Howling at monkeys in Tikal
Trip Start
Jun 14, 2008
1
8
93
Trip End
Jun 20, 2009
Flores,
Guatemala
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
The day began with an ungodly and breakfast show like start of 3.30am. This was in order to do the so called sunrise tour. I am a sucker. Tack the word sunrise or sunset onto any tour and you can charge me extra for it. You'd swear the bloody things couldn't be seen for free every day. Anyway, I digress. The park is an hour and a half by bus from the little town we were staying in, Flores, hence the early early start. During the bus ride I nearly poisoned the entire bus with the noxious fumes of our mosquito repellent which earned me one of Emmet's famous teacher looks. Not good. Things began on a bit of a sour note then when the guard at the entrance to the park screwed us out of an extra 100 quetzals by claiming I'd given him only 205 instead of the required 300
Sunrise shrouded in mist.
. Not smallchange considering the entrance per person was 150 quetzals. I tried to put it to the back of my mind and not let it ruin the day. Grrrr...
In order to see the aforementioned sunrise our guides marched us frantically through the jungle in the dark, no thought of life or limb, up to the top of the highest temple, Temple Four. And then we waited. And waited. And nothing happened. I think it got vaguely brighter. Too much mist to see the sunrise. I think its unusual to get a good sunrise given the time of year. I don't think it's unusual for gringos like us to be suckered into buying the sunrise
tour. The temple also has alot of scaffolding at the top at the moment which kind of ruined the effect a little. Still it was nice to catch our breath over the jungle canopy and listen to the birds and monkeys rousing from their slumber.
From a somewhat shaky start it was onwards and upwards. We didn't fork out for a guide for Palenque but we did for Tikal and I'm glad. Our guide called himself a monkey guide and it soon became apparent why. He could imitate the call of howler monkeys and attract them over to us. Which was fun but also somewhat treacherous as they like to break branches and throw them at tourists' heads, or sometimes if you're really lucky they will throw their poo at you too
They partially restore temples
. Fortunately we managed to avoid any monkey mishaps while our guide brought us around the park. Alot of the buildings have yet to be excavated because they want to preserve the jungle around it. The site has UNESCO world heritage and nature status, it's quite unusual to have both. Our guide worked in the park when they originally
started excavating the place so he had a great insight into the whole development of the site, as well as the story behind it. The have also done the place really cleverly leaving buildings in 3 different stages - still covered in jungle so you can just see the mounds, excavated but untouched and then excavated and restored. It may not have the polish or some of the sites that are fully restored but I think the way the Guatemalans respect and want to preserve the jungle is very fitting of the Mayan culture and way of life. We didn't see a single hawker peddling tacky souveniers all day either. It doesn't look like they are allowed inside the park, which is also a refreshing change from sites we visited in Mexico.
So all up a very enjoyable day and I'm glad to report liberal and paranoid use of the mossie repellant meant we suffered hardly any bites despite fellow travellers warning us we were going to get eaten alive
Temple gazing
.Travellers Tips
Make sure if you get quoted a price for a tour you check if admission to the park is included. Admission is 150 quetzals.
This time of year I´m not sure you´ll get a good sunrise but we still thought it was worth paying for the guide. Plus the park was fairly quiet and cool at that time of day as well. Plus you never know you could strike gold.
Most important, make sure you count your admission money out in front of the guy at the ticket office at the entrance to the park. It´s really dark, just candle light, so it´s really easy for them to claim you´ve given them a smaller amount. I´m sure we´re not the first people they´ve done it to and we are 100 percent certain they ripped us off because we didn´t even have the denomination they accused us of giving them.
Also in Flores, La Luna restaurant does a killer steak. It´s not mega cheap but it won´t break the bank either. We went back 2 days in a row!
