Far Horizons

When I first started dating Mike in 1990, I found one of his greatest non-typographic activities was going to Central America with Mayan scholars and hauling his carcass all over those temple and mounds.  I found it fascinating that someone so expert in type would spend his vacations reading glyphs. (He found it fascinating that I keep journals of everything I do.)

The group he went with was called Far Horizons.  It was run by a marvelous woman named Mary Dell Lucas.  A former international air line attendant, Mary Dell had gone back to college after retiring from American, earned a Masters in Archeology, worked some digs, met all the key scholars and started this eco-friendly travel group. The trips were designed for people with an intense interest in the Maya. The purpose was the reading of the hieroglyphic inscriptions, and a study of the iconography and art to gain an in depth view of the site's history. Some of the biggest names in the American Mayan scholars ranks would travel with us wannabes-among them, our dear friend Gillett Griffin. Our fees covered the expense of each scholar who would share insights, adventures, meals and friendship with us. There were about 20 tourists on this trip.

Our first excursion was Christmas 1990.  "Christmas with the Kings of Palenque" was led by Merle Greene Robertson, Linda Schele and David Freidel. Set like a jewel in the lush emerald foothills of the Chiapas mountains, Palenque is certainly one of the most beautiful of the Mayan sites. Here the art of the ancient Maya achieved its pinnacle. The remains of magnificent painted frescos and sculptured stucco decorate the buildings, and panels of hieroglyphic scripts proclaim the power of the kings.

Before we got to Palenque, we landed at Villahermosa (Yucatan).  We visited Comacalco which is a unique Mayan site because its buildings are built of fired -clay bricks.  The influence of Palenque is shown in the striking stucco panels.  Many of the artifacts of from Comacalco are found at the Museo Regional de Antropologia in Villahermosa.  This is where Gillett took over the tour completely.  His specialty are is the Olmec.  Spectacular sculpture form the Olmec, including the gigantic human heads, are found in the Parque-Museo La Venta.  The weather was spectacular.

Next we went to Palenque, the star attraction.  Mike was armed with a new video camera. Mike is actually a pretty good photographer but he would often forget to turn the camera off or he bumped it as he walked because when we got home, we found lots of footage of feet walking. Back to Palenque: One of the first things we all raced to see was the tomb of the great ruler, Lord Pacal, hidden deep inside the Temple of Inscriptions.  I could not go down the very slippery, humid steps deep below the Temple because of my allergies to mold and back injury, but Mike said it was spectacular.  The tomb was not discovered until the early 1950s.  When they raised the 4 1/2 ton sarcophagus lid with truck jacks they found not only the king but also his mosaic jade death mask. We then toured the Palace ruins.  We dined that day at Nututun and La Canada.  That evening we went to Merle's Palenque home for a slide show of Palenque both before and after the El Chichon Volcano eruption in 1982.  The highly sulfuric gases and ash particles ate away many of the details of the stellae and glyphs.  Merle had wanted to stay in her house but she was evacuated.  Merle is/was quite a feisty, elderly lady. At that time she was 77 years old. and she was recovering from a broken pelvis.  She still climbed the Temple of Inscriptions faster than either Mike or I could.