Merry Christmas from Kiichpam K’aax

So we are volunteering at Kiichpam K’aax, an Eco Touristic Centre with acres of jungle surrounding it, owned by Damian, which then joins onto more Jungle, owned by Don Sebero, who works at Kiichpam K’aax most of the time. I will mention Don Sebero much more later, as he is an amazing specimen of a man. They own so much land because the government gave all the land back to the people after the civil war in Mexico. It’s called ‘Ejidos’ and it has been done as a way of conserving and protecting the land. Kiichpam K’aax is 10km away from the nearest village, Chunhuhub, which doesn’t have much to entertain you other than taking in the Mayan culture and explaining to the locals why on earth we would come to their village (which they can`t comprehend one bit)

The aim of Kiichpam K’aax is to maintain its Mayan heritage, and display the cultural techniques they have been using for thousands of years. This includes making honey from stingless bees, making a material called Henequen from a certain palm tree, the extraction of sugar from sugar cane and many more including cooking tamales in an underground oven. Most of the food here is sourced from the garden and if they don’t have something, it is acquired from a local source in Chunhuhub. Everything is prepared by hand and cooked on a fire stove the traditional way. The majority of materials used for building stuff, are sourced from the jungle. The toilet waste is used for compost and the electricity is attained through solar panels. They have internet but it has similar speeds to our internet from the late nineties, and decides not to work when it rains and continues to not work for hours afterwards. Not much is wasted here. Bones go to the dogs, the little food waste goes to the pigs and even the rubbish and plastic bottles are given a use somewhere around the site.

Having stayed at Kiichpam K’aax for nearly 2 months now, the “interview” on the first night with Damian and Margarita, was about as formal and structured as it got. Alex briefly explained what was said and it consisted more of them finding out whom we are and what we can do, and telling us what we need to know about the place. One of the things they explained to us was that the dogs will bite so you need to be careful around them at first. She also said that they were tied up out back of the kitchen so not to worry.

The next morning I woke up at 7am and made my way to the restaurant area to get a cup of coffee. As I turned the corner to the restaurant, I was greeted by the drooling teeth of three ravenous dogs barking like lunatics trying to bite my knee caps. I needed the toilet anyway, so I went into the bathroom, which turned out to be the ladies, and closed the door behind me. Even after doing my business they were still at the door barking away. I decided to wait 5 minutes because I wanted to eat breakfast and not be eaten for breakfast myself. After the barking had stopped, I decided to be a man and leave the ladies toilet. They returned in a flash and continued to try and eat me. I took a step forwards to show them who was boss and they backed off, but only for a second, before coming at me again. At this point Damain walked in, shouted at the dogs, and they retreated to his side.

I thanked Alex for telling me about the dogs, and asked if she could give me all the information in future. There was in fact a fourth dog that started to attack me once Damian had calmed the situation down. A tiny puppy that was too small and too cute to be annoying when it tried to bite you. It turns out that in my misunderstanding of Damian telling me their names, I actually ended up naming the puppy, ‘ Nicero’ , and everyone has been calling it by that name ever since. The dogs are fine now, and after a few more close calls, they actually do as I say on some occasions.

Other than getting eaten by blood thirsty guard dogs, we didn’t do much for the first couple of days. Damian wanted us to come up with ways of improving the place with what they already had. We came up with lots of ideas and some of them he really liked. Since the first couple of days of doing not a lot, we have done quite a lot since. Alex has been painting things all around the place, including replacing all the tatty old signs with bi-lingual, more aesthetically pleasing ones. She has painted a massive tree on the back wall of the bar in the main restaurant, to which I added shelves for the bottles of spirits, constructed from a tree trunk we cut up. The majority of Alex’s work has been painting or related to art, but the majority of my work has been construction or destruction. As you can probably guess, I have been having fun!

You are never really working alone here. There is Don Sebero, Felipe, his son Julian or one of the 3 other volunteers that arrived just after we did. Feilpe’s daughter also works here but she works closer with Juanita, Damians wife, around the kitchen and does the cleaning of the cabanas too. There are also two 8 year old twins, Natasha and Ariel who are the children of Margarita. Ariel spends most of his time playing games on computers or hiding when he is asked to do some form of work. Natasha is keen to do anything and go anywhere and will help you out with whatever you are doing. The other volunteers consisted of a Mexican, a Spaniard and an Italian who had made a surprise visit after volunteering here last year. All of the above were a pleasure to meet and even though my Spanish is still not amazing, I managed have fun working and relaxing with the guys.

I had the chance to cut a new Sendero (a path or trail) through the virgin jungle at the back of Kiichpam K’aax, using solely a machete. That was great fun, although I was told to calm down and not hack away at everything I could see. After the first day of path cutting, I had two blisters on my hands from the machete handle. Don Sebero treated me in the jungle with the liquid inside a branch as an antiseptic. He found it hilarious that I had the hands of a girl and also the pain he was inflicting with his natural healing. The Sendero stretches 1km long and goes in a big wiggely circle before returning back to the start. Along the path there will be a station for Yoga, a gymnasium, a place to chill in hammocks and a house of wooden beds. There is also talk of building Ti-pi’s along the Sendero, as a place to camp for future travellers and maybe even a hostel too. Whilst chatting to Damian the other night, he said he wanted to name it ‘Sendero Matt’, but as touched as I was, the name doesn’t really fit with the rest of the place. But it’s nice that they finally know my name is Matt now, having been called Matteo for the first month.

There will be a lot more work needed, long after we are gone, before the Sendero has taken full shape. So far we have half-finished the Yoga station. To build this we had to go deep into the jungle where Don Sebero and Felipe cut down humongous ‘Zapota’ trees. Once they had been felled and cut to size, we had to carry through the jungle and onto Damian’s truck. The Zapota tree has been used for years by the Mayans, and because of its durability it is perfect for construction. But because of its durability, it means it weighs a lot, especially if the pieces we were carrying were 5m long and 30cm or more in diameter. We would need 2, 3 or even 4 people to struggle through the jungle with the large Zapota tree but Don Sebero would just chuck one on his shoulder and trot of in his wellies. On one occasion, after carrying a tree to the truck, I returned to help with the next one and heard a whole lot of commotion. Four people had been carrying a tree when, as they turned a corner, they knocked into a wasp nest which initiated the wasp’s defence mode. They attack fast and in numbers, and when you’re carrying half a tonne of wood on your shoulder, it’s hard to defend yourself. We all left the jungle that day beaten and bruised and in need of a beer. Not being able to fully comprehend the Spanish language, when someone shouted “drop it”, I wouldn’t. This caused me to take a tree to the head, a whack to the shoulder and one tree sent me tumbling onto the rocky floor. I probably should have asked what that word was after the first time!

That was probably the hardest I have pushed my body in a long time but for Don Sebero it was like a walk in the park. He is a 74 year old machine and has been living off the jungle his whole life. He always has his machete by his side and cuts through trees like they are made from butter. And he cuts anything that is in sight too. He knows all the species of plants and trees, and what qualities they have for food, drink or medicinal purposes. Since he has been 11 years old he has been extracting ‘Chicle’ and he still does it today at the age of 74 and doesn’t look like stopping. Chicle is the sap obtained by scoring the flesh of the Zapota tree which is used to make chewing gum. It was chewed by the Mayans to stave off hunger, to keep their breath smelling fresh, to keep their teeth clean and even used to fill tooth cavities. Using just a piece of rope, wrapped around him and the tree in a big loop, Don Sebero climbs the tree with a consummate ease. We had a chance to witness and attempt this and it was not easy. Apparently I got the highest and was the best ‘chiclero’ out of anyone he had ever taken out, but I was knackered before I could reach anywhere near the heights Don Sebero reached.

The extraction of chicle was just one of the tours that they do at Kiichpam K’aax for their guest. Damian also took us to a cenote, a short drive away before we cut off into the jungle for a few more kilometres. The cenote was about 15m in diameter and had sheer cliffs ranging from 5m-20m circling around the outside. It was possible to jump in and have a swim, and fortunately, someone had left a rope-swing behind. The second time we visited the cenote, I thought it would be a good idea to throw my GoPro at Alex, who was in the cenote, so she could film me swinging in. Let’s just say that I have thrown stuff much better in my life and not even Michael Phelps could have made it to the camera before it disappeared into the abyss. The cenote has been measured up to 48m deep before the divers feared that the currents from the underground caves would suck them to their deaths. It basically means that it’s gone for good and I am a very stupid boy.

Damian also took us bird-watching one morning. This involved a little drive on the back of his camienetta and then into the jungle. We then had a little trek before we reached a fairly large hill, which we ascended to get a view above the jungle. The hill was in fact a Mayan Pyramid that had been found but not excavated. It was still completely absorbed by the jungle, covered in trees and plants all over. There are numerous sites like this throughout the Yucatan region because the resources are not there to excavate them all.

Calakmul is one of the largest Mayan sites and it is yet to be fully excavated. The three other volunteers, Alex and I, all hired a car and went to go and see it. Calakmul is deep in the jungle, 60km from the nearest village/town, 55km from the nearest campsite and a mission to get to. We got a bus to Chetumal to pick up the car, then made our way to the campsite and arrived quite late at night. We awoke early in the morning and made the rest of the journey down the pot holed road to the archaeological site. When we got there, it was absolutely breath taking and worth the struggle of a journey. If you were capable, you were allowed to climb the Pyramids to the top and look across the jungle. You could see the other tops of the pyramids poking through the jungle canopy, and even see Guatemala many km’s in the distance.

The buildings weren’t the only attraction here, the jungle itself was magnificent. There was a beautiful array of trees and plants and lots of wildlife around, especially when we got away from the noisy students that were visiting the same day. We managed to see two different species of monkeys, both from fairly close up. One of the monkeys showed me his balls, definitely on purpose, and then threw his half eaten fruit at me. I think it was a sign of affection. There were wild turkeys, numerous other birds, a tarantula and wild pigs to be seen as well. Other people saw a jaguar on the way in but we weren’t so fortunate. Having spent the majority of the day trekking around Calakmul, we were in a bit of a rush to get the hire car back to Chetumal. The good thing about Mexico is that there aren’t many police around on the open roads so you can drive pretty quickly when you need to. The bad thing is that when it rains, it comes down hard and fast and makes it difficult to see where you are going. We managed to get the car back without incurring any extra costs and eventually made it back to Kiichpam around 1am in the morning. All the costs and hassle involved was definitely worth it and we are talking about doing it again on route to our next destination.

Since then, the other volunteers have moved on to other places, as we had intended to do by now. Certain factors have kept us here, mainly waiting for a delivery to arrive and for Alex to finish a mural she has started. I have been occupying myself by making a promotional video for Kiichpam K’aax involving all the footage we have accumulated whilst staying here. If I can, I will post it online in the future or put a link to youtube so you can all fully appreciate how beautiful this place is.

We met a local taxi driver called Michel that Damian knows fairly well. His family owns land a couple of kilometres off the main road. This land is also an ‘Ejidos’ and was given to the family by the government. As you drive through the jungle, on the rocky tracks, you come to a couple of sheds and a beautiful lake. This lake stretches for 10km, maybe more, and is so remote and unknown, that it is not even visible on google maps. After collecting some fruit from the abnormally large palm trees, we stuck a rowing boat on the back of Damian’s truck and drove further down the lake. After going out for a little row, Venice style but with large tree branches as paddles, we put the boat back onto the truck got into the boat and drove further down the lake. We came out of the jungle to an opening with a couple of houses and an amazing view of the lake through the palm trees. Within a couple of minutes of arriving, I had climbed a tree and got enough coconuts for us all to drink and eat. According to Michel, he used to swim in the lake often when he was younger but we decided not to. It might have been due to the fact that as we arrived we saw alligators, or possibly due to the stories he told about the size of the alligators.

This was just a quick glimpse into how we have been spending our time here, and if you have made it this far, well done for not falling asleep. Once we leave here and find suitable Internet I will add pictures and probably more about words about Kiichpam K’aax. It truly has been absolutely amazing here, and it continues to be amazing still. It’s so amazing we are tempted to buy some Jungle off Don Sebero, but more details on that next time. My fingers are hurting.

Merry Christmas to you all, and a Happy New Year.