Yaxchilan
When Playing the Game Becomes a Threshold
I had not intended to write separately about Yaxchilan, or Pa’ Chan as it was called by the Mayans. The site itself was one of our favorite places to have visited in Mexico, but finding a physical geocache there left me with a number of questions.
There are some places where I am glad that physical geocaches are not permitted. I would not want people leaving plastic containers that degrade in Yosemite or Arches National Parks. Even an Ammo Can could disrupt sensitive environments. Most national parks do not permit them, particularly in wild places.
Yaxchilan is no less a protected place. It is in an archaeological preserve that guards a site that reaches back in time. It’s inscriptions record the epic story of Lady K’abal Xook and Shield Jaguar II. There is cache between the main site and a smaller acropolis. It is placed on a mound that identifies an archaeological site that has not been excavated or restored..
There are some places where I have chosen not to find a geocache, usually for environmental reasons. I should be clear, however, that I am not writing to ask if the cache has appropriate permissions, if there is someone checking on it who can assume responsibility, or if it should be archived. My question is more personal. Should I have found it?
My Log
Yaxchilán. Or Pa’ Chan as the Mayans knew it — Broken Sky or Split Sky. The name is intriguing, but I have yet to learn more about why it became the name. Perhaps that is lost, or simply beomd what I could know as a tourist.
We came from Palenque. The roads are in better shape than they were when the cache was placed, but we were glad to have a very good driver and guide. There were things we would not have discovered on our own. Our Mayan guide organized the trip and we did not have the time restrictions discussed here.
The boat ride into the site set the stage, past crocodiles, parrots, bats, and other wildlife. We straddled the border between Mexico and Guatemala but there was a more important threshold to cross. We slowly left the modern world behind and entered the fringes of the jungle, ceiba roots and vines invited us to go deeper. The jungle does not reveal the city; it exhales it slowly..
We entered into the labyrinth, into Xibalba, the underworld of darkness. When we emerged into the plaza it felt like a rebirth.
The story of Lady Xook is written in stone here — the ritual bloodletting, the vision serpent rising, the ancestor summoned from smoke. Her husband, Shield Jaguar, stands in authority, but it is her act that opens the portal. The rulers may have been the descendents of the gods, but the blood brought forth the cosmos. The carvings are not decorative; they are events. I almost expected the Lady to step through them.
We climbed to the Acropolis and with a roof comb still remarkably intact. They weren’t just buildings but the Witz (sacred mountains), designed to keep the king high above the commoners and closer to the celestial gods. Today we walk where only the rulers were permitted to go. In the end, the jungle created a common denominator, it hides its secrets but it also grants access to commoners.
And then to the cache. I would not have expected to find a cache here. Permission seemed unlikely at best. I had an internal debate, there are some places where caching is not appropriate. But I had found another such cache in Tikal — although further away from any specific sites — so that was a threshold that I already crossed. I still wonder whether it was the right thing to do. Probably not, but where is the line drawn?
I had read that a tree may have blocked the way so I turned on a side path too soon. It led up a mound and I decided it was better not to go too far up there. When I returned to the main path our guide was waiting. He looked at the picture and immediately identified where I should be. Even then I thought it must be deeper. If it’s too much of a scramble you should look at things again.
After we returned to the boat and went back to the dock we gave out “captain” a tip. He seemed surprised to get it and got out of the boat to shake both our hands. It’s a poor area. Please be generous.
02/18/2026
