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Published: January 7th 2008
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What do all the guidebooks say about Guatemala? Go straight from the airport to somewhere besides Guatemala City. So, I was a little apprehensive about working in the city. However, I was in zone 10 in a nice hotel with great facilities -- and an amazing breakfast.
I arrived late on Sunday night and exited the airport looking for the hotel shuttle. Just before the exit and pouring out into the street was a large crowd of people awaiting arrivals or looking for their ride. After a brief shuttle ride I arrived at The Westin Camino Real. And - wow - it was cool. Wonderful artwork, architecture, and it even smelled great. After checking-in at the desk, one of the hotel staff walked by and offered me a choice of hibiscus juice or cinnamon tea. Yeah, I was feeling pretty good.
http://www.starwoodhotels.com/westin/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=1075
The next morning I had the buffet breakfast, which happened to be probably the best hotel breakfast I've ever had. Not only did they have full scale offerings (omelets made to order, a good selection of meat and cheeses, juices, a variety of fruit), but also local fare such as a tamale-like food, black beans (regular
and refried), fried plantain, rice, and so forth. They also would make fresh fruit smoothies to order with a decent selection of fruit and with or without yogurt.
Then it was off to work... and boy did I work. Long, long hours. However, we did take a few long lunches at local restaurants where I got to try more of the local chow (I don't remember the names of the restaurants, but great food).
On Thursday night, Luke arrived.
Once Friday rolled around, after working a short day, Luke, I, and my co-workers drove to Antigua. Once there we walked around for awhile searching for a good restaurant and (thankfully) found our way to the Casa Santo Domingo.
http://www.casasantodomingo.com.gt/english/index.html
It used to be a very beautiful convent and now is a hotel/restaurant/historical site. And amazing one at that. They have walkways all through the grounds of gardens, fountains, convent ruins, and the chapel. But before wandering around we sat down for dinner. After my previous trip to Manchester, I was grateful for such amazing food at a reasonable price. The restaurant had stone fireplaces, open air architecture, vines with flowers hanging down all around --
Fountain
Look close at where the water is coming out of... 😊 just flat out cool.
After dinner and touring around Santo Domingo, we walked back to the car and then began searching for a bar that someone had recommended to someone -- not sure. Anyway, we got an education on asking for directions in Guatemala. Basically, if you ask where some place is and they kind of know where it is (but they are not sure), then will give you directions with confidence. If they have no idea what you are talking about, they will still also give you directions -- meaning that after receiving directions from five different people in a period of about half an hour (and going around in circles), we still hadn't found the bar... after which we gave up and headed back to Guatemala City.
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The next morning around 4 AM Luke and I headed to the other airport in Guatemala City and took a turbo-prop plane to Tikal. While we were waiting to board the plane, I was feeling too sleep-deprived and a little uneasy -- and the thought of riding the local turbo-prop airline to Tikal was not helping. I was actually considering backing out (obviously, I didn't know
what awaited me). However, I met a girl named Ramya and we started talking and that put me at ease. Ramya, Luke, and I pretty much made the whole trip together. She is pretty cool and we had some interesting conversations related to travel, charity/non-profit work, politics, and so forth. Lots of great conversation.
Shortly after we landed in hot and humid Flores, I realized that I had little need for my sweatshirt (Guatemala City is at an elevation of almost 5,000 feet... so it is much cooler there). Even in the early morning it was already steamy and heating up fast -- I think it was in the 90s by the afternoon.
We then took an hour or so bus ride out to Tikal. Ramya, Luke, and I ended up having our own tour guide who spoke in English. He walked us slowly through the park and while explaining each site. The culture, religion, education, general history, and mysteries. Tikal was the largest of the ancient ruined cities -- it existed (as a city) for over a thousand years and had about 29 known rulers until being abandoned around the 10th century.
http://www.tikalpark.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tikal
Along
Duckie, Paddington, and Avis
On Temple II looking at Temple I the way we passed numerous large round stones likely arranged for religious purposes -- some which very likely had been used (at least partially) for human sacrifices.
One of the most interesting things about the city, though, was the layers and progression. Just as I can't walk through London without seeing architecture spanning over a thousand years of history (there ARE Roman ruins at the Tower of London), it is the same at Tikal. Tikal was built over time... architecture and purposes for the buildings, symmetry, and other characteristics changed. In one of the main areas, the North Acropolis complex, there are buildings built on top of buildings that were built on top of other buildings.
At the North Acropolis, we climbed up Temple II and also up the acropolis complex. We went up a lot of high steps (maybe two feet high each).
We then made another good walk to Temple IV (the highest and most recent). It is currently under renovation, but we could still go up almost to the top and overlook the jungle and the other temples and ruins peeking up out of the trees.
Along the way was saw many spider
and howler monkeys. The spider monkeys only have four fingers (and no thumbs) for ease of swinging around the trees -- they are moving around almost constantly. However, the howler monkeys mainly lay around and, um, howl... very loudly 😊. While walking through the jungle, their deep and reverberating howl could be heard probably half a mile away (maybe more).
Our tour guide also identified for us many of the plants and how different types were used to heal/treat various ailments. As with other types of herbal/natural treatments, I'm sure some were very useful while others are probably not that effective s. It was interesting to hear all of the descriptions. I also got the impression that our guide could live indefinitely off the forest... he knew what was edible and what to avoid... where to find water... etc. Though, he was born and grew up in Tikal -- and was well educated on top of it.
After the main tour, we had a late lunch and made our way back to the bus. We did see the Aguila Arpia Harpy eagle; our guide mentioned that they were so rare that some people that live in Guatemala haven't
seen them.
http://www.authenticmaya.com/birds__aves.htm
One of the the amazing things was that eagle was perched on a branch about 15 feet overhead and was just looking down on us... perched and watching us. It had been tagged at some point, so maybe its contact with humans had made it more comfortable around us.
The guide then took us back to the bus to drive back to Flores and then fly back to Guatemala City.
Once landed, we decided to take a cab back and ended up with a white taxi --- (conversation with someone at work a few days earlier... "Whatever you do, avoid the white ones... red, yellow... okay... just not white"). This cab was one of the most beat up cars I've been in... Luke and I were both kind of surprised that the thing still worked as everything seemed to rattle with every bump in the road.
At any rate, we made it safely back to hotel. Luke and I both crashed... it was an exhausting, though very well worth it, adventure and day.
At that point, I thought a hiking trip to Pacaya the next day would be out of the
question... but a lot of rest and a good breakfast and lunch changed our minds.
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