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The busy industrial (oil) city of Villahermosa has a huge lagoon and park in the center that houses many of the giant Olmec artifacts and a small zoo of native animals. And don't miss the fascinating anthropological museum. |
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| When oil exploration threatened the ancient Olmec site at Venta, scholar and poet Carlos Pellicer Camara spearheaded a campaign to move many of the huge stoneworks to a large park in Villahermosa. | This is one of the earliest works on display at the park. Its meaning, and even its gender, are unknown. | This sitting Olmec warrior wears the typical down-turned "jaguar mouth." which reminded us of some of the war-like tiki masks of the South Pacific. Archeologist and guide Chris Powell, by the way, is married to a grand-niece of the park's founder. |
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| Other large statues in the park. The center one is about six feet high and shows a baby being brought out of a cave. This theme recurs in other works. We're standing by the "giant head" to provide some scale. We faced an "unusual" onslaught of mosquitoes due to previous rainy weather, but otherwise could have spent several hours in the park, at its zoo and small museum. | ||
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| A king vulture and a caracara in the zoo of native creatures at La Venta Park. | This howler monkey came to tease the spider monkeys on their island in the zoo. His buddy, er, dampened Jack as he was taking this photo. | We thought this single coatimundi was adorable. However the rattle of a chips bag by picnickers brought out dozens from the trees. |
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| The Centro de Investigacion de las Culturas Olmeca y Maya (CICOM) contains the the Museo Regional de Antropologia, which was fascinating. Go to the top floor and work your way down. | This unusual exhibit of "Sonrietas" (Smiling Faces) reminded us of a Peruvian display of chancay , aka chankay, dolls, which were believed to have been used in burial rituals. The ones above are more elaborate. | We were also fascinated by this small "birdman," a motif found in many other indigenous cultures. |
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| Here is a selection of the many small but intriguing exhibits on display at CICOM. The buildings, seldom seen in Maya art of any type, were about 18 inches high. The selection of small figures in the center photo all represent some type of duality. The next group is very feminine. The group on the far right were some of several described as shamans. Note the veiled faces. (Click each photo to see details.) | ||
Visit Maya Exploration Center's site ... be sure to check out the links