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Published: November 15th 2005
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The Expedition
Members of the excursion from left to right: Jason, Jordan, Ryan, Martin, Chris, Alex (Guide) and David. Well I had received several emails from home asking whether I was back from the expedition safe and sound, so rest easy because I´m OK. I had some trouble publishing my last entries before departing for the jungle so I hope everyone read those OK. Sorry to all my devoted readers who are struggling with my spelling mistakes, I blame my lack of formal education, these keyboards, lack of Outlook for spell checking and time constraints on the pay computers.
I´m not sure who sent the anonymous comment about the filming location of Raiders of the Lost Ark (which is in Tikal thanks) but I didn´t opt to pay a tour guide so no, I did not know that.
So, let´s talk about the expedition for awhile. We left last Monday morning at 6:30 even though it was scheduled for 5:00 AM, these delays happen down here that´s just the way it is! Members of the expedition were:
- Myself
- Jordan
- Ryan
- Chris (Indiana/Colorado/Michigan)
- Martin (Norwitch England (I hope I´m right!))
- David (Olympia Washington)
- Alex (our Guide from Carmalita)
- Mama Cook
- Mama Cook´s daughter (Natalie I think it was)
- The beastmaster (tended to the mules)
Plus, four
Staff
Additional members of the expedition (relaxing of course) on the left was the guy who mastered the train of beasts that accompanied us, and on the right was our guide! pack mules carrying hammocks, mosquito nets, food, water etc. Two additional mules, one the beastmaster rode, the other our cook.
First of all, for more precise information on distances travelled its best to read Jordan´s blog because he brought his GPS and took readings, alltogether though the whole thing was well over 100kms by foot.
Day one consisted of knee deep mud, I guess this wasn´t too suprising since they mentioned lots of mud, however the type of mud was rather frustrating, it was almost like clay, really heavy, never fully drying out and extremely heavy. The bugs were suffocating, anytime you stopped there would be clouds of mosquito´s everywhere. It took us awhile to get our rythym since we were all wearing cheap rubber gum boots (or as Martin said ¨Welly´s¨). Mine were way too small, and all of them filled with mud a few steps in since the water/mud level was higher than the tops of our boots. Nobody brought the stuff they were supposed to, communication between the coordinator and us was not good prior to departure. We really didn´t know what we needed beyond a change of clothes. I have no day pack so
Morale
Day five and morale is still holding out strong! I just brought an extra shirt and my rain jacket, along with my camera and headlamp. Everyone else brought more. Three hours in I changed to my shoes that were comfortable but obviously not as waterproof as rubber boots. Didn´t really care though because my feet would be wet and dirty either way, at least they should be comfortable I thought.
End of the first day I was tired, we walked in the dark for quite awhile, Dave had trouble seeing since it was dark, his glasses were fogged and had no light, he hurt his ankle pretty bad but we made it to camp late but in one piece. Everything I brought was drenched in swet, I crawled into a string hammock with a mosquito net full of holes and was absolutely ravaged by bugs (Jord has a sick picture of my thighs the next day). Probably 2 hours of sleep at most.
Day two we woke up (I was in a terrible mood) to start our hardest day. More mud but 8 hours of it. We started off fine, had almost no lunch (pineapple and crackers) and I was exhausted before long. More bugs, swamps, fatigue
Gum Guys
Deep into the jungle we encounter the guys who create chewing gum! etc. We got to the camp and I just colapsed in a hammock. We set up and ate dinner, I think we were all in bed by 8 at the latest.
Day three was great, my first blisters popped and we got to see all the ruins. Totally amazing looking out into a sea of jungle from above the canopy of trees. We saw everything there is to see, all the temples and sights of the ancient city, we got to see all kinds of projects underway and the dig sites. We could walk right into the Mayan tunnels and pick up their spearheads and old bowls. It was pretty awesome since hardly anybody makes the trip into this area and most of the people who do are studying it all. We caught sunset on El Tigre the biggest temple in the Mayan biosphere.
Day four we walked to Nakbe and saw more temples, even better tunnels and a really nice camp to spend the night. It was only a four hour walk and no mud! One or two small lakes we plowed through but nothing like the clay mess we were used to. Had a great time
Salmon Toe
Probably my worst blister but at least my toe didn´t fall off! in Nakbe!
Day five we headed on another 8 hour trek to Florida, the first camp in the area where we stopped briefly on our first day. We were temped to go all the way back out to Carmalita since it was only 2pm at this point. However we had to wait for the mules so we could get more water. We knew the last three hours would be awful since it was the muddiest of the muddiest. As it turned out the guide decided against it so we stayed here. We repaired some blisters and fantasized about elaborate meals we didn´t have. This was the last day of food!
We went to bed early after getting donations from another group of hikers who didn´t have what it took to make it the six days so had lots of extra food after turning back early. This was welcomed by the dominant tribe since we were all really hungry!
Day Six we woke up and headed back to Carmalita! We made it out safe and sound, some ticks probably, plenty of mosquito bites and stagnant water but hopefully I´m OK. The mosquito´s were malaria mosquito´s but after asking around its really low risk and we´re on Larium anyways which is a pretty powerful anti malaria drug.
Showered lots since returning, no more ticks from what I can tell. My foot is swollen though from blisters but I´m going to try and keep off it. It sucked I only had one pair of socks for 6 days!
Anyhow, at this point I wanted to summarize as much as possible, but I´ll try to add to all this later. Best part of the trip was succeeding and getting to the end, but also the comraderie between all of us, we had some great laughs (especially at the animal part fighting game Martin invented) and killing ourselves by talking about awesome food we didn´t have. Long discussions about the beastmaster and the mules and great times had by all.
If I did this again I´d take a day pack and bring what I needed!
I have posted what pictures I could, I have lots but can´t post them all. I have a really good video taken from the Danta temple with all the howler monkeys going nuts if anyone would like to see it please email me.
Our guide was really awesome and I would highly reccomend him, if anyone does this trip (or any other out of Carmalita) please let me know and I can pass him on as he could probably use the work.
Finally, there are a lot of other details that I need to properly document in my journal because I didn´t bring it with me on the trip and really need to catch up with my writing. I would have liked to spend more time writing about all the facts we learned on our mayan expedition about each temple, site, etc. But I want to read some books on it myself just to relate the names and places to what I saw and took pictures of.
Guys from the expedition who are reading this don´t forget to email me with any inconsistencies!
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Ray
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Vid
Thanks for all the details. Sounds rough. If you can send me a copy of the video, it would be cool to see what kinds of animals you guys are experiencing. Keep writing, I really enjoy it. Take care of yourselves.