maya.

*Recommended Action-Letters/Fax to:
{}Enrique V. Iglesias/President - IADB*
-Mention that you are aware of the IADB's funding of a feasibility
study for a regional power grid using Usumacinta hydroelectric power;
-Stress that further IADB funds for this project should be withheld
pending a full analysis of the impact the dams will have on the
Usumacinta's ecosystem;
-Remind Mr. Iglesias that alternatives such as conservation, increased
energy efficiency, and *alternative energy sources* are available to
meet the region's power needs; and,
-Ask Mr. Iglesias and the IADB to join Mexican environmentalists in
opposing *any* damming of the Usumacinta River.

-box-
*Background: Tropical hydroelectric dams* not only inundate forest
resources and kill wildlife, but they can also lead to the spread of
undesirable aquatic vegetation, increased incidence of disease such as
schistomaisis and malaria, forced resettlement of human communities,
and the loss of productive agricultural land. Potential problems to
the dams include the destruction of hydroelectric equipment by hydrogen
sulfide produced by decomposing forest vegetation and the premature
siltation of reservoirs caused by the destruction of the surrounding
forest.

*Piedras Negras*, on the Guatamalan side of the Usumacinta, and
*Yaxchilan*, on Mexico's side of the river, are considered to be two of
the New World's most important *Classic Maya* sites. Archaeologists
are just beginning to explore their magnificent ruins of temples,
palaces, sports arenas and baths. A dam at Boca del Cerro would flood
much of Piedras Negras. Companion "check dams" needed to make the Boca
del Cerro dam economically feasible would flood Yaxchilan, inundate
dozens of indigenous villages along the river, and perhaps forever
cover many still undiscovered sites.

At the mouth of the Usumacinta is Mexico's most important wetlands
resource--the *Great Delta Wetlands*. It is feared that this 4.9
million acre system of fresh water marshes, coastal lagoons, mangrove
forests, and transitional lowlands will be adversely affected by the
changes caused to the seasonal pattern of water flows by the Usumacinta
dams. These wetlands are a major waterbird habitat and support
Mexico's largest shrimp fishery and significant fresh and salt water
fisheries.
*{GR}*
-end box-

*Addresses:* The *President* of the *Inter-American Development Bank*
is in a position to help protect the *Usumacinta* (Mayan for "River of
the Sacred Monkey") *River*. Given that the IADB has already funded
the feasibility study for the power grid, it is considered likely that
they will be asked to help finance the construction of the *Boca del
Cerro Dam*. Please send copies of your letters to President Salinas of
Mexico in care of the Embassy of Mexico in your country.

*Note:* As reported in the December 1992 *Action Status*, the *World
Bank*, in spite of intense worldwide pressure and against the
recommendations of its own *Independent Review*, decided to continue
funding India's controversial Sardar Sarovar Dam. (GRAction #8/92)
The reluctance of major lending institutions to sever the funding
pipeline for ongoing projects, no matter how socially and
environmentally destructive, emphasizes the need for us to apply
pressure on the IADB while financing for the Usumacinta Dam project
remains uncertain and *before* construction begins.

Mr. Enrique V Iglesias
President
Inter-American Development Bank
1300 New York Avenue NW
Washington DC 20577 USA
(tel: 202-623-1101) (Fax: 202-623-3614)

President Carlos Salinas de Gotari
c/o Ambasador Gustavo Petridoll
Embassy of Mexico
1911 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington DC 20006 USA

-box-
The information for this *Global Response Action* was provided by the
following organizations: _International Rivers Network_, 1847 Berkeley
Way, Berkeley CA 94703 (510-848-1155); _Grupo De Los Cien_, Sierra
Jiutepec No. 155-B, Lomas Barrilaco 11010 Mexico DF
-end box-

GLOBAL Response Environmental Action Network
POB 7490
Boulder CO 80306-7490
(303)444-0306

"As environmental awareness and activism help reveres destructive
trends at home, one result has been the export of severe ecological
degradation to the developing world. GLOBAL RESPONSE is a dedicated
letter-writing network of environmental activists focusing attention
on specific planetary environmental threats, and mobilizing broad-based
campaigns to hold those responsible accountable. GLOBAL RESPONSE issues
_GRActions_ [bulletins] on rainforest destruction, ocean dumping and
pollution, atmospheric contamination, nuclear disarmament, extinction,
and threats to marine mammals and fisheries. GR also issues a monthly
_Young Environmentalist's Action_, a simplified, larger print version
of our _GRActions_ for use by elementary and junior-high school
students."

GR also publishes an Action Status report on the results of
earlier campaigns. If you want the whole publication, subscribe!
--
Transcribed by Cameron Spitzer, not far from Penitencia Creek
cls@truffula.sj.ca.us

Thanks to Ron Canter, who has sent a draft of his report on river navigation by the Maya in Classic times.

Click "More" below to see the complete text, including bibliography and links to related websites.

DRAFT COPY
Last Update, 8-29-02
RIVERS AMONG THE RUINS
THE USUMACINTA, SAN PEDRO MARTIR, AND CANDELARIA RIVERS, LAKE PETEN ITZA,
AND THEIR COMMERCIAL NAVIGABILITY BY THE ANCIENT MAYA
by Ronald L. Canter

"He who excels in traveling leaves no wheel tracks" - Lao
Tzu

A major component of the transportation network used by the Maya
throughout their history has been the system of navigable rivers within
Yucatan, Peten, and the highlands of Chiapas. Rivers were the railroads
of the preindustrial world. They were far more efficient than roads or
trails, but limited by topography to only certain routes. Of the 18th
century, geographer Peirce Lewis said, "If you get away from a navigable
river or the sea, you might as well be on the face of the moon." It
applies equally well to the 8th century.
Though the importance of rivers as major trade routes has long been
recognized, there currently is no comprehensive source detailing which
rivers were or were not navigable by the Maya in the past. Richard E. W.
Adams, in "Routes of Communication in Mesoamerica: the Northern Guatemala
Highlands and the Peten", outlined well the basic frame of trade routes
throughout the Yucatan Peninsula and Los Altos. This paper hopes to add
some detail for the Usumacinta watershed.
Rivers are grouped by watershed, with the main river first, and
significant tributaries listed in order from head to river mouth.
Alternate names (of which there are many) are shown in brackets, with
probable Postclassic and earlier names underlined. Translations are given
in quotes. For simplicity, accent marks are not shown in names. Mayan
names are normally accented on the last syllable. Since bare bones river
descriptions tend to be rather desiccated reading, I've added some
anecdotes relating to navigability.
The river descriptions are brief and not meant to be a detailed
guide, though detail is given for features critical to understanding them
as part of a larger transportation network. "Navigable" and "not
navigable" refer to commercial navigability by fully loaded dugout canoes
5.5 m or more in length. A commercially navigable river has a dependable
season* with adequate depths, and not so many rapids that large cargoes
can't be carried safely and economically. I would expect that there were
exceptional Maya canoeists in the precontact period who occasionally
traveled up or down more difficult rivers, but these lie outside the norm
of navigability.
*Ftnt [A dependable canoeing season may be short, only a few months
of the year, but it can be relied on from year to year.]
Important factors affecting navigability which could reasonably be
inferred were: the type of dugout canoes used, the average skill level of
ancient paddlers, and some probable portage routes between major rivers.
Determining the types of canoes used and skill levels of ancient Maya
boatmen was based on surviving illustrations of precontact dugouts,
historical records of canoes used and rapids run, and distribution of Maya
sites along rivers. Possible portages were located using historical
accounts, site distribution, known trails, and detailed terrain analysis.
See the Appendix for a more thorough discussion of the factors affecting
navigability.
In order to understand and compare different routes, knowing whether
or not a river might float a loaded canoe is not quite enough. Without
precise information on the location and difficulty of rapids, the effect of
changing water levels, and of current speeds in different seasons, travel
times can't be determined. Accurate travel times make comparisons of
alternate routes possible.
The rivers were part of a far larger trade network at times
stretching from the turquoise mines of New Mexico south to Lake Nicaragua
and beyond. Much of the trade was carried in the bottoms of canoes
following the seacoasts. The location of major salinas along the north
coast of Yucatan guaranteed heavy coastal canoe traffic. These saltwater
routes are well described in many sources, and will only occasionally be
touched on here.
The rapids of the Rios Usumacinta, San Pedro Martir, Candelaria, and
tributaries offer an untapped opportunity for discovering what was actually
traded, and for recovering artifacts in good condition. "Whitewater
archaeology" of the sort so successfully done in the Quetico-Superior
Underwater Archaeology Project by the Minnesota Historical Society has not
been tried in the land of the Maya. The possibilties make me sincerely
regret my lack of diving experience.

RIO USUMACINTA-

The Usu' watershed includes two extensive systems of navigable
rivers: an enclosed interior basin above the canyons, and a large part of
the Grijalva-Usumacinta compound delta below.
Usumacinta, written phonetically as "Usumatsintla" by Teobert Maler,
is from the Nahuatl "osumatli" and "tsintla". It translates as "Place of
the Monkey", but is usually given more broadly as "River of the Sacred
Monkey". It was also the name of a Postclassic town on the river near
Balancan. Moreley thought Ayn, "crocodile", was the ancient name of the
river. Adams confirmed Ayn as a past name for at least the Rio Pasion.
Spanish expeditions referred to the upper Usu' as the "Sacapulas". Louis
Halle nicknamed the Usu' " River of Ruins" in his book of the same name,
and that name has also stuck.
One source gives the Postclassic name of the river above the canyons
as Xocolha, and Scholes and Roys give the river name as Tanochel at
Tenosique. "Xocolha" simply means "The River" in Chontal.
In the Classic the Usumacinta watershed offered at least three
parallel routes between the Tabasco lowlands and the upper basin. Each had
advantages and limitations. The Usu' itself was a swift path downriver but
slow upriver. Its canyons posed a difficult choice headed downstream, and
forced a long portage going upstream. The parallel Rio San Pedro Martir
was overall much easier to ascend, but would have required a long portage
back into the Usu' basin. A route up the Rio Tulija, overland past Tonina,
and down the Jatate would have been faster than the long slow ascent of the
Usumacinta, but required whitewater skills to travel safely.
The most efficient approach would have been a circuit trip. Traders
could use the Tulija/Jatate or the San Pedro Martir to go from west to
east, visit the cities of the upper Usumacinta basin, and then return by
the main river, stopping at Yaxchilan and Piedras Negras on the way out.

Upper Usumacinta [Xocolha, Ayn, Sacapulas]:

*Junction of Pasion and Salinas Rivers at Pipiles [El Trapiche] to Frontera
Corozal- 96 km
The Usu' is flat with a definite current for the first 50 km to the
mouth of the Rio Lacantun, at Benemerito Segundo Seccion, and then for
another 21 km to Boca del Cerro (not the dam site). It picks up speed
where it squeezes through deep ravines, but remains easy. There are no
large rapids, but currents and eddys are strong in the wet season, when the
river rises 10 m or more. Small Maya sites are spaced roughly 7 to 9 km
apart along the river.
6.5 km below the Rio Lacantun, Arroyo el Chorro spreads and tumbles
over travertine falls along the right shore. Five km downstream the river
splits around Isla Grande [Isla Colmoyote], the first of several. After
another 9 km (21 from the Lacantun) the Usu' slips between high hills at
Boca del Cerro (a different one than the dam site). For 7 km the river is
swift, with strong eddys, through Encajonado de Gonzales. At Arroyo el
Mocho and the abandoned Agua Azul [Filadelphia] airstrip, the hills recede.
8 km downstream, at Isla la Paleta below Bethel*, another narrows begins,
this one only 3 km long. There are small sites at each end. Frontera is
only 5 km farther.
*Ftnt. At Bethel there is a Guatemalan customs station and bus
service to La Libertad [Sacluk].
The strong current is a constant of the river from Boca del Cerro to
Rio Chancala. It would have made the Usu' an excellent route to deliver
bulk goods from upstream sites to Yaxchilan or Piedras Negras. Hauling
loads upriver would have been tedious, though still more efficient than by
land. The huge meander loops in the lowlands of Tabasco, a long portage
past the canyons, and the strong current all combine to make the Usu' a
less than ideal Gulf to Pasion route. A route up the Tulija, overland to
Topiltepec on the Jatate, and then downstream to the Usu' above its
swiftest part works out as fast or faster. See the Tulija writeup for more
detail.

*Frontera Corozal to Yaxchilan- 20 km

The river is mostly flat but swift ( 3 to 5 kph per George Stuart and
Chris Shaw) for all 20 km. At Arroyo Yalchilan* there is a Class 1 rapids
formed by debris washed into the river by the arroyo. Paso Yalchilan, the
Guatemalan landing here, marks a major change in the river. Just
downstream the Usu' again enters a gorge between steep hills, but this time
it stays within a defile all the way to the lowlands. From Arroyo
Yalchilan to El Pilar, the start of Yaxchilan's waterfront, is 13 km
*Ftnt [Yalchilan and Yaxchilan are confusingly close in spelling,
though well separated along the river.]
Yaxchilan "Green Thing Scattered About" ie. Green Stones, [Yaxchilan
Xlabpak, Yalchilan, Menche Tinamit, Tsah Kanac.] is a major Classic Period
site nestled within a huge circular meander. In the Classic Yaxchilan's
name may have been Tsah Kanac or Itz'am Kanak, "Cleft Sky Place", per
Carolyn Tate. On Stela 4, the city's emblem glyph has a deep split in its
top per Stuart and Houston. In the skyline east of the city is a
prominent gash in the Sierra del Lacandon, likely the "cleft sky" in city
name and glyph. Following a transcurrent fault, the narrow pass may have
been more than a nice scenic feature.
Because of its strong current the Usu' is a great downriver run, but
a grind going upriver. Alternate routes that bypassed part or all of the
swiftest section would attract travelers trying to go from the Tabasco
lowlands to the upper Usu' basin. By paddling up the San Pedro Martir to
Ocultun [La Florida] and then carrying southwest through the "Cleft Sky"
pass, a traveler could bypass the Usu' canyons and 65 km of rapids and fast
water. A trail from Ocultun to Yaxchilan would be 43 km long, slightly
shorter than an upriver carry past the Usu' canyons. Though the San Pedro
Martir has an extra 7 km carry past cascades at Reforma, the route is 20 km
shorter overall and has little current between Reforma and Ocultun.
Because of the deep pass in the Sierra del Lacandon, there is no severe
climb.
A trail through the cleft would have put Yaxchilan at a crossroads of
river and land routes. Teodoro Paschke's 1889 detailed map of Guatemala
shows just such a trail from Laguna de la Cruz to Paso Yalchilan, though
modern maps don't. Desire Charnay used a similar approach by land from
Tenosique to Yaxchilan. Whether or not there may have been an actual
Classic Period route through the cleft could be checked by looking in the
heart of the pass. In southern Belize a smaller pass, guarding the
approach to Chac Bolai from the Bladen Branch, is fortified with a wall and
gateway at the narrowest point.
While exploring the ruins in 1882 Alfred P. Maudsley was given
something, carefully wrapped up in paper, by one of his men who had been
upriver. It was a gentleman's card, that of French scientist Desiree De
Charnay. By coincidence, his expedition had just arrived, and was stranded
across the river. Mausley graciously lent his canoe and in return De
Charnay shared the exploration with Maudsley, who was officially only an
amateur at the time.
In the river a massive artificial pile of stone, El Pilar, marks the
start of the ancient waterfront. Various people have identified El Pilar
as a royal grave, a breakwater for the city landing, a river level gauge,
or a pier for a bridge. It is definitely not a grave but could have been
any or all of the other possibilities. James Okon has located a
cooresponding stonework, more ruined by floods, in the river near the
opposite shore. He theorizes that they were piers for a huge suspension
bridge _ m long.
Yaxchilan, almost alone among large Maya cities, is sited without
apparent relation to good farmland. It is confined within a mountainous
meander. The nearest arable land is across the river and over a steep
ridge, in the broad valley of the La Linea Syncline. By land, the city has
only a single exit, southwest along the ridge of the meander neck.
However, the meander is as near perfect a natural fortress as one could
find anywhere.
The dip in the neck is a great location for a wall and gate like that
found in a pass leading to Chac Bolai on the upper Bladen Branch in Belize.
So far as I know no one has yet checked the neck for defensive works,
though Mario Aliphat has done a botanical transect of the neck. Even
though it would bypass 13 km of upriver, the neck of the meander is too
high and steep for a practical portage.

Yaxchilan to El Cayo Venado ? 45 km

The river is pinched in a narrow gorge, 200 to 250 m deep, carved
deep into the shattered core of an anticline. Now hemmed in, the Usu' has
nowhere to go but up in wet season. There are surprisingly few rapids of
consequence.
The river swiftly encircles Yaxchilan with a watery moat, and
straightens out as far as the minor site of Anaite I, 21 km from Yaxchilan.
Here it turns sharp right, along a transcurrent fault, and sluices through
minor rapids, Class 1 El Raudal Chico. Since these rapids are just below
the modern hamlet of Anaite, they are often called "Anaite Rapids",
inviting confusion with the larger ones downstream. The river then swings
left to continue down the heart of the Usumacinta Anticline.

Los Raudales de Anaite:

The most serious rapids between Yaxchilan and El Cayo are Los
Raudales de Anaite, now commonly called Chicozapote Falls. Like so many
localities in the region, the rapids have acquired two names. "Chicozapote
Falls" came into vogue with commercial rafting of the river. For this
article "Raudales de Anaite", the name used by Maler, Blom, and local
boatmen for nearly a century, will be used in preference to the more
recent, even at risk of confusion with a smaller rapid near the Anaite I
site. "Anaite/Chicozapote" is too awkward, and "Chicozapote Falls" has
less historical depth.
28 km below Yaxchilan, the rapids begin with boulders on the west
(Mexican) shore forcing the river through a wavy chute. The main current
swings to the right, then left, before settling into a long train of +1 m
waves near the west shore. A large rock sits left of center in the waves,
but is easily skirted. The rapids are not long, only 0.5 km from top to
tail.
The annual wet season rise keeps the foreshores clear of vegetation
for 20 m above the river. The steep right (Guatemalan) shore is strewn
with large blocks which make walking a chore and portaging even a light
boat difficult. Jutting out from the west shore at the head of the rapids,
a line of boulders creates a long eddy hugging the west shore under a
cliff, and just outside the main current.
50,000 cfs is a medium flow. At dry season flows below 15,000 cfs,
usually Feb through May, the rapids are hardest. Steep waves up to 2 m
high march down the main channel. At wet season levels, June through Nov,
the rapids wash out and are straighforward, per Scott Davis. The river has
exceeded 200,000 cfs, though not often.
Los Raudales de Anaite [Chicozapote Falls] appear to be formed not by
a bedrock barrier, but by a side stream on the south shore. An arroyo, the
sometimes outlet of Laguna Santa Clara, pries boulders and lesser debris
from the Cretaceous Upper Boca Del Cerro Formation, and dumps them into the
Usu'. The river continually tears away at the debris dam, but every local
flash flood renews it. Debris fan rapids are common in narrow canyons.*
*Ftnt [Most rapids in the Grand Canyon of Arizona are formed this
way. They are gradually getting harder to run, since dams upstream have
stopped the annual high water levels that used to reduce the debris fans.
The sole exception is Lava Falls, formed when a lave flow cascaded down the
canyon wall and dammed the Colorado River.]
Los Raudales de Anaite are straightforward high volume Class 2-3
rapids, but you wouldn't know it from historical accounts. When Louis
Halle rode a cayuco through Anaite, the boat spun round and round, out of
control. His bogadors let the bow get caught in eddies, causing a series
of involuntary eddy turns. Dimitar Krustev cautiously walked the shore
while Romulo soloed their boat through, but Krustev also handled his folbot
so poorly at Piedras Negras that they were swept past the landing. On a
1905 expedition, "prudently mistrusting my irresponsible Tenosique
simpleton" Teobert Maler bundled up his notes and hitched a ride in a
passing cayuco manned by able vogas. However his own "cayuco was dashed to
pieces on the rocks and disappeared in the brawling waters".
Barely noticed in these accounts of terror and disaster is that
competent boatmen ran Anaite without any trouble. The rapid is just
serious enough to punish incompetence, but forgiving to the skilled. As
Chris Shaw remarked, "The rapids reputation had been exaggerated". For
several years motor lanchas* have routinely run up and down Los Raudales de
Anaite to service Stephen Houston's and Hector Escobedo's project at
Piedras Negras.
*Ftnt. [It takes about 75 hp to buck the current.]
According to 19th and 20th century accounts, timber companies
discouraged their vogas from running Raudales de Anaite, but they usually
did so anyway. Lining downstream is slow, and dragging a heavy dugout
overland out of the question. The safest landing when heading downstream
is on the east (Guatemalan) shore, where a flat shelf of rock offers an
easy landing. Sometimes part of the cargo was carried past the rapids via
a rough trail along the steep, rocky east shore, then the lightened boat
run through.
In all past accounts of canoe voyages in the Americas, part or all of
the cargo was frequently carried past a rapid to reduce weight and increase
freeboard enough to avoid portaging the canoe itself. In expedition
reports, this is variously called "carrying the loads past", "packing the
load across", or "portaging". The terms "Decharge" and "Demi-charge" used
by Canadian voyageurs are more precise.
"Decharge" meant that the entire load was carried past a rapid, but
not the canoe. The crew then ran the lightened canoe down the rapid. If
headed upriver, they poled or tracked the empty canoe up the rapid.
For a "Demi-charge" roughly half the load was taken out. Going
downriver the half load was carried past the rapids to meet the canoe.
Going upstream, the crew would deposit a half load at the bottom of a
rapid, track the canoe to the top, and deposit the other half load there.
They then ran back down, reloaded, and brought the second half up.
Tracking up the rapids twice was usually faster and less work than carrying
even a half load past them by land.
Maler is the only early Mayanist who really knew what could be done
with dugouts. His cool assessment of upriver possibilities was remarkable.
Anaite thoroughly intimidated most travelers. The towering walls, broken
shores, and leaping waves were impressive. Maler judged that his vogas
from El Cayo, though not expert, could track their boat up the rapids.
Jutting out from the west shore at the head of the rapids, a line of
boulders created a long eddy hugging the west shore under a cliff, and just
outside the main current. As he related, "the cayuco, gliding along at the
foot of the sheer rock, remained invisible to those hauling the ropes".
Maler's crew, even though unfamiliar with Anaite, succeeded in tracking all
the way up the Mexican shore without a demicharge or decharge, but his
vogas lost their nerve on the top drop.
At the top was the one tricky part, swinging a canoe through a strong
chute between the boulders. Maler again correctly gauged the danger, and
had the boat unloaded, a "decharge", before trying to haul it up the last
drop. He could see it was possible, and probably would have succeeded with
a more competent crew. In the Classic, Maya boatmen, familiar with the
river at different levels, should have long mastered passing a boat around
the rocks at the top.
Compare ascending Raudales de Anaite to the effort overcoming
the chutes of the First Cataract of the Nile, as witnessed by Charles
Dudley Warner in 1875. Hauling an 8 meter dugout up Raudales de Anaite
seems rather straightforward by comparison. Warner was riding on a
dahabeah, a sailing ship over 36 meters long, being tracked up the
cataracts. His narrative not only summarizes the various stratagems used
to get a large boat up rapids, but gives the flavor of the effort.
"The place where we lie is barely long enough to admit our boat; its
stern just clears the rocks, its bow is aground on hard sand. The number of
men and boys on the rocks has increased; it is over one hundred, it is one
hundred and thirty; on a re-count it is one hundred and fifty?
The swimmers come on board for reinforcement. The poor fellows are
shivering as if they had an ague fit. The dragoman brings out a bottle of
brandy. It would burn a hole in a new piece of cotton cloth. He pours out a
tumblerful of it, and offers it to one of the granite men. The granite man
pours it down his throat in one flow, without moving an eye winker, and
holds the glass out for another. His throat must be lined with zinc.
Judging by the eye, the double turn we have next to make is too short
to admit our long hull. We just scrape along the rocks, the current
growing every moment stronger, and at length get far enough to let the
stern swing. It is a close fit. The stern is clear; but if our boat had
been four or five feet longer, her voyage would have ended then and there?
We have come to the real cataract, to the stiffest pull and most
dangerous passage. The chief cataract is called Bab Abu Rabbia from one of
Mohammed Ali's captains who some years ago vowed that he would take his
dahabeah up it with his own crew and without aid from the cataract people.
He lost his boat. ?
For this last struggle, in addition to the other ropes, an enormous
cable is bent on, not tied to the bow, but twisted round the cross beams of
the forward deck, and carried out over the rocks?
The water of this main cataract sucks down from both sides above
through a channel perhaps one hundred feet (30 m) wide, very rapid and with
considerable fall, and with such force as to raise a ridge in the middle.
To pull up this hill of water is the tug; if the ropes let go we shall be
dashed into a hundred pieces on the rocks below and be swallowed up in the
whirlpools. It would not be a sufficient compensation for this fate to
have this rapid hereafter take our name.
We are now carefully under way along the rocks which are almost
within reach, held tight by the side ropes, but pushed off and slowly urged
along by a line of half-naked fellows under the left side, whose backs are
against the boat and whose feet walk along the perpendicular ledge. It
would take only a sag of the boat, apparently, to crush them. But we are
held firmly by the shore lines. The boat is never suffered, as I said, to
get an inch the advantage, but is always held tight in hand. Men come
riding down on logs as before, a sort of horseback feat in the boiling
water, steering themselves round the eddies and landing below us.
At the right moment the sail is again shaken down; and the boat at
once feels it. It is worth five hundred men. The ropes slacken; the crowd
thins out, dropping away with no warning; and before we know that the play
is played out, the cataract people have lost all interest in it and are
scattering over the black rocks to their homes."
In the Classic, the Rios Candelaria and San Pedro Martir appear to
have been improved for navigation at several ledges. Simple improvements
at Anaite could have minimized the already moderate time and labor costs of
tracking up it by eliminating any need for a demi-charge. Most likely
would have been a good towpath along the cliff on the west (Mex.) shore,
and a skidway over, or a cleared chute through, the worst obstacle at the
top.
Such modifications can only be speculative unless traces of
improvements are found at Anaite, which may be difficult. The seasonal rise
keeps the foreshore clear of vegetation, but may also have erased any trace
of a simple towpath. An artificial sluice would have been filled over time
by debris from the arroyo.
Continuing down the river:

Four km downstream of Raudales de Anaite is the small Chicozapote
site, at a natural landing on the west shore. The river is swift
throughout, but the only other rapid , a Class 1 too minor to merit a name,
is two km downstream from the Chicozapote site. Six km from the
Chicozapote site is the El Chile site, also on the left shore. El Chile is
near a spring, possibly an underground outlet for Laguna Santa Clara. 47
km from Yaxchilan is the sandbar island of El Cayo Venado, with ruins on
both shores. Paddling at a modest 5 kph, with a boost of 3 kph from the
current, a run from Yaxchilan to El Cayo should have taken at most 6 hours
by canoe.
A likely scenario is for upriver traffic to have used different
routes according to the type of traffic and urgency of travel. As Mario
Aliphat observed, downstream visitors to El Cayo or Piedras Negras may have
often elected to walk back via the parallel "Intermontane Valley" along the
La Linea Syncline to the northeast. It would have taken about 15 hours to
return overland to Yaxchilan via La Pasadita, instead of approx 25 by
water. Unencumbered travelers and perishables may have gone by land; heavy
nonperishable loads by boat. During floods and unusually high water,
nonperishables could have been stockpiled.
A detour through Laguna Santa Clara might possibly have been used
during high water when Anaite was too difficult to ascend. It would have
required portaging cargo 3 km uphill from El Chile to boats waiting on
Laguna Santa Clara, then paddling uplake 5 km, and finishing with lugging
the cargo 9 km to the Anaite I site on the river above Raudales Chico.
With 12 km of carrying (steeply up and down at each end) a route through
Laguna Santa Clara would usually have required more labor than slowly
working boats up the river itself.
El Cayo to El Porvenir- 19 km

At El Cayo Venado "Venison Island" [the rafter's Paradise Island],
usually shortened to El Cayo, a huge sandbar divides the river and forms a
minor riffle and large eddy. The narrow river gorge widens into an oval
valley, the only one below Yaxchilan.
El Cayo was probably a well used ferrying point in the Classic. Not
only is there a broad midstream eddy at all water levels, but a trail
follows the Arroyo Machabilero down through a break in the high rugged
hills lining the east shore.
El Cayo lies between two major Classic centers, Yaxchilan and Piedras
Negras. Though only 16 km from P.N. vs 37 km from Yaxchilan by trails
along the "Intermontane Valley", El Cayo paradoxically takes less time to
reach from Yaxchilan by water. This is because travel down the swift
Usumacinta River is much faster than paddling against the same current. In
addition, not far upstream of P.N. is Rapidos el Caribe, a strong Class 2,
which would have required tracking from shore. On a downstream run from
Yaxchilan, Raudales de Anaite, though dangerous , would not slow
experienced boatmen down.
*Ftnt. Current speed varies from 3 to 5 kph, depending on season.
Traveling at 8 kph (3 kph current, plus 5 kph paddling speed) the 47 km by
water from Yaxchilan to El Cayo would take 5.9 hours. At 2 kph (5 kph
paddling speed minus 3 kph current) the 16 km from Piedras Negras upriver
to El Cayo would take 8 hours by water, plus additional time to track up
the rapids. Walking the 15 km of trail from P.N. to El Cayo would take
about 5 hours, only slightly less than from Yaxchilan by water.
The modern village of El Cayo is on the Mexican shore, but a sizeable
Maya site has structures on both sides of the river. The largest ruin, a
two story palace, is on the Mexican side, where the valley opens out more.
In June of 1997, Dr. Peter Mathews attempted to rescue an altar stone
here before it was looted. He and his party were robbed, beaten, and
nearly killed by villagers. They escaped by swimming across the river, and
hiding until they could flag down a launch bound for the new dig at Piedras
Negras.
Five km below El Cayo is another break in the karst hills of the
eastern shore at the hamlet of Desempeno, "Redemption". After losing some
men and boats in the canyons, timber companies strictly forbade their vogas
from running below Desempeno, and this became the general 19th century foot
of navigation.
Downstream, in the 11 km between Desempeno and Piedras Negras, the
river runs through a narrows with several minor rapids, and a sizeable one.
6 km below Desempeno a rough road comes down to the river at Nuevo
Jerusalem [Arroyo Jerusalem], at a shingle beach on the Mexican side.
The Class 2 Rapidos el Caribe, with good surfing waves, are only 2
km upstream of the ruins of Piedras Negras. According to one source, they
would have been impassable by dugout. Per another, the hydraulics in El
Caribe are easy to skirt. Motorized lanchas have routinely run up and down
the rapids to supply the dig at Piedras Negras, clearly demonstrating that
large dugouts could at least navigate them downstream in the past. Unless
both shores are sheer cliffs, any Class 2 rapid can normally be lined if it
can't be run. The shores at El Caribe are steep, broken rock, not easy
walking but not impassable cliff either.
From a high bluff the Preclassic through Late Classic Period ruins of
Piedras Negras, abbreviated P.N.* overlook a sandy cove, the city landing,
holding a jagged black slab of limestone, called La Roca De Los Sacraficios
by Maler, with seated figures in a circle carved on it. The river
sometimes rises over in the wet season. Maler speculated that it was a
sacrificial altar, but river gauge seems a more likely use. An inscription
at P.N. records a royal visits by canoe.
*Ftnt [Classic name Y-okib, literally "Cave Entrance", from a huge
cenote, 200m deep and 200m across, nearby. The full meaning is more like
"Portal to Xibalbal".]
Just below the ancient city landing is another Class 2, Raudal El
Porvenir, with hydraulics to be avoided. On a large pool 3 km downstream
is El Porvenir, a Maya site spanning the Preclassic to Late Classic
Periods. Ruins extend unbroken between El Porvenir and Piedras Negras.
There is a large natural landing area on the right shore. As the last
practical stopping place for travelers headed to the lowlands, it is the
most likely start for a portage past the canyons downstream. Continuing
downstream would have committed a boat to running the gorges.

*El Porvenir,"The Future", to Rio Chocolha - 25 km
In 1994 Guatemalan banditos ambushed and shot up a raft trip near
Budsilha Falls. This brought the commercial rafting business on the Usu'
to a sudden halt. The bandits (not guerillas) are still hanging around
below Piedras Negras and rafting is still on hold. Their base is rumored
to be in the San Jose Canyon. They have not halted all traffic.
Motorboats still risk the canyons, reportedly carrying such cargoes as
cocaine and mahogany.

Rafting had altered the local economy with the promise of cash and
consumer goods, but it had also built international support for protection
of the river. Plans to dam the river below the Rio Chancala [properly
Chocolha?], and incidentally flood many Maya sites such as El Cayo and part
of Yaxchilan, were shelved because of international pressure.
Two km below El Porvenir is another strong Class 2 rapid, named Cola
de Diablo, "The Devil's Tail" (formerly called simply Los Saltos), with
waves too heavy for small dugouts. Cola de Diablo is regularly ascended by
motorized lanchas.
The next 23 km of river have a swift current and mountains all
around. 9 km below El Porvenir, the Rio Budsilha [Butzijah] emerges from
underground in time to come tumbling in on the left over a travertine falls
24 m high. A road has been pushed through to near Budsilha Falls. The
last 4 km are by mule trail. Later the Rio Chocolha [Chancala] bursts from
a side canyon after stepping down lots of Class 2 ledges. It marks the end
of easy travel.
It is worth noting that the river from El Porvenir to the Rio
Chocolha would have been easier for the Maya in the Classic to navigate
than the preceding section. Though swift, there is only one rapid of
consequence in the entire 25 km. To my knowledge there are no sites on the
river, no evidence that it was well traveled in the Classic. This may
reflect lack of use in the Classic, or it may be there are sites still to
discover.
Downstream of El Porvenir, the river valley becomes a cul de sac,
with no low gaps in the towering eastern ridge for a traveler to slip out
through toward the lowlands. The rugged canyon of the Chocolha does not
offer an easy exit either. The only way forward is down the river through
the gorges.
The Spanish entrada under Alonso Davila faced this quandary in 1530.
After struggling overland NNE across ridges and swamps from Laguna Miramar
to the banks of the Usumacinta, they headed downriver in dugouts toward the
lowlands. After some easy going they came to a major rapid. Seeing no
other choice, they continued down the Usu' canyons. After a harrowing
trip, full of close calls, they emerged at Boca del Cerro, the first
Europeans to run the canyons.
Alonso de Luján, a member of Davila's force, reported to Gonzalo
Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés that the first rapid was about 3 leagues from
the last major one, now called San Joselito Rapids. 18 km (4 leagues)
upstream of San Joselito is Rapidos La Linea. Since there are no rapids
upstream for another 5.5 leagues, La Linea is the most likely candidate for
Davila's first bad rapid, and his entrada took to the river somewhere below
Cola de Diablo.

The Usumacinta Canyons [Tanochel?] Rio Chocolha to Tenosique [Tanodzic] ?
53 km, of which half are of uncertain navigability.
Just downstream of Rio Chocolha, the Rapidos La Linea, a Class 2
chute with large waves, marks the start of the Usumacinta canyons, where
the river worms through the Sierra del Lacandon. Before the trouble in
1996, the river was regularly run by modern whitewater rats, and sometimes
by motorboats.
At first, the Usu' slices through a ridge 600 m high, with powerful
but not complicated rapids rated Class 2 to 2-3 in the dry season. At
Poste Rock [Postol] in the San Jose Canyon* , the entire river squeezes
through a narrow cliff bound slot. After Raudal Saluarte, a Class 2-3
rapid with diagonal waves, the river slacks off approaching El Retiro.
This long calm stretch, where the La Linea Syncline crosses the river, is
the best ferrying point in the canyons.
*Ftnt [The first section of San Jose Canyon is sometimes called Big
Canyon.]
At San Jose the canyon resumes. In the San Jose Canyon are two
heavy Class 3 rapids, Los Rapidos San Jose [Raudal Grande de San Jose] and
San Joselito. The actual character of the rapids was captured well in
"Road to the Edge of the World", a video by Tom Rodgers.
The river cuts one last canyon, Iguanas, before sliding over Boca Del
Cerro Ledge and leaving the mountains for good under the combined
road/railroad bridge at Boca Del Cerro. The final 17 km are a long, slow
meander to Tenosique, near the site of Postclassic Tanodzic.

Did Maya run the Usu' Canyons?

Did Maya boatmen have the boats, skill, and nerve to run the gorges
in the Classic Period? There were economic incentives to make the run.
Haggling first for porters and then a new set of boats always consumes time
and costs more. Any big canoes brought down the river would find a ready
market as replacements for worn out craft in the lowlands. On the minus
side the risk was real, the canyons were given a wide berth by 19th century
vogas, and there are no significant riverside sites reported between El
Porvenir and El Retiro.
In the Northwest USA and Canada, Native Americans ran large (+10m)
dugouts through strong but straightforward Class 3 rapids like those in the
Usumacinta canyons . Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery ran the massive
Dalles and Cascade Rapids of the Columbia, Class 3 to 4, in dugouts. In
the Guyana Highlands of South America, both Native Americans and Bush
Negroes routinely shot Class 3 rapids in medium sized canoes designed for
serious whitewater. Skilled Maya boatmen should also have been able to
take large (+10m) Lacandon style canoes through heavy but uncomplicated
Class 2 and 3 rapids.
Piedras Negras and El Porvenir are both below strong Class 2 rapids,
avoided by vogas until the late 20th century. The Maya appear to have run
them, suggesting that they were bolder rivermen than most of their
historical successors. How much bolder is unclear. Some Maya may have
taken the risk and run the gorges. Others may have chosen a long portage
from El Porvenir or Piedras Negras to the lowlands, where the river was
again easy. Not enough is currently known to be sure of the answer. One
certainty is that a return trip up San Jose Canyon was not practical. A
portage past all the gorges was necessary at least for upriver travel.
It should be possible to end speculation and determine whether the
Maya ran the canyons by diving in the eddy at the foot of a major rapid
such as San Jose. The cargo of any boat lost in the rapids would end up in
the cracks and crevices between boulders on the bottom. Salt, corn,
textiles, feathers and such would leave no trace but granite metates from
the highlands, obsidian from El Chayal, Motagua jade, and smaller elite
goods should still be there.
From 1960 to 1975 a team from the Minnesota Historical Society
searched in the eddies below rapids along Voyageur routes. Among the
boulders they found trade axes, copper kettles, knives with wooden handles,
flintlocks, and a few far older items. Though most were 200 years old they
were often in good shape. If such a search in the Usu' canyons yielded a
trove of artifacts, then the Maya must have ran cargo canoes through the
canyons. The best rapids to search, San Jose and San Joselito, are
unfortunately very close to the bandits preying on rafting trips.

The Usumacinta Portage-46 km from El Porvenir to Tenosique

Many past portage routes can only be tentatively reconstructed by
extrapolating from ends of navigation, controlling terrain features, and
distribution of Maya sites. When this approach is applied to finding the
most likely carry past the Usumacinta canyons, the logical route is along a
linear karst valley in Guatemala and Mexico running to Corrigedora Ortiz
[Tres Champas], then over a low pass to Francisco I. Madero [called El
Retiro before a spate of revolutionary renaming] . There is a small Maya
site here. The valley follows the La Linea Syncline, and is the only route
that avoids climbs over high, dry, and rugged karst ridges.
Not only is this route the obvious choice topographically, it is
indeed the well documented 19th century portage trail. From Desempeno the
historical trail at first worked through karst ridges, on which sit Piedras
Negras and El Porvenir, and then followed a karst valley for the rest of
the way. It would have been the best route in any period, from Preclassic
to Postclassic, though the Maya probably shortened it by starting at El
Porvenir in the Classic.
20 km from El Porvenir (33 km from Desempeno), El Retiro is on a nice
calm pool, one of the very few places deep in the canyons where a ferry
crossing by canoe is practical, but it is not the end of portaging. The
19th century portage trail continued north another 26 km, first following
the river, then climbing over ridges along the east rim of the San Jose
Canyon before dropping down past Los Rieles and Adolfo Lopez Mateos and
then beelining to Tenosique 46 km from El Porvenir (59 km from Desempeno).
It is a good compromise between a reasonable grade through the mountains
and directness, and probably follows an ancient trail.
I use "probably" because for this part there is are other possible
options. By ferrying across in the relatively calm water at El Retiro,
porters could shorten the carry by 8 to 12 km at the cost of running the
minor rapids of Iguanas Canyon ending at Boca De Cerro. A broad valley
runs from the crossing west to Victorico Grajiales, where old trails ran
north to the river opposite Chuncheje (10 km upstream of the bridge at Boca
Del Cerro) and northwest to Lindavista 3 km upstream of the bridge. A
chain of Maya sites runs right down the valley. These options were not
used in the 19th century because vogas were simply forbidden to run any
part of the canyons.
As another option porters might have continued from El Retiro
northwest down valley 38 km, all the way to the vicinity of Arena de
Hidalgo, a few kilometers from the Pomona site. Both the Rios Usumacinta
and Chacamax would have been equally accessible from there. Pomona has an
associated site, Panhale, which was well fortified. Chinikiha is also on
the line between El Retiro and the bend of Rio Chacamax at La Reforma.

Lower Usumacinta River [Tanochel, Usumacinta, Ayn, Sacapulas?]

*Boca Del Cerro to Frontera [Putunchan]- 350 km
The lower river is all of a piece: wide, broadly meandering, and slow
in the dry season, and a big swift river spilling across the lowlands in
the wet season. It was navigable for any kind of canoe, though back
channels were often used to work upriver in the wet season to avoid the
main current.
The lower Usumacinta is part of an immense riverine system stretching
from Cardenas [Cimatan] in the west to the Laguna De Terminos in the east.
Prior to Spanish contact there were few trails but many, many winding
channels lacing this grand compound delta. Travelers heading east or west
played a kind of game of chutes and ladders by riding down a big river,
then working up smaller streams, against lesser currents, to the next big
river, and so on. The largest Usu' tributary, which joins 18 km above
Balancan [Usumacinta], is the Rio San Pedro Martir, itself an important
navigable river.
The first 190 km of the Usu' from Boca del Cerro to Emiliano Zapata
[Monte Christo] is so meandering that one travels four km to advance only
one. Upriver travel must have been tedious and, in the wet season,
intolerable. For those headed into the highlands, a detour using the Rio
Chacamax would have been much faster and less work. See separate writeup
for Chacamax. Rios Chico, San Antonio, and Las Playas/Laguna Catazaja are
also described separately.
The principal distributaries of the Usu' are the Palizada, covered
separately, and the Rio San Pedro y San Pablo. Nearing the Rio Grijalva
the Usu' breaks into three channels, two of which join the Grijalva at Tres
Bocas (Three Mouths). The last 16 km from Tres Bocas to Frontera
[Postclassic Potonchan, "Putun Snake"] are on the Grijalva. The Rio
Grijalva [Mescalapa, Tabasco] is navigable for almost 300 km west to
Malpasito, a Postclassic Zoque site at the foot of the mountains of
Chiapas.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Routes of Communication in Mesoamerica: the Northern Guatemala Highlands
and the Peten, Richard E. W. Adams, 1978. In "Mesoamerican Communication
Routes and Cultural Contacts", New World Archaeological Foundation
Classic Maya Landscape in the Upper Usumacinta River Valley, Mario M.
Aliphat, 1994. University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Site Interaction and Political Geography in the Upper Usumacinta Region
During the Late Classic: A GIS Approach, Phd Dissertation by Armando Anaya
Hernandez, 1999
America's Ancient Mariners, Anthony Andrews, Oct 1991, Natural History
Maya Salt Production and Trade, Anthony Andrews, 1983, Univ of AZ Press
Conquest of Yucatan, Franz Blom, 1936. Houghton Mifflin Co. [partial
reading]
New Boats for Mosquitia, - Jim Brown, WoodenBoat School
Maya Settlement Patterns in Northeastern Peten, Guatemala, William R.
Bullard, American Antiquity, Vol 25, 1968
Manche and Peten, the Hazards of Itza Deceit and Barbarity, Fray Augustin
Cano, 1697
Above the Gravel Bar, David Cook, 1985.
Secret of the Forest, Wolfgang Cordan, 1963. Victor Gollancz, Ltd.
The Fifth Letter, Hernan Cortez, 1525
The True History of the Conquest of Mexico, Bernal Diaz de Castillo
Long Distance Transport Costs in Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica, Robert D .
Drennan, American Anthropologist Research Reports, 1984
Journey to the Far Amazon, Alain Gheerbrant, 1954. Simon & Schuster.
Ancient Maya Traders of Ambergris Cay, Thomas H. Guderjan, 1993, Cubola
Books, Belize
River of Ruins, Louis Halle
Ancient Maya Civilization, Norman Hammond
Classic Maya Canoes, Norman Hammond
In the Land of the Turtle Lords, Stephen Houston, 2000. FAMSI Report
Among the River Kings, Stephen Houston, 1999. FAMSI Report
Between the Mountains and the Sea, Stephen Houston, 1998. FAMSI Report
The Piedras Negras Project, Stephen Houston and Hector Escobedo, 1997.
FAMSI Report
Commerce and Trade Routes of the Maya, Christopher Jones, 1990, University
Museum, UPA.
River of the Sacred Monkey, Dimitar Krustev, 1970
Enchanted Vagabonds, Dana Lamb
Machaquila, Albert Lisi, 1968, Hastings House, NY
Alexander Mackenzie's Voyage to the Pacific Ocean in 1793, Alexander
Mackenzie, Esq, 1801. Reprinted 1931 Lakeside Press
Explorations in the Department of Peten, Guatemala, Teobert Maler
A Glimpse At Guatemala, Anne C. and Alfred P. Maudslay, 1899. Reprinted by
Flo Silver Books, 1992
The Ancient Maya, Fourth Edition, Sylvanus Morely, George W. Brainerd,
Robert J. Sharer
The Discovery of the Americas, the Southern Voyages, Samuel Eliot Morison
Fur Trade Routes of Canada, Then and Now, Eric W. Morse, 1969. Queen's
Printer , Canadian Government
The Title of Acalan-Tixchel, 1614. Pablo Paxbolon
Palenque, the Walker-Caddy Expedition, David M. Pendergast, 1967. Univ. of
Oklahoma Press
Into the Underworld: the El Tirgre Underwater Research Project, Paul
Pettenude, Nitrox Diver, Vol. 96-3.
Report on 1996 Field Season at El Tigre, Paul Pettenude, MURC
The Canoe, Roberts & Shackleton, 1983, International Marine Publishing.
Through the Brazilian Wilderness, Theodore Roosevelt, 1919. Charles
Scribner's Sons
The Rise of a Maya Merchant Class, Jeremy A. Sabloff, Scientific American,
Oct 1975
A Tale of Three Cities, Wm. Sanders & Robert Santley
A Forest of Kings, Linda Schele & David Freidel, 1990. Wm. Morrow & Co.
The Maya Chontal Indians of Acalan-Tixchel, France V. Scholes & Ralph L.
Roys, 1948.
Sacred Monkey River, Chris Shaw, 2000, W.W Norton & Co.
Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, John Lloyd Stephens & Catherwood
Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, Stephens &
Catherwood
Paddle to the Amazon, Don and Dana Starkell, 1989, Prima Publishing.
Classic Maya Place Names, David Stuart & Stephen Houston
Among the Indians of Guiana, Everard F. im Thurin, 1883. Dover
Publications.
Canoes and Navigation of the Maya and their Neighbors, J. Eric S. Thompson,
1951, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Society
Maya Archaeologist, J. Eric S. Thompson, 1963, Univ. of Oklahoma Press
Agricultural Base of the Ancient Maya, B. L. Turner, Fall 1988, Mesoamerica
Voices from the Rapids, Wheeler, Kenyon, Woolworth, & Birk, 1975. Minnesota
Historical Society

River Notes: Thanks to the following people who have generously shared
their information and experience on the rivers.
Candelaria- Alfred Siemens
Jatate & Lacandon- Chris Shaw, Cully Erdman
Salinas- Ben Harding & Filip Sokol
Sebol and Pasion- Steve Radzi, John Montgomery
Tulija- Donna Obrecht, Chris Shaw
San Pedro Martir and Chocop- Brian Houseal
Usumacinta & tribs- Scott Davis, Chris Shaw, Tom Rodgers, George Stuart,
Steve Radzi

Maps
The Ancient Maya World, Cartographic Division, NGS, 1989
Carta Fotogeologica Del Peten, series of reconnaissance geological maps at
1:100,000
La Selva Lacandona, y Tierras Colindantes, Frans Blom, 1953. Superb map.
Map of El Peten, Guatemala, and Bounding Regions of British Honduras and
Mexico, Carl Hubbs & Henry van der Schalie, 1937
Map of Tabasco, 1579, circle map attributed to Melchior de Alfaro Santa
Cruz.
Mapa Base de las Cuencas de los Rios, Mexico y Guatemala, 1:500,000, 1980.
Mapa de la Republica de Guatemala, Escala 1:1,000,000, Teodoro Paschke,
1889. Shows colonial trails,
Peten, Escala 1:800,000, 1900. Rough schematic of trails.
Sistema Fluvial Tabasqueno, 1946, map showing limits of navigability for
rivers of Tabasco.
and over a dozen ruins.
Topographic Maps of Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, 1:250,000 series and
partial coverage 1:50,000 series

Web Sites:

Candelaria canals and more, air photos by A. Siemens

1875 ascent of First Cataract of the Nile

International Scale of River Difficulty, American Whitewater Association

Kuimen Pass and Yangtze Gorges

Trip to La Constancia, Dec '99, by boat via Rios Ixcan, Jatate, Lacantun, &
Tzendales

River pictures by John Montgomery

Usumacinta River at Yaxchilan

Virginia Canals & Navigations Society

For the folks who need a vision of gigabucks to do the right thing, this article:

Broadband could generate $500 billion a year

via Marc Canter

Alternative energy generation is not something I know a lot about, but I'm trying to come up to speed. Let's assume, naively, that the plans for huge dams on the Usumacinta reflect real, local needs for power, instead of (more likely) a misguided attempt to power a PPP boondoggle farther north, and subdue the last frontier in the process. The watershed provides an opportunity to create small, widely dispersed hydroelectric generators that would not destroy the ecosystem and the cultural matrix. A summary of other micro hydro power projects can be found in this report from the World Bank:

Best practices for sustainable development of micro hydro power in developing countries

This company is in New York State, about an hour away from where I sit. I should find out more about them. They sell very small micro hydro power generation systems designed to charge 12, 24, or 48 volt storage batteries. They would work for a small settlement on the river bank.

A larger system that can provide power to a village of 50 to 80 houses is described in this page about a project in Papua New Guinea. Click on this sketch for a larger, useful diagram of their operation.

Here's a pdf file about a larger generating system built in Nicaragua.

And here's another pdf, an excellent overview on micro hydro power
.

As I wonder if my plans to be a free broadband provider will materialize, I get a new jolt of inspiration. This article details how lack of competition has kept broadband internet expensive and has stifled its growth in the U.S. Those damn telecom monopolies!

The New Republic Online: Michael Powell vs. the economy

via Slashdot

The New York Times today (free registration required), noted that Mexican electrical workers have taken out a 2-page ad in Proceso, opposing Fox's bill to allow foreign companies to compete in the Mexican electricity market.

Mexico Workers Object to Power Sector Bill

Joel has directed me to Charles Golden, recently of the Piedras Negras Project, who is doing a survey of Maya sites between Yaxchilan and PN on the Guatemalan side.

Until I know more, here is the Homepage of the Sierra del Lacandon Regional Archaeology Project.

It has a terrific summary of the dam situation, with maps, called Threat of Dams on the Usumacinta River

And thanks to his resources:

This new article in Archaeology Magazine on dams in the Mundo Maya.

And this pdf file from The Center for Governmental Responsibility at the University of Florida's Levin College of Law: The Usumacinta River: Building a Framework for Cooperation Between Mexico and
Guatemala.

No, this isn't some Von Daniken, New Age Maya apocalypse theory. It's an Apple and Macintosh history site, The Mothership!

It's satire but it reads like any other web news item. Have I been taken in before?

From BBspot:
World Bank Announces Special 0% Financing
Ford Testifies to Stop Ride Sharing

UPDATE: Wait, I just noticed
New Ford Exorbitant Comes with Spare Explorer

According to MacMinute.com
the next version of MacOS X will be called "Panther". Previous versions were Cheetah (10.0), Puma (10.1) and Jaguar (10.2).

Again, Joel Skidmore at Mesoweb has it. An online chart of Maya dates in a timeline color-coded by city: Palenque, Calakmul, Tikal, Tonina, and Yaxchilan.

To see some of what we could lose if the dams are built, some photos from Yaxchilan 2001, with my kids: Mick, Will, Tina.

The boat from Frontera Corozal. The Ceiba de Oro, landmark tree on the Usumacinta. A tree in the plaza at Yaxchilan. Detail of lintel. (Click thumbnails)

Visit or revisit Mesoweb's report on threats to Yaxchilan.

Reread an evocation of Yaxchilan in Classic times, by Linda Schele and David Freidel:

A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya

Thanks to Doc Searls (see his An Adult's Garden of Clues), two sides to the intellectual property debate:

Larry Lessig's Creative Commons website.

And Charles Cooper's response: Why Larry Lessig gets an "F" in software.

Hmmm...that tiny royalty check I get from BMI is just about due. Not much, but a few bucks whenever my 4 TV scores play on air or cable, 7 years after composing them. Is that unfair? Who knows. Will I pay BMI a few dollars to keep track, collect and pay me? You bet.

From the Library of Congress, Origins of American Animation, 1900-1921.

I don't use it much, since I prefer iView for photo organization, but iPhoto has a lot going for it once you get past its limitations. Here are some iPhoto Power Techniques from TidBITS.

Here's a Tabasco Hoy story that Alfonso sent along, describing 2 dams that threaten Zapatista communities. I don't have the link, but the full text is below

SURESTE

"Sepultaría" PPP pueblos zapatistas

* La construcción de dos presas
hidroeléctricas inundaría a más de 20 comunidades
* Esto implicaría el desplazamiento de más indígenas,
advierte el Ciepac

Isain Mandujano
Tabasco HOY/APRO

Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas.- Terrenos zapatistas del
municipio autónomo Tierra y Libertad, así como 20
comunidades más de Las Margaritas, Maravilla Tenejapa
y La Trinitaria, podrían desaparecer con la
construcción de dos presas hidroeléctricas --la
"Huixtán I" y "Huixtán II"--, previstas dentro del
Plan Puebla Panamá (PPP), advirtió en su informe
mensual el Centro de Investigaciones Económicas y
Políticas de Acción Comunitaria (Ciepac).

En un análisis sobre los megaproyectos hidroeléctricos
del PPP, el centro de investigación sostiene que las
comunidades implicadas han rechazado tales proyectos,
sin embargo, un equipo de monitoreo y estudios de
campo ya se encuentra trabajando en la zona. El Ciepac
explica que la presa "Huixtán I" quedará situada sobre
el principal afluente del río Lacantún, en el río
Santo Domingo, a 63 kilómetros al oriente de la
cabecera municipal de Las Margaritas. La presa
pretende aprovechar los escurrimientos de agua del río
Santo Domingo y tendrá una capacidad de mil 200
megavatios; incluirá una presa de arco de 175 metros
de altura que formará un lago artificial, cuyo embalse
tendrá una capacidad de 6 mil millones de metros
cúbicos e inundará un total de 90 kilómetros de
tierras.

En tanto el proyecto "Huixtán II", ubicado en el río
Santo Domingo, está localizado a 9 kilómetros al
suroeste del proyecto de la hidroeléctrica "Huixtán",
donde cruza el río Santo Domingo con la frontera de
Guatemala.

Este tendrá una capacidad de mil 113 millones de
metros cúbicos y completará el aprovechamiento de los
escurrimientos y cascadas del río Santo Domingo, con
una capacidad de 600 megavatios, lo que aumentará el
potencial hidroeléctrico de la cuenca del río
Usumacinta.

Además, contará con una presa de arco de 225 metros de
altura y un embalse que inundará 44 kilómetros de
tierras indígenas, que equivalen a 4 mil 400
hectáreas, de los cuales 3 kilómetros estarán en
territorio guatemalteco.

El informe del Ciepac apunta que algunas comunidades
tendrán que "desaparecer", ya que quedarán inundadas;
sin embargo, el proyecto justifica que se buscan
"ampliar las perspectivas de bienestar y empleo en la
zona sur de la selva Lacandona", y sustituir las
comunidades afectadas, como son Amparo Agua Tinta, Ojo
de Agua, Las Flores y California, por "nuevos centros
de población" con todos los servicios municipales,
comunicándolos con una amplia red local de caminos y
sistemas de navegación.

La construcción de la red hidroeléctrica provocaría la
inundación de un área en donde se encuentran asentadas
unas 50 mil personas. Ahí también se ubican 800 sitios
arqueológicos, entre ellos Piedras Negras, Yaxchilán y
Altar de Sacrificios; ello sin contar millones de
árboles de madera preciosas y vida silvestre.

Esto implicaría el desplazamiento de las comunidades
indígenas de la zona, y su consecuente
empobrecimiento. También, una mayor presencia militar
en la región, "no olvidemos que el municipio de
Ocosingo, Chiapas, y el departamento del Petén, en
Guatemala, son de las regiones más militarizadas de
Mesoamérica", sostiene el Ciepac.

Cabe recordar que los presidentes Alfonso Portillo, de
Guatemala, y Vicente Fox, acordaron la construcción
del Complejo Hidroeléctrico Sureste, que conforman
cinco hidroeléctricas que estarían ubicadas en los
altos del Usumacinta, que corre a lo largo de ambos
países.

El acuerdo se firmó el 28 de junio, en la
Expo-Inversión 2002, realizada en la Cumbre de Mérida,
en Yucatán, según se asienta en el memorándum de
cooperación técnica con Centroamérica, explica el
Ciepac.

Las "cinco pequeñas presas" estarían ubicadas en la
frontera entre El Petén y Marqués de Comillas, en
Chiapas, y terminan en territorio de Tabasco, con el
proyecto binacional hidroeléctrico "Boca del Cerro".

Millonaria inversión

Según el expediente técnico, la obra tendrá un costo
de 240 millones de dólares, que serán aportados por el
Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID), "para apoyar
un proyecto de interconexión eléctrica en América
Central, primer paso hacia la integración energética
mesoamericana planteadaen el PPP", denuncia el Ciepac.

En México, la Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE)
tiene desde 1987 los estudios técnicos relativos, en
donde se sostiene que el proyecto será una"red de
grandes diques", desde Sayaxché, Guatemala, hasta la
presa final en Piedras Negras, punto donde el nivel
del río alcanzaría 25 metros sobre el pico máximo en
invierno, y aproximadamente 45 metros sobre el mínimo
en verano.

El Complejo Sureste, específicamente los proyectos
hidroeléctricos para Chiapas, son los denominados
"Quetzalli", "Huixtán I", "Huixtán II","Jattza" y
"Nance", y aportarían 27 por ciento del consumo de
energía a escala nacional. Tras especificar el
potencial de las presas, los afluentes que
desembocarían en ellas, su capacidad y datos
específicos sobre su construcción, el informe del
Ciepac añade que el embalse creará un lago artificial
que inundará 396 kilómetros cuadrados de selvas y
tierras indígenas.

Los proyectos "Huixtán I y II", según la
investigación, serían concesionados a empresas
extranjeras, vía Guatemala, concretamente a la
corporación transnacional española Unión Fenosa, dueña
de la empresa Deorsa, la que cuenta con el monopolio
del servicio de la energía eléctrica en el norte de
Guatemala.

En el municipio de Huixtán los pobladores denunciaron
que en los últimos meses han arribado a la zona unas
50 personas, quienes argumentaron estar haciendo
estudios para la creación de "lagos".

Por ello han convocado a sus habitantes a asambleas
extraordinarias, para exigir a las autoridades les
informen y consulten sobre la construcción de
cualquier obra que les afecte, explicó Mateo López
Martínez, promotor de las reuniones.

Según el Ciepac, la cantidad de proyectos
hidroeléctricos en la región augura procesos de
resistencia por parte de las comunidades afectadas.
Los indígenas de la región han denunciado que en las
últimas fechas personas extrañas se han presentado a
esta región de la Selva, con el objetivo de hacer
algunos estudios para la supuesta creación de dos
grandes lagos en plena selva, en donde se podrían
poner en marcha dos hidroeléctricas como parte de los
"proyectos de represas para Chiapas dentro del Plan
Puebla Panamá".

"En la selva se están reuniendo miles de indígenas en
contra de este proyecto que pretenden crear y el cual
destruirá miles de hectáreas y desaparecería cuando
menos unas 20 comunidades, entre éstas las de los
compañeros zapatistas", aseveró Mateo López Martínez,
habitante de Huixtán.

Rechazan el Puebla Panamá

* El proyecto justifica que se buscan ampliar las
perspectivas de bienestar y empleo en la zona sur de
la selva Lacandona

Zonas afectadas:

Tierra y Libertad
Las Margaritas
Maravilla Tenejapa
La Trinitaria
Amparo Agua Tinta
Ojo de Agua
Las Flores
California, entre otras
800 sitios arqueológicos,
Millones de árboles de maderas preciosas
Nombre de las presas:

1) "Huixtán I": Quedará situada sobre el principal
afluente del río Lacantún

- Tendrá una capacidad de mil 200 megavatios

2) "Huixtán II": Ubicada en el río Santo Domingo con
la frontera de Guatemala

- Tendrá una capacidad de mil 113 millones de metros
cúbicos.

Tabasco HOY Derechos Reservados 2002

Finally, the listserv is running. You may have gotten an email invitation. If not, go to the MayaRivers Info Page.

(this is a list I'll keep adding to)

The best and first add-on to MacOS X is Graphic Converter 4.4.4, a $30 shareware graphics program. I'm using it on all graphics and digital photos, for resizing and converting. Other shareware downloads are on this page at MacUpdate.

Next, ditch Internet Explorer. But first download Mozilla for MacOS X, best browser. Do it before the Toho corporation (think Godzilla) makes them change the name.

And pay $50 for a Microsoft Office replacement, ThinkFree Office. Yes, excel and powerpoint compatibility. As far as I can tell.

At IRN, countering claims by dam lobbyists that dams are climate-friendly.

International Rivers Network: Rivers, Dams and Climate Change

Thanks to CS.

Until he says stop, I'll just keep posting Ron Canter's sleuthing on the dam question. He found the site which lays out the whole project.

Ron writes:

Here is the Proyecto Binacional Boca del Cerro homepage.

I just about dropped my teeth when I opened it, especially when I saw the map. All the project info is right there, and it is unbelievable. It's like China's Three Gorges Dam transplanted to Mexico. There is only one dam, a "small" one 130 meters (430 feet) high. For comparison, the Three Gorges Dam is 185 meters high.

It will flood the Usu' all the way upstream to beyond El Cayo, 80 km upriver. The side valleys between El Retiro and Boca will be completely flooded, so much so that two dams (Diques #1 and #2) will be needed to prevent the water from spilling out east of Tenosique and west near the Chinikiha site. The entire side canyon of the Rio Chancala will be flooded. Salto Busilha will be deep underwater. Any future attempts to dive the rapids of the Usu' for artifacts will be deep sea diving.

An added surprise was their plan to divert water from the Usu' through a 30 km canal, the Canal de Derivacion (sic) de Balancan, north into the Rio Chumpan and hence Laguna de Terminos. The canal will be a combined hydro and ship canal. The wild swampland of the Chumpan will be torn up to cut a navigable channel at least 60 km long.

They also have the nerve to prattle on about the benefits to wildlife, the forest, and the local tourist economy. "Pomposity writ in concrete" for sure.

Count me in.
Ron

The whole text of the Boca del Cerro site is below, in English.

Boca del Cerro Binational Project - Mexico (Chiapas, Tabasco and Guatemala)

The Usumacinta river's basin -Chiapas highlands and Lacandon jungle- in the Mexican southeastern region, and El Quiche, Verapaz y El Peten, in the western and northern areas of Guatemala, represent a binational region requiring priority activities and large-scale construction works due to its strategical resources and potential richness: water, energy, jungle, forests.

Today, the unrestricted deforestation, the resulting soil erosion (mainly in the Mexican area), the new agriculture and cattle raising lands, the over-exploiting of precious wood, the increasing populational sites, and the non-existence of adequate employment, colonization and urbanization programs, are dangerously affecting the natural equilibrium of ecology and human settlements in the area.

It is imperative to establish common development planning for a coordinated and efficient utilization of the Usumacinta river and its main affluents (Lacantun, Ixcan, Xactbal, Chixoy, and La Pasion) to promote, improve, and execute an broad-perspective, long-extent, and high-scale program with which the prevailing problems in those jungle regions can be solved definitely. Due its position it would be unavoidable to plan and to construct high-revenue and high-participation works, which can satisfy the demand for basic services in both sides of the frontier: water, food, housing, health, sewerage, roads, energy, employment, and education. Those techno-social works must offer also enough guarantees to investors in order to develop industrial settlements, trade activation, and higher agricultural production; according to the following actions:

1. Widening and strengthening binational (Mexico-Guatemala) cooperative agreements. These actions would extent the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) reach to Central America nations.

2. Utilizing in a rational and complete way the rich natural resources of that river basin, in order to provide a sufficient and high-quality infrastructure which would optimize the function and objectives of each project, in addition it would allow productive investments for an adequate regional progress.

3. Supplying social and economical benefits which can raise the standard of living for all the population. The population would have access to the regional richness, its use, and sharing from the beginning of the project works starting point by their direct actions and aiding the construction.

The Boca del Cerro Project has a strong priority based on the seven multi-purpose principal projects to be developed in Mexico (Boca del Cerro, Quetzalli, Huixtan I, Huixtan II, Jattza, Nance and Salto de Agua), which would provide energy with 9 520 power-generating megawatts, and 33-billion kilowatt-hours production (equivalent to 27% and 20% of Mexican electric capacity and generation, respectively).

Boca del Cerro, requirements:

a) The firm commitment of cooperation between the Mexican and the Guatemala governments to promoting in the financial world the proposed hydraulic base: maximum water elevation, 125 meters above sea level, which according to the planning and programming conceptions would supply optimum benefits to both nations.

b) Provide all investments for the project works, electromechanical constructions, and installations -the main land compensations would remain in Mexico; 65% of future water reservoir inflows will come from the Guatemala affluents. The benefits supplied by the electric energy generation would be covered by the standards and rulings of the Tratado Internacional de Límites y Aguas, and under a special agreement to be established.

c) Based on its important total volume (63.5-billion cubic meters), each reservoir meter would correspond to 150 million kilowatt-hours. This would equal to a 250 000 fuel-oil barrels saving per year. These considerations support the optimal dam height for the optimum surface to be flooded. This basic project's characteristic must consider the technical restrictions, and the allowable social compensations.

d) The reservoir capacity would guarantee a reliable functioning and the most useful life. These conditions would be extended after the regulation, control, and utilization of the five main Usumacinta affluents.

According to these concepts, the Boca del Cerro Project, would be located 9.5 kilometers southwest from Tenosique, Tabasco. It would have a 130 meters-high dam creating an artificial lake formed by the 19 550-million cubic meters reservoir. The dam generating power of electricity would be 4 200 megawatts for a 17 400 million kilowatt-hours production (the 67% of hydropower in Mexico, it can save 29 million of fuel-oil barrels).

The project would allow Mexican and Guatemalan countries start a strong industrial, commercial, and touristic development, with all social and economic benefits -employment, housing, agriculture and cattle raising, navigation, roads, environmental and ecology protection-

Also, it would set the basis for a future electric interconnection of Central America and Colombia with the Mexican national electricity network.
Country Maximum water level Flooded area Stored volume meters above sea level square kilometers million cubic meters
México 125 425 13850
Guatemala 125 300 5700
Total 250 725 19550

The reservoir area for Guatemala is 42% approximately. In Mexico, the large surface to be flooded has deforestation. The Boca del Cerro Project may allow an effective conservation and regeneration of jungle resources with the raising of freatic levels, and increasing the aquifer storage. Also, it may improve the floods control. The binational project would contribute to the natural cycle restitution, would create new population centers around the lake (which would have all basic services), and offer a great number of employment opportunities in agricultural and cattle raising industries, pisciculture, and tourism. The high pressure on the ecology and natural resources would be diminished.

The joining of Boca del Cerro Project systems with the Balancan diverting canal, would give a decisive impulse. That canal would transfer the Usumacinta river flow quantities to Laguna de Terminos, and would permit the generation 1 250 million kilowatt-hours in a additional hydropower plant (low-head). This system is to be complemented by other dam, Salto de Agua, which would control Tulija river floods. Northern and eastern regions of Tabasco, and the southwest of Campeche, would receive a great economic improvement. All of this -in conjunction with a complete sewerage and navigation plan- would allow the reclaiming of over one million hectares of lands apt for agriculture and cattle raising. Also, it would create large aquaculture areas.

Likewise, from the reservoir's right side, it is possible the construction of a big river-canal, with several branches for divert abundant water volumes for irrigation of large surfaces in Yucatan peninsula. These constructions will give a better future for the area's populatin, and may conform an important system for the ecological equilibrium recovering. The river-canal (a hydroway) may be also a powerful pisciculture producer, and would attract the establishing of industries, factories, and trade centers on its riversides. Those manufacturing plants and commercial sites would create employment aimed to reactivate the interstate economy, and the processed items export.

It is of very important to fully utilize the hidroelectric potential of Ixcan, Xactbal, Chixoy, and La Pasion rivers, and to coordinate activities with the Guatemala government. With the construction of large multi-purpose projects on those affluent streams, our Guatemala neighbour could satisfy its energy demand on medium and long-term basis, with an important fuels savings. Besides, that nation would export surpuls energy to other Central America countries. The hydropower plants may widen and consolidate the regional electric interconnection programs along with the northern area of South America. The result would be an impressive internationally integrated progress.

The Boca del Cerro Project may be the most transcendental infra-structure system to be shared by Mexico and Guatemala, being an essential joint effort towards a true progress era in the Usumacinta river basin. The high-scale project would allow the two nations to access the XXI century with the best possibilities for full development.

The estimated investments would be 50 000 million Mexican pesos (5-billion U.S. dollars) to be placed on a six-year term. It would guarantee profitable investments returns from foreign financial organizations and private national firms, within the most positive national agreements signed by Mexico and Guatemala governments.

In the current years, Mexico and the other Hispanic-American nations must be conscious of their necessary new actions for having a best future in the world, based on a powerful planning for the oncoming Third Millenium.

e) The land compensations in both frontier sides must be evaluated with positive interests. In all those actions, the archaeological ruins in Yaxchilan, Chiapas -on the left riverside- have special importance; based on the proposed alternative, they would be moved 40 meters upward on the same site, and Piedras Negras, Guatemala -on the right riverside- would require fixing its elevation new value.

While I'm looking for the link, here's a history of another dam, a massacre, and the role of the World Bank. From IRN via CS.

IRN's Chixoy Reparations Campaign
A Debt Unpaid

Never hesitant to exact loan repayment in perpetuity
for projects it has funded (even failed projects), the
World Bank balks at paying its own debts. In the case
of the Chixoy dam, it is a blood debt.

In 1982, the World Bank was teamed with a brutal
dictatorship in Guatemala known to be waging a war of
annihilation against Mayan communities. The village of
Rio Negro stood in the way of the Bank's plans to
construct a hydroelectric dam. After villages refused
to relocate from their ancestral lands, the Bank
averted its eyes when the army massacred some 400
Maya, mostly women and children.

Despite sending numerous missions to oversee the
project during construction, the Bank kept silent
about the massacre until 1996, when human rights
groups forced the issue. The Bank's own internal
investigation then absolved it of responsibility.
Further, Bank officials claim that a program providing
inferior lands more than a decade after such massacres
sufficiently mitigated the survivors' trauma, on the
grounds that their 1980 standard of living has been
restored.

An international campaign is holding the World Bank
accountable to pay reparations for the disasters it
has caused by financing dams and other "development"
boondoggles. This is debt repayment we can endorse!

Joel Skidmore at Mesoweb has a summary of the dam threats to Maya sites at Mesoweb Reports. It includes this map from the early 90's of proposed dam flooding in the Usumacinta and Pasion watersheds, and from Seibal to Cancuen.

It also has a Yaxchilan map, showing the entire main plaza flooded by higher river levels.

Many thanks to Joel.

But the link to this came from Ron Canter. He also writes:

Boca del Cerro would flood small Maya sites, and most or all of the rapids in San Jose Canyon. "Small dam" seems to be a fuzzy term. In Belize on the Macal it means about 50 feet high. The dam related road being built off the road to Frontera is most ominous. It has no connection to Boca del Cerro, which is far downstream at the end of the canyons. Road suggests that a dam at El Porvenir is back in the plan, and maybe the one at La Linea too.

These would flood the entire river up to Yaxchilan. Ruins at Cayo would be flooded, plus some of P.N. and many smaller sites.

The chance to map and unravel the workings of the complex river road which connected Usu' cities would be lost too.

As Chris writes, this explains a lot. Free registration required for this New York Times article by Elizabeth Malkin, Mexico's Fox Proposes Opening Power Sector.

(In full below)

MEXICO CITY, Aug. 18 — President Vicente Fox is asking Mexico's divided Congress to change the constitution in a bid to attract billions of dollars in private investment to its state-run electricity sector, a move so far opposed by a majority of legislators.

The proposal would allow private investors to build power plants that would compete with the public Federal Electricity Commission to supply large industrial customers. The government estimates that Mexico needs investment of $5 billion a year over the next decade to modernize and expand the electricity sector to keep up with growing demand, money that would otherwise come from public spending.

"Imagine what we could do with these resources," Mr. Fox said before sending the bill to Congress late Friday. "I am sure we could resolve the enormous challenge of education. With these resources we could totally resolve the challenge of having an excellent health system with national coverage."

Mexico's business community and foreign investors have long made the overhaul of the state's antiquated electricity sector a crucial test of Mr. Fox's ability to deliver substantive economic change. In the two years since his election ended the 71-year-old rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, Mr. Fox has been unable to win approval for any significant economic proposal. Another failure would diminish his stature ahead of midterm elections in 2003.

Legislators from the PRI and the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution have promised to fight constitutional reform of the energy sector. A two-thirds vote from Congress is needed for a constitutional change, so Mr. Fox will need to lobby heavily to win the PRI's support.

In April, a combined Senate committee voted to shelve earlier proposals for an overhaul, rejecting any possibility of a constitutional change. "There isn't going to be a constitutional reform," Senator Manuel Bartlett Díaz, a PRI stalwart, said.

Mr. Bartlett, as president of the Senate Committee on constitutional issues, leads the opposition to Mr. Fox's proposal. The electricity commission "is totally self-sufficient," said Mr. Bartlett, citing a litany of troubled Latin American electricity privatizations. "It has always had enough to keep up with Mexico's growth. It doesn't need foreign investment." However, the electricity commission says that its debt, backed by the Mexican government, represents 130 percent of its sales.

The PRI and P.R.D. have both presented proposals for revamping of the commission without recourse to private investment. The government argues that only private investment can meet the shortfall. Mexican per capita electricity consumption, at 1,997 kilowatt-hours a year, is less than one-sixth American consumption. "We want Mexico to shine like the U.S. and Europe," said the under secretary of energy, Nicéforo Guerrero.

Legislators from Mr. Fox's National Action Party argue that reform is necessary. "If there is good lobbying, good work, then the reform is possible," Senator Juan José Rodríguez Prats, president of the Senate Energy Commission. "The PRI needs to take a decision. Otherwise, the government could blame the PRI for being obstructionist."

Indeed, some PRI members have said they are open to discussing constitutional reform.

An earlier proposal circulated last week that would have opened petroleum refining and natural gas production to private investment. Mexico needs to expand natural gas production to supply power plants. Mr. Fox's proposal backed off from asking for changes in the petroleum, but the energy secretary, Ernesto Martens, said today that he expected Mr. Fox to soon send a bill on natural gas to Congress.

Modernizing the electricity sector has bedevilled successive governments for a decade. A 1992 law opened up power generation to the private sector, but limited investors to building plants for self-supply or for sale to the electricity commission under long-term contracts. Since then, plants with 18,000 megawatts of capacity have been built or are under construction with $10 billion in private investment.

The electricity commission estimates that an additional 29,000 megawatts of capacity are needed by 2011 over the country's existing 37,000 megawatts at a cost of about $30 billion. At least that much again will be needed to expand the distribution grid, provide maintenance and improve distribution.

Despite the 1992 law, Mr. Fox's predecessor, Ernesto Zedillo, was concerned that investment was not flowing fast enough to meet demand, which is expected to grow at 5.5 percent a year. He proposed a complex reform in 1999 which would ultimately have led to the sale of the electricity commission and the much smaller money-losing Mexico City distributor Central Light and Power. It sank in Congress. In response, Mr. Fox has pledged to keep both companies in state hands.

Thanks to Chris Shaw for this link to a letter (English translation) in which Guatemalan communities asked for information regarding the PPP dam proposals. You can find it at theInternational Rivers Network website.

I'll also quote it completely below. It includes the list of people that the original letter was copied to (CC). But at the website, you can see the signatures of the community leaders.

Petén, Guatemala August 4, 2002

Mr. Raúl Edmundo Archila Serrano
Minister of Energy and Mines
Presidential Commissioner to the PPP
Guatemala City, Guatemala

Dear Minister,

On behalf of the communities of the Usumancinta, Pasión and Salinas rivers we bring you cordial greetings and good wishes.

According to information we received on the "Expo-Inversión 2002" which took place in Mérida, June 28, the Mexican and the Central American governments signed a memorandum of energy cooperation. We understand that this is the formal announcement for the beginning of the construction of hydrodams on the Higher Usumacinta, a project consisting of five dams from the Guatemalan border to Tabasco, Mexico.

In view of this situation, we wish to express our great concern about construction of these dams on the Usumacinta, Pasión and Salinas rivers. For decades we have been living on these lands and have already undergone great sacrifices. We think that these projects would impact our communities, our families and the natural and archaeological richness of this region.

We are also greatly concerned about the limited information which the Guatemalan and Mexican government have provided to us about these hydroelectric projects. That is why we are requesting that all information is released from your office - to allow citizens’ participation in the development processes of our Guatemala.

We, the concerned communities with all due respect, demand an urgent meeting with you so that we may become knowledgeable of details on the aforementioned hydroelectric projects. We propose to this effect that the meeting takes place on August 21 of this year at 9:00 AM in Sayaxché, Petén.

Awaiting your response, we ask that you contact Agustín Tebalán of the Cooperativa Los Laureles (tel.: 861-2877/78 or 8000503) or Faustino Calmo Chávez of La Cooperativa Bonanza (tel.: 861-2757/58/59).

Sincerely,

The undersigned representatives

(SIGNATURES)

c.c.

Pablo Schneider
Presidente Ejecutivo
Banco Centroamericano de Integración Económica – BCIE
Honduras
Fax: (504) 228-2183

Luis Fernando Andrade
Gerente Regional
Banco Centroamericano de Integración Económica – BCIE
Guatemala
Fax: 331-1457

Carlos Barbery
Representante,
Banco Inter-Americano de Desarrollo - INTAMBANC
Guatemala
Fax: 335-3319

Miguel E. Martínez
Manager, Regional Operations Department 2
Inter-American Development Bank
USA
Fax: (202) 623-3096

Eduardo Somenssatto
Presidente Representativo
Representación Banco Mundial
Guatemala
Fax: 502-366-1936/366-2033

Mr. Jaques Lecornu
Secretary General - Treasurer
The International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD)
France
Fax +33 1 40 42 60 71
secretaire.general@icold-cigb.org

Richard Taylor, IHA Executive Director
International Hydropower Association (IHA)
UK
Fax: +44 20 8770 1744

Dr. Donal T. O'Leary
Secretary General
Hydro Equipment Association
Germany
Fax: +49.30.88.92.3200

Sr. José Antonio Ocampo
Secretario Ejecutivo
Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe - CEPAL
Chile
Fax: (56-2) 208-0252

Dr. Oscar Alfredo Santamaría
Secretario General
Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana - SICA
El Salvador
Fax: (503) 289-6124/25

Haroldo Rodas Melgar
Secretario General
Alfonso Pimentel Rodríguez
Director Ejecutivo
Sistema de Información de la Integración Económica de Centroamérica – SIECA
Guatemala
Fax: 368-1071 y 337-3750

Paola Rodríguez
Gerente del País – Guatemala
INCAE
Guatemala
Fax: 367-2001

Sra. Rebeca Grynspan
Directora
Sede Subregional de CEPAL en México
rgrynspan@un.org.mx

Rekha Thapa
Director
Fax: 1 (212) 906-5634
Programa de Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo – PNUD
USA
Fax: (212) 906-5364

Juan Pablo Corazzoli
Representante - Guatemala
Programa de Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo – PNUD
Guatemala
Fax: 337-0304; 337-3316

L. Enrique García
Presidente Ejecutivo
Corporación Andina de Fomento – CAF
Venezuela
Fax: (58212) 284-2880 or (58212) 209-2382

Lic. Florencio Salazar
Oficina del Plan Puebla Panamá de la República de México
México D.F.
Fax: (52-55) 5663-3881

Dr. Klaus Toepfer
Director Ejecutivo
Proyecto de Represas y Desarrollo – UNEP
South Africa
Fax: +27 (0) 21 426-0036

Dr. Julio Arango
Procurador de los Derechos Humanos
Procuraduría de Derechos Humanos – PDH
Guatemala

Lic. Flor de María Morales Dardón
Procuraduría de Derechos Humanos – PDH
Guatemala

Dr. Enrique J. Lahmann
Director Regional
Unión Mundial para la Naturaleza -
Oficina Regional para Mesoamérica (UICN/Mesoamérica)
Costa Rica
Fax: (506) 240-9934
Correo Electrónico: correo@iucn.org

WWF Central America Regional Office
Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza
Costa Rica
Fax: +506 556 14 21

Amy Gray
Director, Latin America Program
Bank Information Center
USA
Fax: (202) 624-0624
amy@bicusa.org

Rachel Farley
Program Officer for Central America
Washington Office on Latin America
USA
Fax: 202-797-2172
wola@wola.org

Vince McElhinny
Program Manager
InterAction
USA
fax: (202) 667-8236
vmcelhinny@interaction.org

Carleen Pickard
Mexico Program Coordinator
Global Exchange
USA
Fax (415) 255 7498
carleen@globalexchange.org

Monti Aguirre
International Rivers Network
USA
fax: 510-848-1008
monti@irn.org

Brendan O'Neill
ACERCA
USA
Fax: 802-864-8203
colombia@acerca.org

Guatemala News and Information Bureau, GNIB
USA
voice & fax: 415-826-3593,
gnib@igc.org

NISGUA
USA
fax: 202-223-8221
nisgua@igc.org

From Slashdot, a link to an Oregonian report, Starbucks versus free community networkers.

This is something I've considered. What do I do with a free wireless network when other free (or paid) wireless nodes interfere? Potshots on the unlicensed frontier.

A week offline. What a treat, actually. I had a great time, kayaking and driving around the Adirondacks, after my computer crashed on my first night in the woods.

And I met Chris Shaw for the first time, staying overnight in his true Adirondack camp - the real thing: log cabins, solar panel for a laptop (we stuck to conversation), no running water. A clean combustion of good ideas, love of Chiapas, and plans for new river passages.

I'll have photos posted this evening. In the mean time, here's my original post about Chris's book.

This is the current top elucidation of the battle between digital hubbers and copyrightniks. Bring me the head of Jack Valenti! That's a joke...

TidBITS: Can the Digital Hub Survive Hollywood?

NASA has given Seattle-based Highlift $570,000 to continue work on a space elevator. Arthur C. Clarke anticipated this (as he had with geosynchronous satellites) in his 1979 "The Fountains of Paradise". Here's a review and a link to the book at Amazon.com.

Thanks to Slashdot for jogging my memory.
.

This great group of unjaded media misfits is holding a contest, seeking submission of short videos with a message, sly or otherwise.

I'm a little too jaded, I guess. But I'll think about it.

Here are new and old links concerning mesh networks and Peer2 Peer Routing. The latter is from the Personal Telco Project, which has plenty of other information on community networks.

This is a view of the future site of the girls club/high school/clinic/cafe/free wireless provider that we are planning to build. The photo was taken from one of the 14-story buildings across Avenue D.

In 2 years, you will see in this space the green roof of the girls club, with antennas tucked in among the plants.

Be afraid. Or disgusted. Imported worm from Vietnam:

Gone Fission: The 'Nuclear' Worm (washingtonpost.com)

The latest articles on the Plan Panama/Maya dams issue.

El Economista - Necesaria la reforma del sector eléctrico para Plan Puebla Panamá

El Economista - Requiere México de $6,000 millones para proyectos en sector eléctrico: SE

Thanks, Alfonso!

As usual, Sam Churchill at Daily Wireless has come through with the story of a statewide wireless network in Texas . Good idea. Is it real?.

Many excellent links here and in all of Sam's work, including this homemade outdoor access point from Bay Area Wireless, and this AP in a box, ready to mount on the roof and illuminate the neighborhood with free wireless.

It's a self-referential world. Here's my link to an interview with the guy who wrote the book on online communities, Derek Powazek. It's in a webzine called Mindjack which I found through the weblog Boing Boing. Which I probably found through some other weblog originally.
.

I have some more Maya dam links to post, but I wanted to give a link to this unusual speech by Bruce Sterling at an Open Source conference. That way I can find it later, also.

What am I doing that I have so much time to write in this weblog? I'm laying over audio tracks to tape, last stage thank god in making the "deliverables" for my latest editing job. If I wasn't here 10 hours a day I might have time to play with this free ProTools audio editing software. Before TV, I was a rock and roller. Mid-TV I scored some shows in a home studio. Now there are millions of guys with studios in their closets. Great fun, but how do you make a living in the music business now?

For starters, here's the millionth link to Janis Ian's ideas on the subject.

A story at CNN.com - Europe begins building Mars lander - shows that the Europeans are getting serious about finding life there. The craft is being built in clean room conditions to avoid contaminating its landing site, the better to "probe rocks, dig into the soil and sniff the air, checking for organic matter and other life-related compounds."

The backlash against the government's proposed TIPS program (recruiting citizen informants to alert the authorities to suspicious behavior) includes Operation TIPS-TIPS with this chalkmark (inspired by WIFI warchalking) to rat out the informants themselves. Also, it appears that (no joke) a call to the TIPS program actually gets routed to the Fox TV program, America's Most Wanted.

Thanks to Boing Boing and its guestblogger Xeni.

Guilherme Kajawski wrote me from Brazil with some interesting questions about digital archiving. Here's part of my response:

I worked at all 3 major broadcast networks here, setting up divisions whose job it was to "mine" or "excavate" the tape archives, creating new programs they could sell to the cable channels. We were using the earliest practical nonlinear editing systems, where all footage is stored on hard drives, using various levels of compression. I realized quickly that our programs were going back into the archives and were being cannibalized to make other shows. To me this was problematic, due to the successive generations of compression. Before, we dealt with tape copies, a kind of analog degradation. Now we were adding digital artifacts every time we reused the footage. Yes, the new shows could go back to the original versions we had used, but why? These shows were produced quickly and cheaply. Who had the time, when someone else (us) had already dug up the best shots?

Now there are systems that are non-compressed, that don't degrade the image. And there are starting to be digital archives on servers. But there is just too much, a landslide of new material every day. Even if the systems go digital, there will still be that layer of material we created in the 90's, the pixelized, dusty geological stratum in the middle, between the film of the 50's and 60's, the blurry tape of the 70's, the better betacam of the 80's and 90's and the digital formats of the future.

One entire day in the tomb of Pacal, a day out of time. Last June, with photographer Ken Garrett of National Geographic. Ken was preparing a story about Palenque for the magazine, April 2002. The article was superceded by other Maya stories, including the new mural in Guatemala.But Ken allowed me to accompany him into the tomb of Pacal while he lit it beautifully, and asked the restoration crew to clean the sarcophagus lid. I thought it would make a great sequence for a full program on Palenque that I was shooting. But to see so clearly the portrait of Pacal, in death pulled down into the underworld by great fleshless jaws, while the World Tree grows again from his torso. Astonishing. Deep inside the Temple of the Inscriptions, hundreds of tons of limestone away from the green world of howlers and tourists.

Things happen fast in this weblog world. Doc was kind enough to make this site "Blog of the Day".

Now I know I'm not just talking to myself. Who else is out there? Drop me a line - address: dave at gomaya.com (let's foil the harvesters if we can).

Okay, so I'm late arriving at the party. A weblogger for month and I think I get it already. Early in this new identity, I sent out a brash email that bounced around, and I actually got an encouraging email back from Doc Searls, a god in this world. This slideshow by Doc, elegant in its simplicity, humor, and sense, puts it all in perspective for me.

Note: It may take a while on a slow connection. If you give up, try something here or here.

My father-in-law, Bill, died today at 5:30 pm. He spent his life as a mechanical engineer for the military, and lived all but his last 4 days at home. His father worked for Edison and Steinmetz, and Bill spent time as a child playing in their laboratories.

My father, Joe, died in 1992 at age 62. He was in college when the transistor was invented, and immediately chose to become a ceramic engineer. I grew up near Washington, D.C. in the 50's and 60's, while my Dad worked on the space program. One evening he brought home some of the first freeze-dried meals - "astronaut food" - for us kids to try. Joe built his own color TV. He had a furnace for growing crystals and gems on the carport. A ham radio enthusiast and computer hobbyist, he taught himself machine language programming after his first heart attack at age 48. He almost lived to see the internet bloom.

I spent 20 years in all the television networks, a pioneer in the crash-prone world of nonlinear editing, until I lost my nerve and my drive towards heart failure. In 2001, I split for the jungles of Mexico. There I had the honor of assisting the team in Palenque, by fishing a video camera inside the Temple XX tomb. We still know very little about the great man who was buried there. But we know that not all great men are forgotten.

Doc Searls calls this site a real-world Jerry Bruckheimer movie. They are running seminars to prevent a digital Pearl Harbor. I was struck by their logo - a cobra with a computer mouse on its hood. And their grasp of scary, impenetrable jargon:

SECTOR 5 has dedicated itself to creating an event and summit that holds the same mission and goals as numerous agencies, organizations and companies (existing or newly created) that are currently trying to wrap their arms around the matters of cyber terrorism and the protection of national interests and critical infrastructures. The mission: "identify the critical systems, identify the vulnerabilities to those systems and establish plans to protect them". The SECTOR 5 event has been created for, and is solely dedicated for the previously stated objectives.

SECTOR 5 is an executive level event, meaning that ALL facets of the program are geared toward C level security and management attendees (CEO, CIO, CTO, CFO, CISO, CSO, etc.). The program will offer an atmosphere and format focused primarily on delivery of strategic content and the ability to network with peers from the various critical infrastructures.

...but not the ability to write clearly in English, I guess. Hey, for $995 a day you're expecting poetry? There's a war going on!

The proposed sale of the Hershey company is provoking protests in the town that was built on chocolate. Here's a Reuters story by way of MSNBC (and the Daily Glyph).

As posted today on Slashdot, scientists are more certain than ever that a meteorite from Mars contains evidence of bacterial life. Here's the press release from NASA.

You can find photos of the ALH 84001 meteorite on this page.

This is a timely and thought-provoking article that deals with an issue I mentioned in a post on wireless bandwidth. But it applies to many current efforts by private interests to claim public resources, including bioprospecting and exploitation of watersheds. It's a story in Boston Review - Reclaiming the Commons.

A favorite comic strip from my childhood has added a new character, a nerd named Chip Gizmo, as you can read on MSNBC's site in Beetle Bailey makes way for information age.

Yes, I've got the digital camera, but I'm the last guy in New York without a cell phone, I don't listen to CD's or mp3's, and I don't need a PDA. Yet.

If I did, I'd get this Sony CLIÉ Handheld. But I don't need it. Really.

Heather Hurst and Leonard Ashby spent over 2 years working in a studio above a tattoo parlor in New Haven. When they came out, they had painted stunning half-size replicas of the 3 Bonampak murals. (Click on thumbnails for larger photo)

Posted by Dave at 11:34 PM