Travels in Guatemala...Uaxactun Stela 5 and the Mosquitoes

The other day I was going through some some old drawings and sorting things out to move into the studio and I came upon the stacks of drawings from my dissertation on Classical Period Maya Stelae. One of the top drawings was for Uaxactun Stela 5, or Waxaktun, as it is spelled now, and I flashed back on my time in Uaxactun. I went back to my old sketchbook from that trip in 1999, to see if my memories were accurate. Uaxactun is a sleepy little collection of huts in the jungle north of Tikal. I had to go up and spend a couple of days drawing the stelae that were still on site. My room was on one side of an old airstrip used to fly in archaeological supplies in the old days, I assume, while most of the rest of the town was on the other. The airstrip is overgrown with grass and is used today as a pasture/soccer field by the locals...the following is an excerpt from my sketchbook for the day that I did the field drawing for Stela 5...I was trying to find the best path back to the ruins from the village and was having some trouble so I enlisted the help of a local kid...

July 28, 1999
After several aborted attempts, Miguel showed up and I asked him how best to get to the ruins, but he hung his head, reluctant to give away information without pay. He thought my wedding ring would be appropriate for his mother, but I insisted on keeping it for its sentimental value. Begrudgingly, he finally gave a half-hearted point and the general instruction of "alli", which was absolutely worthless...

...in Group A, after walking around the plaza trying to identify a few of the badly deteriorating stelae, including Stela 9, I moved in the direction of Group B and the elusive Stela 5. The lighting was perfect and I got some great reference photos, then I sat down to draw. The conditions were very good and I think I got a good drawing...Today I noticed the first big populations of mosquitoes that had an interest in me. Others I have talked to have been harassed, but for me, the first time was while drawing Stela 5. So if I get malaria, I'm blaming Stela 5. The mosquitoes may have initially been attracted by the fact that I was drawing. Sometimes when I am drawing, I will attract onlookers, particularly kids. While drawing Kaminaljuyu Stela 11 in the Guat City Anthropology Musuem, for instance, the entire 7th Grade of Guatemala ended up looking on...

Anyways, the mosquitoes were pretty thick and hovered about glancing from drawing to monument and back again, occasionally making a critical observation or remark before plunging their probosces into my unguarded flesh. There were so many of them that eventually, not a moment would go by without an unsolicited comment and an uninvited bite. I was reluctant to allow this abuse to continue, but I had little choice. There was no telling how long good conditions would last, so I worked as quickly as I could, occasionally swatting the air or myself without consequence, other than to rile the mosquitoes to concerted action against me. Now they took to getting a couple of compadres to hold my arms down while others would imbibe in a little sanguinary repast without fear of interruption. This may sound like an exaggeration, but they were rather big mosquitoes. After a while, a few of them flew in with a liter bottle of agua purificada, and I thought to myself, that this was a rather decent thing for them to do, but in retrospect, I think they were just afraid I would become dehydrated and by providing water they ensured themselves a kind of perpetual smorgasblood.

The good news is that I never did suffer from any of the various insect borne illnesses that plague some who travel to the area and eventually turned the field drawing into the finished drawing above, a very interesting stela from a historical standpoint in the Maya area.