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Mayan Ruin
Pakaxa I thinkThanks to another favour from Ana Lu, we managed to talk our way onto a Guatemalan Air Force plane from Guatemala city to the sweaty rainforests of Peten. We squeezed onto little plane and sat lengthways with our backs to the windows, a pile of bags in the aisle. The windows were covered in white plastic so visability was limited but it was a quick flight and left me far less nauseas than the expensive jumbos!
We had been told to find a pilot named Tenente Julio Ceran at the other end and thank heavens he was waiting for us on the runway! He smartly arranged a small house for us to stay on the base and another pilot called Tenente Estuardo Mendez to be our host. We dropped off our things in the little house kept for the pilots´s families when they visit. Immediately we were taken by a local tour guide whose wife was one of the pilot´s sisters to a lesser known Mayan ruin called Yaxaha, along with a family from Guatemala city.
The jungle was amazing. We drove down a long dirt path to a deserted car park surrounded by rainforest. The insects on the
ground were amazing and we were offered insect repelent by the mother and grandmother of the family. The mosquitos swarmed us as we started to walk into the undergrowth and there were amazing butterflies, leaf cutter ants, bizarre caterpillars and enormous cockroach looking beasties!
The ruins were fantastic, the site was fairly new and most of it was still being excavated. We were totally isolated without any other tourists in sight. We were able to climb all the uncovered ruins, some of the steps were incredibly steep. The views were amazing.
We headed back to the barracks and after a dispute with the tour guide because after being whipped away so quickly, we had failed to note where our house was on the base. We found Tenente Mendez who jumped in and escorted us back and then had a nap. We were woken at 7pm with offerings of dinner in the Officer´s mess, which we accepted. We were joined by Tenente Oscar and after dinner came drinks, and again after drinks came dancing and this time some midnight drunken swimming! It was bliss after walking and sweating in the rainforest and soothing on the ridiculous number of mosquito
ouch
This photo has a dual purpose. Appreciate both the sun burn (oops) and ridiculous numbers of acutely red and swollen mosquito bites bites..... and we had used DEET!
After a rough start Friday morning, we made our way to the mess for breakfast, and then off to Tikal with the tour guide and family from the day before. We were a bit anxious after he had shouted "¿Donde?" at us at least 20 times the day before when we were lost, but as they say here "no importa" all had been forgotten and we were welcomed warmly and asked how we slept etc.
Tikal was completley different from the rest of Guatemala I have seen. There were signs in English and offers of accepting traveller´s cheques and "100% guaranteed Guatemalan handicrafts". The park itself was busy with tourists, Guatemalan and foreign alike. But if you climbed to the top and back of some of the lower ruins, you could imagine you were on your own.
The wooden stairwells up the temples were hazardass to say the least and we seemed to be told jut before we climbed each one, the horrible fall to ones death that had occured only the week before! Temple IV was the highest an amazing, I am hoping to return with Andy when he visits,
How steep?
Most of the temples were really steep and eroded, going up was more fun than coming down! apparently if you bribe a guard you can get into the parkat 4:30am in pitch darkness and climb this temple to watch the sunrise over the forest.
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dad millward
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keep up the good work
i have sent a hard copy of all this to grandma, she is over the moon with it.