We flopped onto a park bench in the Plaza de la Liberacion. We had been wandering up and down the Avenue Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla for hours, and were dehydrated, famished, and frustrated with each other. The map we had picked up at the hostel refused to match in either scale or street name with the city in front of us, no matter how many times we pulled it from each other’s hands (let me see!) and turned it upside-down or sideways. Earlier that day, we thought we had gotten on the correct bus only to find ourselves at the end of the line in a village far away from the Zona Centro and the Catedral de Guadalajara, our primary landmark. The city’s dust had aggravated the exposed skin of my ankles, and they were red and inflamed, as if I had been wading through fiberglass. We had wanted to find Teuchitlan Guachimontones, but one entire day of our short three day adventure in Guadalajara was already over, and we had given it all to being lost.
Los Guachimontones are what remains of an ancient civilization located in the hills above Teuchitlan in the Mexico’s Tequila Valley. It is the largest pre-Columbian archaeological site in the province of Jalisco. It is a fairly new discovery as far as the field of archaeology is concerned, and the site has experienced heavy looting. For this reason, it was added to the 100 Most Endangered Sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2008. We only found our way to the site through an act of cosmic alignment. I had a dream about the place, and we both followed the call onto a plane, because at that moment, we were supporting each other’s dreams, and the more spontaneous, the more intriguing.
We drifted in solemn, sullen, and exhausted silence back to the hostel and after a quick dinner of empanadas, I went to the women’s bunk room to sleep. I had decided that whatever experience we had together was the purpose, ancient civilization or not. The next morning, my traveling companion was already awake with coffee on the outdoor patio. On his face was a confident and knowing smirk, and he explained to me that after I went to sleep, he got to talking and it turns out that the host of the hostel is actually from Teuchitlan, and he was pleased to hear that we were in Guadalajara to see Los Guachimontones. To add to the fun, a group of five German tourists overheard the conversation, and having never heard of this archeological site, of course they wanted to join us.
So the seven of us followed the guide to the bus station and we rode through a barren and dusty desert until it was our stop at the village of Teuchitlan. We followed our guide through the village, pausing at a beverage bar that sold creamy drinks of fermented corn that people believe have healing properties. Some of them included lime and were served over ice, some appeared in mugs and were served hot. The guide encouraged us to sip the beverage, explaining it would help with the abrupt change in elevation we were about to experience.
The site was clearly very new. Many of the areas were still under excavation. Archaeologists have unearthed one large circular pyramid, nestled around several smaller pyramids. The pyramids are actually shaped like a bulls-eye, with several distinct elements that comprise an entire structure. Researchers have also discovered what appears to be a large, rectangular area that they speculate was a field for playing games. A mural inside the Visitor’s Center (under construction) depicts a shaman dressed as a bird and flying tethered to a pole, using the area for his ceremonial magic.
I still don’t know how or why exactly I ended up in Guadalajara for a weekend to witness an ancient civilization unearthed after centuries buried. My traveling companion believed that the site, among other portals on Earth, vibrates healing energetic frequencies, and perhaps that is true. Any journey into the unknown gives healing, if we are willing to follow our intuition more closely than our maps and turn off our phones long enough to listen. Growth, like traveling, like healing, is a process, and the journey to the destination may look different from what we might have expected.
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