Tikal and the end of Guatemala

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  Flores, Guatemala
Thursday, December 16, 2004

We took the bus to Rio Dulce (apparently a pretty town on a river by
the coast half way between Antigua and Flores). It was a first class
bus rather than chicken bus. This means you won't be expected to sit
three across the seat but it does mean you could end up with someone
sitting on the arm of your seat. People will still be sold tickets
to stand in the aisles (although some may bring their own plastic
stools), in addition, because these are long-haul buses, you will
have people selling food and a variety of other entertainment.

01 Rio Dulce - Casa Perico

At one stage we had the lady with the basket on her head selling
tortillas, chicken, vegetable or beef (she makes these to order at
your seat), her son with the bucket of ice and cold drinks on his
head, the suave young man extolling the virtues of ENOs (good
timing) and the twelve year old in the purple satin clown suit and
rainbow wig, singing, dancing and selling marshmallows - all vying to
travel up and down the aisle past the standing passengers.

We arrived in Rio Dulce only three hours after they said we would
and, because it was late and starting to rain, succumbed to a tout
and piled aboard the mystery boat tour to Casa Perico. Casa Perico
turned out to be very like Tranquility Base (an eco-lodge we found in
Vanuatu) and we had been targeted for here because David looks
German (well, tall and blonde anyway)

02 Temple V

. The entire place was a series
of connected bungalows built above the river and surrounded by
tropical rainforest. There was a cat. We considered kicking back
for a day or so to recharge before moving on.

The next morning what you continued to get was rain ... forest, there
was no hot water but there was a bat flying around in the shower.
(Those of you who have seen me on a morning when there is no hot
water will be surprised at how amusing that actually was). We
repacked in plastic pack liners and hit the launch for Rio Dulce
again.

We arrived fifteen minutes after the last bus and two hours before
the next one - it was still raining. We got to stand half the way
(about two and a half hours) to Flores,but this was a good thing
because, without someone standing on it, the engine inspection hatch
would periodically blow off.

Flores was a depressingly dumpy little town, situated in a pretty
lake everyone ignores

03 Tikal spider monkey

. It is the gateway to Tikal, the major Mayan
ruin in Gautemala. It's expensive, ugly, people put up with you only
because you might leave money behind and the person who wrote the
Flores section of the Footprint guidebook clearly hadn't been here.
Frankly a photo of us sitting having a beer on a lakefront terrace
with a rubbish truck parked in the background would have perfectly
summed up the experience. Unfortunately, we didn't think of that
till the truck had moved on.

Tikal has buildings dating from 300BC and was an important Mayan
centre from 300AD to 869AD. The excavated ruins are monstrous, some
rising 70 metres (in a stone age culture) and occupying four and a
half acres. They cover two and a half km2 in a 520 km2 national
jungle park

04 Grand Plaza

. The site is only semi-excavated, and it took about half
a day of scrambling and clambering to realise that the city site is
actually flat and each hill you pass is an unexcavated building.

We set off after a bad night's sleep (memo to self: hotel with room
windows into concrete corridor = cool, but VERY noisy) at 5.00am on
Tuesday to beat the heat and the crowds. Arriving just before 7.00am
it was breathtaking wandering along the paths as the wildlife stirred
and went looking for breakfast. The birds were almost deafening and
every few metres you had to stop dead because every rustle and crack
on the forest floor might mean a glimpse of a mouse deer, coati,
lizard or, even, a puma.

The ruins rise up at you out of the jungle - exactly like a lost
world they are

05 Temple of Grand Jaguar

. One moment you're scanning the treetops for toucans
and the next you can't see the sky for a temple crest. This
sensation, rather than the ruins themselves, is the memory we'll take
from here, and its an impossible one to do justice to in words or
photos.

It's possible to climb three of the temples and the Great Pyramid in
the Mundo Perdido. The first climb, Cave Creek in mind, was the
steep rickety wooden steps tacked onto the side of Temple V (the
mortuary temple to an unknown ruler) at 58 metres (190ft). This took
us above the jungle canopy, to a vista of miles of jungle,
interrupted only by the tops of the other temples. It was a very
tranquil place so early in the morning and Central American spider
monkeys swung by in the treetops below us. David loved every minute
and hated every precarious second. I also climbed the Great Pyramid
(30 metres) but didn't climb the Temple of the Masks to the Temple of
the Double-Headed Serpant at 70 metres - for a short people the
Mayans built some pretty large steps, and it was getting pretty hot
by then

06 Last sight of Guatemala

.

Winding up in the early afternoon, we had another of those 'cultural
differences' moments when the restaurant onsite, despite an apparent
license to print money from the captive audience, served us one of
the better, and cheaper, lunches we've had. Go figure. Then back to
town for an early dinner before another 5am start,heading across the
border to Mexico.

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