Chichanhá

During the Caste War of Yucatan in the 1850s, the Icaiche Maya formed a large settlement called Chichanhá hidden away in the jungles of Quintana Roo - very near to Caoba, one of the ejidos that we are working with to measure tree growth in the Selva Maya (see Selva Maya III).  On one of our trips to Caoba, they took us to see the ruins of Chichanhá. Huge chicozapote (see Chicozapote) trees, the screams of howler monkeys, the crumbled walls of an indigenous rebellion.  Nobody said much as we walked through these ruins...

Village life on these limestone substrates was largely determined by the availability of water.  To this end, the Icaiché had dug and walled an extremely deep cistern (shown below). [NOTE:  We tossed in a couple of rocks, but we never heard them hit the bottom.  This is a deep, deep hole].