Into The Mirador Basin

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How to Remove a Botfly:

A botfly is a parasitic insect, which is common throughout the jungles of Central and South America. It is considered by many to be one of the most disgusting insects in the world. It lays its eggs on a host animal like a mosquito and when the mosquito lands and bites you, the eggs fall off onto your skin and immediately hatch. The larva then crawls into the hole from the mosquito bite, or it burrows under your skin. In its cozy little home under your skin, the larva grows and matures before crawling back out and falling to the ground where it goes through the final process of becoming an adult botfly. You can tell you have a botfly if you notice largish, bumps that look like insect bites, but continue to get larger. The bumps will have a distinct hole in the middle and occasionally you can see a small, snorkel like thing sticking out of it, which is the breathing tube for the larva. If you squeeze the bump, clear fluid comes out. Before the larva can be removed you must first smother it. I read several different methods regarding how to do this. My first aid book told me to smear deet or nicotine over the hole, or if that wasn’t available to use a thick blob of Vaseline - Most information I could find also told me to do it that way, but I have read that in the Amazon Basin the natives will tie an old piece of meat tightly over the hole, which forces the larvae to loosen its grip and crawl out of your skin and into the meat, in search of air. Once the larva is dead, it releases its grip on your skin and you can remove it by squeezing firmly on both sides of the bump, extruding the recently deceased critter with a disgusting, but strangely satisfying ‘Pop’.

The reason that I mentioned the botfly is because I have now had the misfortune of meeting a few of them. Before my trip started, I was of the mindset that getting a botfly would be one of the worst things that could happen to a person in the jungle (aside from the obvious stuff like getting lost and the dreaded candiru). In hindsight, it was an irrational fear, because, unless you have a massive infestation, a botfly is nothing more than a minor annoyance. I ended up getting two botflies, one in my shoulder and one in my calf. I believe I acquired them in the Cockscomb Basin in Belize while I was looking for jaguars, which means they had been traveling with me for several weeks (I only thought I was traveling solo). I had been watching the two bumps for a few days and I was reasonably sure of my diagnosis, so I decided to find out what I needed to do next. I found it mildly humorous when my research lead me to the statement, “the average traveler will never encounter a botfly” - I guess that means I am an above average traveler, at least when it comes to getting jungle parasites! I was heading into the jungle again in two days and I wanted to be in as good of condition as I could be in for the trek, so I decided to try to get rid of my not so welcome guests. I labored for nearly an hour trying to smother them, but they were hardy little creatures and they thwarted my every attempt. I finally gave up and went to bed, but not before smearing a large blob of antibiotic ointment over the holes, mainly because I didn’t want to get an infection. In the morning, I gave it another try and I succeeded in getting the one in my shoulder out and it was truly disgusting - When I squeezed it just popped right out into my fingers, I guess the antibiotic gel smothered it. I was unable to get the one out of my leg, so it was going to tag along on the trek!

In addition to removing the botfly, I spent my last day in Flores getting everything ready for the jungle. I had to go and buy some new rubber boots, because the trail was going to be too muddy for anything else. I also had to send an e-mail back home to let everyone (mainly mom) know that I would be out of touch for a week or more. Walking back from the market in Santa Elena, where I had to go for the boots, I ran in to my friend Simon, who I had been running into all over the place since we met in Campeche nearly two months before, and a few people he was traveling with. That night we all went out to dinner at one of the nicest restaurants in town and I enjoyed the last ‘fancy’ meal I would have until I returned from the jungle - It was a great meal and everyone at the table was rolling with laughter as we shared our favorite stories from the road. After dinner, I headed back to the hostel, put all of my gear that I wasn’t taking with me in storage and then I went to sleep early.

To the Woods!

At five-thirty the following morning I was standing in the narrow cobblestone alley outside my hostel with Thomas waiting for our ride to arrive. When the small red van pulled up, we climbed in and met the third member of our group as we took our seats for the long drive north. Our group consisted of Thomas from Austria, Lucy from Texas and me, plus two guides we would meet when we arrived in Carmelita. We headed down the causeway into Santa Elena and then we stopped at the house of our tour organizer to get all of the supplies for the trip - We picked up a large bag of hammocks with mosquito nets, several five-gallon containers of water, a few overflowing boxes of foodstuff, several dozen eggs, cooking oil and several watermelons and pineapples, the latter of which would supply boundless joy and a little bit of jealousy out on the trail. The road to Carmelita was seventy kilometers of dirt and mud that passed through several small communities and the remnants of the vast forest that once blanketed the area north of Lago Peten Itza. It was a somber way to start a trek through what we were hoping would be pristine tropical forest. In places the forest was cleared just enough to supply the small communities living there with enough arable land to grow the food they would need or to maintain a small herd of livestock and, while it was a sad sight to see, I could understand why it was done. In other places along the road, however, the forest had been cleared from the rolling, hilly terrain for as far as I could see in either direction and the ground was littered with the burned out carcasses of the not so useful trees that were left behind - I cannot, in my wildest dreams, understand the need for such total destruction of the forest, but it must be greed based. Several of the recently deceased stands of trees were burning brightly, filling the air with a suffocating smoke, as the machete wielding men were doing everything in their power to feed the fire with new acreage, smiling as they destroyed their future. I suppose the forests don’t have a chance as long as we greedily insist on filling our houses with furniture made from mahogany, or any of the other lovely hardwoods that can only be found in the tropical forests of the world. I wonder how long it will take before tourists are coming to visit the Peten grasslands and the residents are longingly reminiscing about the forest that once covered their land as they watch their water disappear and their not so productive farms turn into desert? Once we passed into the Maya Biosphere Reserve it got a little better, but we were still greeted by a large pile of freshly harvested mahogany giants when we got to Carmelita, all of which were destined for the furniture stores in the USA or Europe, to be purchased by blind consumers who think it’s pretty. Our little red van came to the end of the bumpy dirt road and we pulled up to a small, simple home next to a small pond and a few sheds. We were greeted by several excited children when we got out of the van and then we met our guide, Marina, and her husband, who would be in charge of the five horses and mules during the trek as well as helping her around camp. We sat down to have a breakfast of eggs, beans, potatoes and tortillas in Marina’s home and we got to know each other while we watched the comical antics of the chickens and turkeys playing in the dirt-floored kitchen, one of which climbed up onto the wood-fired stove to see what was going on. After breakfast we went outside and got prepared for the trek. We got dressed in the clothes we would be hiking in and we put on our rubber boots - I was dreading hiking over 120 km in rubber boots, but, before I left Flores, I discovered that the inserts from my hiking boots actually fit in the rubber ones and they were surprisingly comfortable. We spent about twenty minutes figuring out the loads and packing the mules (I say we, but most of us, me included, were just watching and learning) and then we set off on foot towards El Mirador.

We walked back down the road for about a quarter of a mile, passing the massive pile of mahogany and the giant mechanical monster that was waiting to load the logs on to the next flat-bed truck that came by, and then we turned to the north into the forest. Our group consisted of our guide, our horse tender, the three of us, five horses and mules and a comically hyperactive black dog. At first the going was easy and the trail was dry and we kept up a good pace, but back in Flores we had heard rumors that the trail was flooded and that it was chest deep in places, so we knew it would get worse, we just didn’t know when. We started getting into gummy, ankle deep mud after about ten minutes of hiking and we started hitting the flooded sections of the trail shortly after that. The quick pace we had started with was heavily diminished when we hit the mud and we were further slowed as we daintily tried to get through the flooded portions of the trail, which were only knee deep at their worst, without getting water in our boots. The mosquitoes were swarming in clouds around us, but they were surprisingly not all that annoying as long as we were moving. In one of the flooded sections of trail one of the mules slipped and fell into the water, which brought us to a halt as we removed its load so it could get back to its feet. The stop gave us a chance to get acquainted with the ravenous clouds of mosquitoes and horseflies and our arms flailed as we swatted at them in vain. Thankful to be moving again, we headed deeper into the swampy, insect-ridden nightmare that would be our first day’s hike. We quickly learned neat little tricks like if we stayed to the side of the muddy trails we would only sink to our ankles, where as we would sink nearly to our knees in the center, or the quicker we went the less problems we had with the bugs, so we learned to keep up a rapid pace. The trail followed a slightly undulating route, which meant that at times we were hiking through the swampy mud-holes and flooded trails and at other times we were high and dry, walking down a pleasant, leaf-strewn path beneath the canopy of the giant forest trees. Most of the scenery on the first day consisted of an impenetrable wall of trees on either side of the trail and a canopy overhead that blotted out the sky, but about midmorning we came to a large, reed-filled lake that stretched out to the right side of the trail and afforded us a sweeping view of the sky above the trees on the far shore. Supposedly there were crocodiles in the lake, but we couldn’t find any. We had been on the trail for several hours and we were covered in mud and drenched in sweat when I noticed the first of several manmade stone mounds. The Mounds were completely overgrown and ruined, but they were everywhere. Many of the mounds had the unsightly scars of old looter’s trenches bisecting them. The trenches were dug by artifact hunters who were searching for the prized Mayan polychrome pots and other artifacts, which they could sell on the black market for a paltry fraction of their actual worth, rendering most of the site useless for further archaeological exploration. The site we had found was called La Florida, which was the first of many sites that we would be passing on the trail over the following days. My stomach was starting to grumble and my legs were aching, so it was a welcome sight as we strolled around a bend in the trail and found a large jungle clearing with a few palm-thatched structures - We had reached the guard house and ecological camp of La Florida, which was going to serve as our lunch stop.

Lunch consisted of pre-made ham and cheese sandwiches, which had been smashed into interesting shapes by the horses, but they were delicious and filling. While we ate, one of the archaeologists who was also headed to El Mirador and had stopped for lunch showed us some of the artifacts that had been recently found at La Florida, including some lovely pottery shards and several large spear points, which were apparently what the site was known for. There were surprisingly few bugs around the camp, which made for a wonderful break from the pestilence of the trail, but with lunch finished, it was time to get moving again. Our destination for that evening was the archaeological camp at the ruined city of Tintal, which would take a journey of several more hours to reach. We were feeling great as we put the camp at La Florida to our backs and headed back into the forest.

We had been hiking for less that five minutes when we reached a section of flooded trail that seemed to go on for ever - The fun had begun again! We had to wade through the flooded, swampy trail for quite a while before we started climbing to dry land again, but somehow we all managed to keep our feet dry. Our mischievous dog had disappeared after we emerged from the swamp, but we could hear him a long way off of the trail barking at monkeys and romping through the undergrowth. His barking intensified and started rapidly coming closer to us. Suddenly there was an explosion of movement rocketing towards us through the undergrowth from the direction of the barking. We were all stopped on the trail watching the unidentified creatures run straight towards us. The lead animal was about the size of a medium sized dog, but it looked and moved like a cat. It had a furry black coat with a white patch on its head and around its neck and it had a long, bushy tail. It emerged from the undergrowth and bounded onto a tree less than two feet from me and climbed quickly out of reach from the rapidly approaching dog. A second animal shot across the trail, with the dog in close pursuit, and did a small loop and climbed a tree just before the dog caught it. The commotion was made even more intense when our guide started yelling at the dog to stop. It all happened so quickly that I was still fumbling with my camera as the animals climbed the trees and, since I was more interested in observing them anyway, I was only able to capture a black blur with the camera. When the pandemonium subsided I asked my guide what the animals were and we were told that they were locally known as ‘mountain dogs’ and that they were quite ferocious and easily capable of ripping the overconfident dog to pieces, thus our guide’s concern. I decided the animals must have been a type of jungle cat and the only one that was a reasonable match was the jaguarondi, so I tentatively identified them as such. I later learned that I was completely wrong, because they were not even cats. The animals ended up being tayras, which are members of the weasel family, and are considered to be powerful predators that range from the forests of Southern Mexico and Guatemala, where they are considered a threatened species, down to the forests of the Amazon. After the excitement with the tayras, the rest of the day’s hike was uneventful. We came to a sign for El Tintal that pointed to a narrow trail that branched off the one we were on and we turned onto the new trail - I remember thinking, “I wonder where that trail goes?” and later I found out. The forest for the remainder of the way to El Tintal was mostly dry, but there were still occasional patches of mud to contend with. The dog was continually darting off of the trail, starting large birds into flight or angering large troupes of monkeys who proceeded to bombard us with whatever projectiles they could put their hands on. Occasionally his fur would stand up on end and he would whimper at our feet, continually whining and scanning the surrounding forest with a petrified face of terror - That told me that he sensed something he didn’t like out there, just out of sight, so I paid close attention whenever he did it, hoping to spot an elusive jaguar or ocelot. Several more hours passed and we were still moving along at a quick pace, but the long day of hiking was beginning to take its toll on me and I started paying a little less attention to the beautiful forest scenery that we were passing through and began concentrating on just putting one foot in front of the other. It went on like that for a little while, but then we started passing large manmade mounds and occasional chultuns, which were artificial underground caves that were made by the Maya to store water and food, and I started paying attention again. The sounds of chopping wood started echoing through the forest and we started passing a lot of people on the trail. A little while later we walked into the archaeological camp for El Tintal, bringing our twenty kilometer trek to an end.

El Tintal

El Tintal was an important city in its heyday, having been mentioned as a major power at several other sites throughout the region, but now, as with most of the once grand cities in the Mirador Basin, it is completely concealed in the jungle. Standing in the semi-permanent archaeological camp, it was impossible to tell that there were any ruins at all in the area. The jungle was so dense that it formed a seemingly impenetrable wall of vegetation at the edge of the camp, making it impossible to see very far in any direction. What we couldn’t see just beyond the trees were several large structures, including a massive pyramid that rose high above the forest canopy like a mountain. We sat around camp for nearly half an hour resting our legs and eating one of the delicious watermelons we had brought with us, which re-energized us and got us ready for a quick exploration of the surrounding ruins before dinner - The watermelons also gained us some admiration from the horses and mules, who excitedly gobbled up our leftover rinds with a big smile on their faces. An archaeologist who was working on the site offered to walk us up to the top of the pyramid and tell us a bit about the area. He had been there for several weeks and had a few weeks left before he would pack up and head to El Mirador for a few more months to help out with the massive excavation that was going on there. We were led down a narrow path into the trees, passing the camp’s latrine, and then we started a gradual ascent towards the canopy. We had no problems getting to the top of the first rise, where the ground leveled off into a broad, overgrown plaza, and then we started up an even steeper rise. As we walked we were warned of the presence of the much feared ‘barba amarilla’, better known as the fer-de-lance, which is a highly aggressive and very deadly serpent that that is prolific in the Mirador Basin - Everyone we talked to prior to the trek and everyone that we talked to along the trail considered the barba amarilla to be the most dangerous animal in the jungle. Sadly, we did not get to see one of the serpents during our hike to the top of the pyramid. We reached another flat spot at the top of the second rise where we stopped for a little while to catch our breaths and to take a look around us and then we headed up the extremely steep path that ascended to the top of the massive pyramid. Near the top we passed the unsightly scar of a large looter’s trench and then we emerged out of the tunnel of greenery into the bright, late afternoon sunlight high above the forest canopy that blanketed everything in every direction for as far as we could see. From our towering vantage point we learned about the importance of El Tintal as our archaeologist guide pointed out the city’s other major structures, which were only visible as symmetrical rises in the forest canopy. We could make out a giant plaza that stretched from the base of the pyramid that we were on to a long series of high structures, resembling a long ridge - Our guide pointed out a spot on the ridge-like structure where they had seen a large puma the season before. There was also another, smaller pyramid to the east of the one we were on and there were several other smaller rises, all of which were once grand buildings, but all of the structures at El Tintal were still completely shrouded in jungle. We kept hearing odd croaking sounds coming from the valley that separated the two pyramids and our guide identified them as the call of the keel-billed toucan - The sound was a familiar one for me because of the caged toucans that were living behind my hut in Xpujil in Mexico, but it was still cool to hear in the wild. We scanned the treetops where the noise was coming from and we found a large tree rising above the surrounding canopy that was filled with the brightly colored toucans. It was a beautiful sight, which was made even more memorable when one of the toucans took flight and came up to say hi to us. The bird, which I named ‘Sam’ in honor of one of my favorite childhood cereal spokesmen, landed on a small branch near the top of the pyramid we were on and posed for our cameras, but, once again, I failed in getting a good picture because I was too mesmerized by his beauty. We decided to head back to camp for dinner and as we were leaving our guide pointed out three large mountain-like features on the distant horizon. The largest, he said, was our destination for tomorrow, the massive peak of El Tigre and the ruins of El Mirador, nearly forty kilometers away, and the other big ones were the ancient cities of Nakbe and El Caracol, both of which we would be passing through on our return trek to Carmelita. We cautiously made our way down the slippery slope and back to camp where a dinner of chicken, beans and rice was waiting for us and we sat around the rustic table under the palm-thatched roof of the kitchen area, sitting on sections of a tree trunk and talking with the other people working at El Tintal - It was a great evening! The archaeologists let us use one of their unoccupied tents for the night, saying, “Anything for tourists”, which was the attitude that everyone working out there seemed to have towards us. After dinner I decided to head back up to the top of the pyramid to watch the sun set. I grabbed my flashlight and told my companions where I was going and I headed back down the narrow trail into the jungle alone, followed by one final, “Watch out for the barba amarillas!” I joined a group of young Guatemalan men on the top of the pyramid and we sat there and talked and laughed for about half an hour as we watched the giant, fiery orb descend into forest canopy on the distant horizon as the sky faded from a glowing orange to a dim, purple haze - The evening air was cool, there was a large thunderstorm flashing and booming to our south and there were giant dragonflies swarming all around us, which made for a magical sunset! I said good bye to the men on top and I headed back down the pyramid in to the extremely dark forest below - The men warned me again to be very careful and to keep my eyes firmly on the trail, because the barba amarilla was “muy pelegroso”. I walked back down the trail carefully scanning the ground ahead of me. The shadows cast by my somewhat dim light set the whole forest into movement and played tricks on my mind and made for an exciting stroll through the jungle, but I made it back to camp and my tent without any problems and went to sleep.

The following morning we were up with the sun and we quickly ate breakfast (the eggs were still in good shape despite being strapped to the horses) and we got packed up. We said good bye to the archaeologist and the workers staying at El Tintal and thanked them for their hospitality and then we headed into the forest behind a long mule train that was taking supplies to the workers at El Mirador. We had around forty kilometers of swampy, bug infested jungle separating us from our day’s destination and it was a daunting thought even though everyone said the trail would be better than it was the previous day. We were quickly back into the muddy, flooded trails, but we managed to keep up a rapid pace (we were in mosquito evasion mode). The forest was filled with the noisy chatter from the monkeys in the treetops and the accompanying barking from our hyperactive dog, and the myriad sounds of the forest birds. We had been on the trail for nearly an hour when our courageous dog started back into his fearful whimpering and he was laying it on so thick that we all started scanning the surrounding forest, but whatever was out there remained hidden from us, yet again, and we continued down the trail. We made it to the famous creek that everyone in the forest had been talking about, which was flooded and un-crossable the previous week, but the water level was considerably lower and we were able to get across without any problems - My feet did get a little wet though! We took a little break next to the creek where we enjoyed a package of chocolate covered cookies, which, under the circumstances, tasted like a rich desert from a fancy restaurant and was a real treat! The unrelenting bugs forced us to get going again and we pushed on. After we forded the creek the trail stayed dry for a while, which made the going easy, but then we came to a section of trail that most sane people would want a canoe for. I cautiously started walking into the murky brown water, carefully placing every step and I managed to keep my feet dry for a few steps, but then I plunged in past my knees, inundating my boots and soaking my pants. It was strangely liberating to be soaked and not have to worry about trying to stay dry. I took off through the water like a child in a mud puddle, splashing as much and as loudly as possible, which was a lot of fun and gave my horse-back companions a good laugh. The trail stayed flooded for a long time, but I managed to keep a brisk pace going for a while. We came up out of the water and I drained my boots and started into a rapid march which I kept up until I reached a small clearing where we met up with the archaeologist we had met in La Florida. We stopped for a while and waited for the rest of the group to catch up. The archaeologist told me that the week before the clearing we were in was completely flooded and there were crocodiles there and that the flooded section we had just crossed had some crocodiles in it as well! This small clearing was supposed to be our lunch stop, but the rapid pace we were hiking at put us there at ten in the morning, so we decided to push on to the small camp that the locals normally ate lunch at - We were apparently moving much quicker than most tourists did, which surprised our guides. When ever the trail was badly flooded, which was the way it was for most of the morning, it became difficult to find the trail and every once in a while we would get on the wrong one. Generally the wrong trail was just an old trail that a fallen tree had blocked requiring a new one to be cut around it, but the obstacles generally slowed us down a lot. One of our pack horses was not playing nice when he was in the roped mule train, so he was walking by himself without a guide. The horse stayed with us, but he didn’t know to wait and let the two of us that were on foot stay ahead of him. The horse did know the way to El Mirador though, so when ever we ended up on the wrong trail he would end up ahead of us because he took the correct one. The view of the trail ahead of us was decidedly less attractive when the horse was there and the horse’s slow, lumbering pace slowed us considerably, but the horse did draw the voracious insects away from us - I was behind the horse once when a beam of sunlight managed to force its way through the forest canopy, revealing the massive squadron of mosquitoes that was surrounding the him, but ignoring me! The trail started to rise and the terrain dried out and the forest became more open and then the chiclero type camp that would serve as our lunch stop came into view. There were two long mule trains in the camp by the time we arrived, so the addition of ours mad it a little crowded. We sat down and filled our stomachs with tuna and cheese sandwiches and we talked to the people who were there. Apparently the raised ground we were on was a massive sak’be, or Mayan road, that connected El Tintal with El Mirador. Another mule train, which belonged to the other group of tourists on the trail, arrived at the clearing. This new arrival set the first two mule trains in motion and our guide decided to go along with them on horseback so she could get to the ruins ahead of the other group and stake a claim on the better camping spot. We finished our lunch and got back on the trail, which followed the top of the sak’be for a while. The sak’be was a broad flat rise with slopes on either side that went down to the forest floor below us. We walked along the ridge like ruin for a while, passing a few mounds of rock that were placed in the center of the road like some sort of monument - I wonder if they once supported a stella or statue of some sort? We were high and dry (my feet were still soaked) and the hiking was pleasant, but all good things seem to come to an end and the sak’be seemed to end ahead of us and the trail descended back down in to the swampy lowlands to the edge of yet another deep section of flooded trail. We pushed on through the water and the mud for another hour or so and then the trail started to rise again and ruined mounds started becoming more frequent and then we reached a sign welcoming us to El Mirador. The trail branched in a few directions there, so we waited for our guide and our mules to catch up and he pointed us in the right direction and told us that we still had another forty-five minutes of hiking to get to the camp at the center of the ruins - We were at the edge of the ruins and we had nearly an hour to go before we got to the center of the ruins, which meant that El Mirador was a truly massive place! We were continuously passing larger and larger mounds as we got closer to the city. The trail passed by a steep gully and it was difficult to tell if it was a natural feature or a large man made structure, but it was beautiful regardless. We passed a sign for the archaeologist camp and then we turned and headed down a small slope to a large clearing with a few newer buildings and a shiny blue helicopter and on the edge of the clearing we found our campsite - We had arrived at El Mirador, a place I had wanted to visit since I first learned about it in a National Geographic article nearly seventeen years before.

El Mirador

El Mirador is one of the oldest Mayan Cities, reaching its heyday during the Pre-Classic period, and is one of the largest ruined cities in the Mayan realm. El Mirador also has the two largest pyramids in the Mayan world, one of which, La Danta, may be the biggest pyramid in the world by volume. Archaeological excavation and restoration work is being carried out as part of the Mirador Basin Project, which also encompasses explorations at several of the other major sites in the area including El Tintal and Nakbe. The reason that the Mirador Basin is receiving so much attention is because it is considered the cradle of Mayan Civilization. Apparently the Mayan civilization got its start in the cities of what is now considered the Mirador Basin and, as they exhausted the natural resources surrounding the area and they could no longer find sustenance and building materials, they were forced to abandon El Mirador and the neighboring cities and move to new lands. The warfare amongst the different city-states that defined the Classic period of the Mayan civilization came later, after they got their start in the Mirador Basin, which is why all of the different cities shared a similar language and belief structure despite being enemies - I finally understand how seemingly different enemies, spread out over a large area, could develop identical beliefs, which is a question that has bothered me for years.

We arrived in our camp at El Mirador about mid-afternoon and we quickly got the horses unloaded and organized camp. Once the horses were relieved of their burdens, they excitedly ran out to a patch of dirt in the clearing next to the helicopter and proceeded to roll in the dirt - It was a unique sight: a small jungle clearing with a shiny blue helicopter, five horses frolicking in the dirt and a man riding a horse drawn cart in the background. My first priority, after getting unpacked, was to change out of my rubber, waterlogged boots and into my dry sandals. It had been nearly eight hours since I first filled my boots with water and I was anxious to see what that had done to my feet. Thomas was having the same thoughts regarding his feet, so I wasn’t alone when I pulled off my first boot and sock, amid a flood of muddy brown water, and revealed a pasty white foot that was wrinkled beyond recognition. I was shocked and a little worried at the sight of my poor feet, mainly because I wasn’t sure that they were going to return to their original form, but Thomas’s feet were in the same condition - All we could do was laugh about it! The soothingly warm sunshine made quick work of drying out our feet, but it still took nearly half an hour before they began to resemble the human appendages that we had started the trek with! Once our chores were done we sat down on a log bench beneath a beautiful cerulean sky and enjoyed not one, but two of the juiciest, most delicious pineapples I have ever tasted. It was while we were devouring our heavenly treat that the other group of tourists we had passed on the trail walked into the clearing and plopped down, thoroughly exhausted, on the ground next to us. Apparently they didn’t have any fruit (in fact, it didn’t sound like they had enough food to get them through the rest of their hike), because they sat there and watched us finish off our pineapple with a dejected look on their faces that reminded me of my dog’s reaction when he sees someone eat the last piece of a juicy steak and has to give up all hope of getting it himself - I really felt bad for the group, but there was not enough to go around by the time they got there. Four men gathered around the helicopter taking pictures and shaking hands and then three of them got on board and the rotors started spinning amid the high-pitched whine of the jet engine. The ‘thump’, ‘thump’, ‘thump’ of the rotors became more pronounced as they came up to speed and then the helicopter lifted off of the ground in a cloud of dust and flew through the small opening in the jungle canopy and headed over the treetops towards the south, leaving the forest in silence once again. The fourth man who was at the helicopter waited for the dust to settle and then he walked over and greeted our guide Marina as an old friend. Marina then introduced Dr. Richard Hansen, the head archaeologist of the Mirador Basin Project, to us and we talked for a few minutes before he had to get back to his work - There were over two-hundred people working at El Mirador at the time, so he undoubtedly had his hands full. A few minutes after we talked to Dr. Hansen another of Marina’s friends came along and offered to walk with us to El Tigre.

We headed to the edge of the clearing where a small path disappeared into the jungle. There were actually two paths there and our guide pointed to the larger one and said that it leads to La Danta, about forty minutes to the east, and that we would be going there in the morning. We took the smaller path that forked to the left and after a few minutes along the winding dirt sendero we came to the first signs of the ancient city, Structure 34, and then we came to an even smaller trail. The new trail was a surprising sight, because it went steeply up into the treetops. We had been walking along the edge of El Tigre, but we couldn’t see it from the trail and we had no idea that there was manmade mountain rising out of the forest right next to us. We started up the trail, which was actually a staircase of wooden logs set into the steep slope, and we headed towards the light at the end of the tunnel. We climbed higher and higher, eventually passing the level of the forest canopy surrounding El Tigre, even though we didn’t know it due to the dense jungle cover on the pyramid’s slopes. We got to the end of the long stairway only to discover that it was a false summit, we had only reached the top of the first platform and we could see yet another stairway leading up into the sky. We stopped for a few minutes to take a look around the plaza while we waited for the rest of our group to catch up. There were three separate pyramidal platforms rising out of the plaza, the two smaller ones on the two corners of the eastern edge of the platform, facing each other on either side of the trail we had just ascended, and the large main platform rising out of the center of the plaza up against the western edge and disappearing into the treetops that were growing out of El Tigre’s upper slopes - This ‘Triadic’ architectural style is unique to the Pre-Classic period in the Mirador basin and the surrounding areas. The rest of the group arrived and we started our ascent of the main temple platform. The trail was similar to the first, but it was a little steeper and there was a rope to help us up through some of the more difficult spots. I watched the man that was leading us up the pyramid disappear into the bright white light at the end of the trail and then I emerged from the jungle and joined him on the top of El Tigre. The expansive panorama of endless jungle was impressive. We could see the carpet of green stretching to the horizon in every direction, only broken by the occasional tree-covered, mountain-like features that gave away the locations of other large pyramids in the area and there were several of them, including La Danta, Los Monos and the distant city of Nakbe. It was these ‘mountains’ that lead to the initial discovery of El Mirador back in the 1930’s when an aerial mineral exploration of the area revealed what they thought were volcanoes rising above the surface of the forest. It was a few years later before anyone reached the area and discovered that the volcanoes they had seen were actually the ruins of a once powerful, but now forgotten city and it was several more years before anyone came back to do an archaeological investigation. Just before I reached the top of El Tigre I felt a new and not so pleasant sensation - The botfly in my calf got angry with the added, calf-pumping exertion that the climb had put him through and started moving around and biting me (at least that is what it felt like!) The initial pain was intense and caused me to limp my way to the top where I discovered a small trickle of blood running out of the snorkel hole. I didn’t let my little friend’s activity get me down and he soon calmed down and let me completely enjoy my first sunset from the top of El Tigre. Our small group was joined by the other tourist group and several of the workers and we all sat there on the small platform and talked and laughed as the sun descended amid a colorful display of clouds. We were accompanied again by the squadrons of dragonflies swarming around us in perpetual dog fights that ravaged the ranks of the voracious mosquitoes and left us to enjoy the peacefully cool evening air in a pestilence free environment - A rarity in the jungle. I headed back down El Tigre in the dark and followed the trail back to camp by the light of my headlamp, always watching out for the barba amarilla, which I still had not gotten to see. Back at camp we got a visit from Zack, who was one of the students working at El Mirador that we had met back at the hostel in Flores. We talked about our hike and he seemed jealous because he was forced to take the helicopter due to the trail conditions. He told us of his plans to sleep on top of El Tigre that night and it was our turn to be envious, because we only had hammocks and there was nowhere to tie them up up there - He had a mattress. The night got later and the fire in the cooking hearth started to fade, so we headed out to the hammocks and went to sleep.

I was spending my first night in a hammock ever and I was struggling to get any sleep at all, mainly because I was extremely sore from the day’s hiking and I couldn’t get comfortable. I was in and out of sleep all night and around two in the morning I awoke to the now familiar chorus of the howler monkeys roaring in the forest canopy nearby - I smiled and listened for a while and then I fell asleep again and I stayed that way until six in the morning when I decided to start my day. Everyone was up by seven-thirty and we sat down to a breakfast of granola and powdered milk, which was delicious and then we set off towards La Danta. Another of Marina’s friends decided to accompany us on the day’s exploration. We headed back to the edge of the clearing and we took the larger of the two trails, which led off to the right towards La Danta. It was Sunday and all of the workers had the day off, so we had the ruins mostly to ourselves. We passed Structure 34 again, this time to the right of it, and we headed deeper into the forest. After about twenty minutes we came to a small side trail that was guarded by a termite nest monster, but it didn’t give us any problems as we walked past it to a pair of nicely carved stelae. The stelae were broken, but there was excellent detail in the remaining pieces and they were very neat to see. The man that was showing us around pointed out some primitive writing on one of the stelae and he tried to shine a flashlight on it to bring out the detail - He told us that the details showed up better at night and I decided to return then. We continued towards the east crossing over the remnants of an old wall and then we were on another sak’be which led to the first platform of La Danta - The forest was a lot more open in the area and we could easily see the features that our guide pointed out. I had spent the last several months reading exhibits in Spanish at the ruins and museums all along La Ruta Maya, so I was able to follow what our guide was saying and I could even ask a few questions. Because of my recent experience I occasionally had to act as an interpreter for Thomas, whose command of the Spanish language was as good as mine, but not as specialized when it came to the Mayan culture. Before we reached La Danta our guide walked over to a fallen tree and showed us how we could tell that we were on a sak’be. He pointed out that the roots of the fallen tree had pulled a large chunk of dirt up when it fell and it was easy to see three distinct layers in it: a new layer of top soil, a layer of white lime, which was the ancient surface of the ‘white road’, or sak’be and a layer of the soil that the sak’be was built on - I was a member of the Greater Atlanta Archaeological Society when I was a teenager and I participated in several archaeological digs, which taught me how the distinct layers in an archaeological excavation told the story of the site as well as the artifacts did, so it was cool to see an example of that at El Mirador. We came to the end of the trail and a single, worn stela and beyond it we could see the first of the three pyramid platforms that made up the La Danta complex rising out of the forest floor. A large section of the slope of the first platform was covered with a large tarp and I asked what was under it. He told me that they were excavating the original staircase that led up the platform and he walked us over to it to let us take a look under the tarp. It was the first time that we got to see a well preserved portion of the original structures of El Mirador - It was hard to imagine that these structures that were nearly two-thousand years old and now resembled nothing more than natural mountains could have any well preserved portions left, so it was a real eye opener to see the beautiful section of steps neatly climbing the slope of the first platform in the bottom of the precision hole that was painstakingly dug by the archaeologists. We walked around the stairs and ascended the platform via a log step path, similar to the one on El Tigre, and reached the next platform and the formidable staircase that led to its top. We immediately began climbing and it took a while to get to the top, because it was steep and seemed to go on for ever. I was the first one up the second staircase and while I waited I scanned the plaza. There were four temple mounds and several odd structures at the base of the main temple platform, which seemed out of place, and there was the telltale evidence of a major archaeological project including a nearly continuous tarp running the full length of the base of the main temple platform. When the rest of the group made it to the top I found out that the fourth temple platform and all of the odd structures, which turned out to be residential structures, dated from the Classic period when the ruins were briefly reoccupied nearly five-hundred years after El Mirador was abandoned had fallen into ruin in A.D. 150. We walked around to the right side of the main temple platform and got to see some of the major excavation and restoration work that was going on at La Danta. We could see some well preserved sections of the steps and walls of the main platform and there was a large section of the stone structure at the rear of the platform that was exposed and undergoing some major consolidation and restoration work - We walked along a rickety section of scaffolding hanging out over the steep slope of the second platform, which, in addition to the back of the main temple platform, gave us an unimpeded view all the way to the forest floor below our feet. At the side of the platform there was a large pile of lime mortar and there was a hoist system that ran down to the lower platform, which was used to raise to mortar to the top - The lime mortar that they use at El Mirador was the same stuff used by the Maya to build the original structures, so the restoration work they are doing there will be a true restoration and, when it is finished, it should be one of the most impressive recreations of a Mayan structure ever done. We could hear the faint, scratchy tones of a radio coming from the top of the main temple platform and we could hear laughing and cheering, so we decided to go to the top and investigate. The climb was very steep and the rope was very helpful as we made our way up. At the top we found a small flat clearing about ten feet wide and twenty feet long. There was a small shade tree near the southeast corner of the clearing and beneath the tree sat five men. It was Sunday, but these men still made the long walk and the steep climb to the top of La Danta. It is true that the spectacular view from the top of La Danta would be enough to get me up there, even on my day off, but these men were motivated by a different force - The World Cup. Apparently the only place in all of El Mirador that got decent enough radio reception to allow the men to listen to the games in Germany was the top of La Danta, so there, on the small summit platform of one of the largest and most remote pyramids in the world, sat five men playing cards and laughing and listening to a football game that was happening half a world away - It was certainly a strange place to find a sports bar! The platform we were standing on was a dizzying seventy meters (roughly 210 feet) above the surface of the surrounding forest and, from our vantage point, we had an unobstructed view of the entire Mirador Basin and all of its grand ancient cities. We stayed on top of La Danta for a while and then we headed down to keep exploring. I was half way down when a man called up to me from below and told me to stop and look to my left. After a bit of searching and coaching, and a little imagination on my part, the man led me to the remnants of one of the giant masks that flanked the stairs of La Danta in the days of the Maya. It was definitely hard to see, but once I stood back and stared for a while I could make out the skeletal structure that made up the nose and a few other features - The detail work would have been done in lime stucco and it was all gone. The man climbed up to where we were and pointed out a few more details and then we made our way down to the excavations at the base of the temple platform we were on. With a chuckle, the man told Marina that her dog was the first to ever climb La Danta. While the dog had no problem climbing it, his courage was faltering on the way down and we had to continually coax him towards the bottom. Marina surprised us all at the bottom when she pulled out a pineapple and began to cut it up - We had no idea that she had brought it along. The man, who ended up being one of the archaeologists working on La Danta, climbed back down with us and he explained more about what was going on there with the excavations while we all enjoyed the pineapple. The man offered to show us a portion of a stucco mask that he had uncovered during the previous season. He told us that we were not allowed to take any pictures of it since it was still considered a new discovery and had not been revealed to the world yet. We left our cameras sitting on the wall of one of the residential rooms and we followed him around the corner of the temple platform and under the tarp. He pointed to a spot on a wall and told us to stand there and then he went around to another entrance to the tarp and climbed down into the pit. He pulled a small plastic cover off of the wall and revealed a nicely preserved portion of stucco with some very detailed carvings. The mask was not complete, but the portion that was remaining was in perfect condition and it was a joy to see. We climbed down into the excavation and got a closer look at the mask while the man pointed out the different layers that were evident in the excavation walls, including the original plaza level at the time of La Danta’s heyday. A well preserved portion of wall had been uncovered and he told us how they were able to take what they knew about the well preserved lower walls and extrapolate it up the rest of the structure, thus learning what the temple platform originally looked like. While the man was pointing out how we could tell the differences between the original Pre-Classic construction and the later Classic period construction, he stopped in mid-sentence and said, “Wow, take a look at this!”, and he pointed to the back side of the wall he was standing next to. I stuck my head around the wall and there was a giant scorpion sitting in the shade. I grabbed a small piece of wood and coaxed the scorpion on, so I could bring him out into the light for everyone else to see. Coaxing the giant scorpion (think ‘Clash of the Titans’) onto the board was no problem, but keeping him from getting to my hand required a lot of quick movement, swapping my hands from one side of the small board to the other as the arachnid scurried up and down the small piece of wood. The scorpion finally fell to the ground and landed by my sandaled feet, which required some more quick movement, and then he ran into the leaves and rocks and disappeared. We walked back around to the front of the main platform where we were hailed by a man who was sitting on top of the northern platform of the triadic group. I unfortunately didn’t catch his name, which has been a shamefully reoccurring theme on this trip, but he was introduced as one of Guatemala’s most famous artists and he was busy working away on top of the platform - I must find out who he was so I can see the work he has done at El Mirador. We were thoroughly enjoying ourselves at La Danta, but we only had one day to explore El Mirador, which was not nearly enough time, and we had to move on.

We headed back down the pyramid and along the shady path through the jungle from whence we came. Our guide came to a stop at a turnoff and a sign that pointed to Guacamaya and asked us if we wanted the full tour or only the quick one. We told him we wanted to see everything we could and he smiled and led us down the path towards Guacamaya. Guacamaya was a small pyramid mound and wasn’t overly impressive as compared to La Danta and El Tigre, but what made Guacamaya a must see was the mother of all looter’s trenches, a trench about two feet wide cutting its way halfway through the pyramid from its base all the way to the top - It was a trench that I remembered seeing in the National Geographic article so long ago. We donned our headlamps and we headed into the narrow trench towards the center of the pyramid. The walls got taller, the trench got darker and towards the center of the trench we passed under a large scaffold and then we were in the heart of the pyramid. Our guide pointed out a small piece of a painted mural that the looters had dug through and then, at the end of the trench, he pointed out a small door frame with some more paintings - I wonder what the looters found there. We sat outside the trench for a while talking, but the mosquitoes finally forced us to get moving again and we headed back down the same trail towards camp - I found out later that they were planning on filling in the trench to help preserve the structure, but I think they should use some proper shoring and leave the trench intact as a reminder to future generations about the damage that can be done by looting. We headed up a small log stairway that led to Structure 33, which was being aggressively excavated and had some impressive and intact stucco still adorning the walls, floors and stairs. From there we headed across the trail to Structure 34. We headed first to the base of the temple platform and a small door covered by a blue tarp awning. We each selected a hardhat from the colorful pile sitting on the steps beneath the tarp and we headed through the doorway into the darkness of the tunnels that penetrated into the depths of the temple platform of Structure 34. The tunnels, similar to the ones I explored at Copan in Honduras, were dug by the archaeologists so they could study the earlier structures concealed within the newer façade while retaining the integrity of the later structure. The tunnel was just wide enough to walk through without turning sideways and it was tall enough to walk upright in most places and it was very dark. We walked a short distance into the darkness where we came to a small stone wall with nicely cut blocks and a small opening through it. We all stooped down and went through the hole in the wall and on the other side we found another passage running perpendicular to the tunnel we were in, along the outside face of the original structure. There was a decently preserved mask near the opening in the wall down a short section of tunnel and in the other direction the tunnel disappeared around a corner. We followed the bending path of the narrow passage until it ended and along the way we found a nice section of well preserved stairs leading up into the rubble. We took lots of pictures and then we decided to continue our explorations outside. On the way out I noticed a large section of a polychrome pot sitting on a stone that was jutting out of the wall - It is a wonderful thing seeing nice artifacts without the protective glass that most museums have! We emerged from the darkness of the tunnel into the bright, early afternoon sunlight and we took a few moments to let our eyes adjust before we continued around the corner and up the stairs to the top of Structure 34. I had not read much about the recent work at El Mirador, so I was completely blown away when I reached the top of the log staircase and laid my eyes on the temple at the top for the first time. There was a perfectly preserved set of stairs, which led up to the ruined temple on top, and a large, well preserved mask to the left of the staircase. The stucco coating was nearly completely intact and everything was gleaming bright white in the sunlight that was filtering through the giant, open-air polycarbonate roof that was protecting the structure from the elements. I was amazed by the structure. I don’t know if the stucco coating was partially restored or not, but the temple was one of the most impressive structures I have seen in the Mayan world - I was told that the professional restorer at El Mirador won’t accept anything short of perfection, which means that the excavation and restoration at the site will take several decades, but if the final results are similar to those of Structure 34 then El Mirador will stand as one of the most impressive ruins on the planet! We stared in awe for several minutes, but we still had another major structure to see before it got dark, so we headed back down the log staircase and towards camp. We grabbed a quick lunch and some more water in camp and then we headed a few minutes down a narrow path through the trees to the pyramid of Los Monos. I was feeling surprisingly energetic and I decided to run to the top of the first temple platform, which was not as tall as La Danta or El Tigre, but was still a formidable climb (the rest of the group thought I was crazy!) Near the top my little friend decided to mount his biggest protest yet and the intense pain that was coming out of my calf nearly made me stumble down to my knees, but I managed to limp my way to the top. The botfly kept its protest up until I had reached the top of the main temple platform and sat down, thus relieving the stress on his little lair in my leg. We were joined on top by the other tourist group and we sat there talking for a while. The view was nice from the summit, though heavily obstructed by the trees that towered around most of the top platform. We sat on top of Los Monos for a long time, but we decided that we wouldn’t be able to see the sunset very well from its summit and we all decided to head over to the top of El Tigre for our second sunset from its top. We ate dinner in the dark and then we headed over to the archaeologist camp to see the 3D map that the surveyor has been building over the last few seasons - We had a long conversation with the surveyor earlier in the day and he had invited us over. We walked through a maze of semi-permanent tents and then we found the open-walled lab area and several of the archaeologists, including the surveyor and the guys I had met in Flores. They welcomed us in and we all started talking about the happenings at El Mirador. The map was amazing and made me think that the surveyor had one of the best jobs in the world - Surveyors are lucky, because the surveyors I met in Antarctica seemed like they had ‘the’ best job in the world too! We also got to see a lot of pictures of other finds in the Peten region, including a large group of newly discovered murals, which were not yet open to the general public, and a picture of the surveyor in a looter’s trench holding up an intact polychrome plate that somehow got left behind by the looters - If they decided to leave the plate behind then they must have found something else of unfathomable beauty to take in its place! We stayed at the lab for nearly an hour talking to everyone. Zack showed us a preserved barba amarilla that they kept in a jar at the lab, which looked mean even in its lifeless form - It was to be the only barba amarilla that I would get to see in the jungle! It was getting late so we decided to head back to camp and more adventures in the dark. I had decided to return to the stelae that we had seen earlier in the day and I was unable to persuade Thomas to go with me (he was headed back up El Tigre), so I headed into the dark jungle alone. It didn’t take long before I was hearing noises in the treetops above me and when I looked up I discovered a large group of spider monkeys staring down at me with glowing eyes as I passed beneath them. I made my way deeper into the eerie darkness keeping a lookout for the features along the trail that I had memorized to let me know it was time to turn. My headlamp was setting the forest in motion as I walked and it was difficult to tell the real movement from the shadow movement, so I had to pay close attention. I passed Structure 34 amid a chorus of croaking frogs. From time to time I heard crashing coming from the surrounding forest, but the animals making the crashing noises were not the animals I needed to worry about. I was hoping to see a cat so I continuously scanned the trail ahead of me and the forest to my sides as I moved, but those were not the animals to be worried about either - It was still the snake that had to be watched out for and, yes, I was hoping to see one of them too. I finally reached the saw-cut root that was partially blocking the trail and signified the nearing of the trail to the stelae. It ended up being a lot further than I remembered it would be and I nearly turned back once, but as I passed the termite mound monster that guarded the trail I was happy that I had persevered. I quickly set up my tripod, because, after all, I already knew exactly which picture I wanted to take. I set the camera up for a long exposure and I bathed the stelae with light from my flashlight and my headlamp. I tried several variations of lighting between the yellowish light of my flashlight, the blue light of my headlamp and a combination of both - I had a lot of fun with it. Our guide from earlier was correct regarding the necessity of seeing the carvings at night, because they were spectacular with the high contrast between the light and the shadows! I had taken several pictures of both stelae and I decided to head back to camp and my hammock. The walk back was fairly quiet, but the insects were out in force, drawn to the dazzling blue light of my head lamp, and there were a few giant bats that were engrossed in a thrilling dogfight around my head - I could feel the swoosh of air as they did their high-speed flybys, but they never hit me and they did keep the larger insects at bay. I also had a short conversation with a beautiful lizard I found playing in the leaves. I quietly slipped back into camp and got into my hammock and quickly dosed of into a comfortably deep sleep. I didn’t stir again until the sun shed a soft blue light to the early morning sky.

I was the first person up the following morning and I walked around the area listening to the birds and watching the sun come up. At breakfast I learned that Lucy had not heard me come in after my hike and that she had spent a portion of the night worrying that I was lost in the jungle - I guess I was too quiet! After breakfast we all helped pack up and load the horses for our journey to Nakbe. We watched as all of the workers gathered in the clearing to discuss the day’s activities and then they started heading into the jungle in small groups. We set off with one of the groups and we hiked with them most of the way back down the trail to La Danta, but then we turned down a narrow leaf strewn trail and put our backs to El Mirador. We didn’t have far to hike to get to Nakbe, but the trail was not a regularly used one and we had to do a lot of trail clearing and route finding and the going was slow. The trail wound its way between the ruined mounds of some of El Mirador’s outer structures for nearly an hour. The forest we were hiking through was lush and beautiful. Most of the trail was dry, but we did encounter a lot of water in places. We passed several groups of monkeys while we hiked beneath the towering giants of the ancient forest and we spotted a few other animals out of the corner of our eyes, but we weren’t close enough or didn’t see them for long enough to identify them. We reached a straight section of trail that seemed to stretch on forever and the entire thing was flooded, but when we emerged from the swamp we started seeing ruined mounds again. The forest started to open up a little and then we walked into a large group of ruined buildings and then into the main plaza of Nakbe. We had been hiking for three hours and we hadn’t passed another person and, in fact, the trail seemed like it hadn’t been used for quite some time - It was a wonderful hike though!

Nakbe

Nakbe, like El Mirador and the other great cities of the Mirador Basin, dates from the Pre-Classic period, but excavations have shown that Nakbe is much older than the others. The structures at Nakbe are not as large as those at El Mirador, but they are of a similar style with the Triadic groups at the top of several of its large pyramids. There have been several excavations at Nakbe over the years, but currently the archaeologists are focusing on its large neighbor to the west, where we just came from. Other than a few vigilantes (guards), we were the only people in Nakbe. We made quick work of unloading the horses and then we set up camp next to an established kitchen area. While we were setting up camp our horses started making trouble with the guards’ horses, which made for a humorous show, but we ended up having to separate them. I dug my sandals out of the burlap sacks that were holding all of the cargo and I decided to head up to the top of the large pyramid that our camp was next to. It was a huge pyramid, but it only took me a few minutes to ascend the three temple platforms to the open spot on top. I stood there and looked back over the forest that separated us from La Danta and I marveled at the seemingly long distance that we had covered in our short day of hiking. I could have stayed up there all day surveying the endless blanket of forest and soaking up the warm sunshine, but my stomach started grumbling to remind me that I had lunch waiting for me below.

While we were eating lunch Marina disappeared and when she returned she said that the head guard wanted to show us around. We met the guard next to his cabin and we set off through a clearing that he said was a helicopter pad that the archaeologists used when they did excavations there. He then pulled out an old, tattered map of the site and helped us get our bearings. We were told that only three of the pyramids had trails to the top and the rest were unexplored and off limits - The climb up one of these pyramids would be somewhat treacherous without the log stairs and the damage that could be done to the structure itself could be huge, so I didn’t mind that they were off limits. It was immediately apparent that Nakbe didn’t receive many visitors, because the network of trails that wound its way around the site were a little overgrown and strewn with fallen branches. We headed straight for a large pyramidal platform on the west side of the plaza and we began our ascent. At the top I noticed that there was only one temple platform, there was not a Triadic group like on the other pyramids in the area. The guard also pointed out another feature that was a little unusual - There was a small room at the top of the pyramid. To see the room, which had been disturbed by looters in the past and was partially missing, the guard showed me how to lower myself down over the edge using the trunk of a small tree for support. The view from the top of the pyramid was spectacular, which made it a nice place to stand and talk a little about the ruins, but the other structures were beckoning us and we continued on. As we headed deeper into the forest our guide pointed out a strange hole with an attached cover that was usually the home of a large spider, but it wasn’t home and we continued on. We passed between several large structures, including one of the off-limits pyramids, and then we stopped at a much worn jumble of rocks that was once Nakbe’s ball court. The guard told us about the tunnels that were dug all over the site by the archaeologists, but, after he had gotten my hopes up about getting to see more tunnels, he told us that he had to stop taking visitors in them due to an over abundance of nasty little biting creatures. We climbed another large pyramid, which had a Triadic group on its summit, and the guard pointed out a few interesting spots on top before we made our way back down. The trail came to a small thatched hut that was concealing a small round stone that the guard said was the only known stela at Nakbe. We had been dousing ourselves with liberal amounts of deet ever since we left El Mirador, but it didn’t seem to bother the thick cloud of mosquitoes that called the thatched hut home and we all had to make a speedy retreat to prevent them from sucking us dry. We stopped at a well preserved group of buildings that made up one of Nakbe’s residential areas and we explored the moss covered ruins for a few minutes - Our guide pointed out a filled in window that used to shed light on the inside of one of the now roofless structures.

A few minutes down the trail the guard turned to me and asked if I had a flashlight and, when I said I did, he asked if I wanted to go inside a chultun, which I excitedly said yes to and he smiled and led us down a small side trail - I had wanted to go inside a chultun, which is a lime coated cistern that was built by the Maya to store water and occasionally food, since I saw my first one at Labna back in the Yucatan. My desire was further fueled when I read about John Stephens’ explorations in the chultuns at Uxmal, but I had written the desire off as a pipe dream due to the heavy restrictions in place at most ruins that are open to the public. We came to a stop at a small clearing and the guard asked me to help him remove the cover. We set to work removing the large, moss-covered stone disk that fit snugly over the small round opening in the ground - He told us that it was the original cover for the chultun and that he left it in place to keep the snakes out. With the circular stone out of the way I stared down into a small black hole in the green ground and wondered if I really wanted to go in. There were several large millipedes crawling all over the straight walls of the limestone collar that I would have to climb down and, for words of encouragement, the guard told me that the animals I would see inside would not hurt me as long as I didn’t touch them, but that they had a nasty bite! I was faltering, but then I remembered the excitement I had initially felt when I found out I was going to get to go in a chultun, which reignited my explorer spirit and I approached the edge, took the guard’s hand and allowed him to lower me through the small opening into the darkness below. My feet landed on a firm surface a little more than six feet down and I knelt down to take a look inside. My eyes were accustomed to the bright sun that was filtering down through the forest canopy, so I was completely blind at first. I closed my eyes for a few seconds and then I was able to discern a few steps leading down from the one I was on into a small circular room about ten feet in diameter. I went down the steps and heard a large ‘crunch’ as I stepped down on the floor. I walked around the edge of the wall and the crunching continued until I came to a small hole at the base of the wall. When I shined my light on the opening something large quickly moved out of the way, which startled me and sent me scrambling back to the opening in the roof. The guard saw me down there and he let out a maniacal laugh and slid the cover back over the opening with a grinding thud - I was trapped in a small hole with an unknown creature and, to make matters worse, my light was fading! I went back down and tried to find something long enough to push the stone out of the way, keeping a close eye on the mysterious hole in the wall. I grabbed what turned out to be a bone and, after a close inspection, I discovered the crunching sound I had been hearing was coming from several skeletons that littered the floor. My light faded to black and then I heard the labored breathing of not one, but two creatures as they lumbered their way towards me in the darkness. I frantically started beating my flashlight on the ground, seemingly in vain, but then the light popped back on and I saw… OK, that’s not what really happened! After my eyes grew accustomed to the dim light in the chamber I decided to grab my tripod from outside and get a few pictures of the inside. The floor was flat and swept clean with the exception of a few branches that had fallen in from the forest floor above and the walls, which were still coated with the original lime mortar, slowly curved inward at the top forming a dome-like ceiling that ended at the circular opening I came in through. I didn’t see any of the small biting animals that I was told would be in there (the guard was surprised), but it was still everything I had hoped for! I spent about ten minutes down in the hole and then I climbed back out of the small opening, assisted again by the guard’s strong arm. Nobody else wanted to go inside, so we replaced the stone disk and we headed back to camp, stopping briefly at a small stone quarry that still had a few blocks that had been cut out and were waiting to be placed.

Back in camp we passed our time watching the antics of the large group of monkeys that lived in the treetops above us and we played with a few very odd looking insects, including two hairy caterpillars that our guide said were very dangerous. I also paid a visit to the latrine. The only reason I mention it is because it was one of the most pleasant bathrooms I have ever used - It had a thatched roof and its walls were completely open to the forest, but it was hidden from view by a large ruined mound that separated the latrine from camp. Just before dinner the guard brought Nakbe’s guest register and asked us to sign it. The entry before ours was a month old, which confirmed our suspicions that Nakbe didn’t get many visitors - We only counted a handful of groups that had been there that year! Thomas was flipping through the pages of the register when he said that another person from Austria had been there recently - I looked and discovered the name of a friend of mine who I had met in Oaxaca during Semana Santa - We had talked about doing the El Mirador trek together, but he was traveling a lot quicker than I was and it didn’t work out. We climbed back up the big pyramid next to camp and we stood there with a few of the guards and the usual cloud of dragonflies and we watched our fourth sunset in as many evenings from the top of a two-thousand year old pyramid above an endless blanket of jungle, bound only by the purple-orange sky above - I will miss the sunsets! On the way back to camp I found a small snake, but it shot off of the trail before I could identify it - Its fearful nature was contrary to what has been said about the barba amarilla, so it was most likely a non-poisonous variety. We had a very long day of hiking ahead of us, so we all hit the hammocks early and I soon drifted off to sleep. Late in the evening the vast quantities of water I had consumed that day necessitated another visit to the latrine, but when I got there I discovered that it was in use - There were three or four cockroaches the size of my foot congregating on the seat and I decided to wait until morning!

We were up with the sun the following morning and we packed up and said goodbye to Nakbe and headed down the long winding trail to La Florida. With only a few exceptions the trail was dry all day and we were able to keep up a brisk pace. The undulating path wound its way through the ancient trees for hours on end. We were continuously passing through ruins, some nothing more than a few small residential buildings and others with giant pyramids and temple complexes that were nearly completely concealed by the forest. One of the larger structures we passed that day was a big pyramid, but it didn’t protrude above the canopy, which told me that there still may be a few undiscovered cities in the area (the ones with the giant pyramids have likely all been found). The trail was not a well developed one like the ones we took to El Mirador, so we were constantly pushing our way through tangled vegetation and fallen trees. The monkeys filled the canopy nearly every step of the way and our dog had to continually be shushed as he excitedly barked the day away. We stopped for lunch at a very small camp that was in a severe state of disrepair. We quickly discovered why it was seemingly abandoned - The mosquitoes there were worse than any I had ever experienced and they made our previous bouts with the mosquitoes seem pleasant in comparison! After lunch the sky clouded over and a large thunderstorm rolled in, but very little rain filtered down through the treetops so we managed to stay fairly dry. The trail headed into a series of natural ridges and ravines and the scenery was spectacular. We passed a few more lakes and assorted camps and then we came to a familiar fork in the trail. The sign said El Tintal and pointed down a small path - It was the same trail we had taken five days before! We hiked for a little while longer and then we strolled into the ecological camp of La Florida, which was our lunch stop on our first day and was our stopping point for the day.

La Florida

We were exhausted, so we quickly got unpacked and sat down to relax. We enjoyed our last watermelon with the guards who would be sharing their hut with us that night and then we ate dinner as the sun began its descent. Thomas and I spent nearly an hour trying to coax a large black and red tarantula out of its hole, but we were unsuccessful. We sat and listened to the forest come to life as we watched the sun set amid a blue and pink explosion of color and then it was dark. We sat around the dieing hearth talking for a while and then we all went to sleep. Our last day started early as we packed our horses for the last time and headed into the forest. We had decided the night before that we would take a little time to explore La Florida before we headed out, so we turned down a small trail that branched off of the main one. La Florida seemed to be made up mostly of small residential structures, because we didn’t see anything else. We came across a giant Ceiba tree, which was the symbolic ‘tree of life’ for the Mayans and is the National Tree of Guatemala. The tree’s buttressed roots went well over my head and made for an impressive sight. We continued walking and, after a short distance, we came to the only excavated structure at La Florida - Structure 1. The structure was a standard, but well preserved residential structure with an intact tomb. What made the structure impressive was the thick blanket of green moss that coated its walls and floors and the large trees that grew out of its top giving it an appearance of being a room built into a hill. We walked through the structure and found out that our guide had helped excavate it nearly twenty years before, so it held a special place in his heart despite its simplicity. We posed for a group picture amid the ruined walls of the structure and then we headed down the trail towards Carmelita. The mud and the flooded trails we had followed on our first day had dried out due to the lack of rain and the hiking was easy. We strolled back into Carmelita around nine in the morning amid a welcoming comity made up of Marina’s excited children screaming, “Mommy!” We got unpacked and we changed out of our muddy trail clothes that we had been wearing for the last six days and then we sat and reflected on our trip while we waited for our ride back to Flores.

My journey to El Mirador was everything I had hoped and dreamed it would be and it stands as one of the most enjoyable experiences I have had in the last four months of traveling. I had set out to do a long journey through a ‘real’ jungle and, despite the initial corridor of deforestation that we had found on our way to Carmelita, we discovered a large swath of pristine tropical forest to play in that was rich in animal life and history, one that engulfed the borders of three different nations and that couldn’t easily be crossed on foot in less that two weeks. I couldn’t have asked for better companions on the trek - We all got along great and had similar desires regarding what we wanted to see and do and our guides were great people who were well loved everywhere we went, which undoubtedly opened some doors for us that may have otherwise been closed. Despite the muddy conditions we had encountered, our guides said that the trail was actually in good shape and, being the beginning of the rainy season, we had been lucky to not receive any major rain. All of the guide books say that the trek to El Mirador is a difficult journey through nightmarish, bug-infested swamps and forbidding jungle and that it shouldn’t be undertaken by the faint of heart. I completely disagree with the guide books on that point and I am a little baffled how anybody who has done the trek could write about it in such a way. It is true that much of the trail is a sloppy mess and that the voracious insects will have their way with you every step of the way, but the rewards far outweigh the hardships and, with a little effort and the proper mental attitude, most of the hardships are laughable - I have never been on a trek that could be done in complete comfort and the journey to El Mirador was no exception! One of the major goals of the Mirador Basin Project is to protect the ruins and the forest from the total destruction that is befalling most of the tropical forests of the world. It is a formidable goal that will rely heavily on tourism as a means to both fund the project and to replace the income that will be lost if the local communities can be persuaded to stop harvesting the natural resources like mahogany and strive to leave the forest intact. Marina told us of a plan to start developing some of the ruins around Carmelita that can be reached in short day trips from where the road ends. There are also plans on the table to build a narrow gage passenger/cargo train into the forest to facilitate an inflow of tourists and supplies. The explorer in me dislikes the idea of putting a train through the jungle, but the realist in me realizes that the endless mule trains, as wonderful as they are, are taxing the forest in an unsustainable way since the mules will only eat a certain type of leaf which will get harder and harder to find, and if tourism is boosted above the paltry level it is at now it will require more horses - The train would certainly be a better solution than a road, because, as the ride to Carmelita proves, a road would doom the forest to a short lived fight against the machete and the saw. I hope a solution can be reached that will allow the forest, the animals and all of the ancient cities that lie beneath its canopy to remain as it is, to be enjoyed by us and those that come after us.

The little red van that was to be our ride to Flores pulled up to Marina’s home and we said our farewells, climbed in and headed towards the south. A crack of thunder signified the approach of a large storm and, as we passed the dwindling pile of mahogany at the edge of town, the heavens opened up and an epic deluge turned the dirt road we were traveling on into a muddy river and it stayed that way for the entire journey to Flores. The rain had kindly waited for our journey to end, but the next group, who we met that evening in Flores, would not be so lucky!

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Photos

Stela in the Night
This is what prompted me to do a long night hike through the jungle alone at El Mirador. The carving is not complete, but you can still make out the lower jaw gripping a serpent.

Leading the Horses
This man was incharge of the horses and at times he had his hands full!

The Lake
This reed filled lake was supposedly filled with crocodiles.

A Looter's Trench
Apparently back in the 60's and 70's looting was a major problem in the area and just about every structure we passed had at least one of these trenches dug through it. This one was at La Florida.

A Tayra in a Tree
My one photo of the tayras we saw on the trail. If you look closely you can see a small black blur above the bend in the tree, which is the tayra's tail.

A Ball of Dung
This dung beetle was laboring hard to get his prize off of the trail and out of harms way.

El Tintal
This was the cooking hearth at the archaeologist camp at El Tintal, where we spent our first night.

Mushroom?
These odd fungi were occasionally spotted on the trail, but I am not sure what it was.

A Fork in the Trail
This is what a large portion of the trail we were hiking on looked like.

Marina, Our Guide
The horses came in handy for getting across the flooded portions of the trail, of course, I didn't have one.

El Mirador
Here is the clearing that we called home at El Mirador. The helicopter didn't spend the night.

The Light at the End of the Green Tunnel
This was the trail that we followed to the top of El Tigre, one of the giant pyramids at El Mirador.

On Top of El Tigre
This was my first sunset from the top of El Tigre.

The Termite Mound Monster
The termite mound monster guarded the trail to the two stelae that I visited at night.

Under the Tarp
These are the steps that lead up the first platform of the La Danta Complex. We used the log steps for our ascent.

The Second Platform
These are the seemingly endless stairs that led up the second platform of La Danta.

Lime Mortar
This is the stuff that used to coat the structures throughout the Mayan world. They are using it in place of concrete to restore El Mirador.

The Hoist
The workers use this hoist to bring the heavy stuff up to the top of La Danta.

Me on La Danta
Here is a picture of me on top of what may be the largest pyramid in the world by volume.

The Sports Bar
These men hiked the forty minutes to La Danta and made the steep climb to its summit on their day off because it was the only place they could get good enough reception to hear the World Cup games from Germany.

The Endless Forest
Another view from the top of La Danta.

Capturing the Perfect Shot
Thomas was taking some great pictures thorough the trek. Here he is capturing yet another perfect picture.

The Hyperactive Dog
The first dog to ever climb La Danta. He climbed well, but the descent had him a little shaken up.

La Danta
NOTE: This is not a scholarly or artistic representation of La Danta, but I think it portrays well enough what the pyramid may have looked like. Please see the National Geographic article for a better representation.

Guacamaya
Inside the looter's trench at Guacamaya. The looters dug straight through the painted stone.

The Mother of All Looter's Trenches
Looking out from the heart of the pyramid.

Outside Guacamaya
I remember seeing this trench in the original National Geographic article.

The Tunnels of Structure 34
We had a colorful selection of hardhats to choose from before we went inside.

The Mayan Underworld
Inside the archaeologists' tunnels beneath Structure 34.

The Opening in the Cut Stone Wall
This is the small hole we stooped through to get to the tunnel that ran along the old outside wall of an earlier structure.

Structure 34
This is one of the most impressive structures at El Mirador. The excavation and restoration work going on here will take years, but the final product should be spectacular.

Structure 34 (2)
This is the mask on the left side of the stairs. It is not intact, but it is still impressive.

Praying Mantis
This little praying mantis was just hanging out at Structure 34.

A Doorway to the Ground
It looks like a portion of the room is missing on the other side of the door. The temple is not as complete at the stairs.

Los Monos
This is a view of La Danta from the top of Los Monos.

The Second Stela in the Night
This is the other, less impressive stela that I did my night hike to.

Posing for the Camera
This little lizard posed for the camera and let me get real close.

A Jungle Trail at Night
The problem with hiking in the jungle at night is that it is difficult to tell the difference between the trail and not the trail!

In the Hammock
The hammocks were not that uncomfortable once I learned how to sleep in them.

Lunch!
These chickens spent a lot of time eating the giant horseflies off of the horses' legs. They became good friends.

A Toolbox Meeting
This is the pre-work meeting for all of the people that are laboring to explore and restore El Mirador (say that quickly five times!)

On the Trail to Nakbe
The jungle has a lot of strange and beautiful sights if you look for them.

On the Trail to Nakbe (2)
The jungle has a lot of strange and beautiful sights if you look for them.

On the Trail to Nakbe (3)
The jungle has a lot of strange and beautiful sights if you look for them.

On the Trail to Nakbe (4)
The jungle has a lot of strange and beautiful sights if you look for them.

On the Trail to Nakbe (5)
The jungle has a lot of strange and beautiful sights if you look for them.

Me at Nakbe
This is the view from the top of the first pyramid I climbed at Nakbe. The small bumbs on horizon are La Danta and El Tigre (or Los Monos).

Triadic Groups
It was difficult to get a picture of all three pyramid platforms on top of the pyramids, but is is the saddle between the main platform and one of the smaller ones.

A Pyramid
This is what just about all of the pyramids in the Mirador Basin look like. There are very few restored or excavated structures out there.

A Blanket of Green
The forest's canopy stretched to the horizon in every direction.

On Another Pyramid
I am standing on top of the small room that was at the top of this non-triadic structure at Nakbe.

The Stela and the Mosquito
This is the only stela that has been found at Nakbe and it is now home to a bunch of mosquitos.

The Doorway to the Chultun
The round disk of stone was concealing a small circular opening that was a chultun. We made quick work of moving the disk out of the way.

Another Dream Come True
This is a picture from the inside of a chultun, which is a small circular cistern that was coated with lime mortar and used to store water and food by the Maya.

Muy Pelegroso
Our guides told us not to touch this one because he would instantly make us sick.

Nakbe City Center
This is the camping area at Nakbe. The structures in the distance are the guards' huts.

Pestilence of an Epic Scale
The horses had it a little worse than us, but not much.

A Strangler Fig
These trees grow up around another tree and use it for support until it is strong enough to support itself and then it kills the other tree.

On the Trail Home
The trail was a lot less developed on the trail to La Florida.

Yummy!
I think this one will make you smaller.

La Florida
This was one of the most colorful sunsets we had, but there was no pyramid to enjoy it from.

La Florida (2)
This was one of the most colorful sunsets we had, but there was no pyramid to enjoy it from.

Will You Come Out and Play?
We tried for a long time to coax this tarantula out of his hole.

An Owl-eyed Butterfly
This guy posed for the camera - He was the sise of my hand.

The Tree of Life
This is a giant ceiba tree with its magnificent buttressed roots.

Structure 1
This is the main sight at La Florida. One of our guides helped excavate it several years ago.

A Group Shot
This is the last picture! I know, way too much writing and way too many pictures, but I couldn't tell the story any other way.

Comments

[anonymous]

You Had Me Going Son!
I was quite relieved that you weren't really in a black hole with unknown creatures approaching. I had already started packing my bags to go find the guide that trapped you in there! As far as your adventures with creapy crawly things, I'm not surprised. After all, I did used to find frogs in the pockets of your jeans! Carry on bravely, Son of Mine. Love, Mom

[adrienne]

great story!
what a great find! a great read and wonderful pics. i really love the fungus ball.

[Mike Reed]

Great story
Keith, your story is an exceptionally good one! Thanks for going into such detail and telling about all of the incredible adventures you did as well as your feelings. It got my blood flowing just thinking about it. I too have been into the Mirador Basin (seven times now) and have seen many of the sites numerous times as well as having explored other sites you did not get to. Xulnal and Wakna are among my favorite sites. You can do a day trip from Nakbe to La Muralla, to the north and you will be rewarded by an incredible high wall covered with life sized stucco figures of Maya kings dancing. It was exquisite! Again thanks for reviving my memories. A well-written story. Mike