Time Travels Into a Lively, Distant Past

I thought about Jack climbing the beanstalk up to the sky as I watched the Totonac Indians begin their traditional performance. Four men in bright red costumes, wearing flowered hats and heavy black boots, slowly climbed a 70-foot blue-painted pole, using spikes on both sides as hand-and footholds. Their faces were solemn, befitting the keepers of an ancient tradition.

One by one, they moved up the slender mast, almost disappearing into the cloudless afternoon sky. The pole seemed impossibly high, and the knowledge that in a few minutes these men would launch themselves from its top sent shivers down my spine. As they climbed, a fifth costumed performer, acting as watcher or leader, stood at the bottom and straightened the long yellow ropes dangling from the open platform-really just a square frame-at the top of the pole.

Once these voladores (the word means “fliers” in Spanish) reached the platform, they positioned themselves and their ropes for their launch into space. Together they twisted the movable platform, coiling the ropes until all were wrapped around the top of the pole.

Then the leader walked through the audience of about two dozen, collecting a 20-peso (about $2) fee per person. I gave him a 50-peso note for my husband, Dan, and me, and as happens so often in Mexico, he couldn’t change it. He gave me back a 20, and I gave him a 10-peso coin to make it come out right.

Money collected, he climbed the pole and took his place at its very top, on a surface hardly larger than the soles of his boots. The four voladores were in position on the four corners of the platform, just beneath him. The leader took out a little flute-about 6 inches long, with a miniature drum hanging from the end-on which he had accompanied the men during the ritual dance they performed before their ascent. He played a shrill, plaintive melody and stamped his booted feet. The notes floated down like bird trills, reminding me of the Peruvian song “El Condor Pasa.”

Then simultaneously, from the corners of that tiny platform almost out of sight at the top of the pole, the four voladores flew out at the ends of their tethers, upside-down with outstretched arms, looking like giant red birds silhouetted against the deep blue sky. The ropes unwound slowly from the mast, bringing the men lower and lower in ever-widening circles. As they came close to the ground, they did a somersault, landed lightly on their feet and bowed.

The ceremony of the voladores is so ancient that its origin and purpose are lost in mythology. One interpretation holds that it is a fertility rite, with the four fliers making invocations to the four corners of the universe, then bringing down the sun and rain from the heavens as they fall to earth. Another theory is based on the revolutions of the unwinding ropes. The fliers revolve 13 times as their ropes unwind. Together they make 52 revolutions, and 52, besides being the number of weeks in a year, is also the number of years in an Aztec calendar cycle. Anthropologists believe these numbers were highly significant to the ancient participants in the ceremony.

Today the voladores perform for less mystical reasons-to earn money and entertain visitors-but their flight is still a heart-stopping wonder. Dan and I had come to this town in the Mexican state of Veracruz to see the voladores perform-something I’d wanted to do for years-and to visit the ancient ruins at El Tajin. Although the voladores’ ceremony is performed in Papantla itself only on weekends and during the feast of Corpus Christi in late May or early June, it can be seen almost every day at nearby El Tajin.

As we drove into Papantla that morning, our passage was slowed by the press of pedestrians and cars, mostly taxis and small buses trying to make their way through narrow old streets. We drove cautiously through the traffic, looking for either one of two hotels recommended by our guidebook, the Tajin or the Premier. We circled Plaza Tellez-the main square, or zocalo-four or five times before I finally saw the Tajin up a hill half a block away. We decided to stay there because we couldn’t even find the Premier.

We climbed a steep flight of stairs to the hotel lobby, where the desk clerk surprised us by speaking excellent English. “Would you like to see some rooms?” he asked. He said the most expensive ($50 a night) had air-conditioning and TV, while the less expensive ($40) had neither.

We didn’t care about the TV, which would have taxed our limited Spanish skills, but the sticky tropical heat persuaded us that air-conditioning would be a relief. We selected a tidy little room with a tile floor, two double beds and a nice view of the town from our window.

Fortified by lunch in the hotel’s restaurant-vegetable soup, milanesa (chicken-fried steak), a handful of French fries, “enchiladas” (tortillas folded in half, with salsa and cheese on top), a plate of refried beans and a tiny slice of bread pudding, costing $2.50 for each of us-we set out for El Tajin.

As in many Mexican towns, streets in Papantla that began as cobblestoned paths for burro carts are now one-way lanes that barely admit a small car. We wove through the maze and out of town.

El Tajin (from the Totonac word for thunder) was about 10 miles west, along a highway bordered by thick jungle growth and a scattering of thatch-roofed cottages. Big white Brahmin cattle grazed alongside ordinary cattle in lush fields; horses tethered at the roadside nibbled tall grass. We passed through the village of El Chote, a single dirt street, and finally arrived at the ruins.

El Tajin is the remains of a large pre-Columbian city whose builders are not known for certain; the Totonac, Zapotec, Toltec and Huastec peoples have all been suggested. The site consists of groups of pyramids and a series of ball courts. First occupied anywhere from AD 100 to 500 (sources differ), the town flourished between 800 and 1150. It seems to have been essentially a ceremonial center.

There are 17 ball courts here, similar to those that appear in ancient sites throughout Latin America. Adorning the walls at El Tajin are reliefs portraying ritual killings connected with the mysterious ballgame. No one knows for sure the rules of the game, or whether it was the winners or the losers who had the honor of being sacrificed at its conclusion.

The largest structure, the Pyramid of the Niches, is known for the unusual rectangular recesses in its sides. Jose Garcia Payon, an archeologist who played an important part in excavating these ruins, believed the niches symbolized a culture based on contrast: night/day, light/dark, life/death. Other scholars have questioned his interpretation, saying it is based on minimal evidence.

After a brief orientation visit to the adjoining museum, we wandered through this ancient city. It slumbered in the intense sunlight like a spellbound giant, surrounded by encroaching tropical vegetation, keeping its centuries-old secrets.

Most of the pyramids had signs in Spanish warning visitors against climbing their crumbling exteriors, but it was possible to go up the narrow steps of one rather short pyramid, so I did, imagining myself a priestess of the ancient rites. The stone pyramids seemed to be watching like silent witnesses.

Unlike the Maya ruins we’d visited at Uxmal and Chichen Itza, which had been thronged with visitors, only a few people, most of them Mexican, were visiting El Tajin that day. We enjoyed being able to stroll around the ruins at a leisurely pace before ending the visit with the breathtaking exhibition of the voladores late in the afternoon. We had come to Papantla mainly to use it as a base for touring El Tajin, but the town itself is worth a visit. It dates back to pre-conquest times; Papantla was the capital of the Totonac kingdom before Hernando Cortes arrived in the early 16th century. Today it is a city of 46,000, but Totonac culture is still visible in the dress of many locals, men in white cotton pants and shirts and women with lacy skirts and embroidered blouses.

As in most Mexican towns, the center of all activity is the tree-shaded central square-Plaza Tellez. The Cathedral of the Assumption faces the plaza, and a 165-foot-long mural depicting Totonac culture is carved into the cathedral’s north wall. The city is a vanilla-producing center, and street vendors wander through the downtown area selling vanilla beans carved into small figures. In the nearby market, vendors sell vanilla, baskets, embroidered clothing, poultry and produce.

Papantla is a quintessential Mexican town that makes little concession to visitors beyond the two hotels. No store signs or menus in English here, no tour guides begging to show you around, no cheap souvenirs offered at “bargain” prices (except for the carved vanilla pods). We loved it for its authenticity and lack of pretension. Returning hungry to Papantla from El Tajin, we went out to find the Plaza Pardo restaurant, recommended by one of our guidebooks. The cafe was easy to spot once we looked up: It was upstairs, across the street from the plaza. We spotted a group eating on a balcony, and soon we were seated at a table near them.

I ordered Sopa Azteca, finding it different from other tortilla soups I’d had in Mexico. The bowl contained only chicken broth and fried tortilla strips, but we were given little dishes of things to add: grated white cheese, sour cream, diced avocado, red chile peppers (which we didn’t put in). We finished our meal with a local dessert: fried bananas with cream.

From the balcony we had a great view of the activity in the square, mostly families visiting with friends in the warm evening. Teenagers in school uniforms laughed and joked with one another. From somewhere nearby, guitar music floated through the air, accompanied by the faint but pervasive scent of vanilla. I thought this way of spending an evening with family and friends one of the most enjoyable aspects of Mexican culture.

The next morning dawned fuzzy and with a threat of rain, which didn’t materialize. At 8 o’clock, planning an early departure, we went across the square to have breakfast at Plaza Pardo. We tried a local specialty, fried cornmeal biscuits stuffed with cheese and chorizo-delicious.

We had planned to take a few pictures of the Totonac mural that runs along the wall of the cathedral, but as we were finishing breakfast, I noticed women gathering in the plaza, sitting on the wall that faces the street. At first I thought they were waiting for a bus, but when we began to walk through the plaza, now jammed with people, a loudspeaker suddenly blared an announcement in Spanish, and I realized we were about to see a children’s parade. The 20th of November national holiday-the anniversary of Mexico’s 1910 revolution-was the next day, and because it fell on a weekend, schools were celebrating with a parade the day before.

We postponed our departure for an hour to watch the parade. Little boys were dressed in white peasant shirts and pants like the revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, with toy rifles and bandoleers across their shoulders and little mustaches drawn above their lips. The girls wore peasant blouses and bright skirts, and also had guns slung across their chests. Each school was announced individually and was applauded as its students marched along. We felt fortunate to have stumbled on this engaging scene.

Our final act in Papantla was to photograph the the gigantic statue of a volador that dominates the skyline from the top of a nearby hill, head lifted toward the sky, playing a tiny flute-a timeless and impressive reminder of an equally timeless and impressive ceremony.

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Guidebook: Heads Up in Papantla * Getting there: Papantla makes a good side trip from Mexico City or Veracruz. Nonstop service from LAX to Mexico City is offered on Aeromexico, Mexicana, United and LACSA; direct service (one stop) on Aero California; and connecting service (with change of planes) on American, America West and Continental. Fares begin at $286 round trip. From LAX to Veracruz, connecting service is available on Aeromexico and Mexicana; fares begin at $410 round trip. From Mexico City it’s about a six-hour drive on Highway 130, and from Veracruz about five hours along Highway 180. Buses run from both cities to Papantla. From Mexico City, take the Autobuses del Oriente (ADO) bus, telephone 011-52-51-33-24-24, Internet https://www.adogl.com.mx/services.html, from Terminal Norte; fare is about $14. From Veracruz, the ADO bus costs $10.

Travel times are about the same as driving. The bus station in Papantla is at avenidas Venustiano Carranza and Benito Juarez, downhill from the main plaza or zocalo. Turn left out of the bus station entrance and walk uphill to get to the center of town. You can take a white microbus to get to El Tajin; they stop alongside the zocalo and will take you to the ruins in about half an hour for about 80 cents. Taxis are available around the plaza. The ruins of El Tajin are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Admission is about $2.50. It’s supposed to be free for those older than 60, but when our senior tried to take advantage of this, he was told that privilege is only for Mexican citizens. The visitor center includes a restaurant, souvenir shops and the museum. Written information is in Spanish. The voladores collect about $2 from everyone watching their flight. Voladores performances at the ruins are not scheduled; they take place whenever a large enough crowd is available. When we were there, the performance was about 3 p.m., shortly after the arrival of a tour bus. In Papantla, the voladores perform outside the cathedral at 12:45 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

* Where to stay: We found only two hotels-the Tajin, 104 Nunez, Papantla, Veracruz 93400; tel. 011-52-784-21623, fax 011-52-784-21734; doubles, about $40 to $50; and, eventually, the Premier, 103 Enriquez, Papantla, Veracruz 93400; tel. 011-52-784-21645, fax 011-52-784-24213; doubles, about $31 to $46. See the Web site https://https://personales.com/mexico/jalapa/papantla/servicios.htm for more on the hotels. Both are, like the town itself, clean and unpretentious. * Where to eat: We liked the Plaza Pardo cafe, Enriquez 105, local tel. 20059; open 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. daily, with good Mexican food at reasonable prices. The Premier and Tajin hotels have restaurants, both reputedly affordable and good. * For more information: Mexican Government Tourism Office, Mexican Consulate, 2401 W. 6th St., 5th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90057; tel. (213) 351-2069 or (800) 44-MEXICO, fax (213) 351-2074, https://www.visitmexico.com. Veracruz State Tourism Office, tel. 011-52-28-41-8500, Ext. 4340.