In Search of Maya Sea Traders

CHAPTER 12. Provisions from Punta Gorda

127 CHAPTER 12 PROVISIONS FROM PUNTA GORDA F ieldwork was interrupted by trips to Punta Gorda to pick up and deliver volunteers, which provided an opportunity to procure food, supplies, and drinking water. At other times we obtained some supplies from the Texaco station where we bought boat gas for survey work, especially early in the morning. Because there were no public docks, the best time to arrive in Punta Gorda, either for gas, food, or mail or to pick up or deliver passengers was when the sea was calm. Normally this was early in the morning, so we arrived when the Texaco station opened at 6 a.m. As the day wore on the sea became progressively rougher. By noon, when the stores closed for lunch, the sea was usually choppy. If we had to stay in town until the stores reopened at 2 p.m., the sea was sometimes even rough. So, it was better to be early or avoid traveling in the “evening,” which meant anytime after 12 noon — confusing at first when you ask when the stores will open and they say “this evening,” which could mean 2 p.m. When you passed someone on the street after 6 p.m. and they said “Good night,” they were not about to go to sleep. They were just giving you the appropriate greeting for that time of day. These were abbreviated as “Morning,” “Evening,” and “Good night.” There was no afternoon. Punta Gorda appeared to the unsuspecting visitor or geographer like a coastal community, but it was not. It was a town at the edge of the sea, which most townspeople viewed as an iron curtain, precipice, or, as the ancient Maya might have viewed the ocean, the “underworld,” full of danger, death, and destruction. The sea met the land abruptly with a seawall. 128 i n s e a r c h o f o t h e r m a y a s i t e s Because the town had no dock, we approached the land with caution, cut the engine, and threw the rear anchor seaward to hold the dory and keep the waves from rushing against the sides of the boat. Then we secured the bow to a stable object on shore to hold the dory in a more or less immobile position. Passengers stepped over the side into the water, wearing rubber boots to protect their feet and ankles. Returning to the dory, we emptied the water from our boots after we climbed into the boat. The stores that carried boots in Punta Gorda sold dozens of pairs of rubber boots to my project volunteers and staff over the years. Apart from the “Indians,” as the townsfolk referred to the Maya, the archaeologists were the only people who wore boots in town. We had the distinction of having audibly wet feet. When I first came to Punta Gorda, the Texaco station had a wooden dock, which made it the friendliest place in town for dories to arrive. Until it warped, bent, and finally fell into the sea, we used the Texaco dock as a staging area for gas, water, food, and supplies, hauled from all over town to the dory, held in place, and guarded at the dock. We returned to town to buy gas or hoarded it in gas cans on the island. Everything becomes scarce from time to time and is hoarded, or things become scarce because they are hoarded. I never seemed to have enough viable plastic gas containers to horde enough gas to stay at sea for very long. When the rainwater storage tank collapsed on Wild Cane Cay, a quest for fresh water brought us to town until we found sources on the mainland, such as Big Pond near Punta Negra or a freshwater well at Punta Ycacos, or up one of the nearby rivers. Even with bathing in the sea and washing clothes and dishes in seawater, we consumed 18 to 20 bags of water every few days. I encouraged people both to drink lots of water and to conserve water for any other purpose. We hauled five-gallon, plastic water bags with hard plastic handles that bit into our hands as the weight of the water increased on the walk from the town water tank or a store or friend’s house toward the boat. It was with great relief that we arranged to get water from Village Farm in the survey area, where...