Walking the Way to the Gods: A Journey through Guatemala

Before there were human beings as we know, when the sky and the Earth were still working things out, twin brothers created a heroic story with their lives. A story of perseverance, adventure and cunning. This story is still told by the stars and planets. This story reached me thousands of years later in my snowy, Canadian home, enticing me to Guatemala, land of the ancient Quiche Mayans. I would walk the ground these brothers dared to penetrate and taste the possibility of freedom that Xbalanque and Hunahpu, the hero twins, battled to preserve.

First there were One and Seven Hunahpu, father and uncle to the heroes, twin brothers themselves. They were created from the greatness of Grandmother Xmulcane and Grandfather Xpiyacoc.

One day One and Seven Hunahpu had the misfortune of disturbing the Lords of Death, who lived below the surface of the Earth in Xibalba, by playing their ball game on a court right above the Lord’s heads. The brothers were summoned to Xibalba to play games with the Lords, but lacking cunning, they were quickly sacrificed by One and Seven Death.

However, the Lords of Death made a fatal mistake. They left One Hunahpu’s skull hanging in the Cabash tree where Bloodwoman, daughter of Lord Blood Gatherer, came upon it. She conceived when the skull spat into her hand. Refusing to admit her condition, or who the father might be, Bloodwoman was to be sacrificed by the Lords of Death but used her cunning to escape from the underworld and bear her sons on the face of the Earth--her sons the hero twins, Xbalanque and Hunahpu.

Our bus arrived in dusty Coban, Guatemala about mid-day. My two female traveling companions and I hauled our backpacks off the roof rack and started asking about the bus to Lanquin, a small village two and a half hours east, well into the mountains that had once been Xbalanque and Hunahpu’s stomping grounds. The first man told us no buses until the next day -- we would need a ride in his taxi to a hotel. The next person we asked said there was one more bus later that day, and the third said that they ran every couple of hours from near the market. We were learning that everyone has their own story of the way things are, and the only way to get where we were headed was to trust only ourselves.

It did not take long for the grown Xbalanque and Hunahpu to find their father and uncle’s ball game equipment and the ball court at the Great Abyss at Carchah, right above the Lord of Death’s heads. It did not take long for the annoyed Lords to summon Xbalanque and Hunahpu to the underworld to meet the challenges of Xibalba. So the brothers bid goodbye to their mother and grandmother, planting a stalk of corn in the center of the house that would live as long as the brothers lived.

It was not an easy journey: there were cliffs to descend and roaring rapids to traverse. Blood River and the River of Churning Spikes guarded Xibalba against easy access, but the hero brothers were cunning and they did not touch the water. They made a bridge with their blowguns to cross safely, arriving before the Lords of Death with their wits about them, despite the grueling journey.

One of the main attractions at Lanquin was Semuc Champey, a 300m natural limestone bridge spanning the rapids of the Rio Cahabon. Below the limestone cover, the water surged. Above the rock surface, warm, clear pools formed, just deep enough for swimming and jumping from the cliff that rose to the North. This magical spot was 10km from Lanquin and we were told that if we started walking a truck would most likely pass by and pick us up. Knowing that it was possible we would be walking the whole distance, we set out on our journey. The first few kilometers took us out of the valley bottom, straight up the side of the mountain. We trudged along appreciating that the sun was still low in the sky. We went further and further up the mountain with no sign of any trucks to pick us up. Two and a half hours later, after descending the other side of the mountain and following the next valley, we came to the River Cahabon.

I stood looking down on the raging waters. Sweat drenched and knowing I was 10km into the mountains with no guaranteed ride out, I wondered about my own will and cunning. I was standing close to the edge where the churning water squeezed into the tunnel beneath the limestone when a Guatemalan guide (who had arrived with a group in a van just as we finished walking the last kilometer) grabbed my elbow and spoke rapidly in Spanish about being too close to the edge. I guess he didn’t trust me as much as I trusted myself, so I appeased him by jumping from the cliff into the calm pool above the limestone. I floated on my back wondering if Xbalanque and Hunahpu had somehow created this bridge, allowing me to play safely, the rapids made silent beneath me.

When Xbalanque and Hunahpu arrived in Xibalba they were immediately put into the Dark House, one of the many tests created by the Lords of Death. They were each given a burning torch and a cigar with instructions that they must return them, intact, in the morning, but burn them all night. This was the test that their father and uncle had failed; they did not know how to keep the torches burning so they smoked the cigars and accepted their defeat. But Xbalanque and Hunahpu were great minds. They put the tail of a Macaw bird on the end of the torch to look like a flame, and fireflies on the tips of their cigars, so the sentries believed the torches and cigars were burning all night.

One evening we found ourselves with a 45 minute walk back to the village of Lanquin, from where we had been sightseeing. Unfortunately, taking in the sun was setting on the corn covered mountains meant walking back in darkness, not something that is recommended on Guatemalan back roads. The three of us moved along in nervous silence until one of us noticed the specks of light dancing in the air in front of us. Fireflies darted out from under pieces of wood on the side of the dirt road, circled and spun through the night, showing us the way back to safety.

After surviving the Dark House, Xbalanque and Hunahpu were summoned to play ball against the Lords of Death. The wager was decided by the Xibalbans who asked for four bowls of flower petals. The Lords knew that the only flowers were the ones in their garden, and they had the whip-poor-wills to guard the plants. Xbalanque and Hunahpu made many good plays in the ball game but eventually gave themselves up in defeat. That evening, the hero brothers summoned the cutting ants to help them. The ants were sent to the Lords’ garden where, unknown the whip-poor-wills who were too busy singing, the ants stole four bowls of flower petals from the trees and took them back to the twins.

On the cobblestone streets of Lanquin I watched a small army of ants following the cracks between the rocks. They seemed to have a purpose, somewhere important to be, yet none of the locals noticed them -- not the women selling bananas and pineapples in the marketplace. Not the men with machetes riding in the back of pick-up trucks. Not even the runny-nosed boys who shuffled the arriving travelers to the hostel owned by their parents.

Another of the many tests of Xibalba was the Bat House, home of the monstrous snatch-bats with snouts like knives. Xbalanque and Hunahpu slept safely in their blowguns, but in the morning Hunahpu poked his head out too soon and it was taken off by a bat. The Lords planned to use Hunahpu’s head instead of a ball for the game that day. But Hunahpu’s cunning brother carved a squash to replace his twin’s head and the two met the Lords on the ball court. Deceiving the Lords into chasing a rabbit they thought was Hunahpu’s head bouncing off the court, Xbalanque was able to put his brother back together again.

One evening, just at twilight, we visited the Grutas de Lanquin, a massive cave with an ancient sacrifice altar high up in the back corner. There was a large group of us standing just inside the cavern, the river running by outside, and hundreds of bats zipping past us out into the darkening sky. We shone our flashlights up to the roof to see the mysterious creatures and then turned all the lights off to listen and feel them swoop past our heads. Then we headed to the back of the chamber and up the stairs to the altar. There were pieces of pottery left as offerings, so we left a candle burning and each said a silent word to the force that would guide us safely on our journey.

Eventually, the Lords grew tired of playing games with Xbalanque and Hunahpu so they ordered them to be sacrificed. But even with their death, the hero brothers outsmarted the Lords. They met with two great seers the night before and discussed how they could be brought back to life. The brothers jumped into the Lords’ oven with confidence that their death need not be the end of them. But back home, the corn they had planted in the center of Grandmother’s house dried up and died.

We were caught in a rainstorm while out walking one day. It only took a minute for our shorts and t-shirts to become completely soaked. We should have known better -- it rained almost every afternoon for an hour or two. When the sun reappeared, we were treated to a rainbow that touched the ground in a field right next to the road. The colours were incredible as all the lush growth sparkled with the sun and rain. But amongst all this life, planted in even rows, was corn drying on the stalks, each one broken over to keep the cycle of life and death turning.

Xbalanque and Hunahpu’s bones were ground on a stone, just as corn is ground into flour, and then dumped into the river. The bones sank to the bottom and five days later the brothers reappeared. They disguised themselves as vagabond actors and performed for the Lords of Death. Their most impressive trick was to sacrifice a victim and bring him back to life. The Lords were ecstatic and One Death, ruler of Xibalba, insisted that he be sacrificed first.

So the disguised Hero Twins cut out of the heart of One Death and then Seven Death, but did not give them back their lives. The remaining Lords begged for pity. This is how Xbalanque and Hunahpu defeated the Lords of Death. Grandmother and Bloodwoman cried tears of joy when the withered corn plant in the center of the house sprouted again, for they knew the twins were triumphant. Xbalanque and Hunahpu then ascended into the sky where one became the sun and the other the moon.

Three days later we shoved our packs back on top of a bus headed north. We were leaving Lanquin, mysterious place of natural myth and magic, to visit Tikal, where human beings had triumphed with their temples. Having been across the raging waters and into the darkness of the earth, we looked forward to climbing a stairway to the sky, as so many shaman had done before us, to contemplate life and death under the watch of sun and moon.