Round Trip from Poptun: A Journey in Search of the Maya

This book opens with the author about $300 short of what he wants, but packing his car and leaving New York for Guatemala anyway. His reasoning? if he didn't go now he might never. His goal? To explore lost Mayan ruins - he knew there were many more than on the maps, and he wanted the adventure of finding one! This book was published in 1968, so reasonable to assume the journey occurred in the year or two prior.

This is a book divided into five parts.

The Long Drive The authors journey from New York to the Mexican border, through Mexico to the Guatemalan border, and through Guatemala to the city of Quezaltenango, the setting off point for his jungle adventure. This was no easy trip, an inappropriate vehicle choice, a car which broke down with painful regularity, a journey with very little money, spent mostly sleeping in his car, and a journey down roads which became worse the further he got from New York. Realistically this was an adventurous enough undertaking, yet was only the means of getting to his starting point!

Appropriate now to outline the story around the ruins at Machaquila. It is not 100% clear whether Alberto Lisi read about a ruin in the jungle near Poptun or whether it was just an area he identified as being a possible location. He spent plenty of time planning the location he set out for (Poptun), but it wasn't really until his arrival there when he was able to talk to the locals he found out that around 1957 a group of petroleum geologists undertook an expedition to test a lot of the river for mining potential. While they had not visited the site of the ruins they were nearby, and it was suggested local men who accompanied the geologists knew where the ruin was. After tracking down various people, Lisi found a man who claimed he had been to the ruin, and that he guided another gringo there some two years before (he was known as Don Juan, but Lisi subsequently found out his name was Ian Graham). This didn't put Lisi off, but reinforced his ambition to reach the ruin.

Into The Jungle The first part of the expedition to find the ruins. Lisi has enrolled two men (Carmen and Pablo) and a mule (Alcira) to accompany him. His plan - to cut a trail through the jungle, following the route Pablo and Don Juan took, as far as necessary in order that the river is navigable (it runs underground for some distance due to the local geology). From there Pablo and Lisi will continue by inflatable boat; Carmen and Alcira will return to Poptun). This section of the journey is hard, but as the mule is carrying all the loads, and the men have all their food and equipment, it is manageable - even easy, compared to later stages!

The Rio Upon reaching the navigable river, the plan is enacted. The boat is inflated, gear stowed and Carmen and Alcira depart. This becomes a crash course in white water boating with untold dangerous rapids and cataracts and waterfalls as well as many trees fallen over the river. There is a lot of lowering the boat, portaging and of course a capsize in which much of their food and equipment is lost. Here turning tail and trying to get back to Poptun was the obvious choice - they didn't of course. Most people would suggest that without machetes or boots any attempt to travel through the jungle would be impossible. Lisi thrives on impossible, and hey continued on the boat downstream until Pablo lost the plot. This jungle man was never comfortable on the river, and came right up to the point of a nervous breakdown, threatening to leave after some 50 waterfalls had been worked around. Lisi finally agreed to leave the river and go on by foot to the ruin.

The Ruin And so after making shoes from a leather bag and tying them to their feet they began cutting a trail with a 6 inch hunting knife and a Swiss Army knife! The on to El Final (the last camp of the geologists) was thankfully only another day and a half. At this point Lisi had given up hope of continuing downstream to another town (the ruin was equidistant between Poptun and that town). Pedro insisted they must depart the following day by 10am. And so Lisi makes a rushed visit to the ruin he travelled so far to see, locates with Pedro's assistance the carved stellae, climbs some temple mounds, and is away, in a return journey that comes close to taking his life.

The Return I have elected not to even outline the return journey. Some readers may choose to find the entire expedition unrealistic or embellished. The description of the men on their return to Poptun puts them very close to death. Lack of food and equipment, the weather, the lack of trail and hardship of travel, the challenge of navigation, and poor decision making due to extreme weakness are all factors deal with in this section.

By necessity, this book was all about the journey and little about the destination. I enjoyed it, read it over two days, and it certainly held my attention.

5 stars!

According to Wikipedia the ruin was excavated in the early 21st Century by by the Atlas Arqueológico de Guatemala in collaboration with the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Google maps shows a town of Machaquila, albeit very rural looking town!

I also found a link to the article by Ian Graham, published in 1963:

https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/across-the-peten-to-the-ruins-of-machaquila/

This is very interesting as a comparison to Lisi's journey. It took Graham 24 days to cut a trail to the ruin, with many men and mules, and he stayed just under 3 weeks to investigate. Pablo is mentioned by name. While it sounds a hard expedition, Graham had finances to employ men and buy food. He sent a man back for more food to be brought on a mule at least twice. The left the ruin and heading back on day 42. By comparison Lisi's journey as 21 days, the entire return trip with very little food, the last several days without any. However it is apparent that Lisi made his expedition hard for himself by lacking funds - Graham made is all sound pretty easy - This gave me plenty to think about after already giving Lisi the 5 star review!

On google I found another article on the Stelae recovered from Machaquila: https://traffickingculture.org/encyclopedia/case-studies/machaquila-stela-2/