Estée KlarThe Joy of Autism

I was in hell with Dante. Yes, my guide was named Dante. He is an anthropologist, studying Mayan culture.  Rio Secreto was only discovered this past year. The Mayans believed in both the upper and under worlds. Two days ago, I visited the tallest Mayan temple, Coba and went to visit the gods of the upper world. In this case, apparently Coba is to honour the honey or bee god — there are about 13 gods of this upper world. I climbed at a fast pace up the steep steps and when I reached the top, a bee insisted on swarming around me despite my attempted swats. Was that a sign?? Was I being greeted by the bee god or being held off??  I’d prefer to believe that the little bee was greeting me a top one of the most spectacular and breathtaking views I’ve ever encountered. I wanted to linger, write on top by the temple, but time insisted that unless I wanted to be sleeping there, I´d better climb down those same steep steps and keep moving.

I walked through the jungle and took pictures of the roads the Mayan´s built — the longest was 62 miles leading from Coba to Chichen Itza. The roads were elevated and were made from crushed sea shells, honey and syrup to keep the mixture together. White, they were built to glow under the moon and the stars so trade could still take place at night.

The following day, I decided to stare hell in the face. It’s the only way to deal with fear, I thought, so what the hell? Adam came with me on this tour and I will have a couple of neat pictures to post when I return home.  Dante was his buddy, guiding him through the most complicated and interesting caves I´d ever seen. Seventy feet below the surface we decended, and we traversed only one kilometer in a system they have discovered now to be about twelve miles. Yet, there’s always more to discover. Adam made it half way through and went back with a friend and another guide back outside. It was a VERY long tour of the dark caves, and I was impressed he had lasted so long. The Mayans didn´t traverse to these depths. Why would you want to be in hell, right? Instead, they made offerings to the hell-gods so they would not come out. Yet down there with the bats, I saw what we do as a people and how we really are interconnected. Roots from trees descend through the limestone, looking for water.  A cigarette you drop on the ground, makes its way down and then becomes part of the caves, or if you want to say, our eco system.  Calcium deposits in the water that take time to form, are disrupted instantly by a touch or oil from our skin.  We don´t recognize our impact on disturbing natural eco systems until we see with our own eyes.

So I was in a Mayan hell, and there was nothing to fear but ourselves. I climbed with my group back to the surface after some time, and the guide told us to turn our hands flat to the side (as if you were pointing with your entire hand). Our fingers touched in a circle. Then, he told us to curve our hands and put our thumbs on top of one another, the circle still formed. And then, he moved our arms in so that are hands, of all different colours, turned in to make a tighter circle, still. Then he said, “there, we are all one.”

It is ironically a similar shape to The Autism Acceptance Project´s logo, but this was more like the look of a mandala. The light was beckoning us to rise out of the hole. I was hesitant. This hell was more beautiful than anything I´ve ever seen.

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