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Published: December 26th 2007
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Have a Merry Christmas and another beer
Gallo, a beer brand in Guatemala, sponsored this cheesy moment We left Chichi at 5 am, taking a chicken bus for Guatemala City. It arrived from Quiche already packed so we had our bags thrown on top of the bus and we stood in the aisle, hanging on for dear life as the driver swerved around hairpin bends. People sat 3 to a seat with the one in the aisle hanging off the edge. This left a space between the rows of 6 people for one person to stand. It was strangely civilised. I (Rae) ended up at the back and could barely keep my footing as we were launched over speed bumps. 3 hours later the hellish ride was over. We took a taxi to the Fuente del Norte bus terminal and brought a ticket for the 9:30 am bus to Santa Elena, the immediate neighbour of Flores. We had seat numbers so we were happy. This was a slightly more modern bus, not what we would classify as a chicken bus, but picking people up on the way we ended up with a boy holding a chicken standing in the aisle next to us. His mum had a basket full of chicks. So this was our first official chicken
bus. And it smelt bad. It was a 9 hour trip, we arrived after dark and took a taxi to Flores. The driver was great, he suggested some cheap places and we ended up at Posada de San Jose, on the north side of the island, and it was a bargain at Q$100 (US$13.33) a night with cable TV and a view of the lake.
We had visited Flores almost 3 years ago and we noticed the difference. They had finished the gateway on the causeway and made a lovely promenade on the south side of the island. Last time the streets had been chaotic, in disarray as they were being paved. Now, the roads on the island were all nicely finished. More of the buildings were painted brightly and everything seemed tidier, more polished.
We investigated doing some tours to places we hadn't visited before but finding it all quite pricey we decided just to visit Tikal again. This time would be different. We booked the sunrise tour. It was Q$250 (US$33.33) each but Q$150 of that was the entrance fee to the site. We were picked up at 3:30 am in quite a comfortable mini bus
and dozed on the hour long trip to Tikal. As we passed through a village our attention was drawn to a church when firecrackers went off. 4 am and the church was packed and for some reason all that noise was necessary. Who celebrates anything at that time of the morning??? At Tikal we were collected together with another bus load of people and were sorted. Some people didn't have the entrance included and one American complained he wasn't told about the additional Q$10 fee which he assumed was included. Paul, an Australian paid Q$300 for his tour. There were definitely some cowboys in town. We went through San Juan travel who owned some of the buses and had no problems.
Leaving with a number of guides and security guys with torches we were immediately pausing as we heard a crash behind us. A bunch of Spanish people without a torch had lagged behind and one had fallen in a hole. She was OK but shaken. We had a torch and hung back to help them. Lots of people didn't think to bring torches. It was eerie walking through the site in the dark. Flashing torches around we got
glimpses of the temples which seemed to jump out at you. As expected, we climbed Temple IV .. the same rickety steps as 3 years ago. It was just starting to get light as we reached the top and sat quietly on the steps. These steps were not here 3 years ago and a platform had been built or rebuilt to support the huge amount of foot traffic which had eroded the previously existing stone work. We waited and soon the forest started to come alive. The Howling Monkeys started up with their haunting calls and birds started to sing. But although it was getting lighter we did not see the sun or any colours. Slowly the structures started to emerge from the mist. We saw Temples I, II, III and the Pyramid before the mist swallowed them up again.
We split into groups. Ceasar took the largest English group and he was great. Lots of stories and a sense of humor with an American accent. He was really interesting and we followed him to the Pyramid and Temple V and the Gran Plaza. Arriving early was fantastic for the bird life. We saw lots of toucans. We also
greeted some Spider Monkeys. Someone asked Ceasar about the Mel Gibson movie Apocalypto and he said that some bits of the movie were accurate, some not accurate and some borrowed from the Aztec culture like the heads being chopped off and rolled down the temple. He didn't believe that people were kidnapped from villages to be sacrificed because the gods would consider these people unworthy. They really only wanted important people sacrificed.
Finishing the tour, we were on a mission to see the corners of the site we missed last time. First we headed north taking Paul with us for a while, but he returned to catch the first bus back. His ticket was taken from him in the morning and he was worried he would have to pay extra without proof of being on the tour. We found the remote Group H up a steep, slippery hill and found lots of monkeys around the back. We saw more monkeys as we trekked back to Temple IV and even more on the exit path from the Temple of Inscriptions which we took a 1 km detour to the south to find.
It was a bit strange but quite
The steps of temple 4
These were pretty dodgy 3 years ago. We could see that they are building a new staircase on the other side of the temple. refreshing visiting a place we had been before. Everything for the last 9 months had been completely new. Flores was the place that gave us the inspiration for our long trip through Latin America 3 years ago.
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Margie
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A well worth trip
What I like about yu guys was that you did not give up in spite of the mosquito bits and the smelly trips and the rough rides. I do not think I would be able to take that nine mile trip. Wow! Rae you are good girl. You have a good constitution. Keep it! Yes when you hear them cry out "Flores a Flores" in that sing song voice - look out if your constition is not strong then do not get on that bus. You did very will guys on that trip. I know that Pieter had enjoy it inspite of all the harrassment because he saw those ruins. I could see that the trip was well worth its goal. You went and got where you wanted to go and saw what you wanted to see. May I add this comment to you PIETER - you've got one of the most fantastic wife. She follow you anywhere and that is very good. She enjoys your pleasures. I admire her a lot. Hats off to you RAE to make travel trip a success.