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Published: September 26th 2010
The crew, Tikal
From each temple, the others stand out across the jungleFrom El Estor we are heading for Flores, in Northern Guatemala. We start the day with perfect timing as just around the corner from our hotel we find a public micro bus passing by that happens to be going our way - to Rio Dulce. Its amazing how many times that has happened on this trip. Back to busy and hectic Rio Dulce, where we help a couple of tired distraught English girls trying to get to Copan (Honduras) after a chain of mishaps and lack of access to money.
We locate a 'second class' bus for us which is heading for Flores. The bus is super full so we stand in the aisle for the first few hours, until eventually enough people get off for Tessa and me to get a seat. Its no problem standing, but Tessa and Keith are too tall to see the landscape out the windows, so sitting saves a bit of a crick in the neck! With still plenty of people standing, the bus stops at a security and fruit checkpoint. Everyone files off while the police check the bus and luggage and then to our amazement everyone patiently files back onto the bus
Pausing for a drink
Perfectly timed watering hole and each person courteously takes exactly the same seat or standing spot as they had before!
When the bus arrives in Santa Elena we need to get to Flores, an island in the lake with access across a causeway. We do some negotiating with a taxi driver, tuk-tuk driver and finally another taxi driver to get the best price for our 5 minute trip. The first few hotels we try in Flores are full, but then we find a room in another one. It seems like a good room but we soon realise it has a shocking shower - literally. The electric heating unit on the shower head isn’t wired correctly and it delivers a bit of a blow while you attempt to clean yourself!
The small island of Flores is a very tourist friendly place with narrow cobbled streets and plenty of hotels, restaurants and shops. In this place we are surrounded by the most tourists (local and foreign) that we've seen in all of our time in Central America. This is the gateway to the famous Mayan ruins at Tikal and a centre for exploring a lot of other attractions in the Peten area.
It
Grand Plaza, Tikal
Me and Tessa hanging out seems extra hot here, so a dip in the lake is called for and more fresh fruit and licuados located. We find a local restaurant with Mayan food on the menu, so Keith tries the yucca and salsa, but Tessa and I are still feeling a bit off, so Mayan vege soup hits the spot. Local kids are playing soccer on a basketball court next to the parque central, providing plenty of entertainment, interrupted every now and then by the ball bouncing off down the steep steps beside the court.
Next morning we're up early for a 5am departure for the dawn light at Tikal. We're almost there when our bus gets a flat tyre as we enter the park. Luckily its a slick turnaround and in a few minutes we're on our way again and reach Tikal itself.
The ruins of the city of Tikal are spread across a huge area (16 square kilometres), so getting a feel for it involves a lot of walking through jungle. This area was originally swamp, but had no hurricanes or earthquakes, had plenty of timber and other building materials and the location was central for trade. The Mayans built the
city with stone and wood, possibly starting around 400BC (more than two thousand years ago). Thousands of people lived here until about 900AD, with the nobility in the central area and the peons on the outer edges. They painted in bright colours and used sunlight to make the city the 'bright lights' and hub of the Mayan world.
Our guide is Luis, a very knowledgeable guy with a talent for imitating howler monkey calls - a skill which passes the test immediately, judging by the eerie responses across the jungle from the real thing. There are thousands of structures here, including some huge stone temples over 70 metres tall, and we climb to the tops to check out the view (sometimes via quite rickety steep wooden steps). From high up there we hear the weird calls of the howler monkeys and we spot the tops of other temples in the distance above the trees.
The ruins are not as ornate as those we saw at Copan in Honduras which is known for its detailed carvings, but there are so many structures here at Tikal, covering such a large area and only a small portion of the ruins have
been reclaimed from the jungle. There are many impressive structures and the buildings were apparently aligned with the movement of the sun and moon. The Mayan cities were also aligned wih each other and they communicated betweeen them via smoke, mirrors and flags.
From carvings in the stone they believe that one king stood 1.8m tall with a huge quetzal headdress, 30lb of jade and other ornaments, jaguar skin skirts and thick platform-type shoes. He wore an ornate mask, and when he stood with the sun behind him in the early dawn his shadow in the plaza below formed the movement of a snake. Quite impressive!
As well as the howler monkeys we see spider monkeys, agoutes, coatis and lots of birds including toucans and toucanets and brightly coloured wild turkeys. Luis even tempts a tarantula out of its hole in the ground. It's beautiful big and hairy and I get to meet it up close!
We've chosen the perfect day for checking out such a popular tourist destination - World Cup Soccer final day. By midday most people are watching the game and we walk for hours with this famous area to ourselves, soaking up the
Look - a coati!
Its scavenging for food the people have dropped atmosphere and searching for more wildlife. What an amazing place!
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