Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
AROUND PONCE
The city around Ponce's historic center sprawls with the unsightly blandness of an American
suburb, but navigate the roads into the rural area a bit further out and there are a number of
worthy sights for an afternoon.
Sights
Centro Ceremonial Indígena de Tibes
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE
(Tibes Indian Ceremonial Center; 787-840-2255; Hwy 503 Km 2.2; adult/senior &
child $3/2; 9am-4pm Tue-Sun, closed major holidays)
Puerto Rico owes the discov-
ery of its most significant archaeology site to tropical storm Eloíse, which hit Ponce in 1975
and caused the Río Portugués to overflow its banks. When the floodwater retreated from
local farmland, it exposed the ruins of Tibes, an ancient ceremonial center. The government
quickly expropriated more than 30 acres, and archaeologists, historians, engineers and geo-
logists moved in. To date they have excavated slightly more than 5 acres of the property.
While Tibes lacks the dramatic scale of a place like Uxmal in Mexico, the evidence of
Igneris and other pre-Taíno cultures found here makes it among the most important archae-
ological sites in the Caribbean. The site is in the foothills north of town and is a recommen-
ded way to spend an afternoon.
Current excavations have uncovered seven
bateyes
(Taíno ball courts), two ceremonial
plazas, burial grounds, 200 skeletons, pottery, tools and charms. As you tour the manicured
setting - with its
bateyes
and plaza rimmed by bordering stones (some with petroglyphs) -
guides explain that the first settlers on this spot were Igneris, who probably migrated from
the Orinoco Valley of Venezuela and arrived at Tibes about AD 300. They were farmers and
sought out fertile river valleys to grow their staple crop of cassava.
As part of their cassava culture, the Igneris became fine potters, making vessels for
serving and storing food. Many of these bell-shaped vessels have been found buried with
food, charms and seashells in more than 100 Igneri graves. Individuals were buried in the
fetal position in the belief that they were bound back to the 'Earthmother' for rebirth. Many
of the Igneri graves have been discovered near or under the
bateyes
and walkways construc-
ted by the pre-Taíno, who probably came to the site around the first millennium.
In a tidy
museum
you can see some of the weapons,
cemíes
(deities) and tools that they
used. You will also see some reconstructed pre-Taíno
bohíos
(huts) amid this natural botan-
