Semi-spur of the moment, I decided to take a trip down to Guatemala, to see the Mayan ruins at Tikal. Did a bunch of research on the internet and booked two nights at La Casa de Don David, in El Remate, and one night in Flores, book-ended with two travel days on Continental via Houston.
The internet research also engendered in me a slight case of trepidation, because a lot of the information is about the high crime rate in Guatemala, and more specifically, about crimes against tourists, and even more specifically, crimes occuring in and around Tikal. The travel warning section in the US State Department's travel section is enough to make the easily scared want to stay home! But go I did, and I'm back writing this travelogue with only good memories of superb sights and friendly people.
This trip was a quick trip -- 2.5 days actually on the ground somewhere other than in an airport, but because a lot of activity was packed into that time, it was quite fulfilling. First day arrived at lunchtime at the Flores/Santa Elena airport, a small, one-building, walk-to-the-plane type of place. Warm and sunny. A perfect start. Met by a pre-arranged taxi that took us 1/2 hr to El Remate, a small village 1/2 way between the airport and Tikal. The hotel, La Casa de Don David, has evolved over its history to be a very comfortable, good value for money place. We stayed in the newest wing, the rooms with a/c and hot water. Decent beds and generally well maintained. The hotel has an open air restaurant, and staff advertised to "speak broken English perfectly"; in fact, they speak it quite well, but always let you try out your broken spanish without making you feel foolish.
Because, after settling in and eating lunch, it was too late to do any organized activities, we strolled into El Remate, which is essentially a one-road village, to look around. Saturday is apparantly the day for the local kids to play organized soccer, so we sat down to watch, and our cameras attracted some of the young kids in the vicinity. One little girl in particular, Rachel, who was the first to instigate social contact, was very cute. A little Spanish goes a long way to being more welcomed too -- when we initially stood around watching, some people looked at us, but only when I ventured, in my broken spanish "when are they going to start playing?" that they offered to let us sit down (making space on a bench otherwise full), and of course, asking "how old are you?" to little kids is always an ice-breaker.
So we sat and watched until halftime, entertained by the game (both teams were local, mixed age, but one team was much stronger; by half-time, it was 4-0) and the kids. We took our leave, rested a bit, then went to have a stroll on the shore of Lake Peten Itza, a very large lake that stretches between Flores and El Remate, which are 1/2 hr drive apart on a good road. El Remate also overlooks a wildlife preseve, Cerro Cahui, whose profile looks like a crocodile head, and which provided a nice backdrop to the setting sun.
Dinner, then early to bed, since we had had little sleep the night before on the short red-eye from SF to Houston, and also because we were to be up at 5am the next day for the tour to Tikal.
We had arranged a so-called sunrise tour of Tikal, but this is a bit of a misnomer. Unless you are staying at a place within the Tikal park boundary, you cannot get into the park before 6am (and would probably not get to the top of any temple before 6:30, long after sunrise). Our tour was guided by Juan, a 23 yr old from Guatemala City. He ran a superb tour, giving a lot of insight into the Maya, the site and the flora and fauna of the area.
From the visitors center, we went to Complex R, at the northern end, where we climbed our first (minor) temple, then we walked through the jungle to Temple IV, which is in the midst of being excavated and restored. Except for the central plaza of Tikal (the area around and including Temples 1 and 2, all other temples are partially excavated -- the main side, and one corner are fully excavated and restored, while the rest is left either in the state of being just excavated, or with restored volume, back to the original state. This allows you to see how the jungle had made the temples into mounds of tree and vegetation covered earth.
Temple IV has a nice view of the central part of Tikal. It is climbed via a series of wooden steps/ladders.
After Temple IV, we walked to El Mundo Perdido, so-called because it reminded the original explorers of the Arthur Conan Doyle book "The Lost World". This area has a non-Mayan temple, and a set of Mayan structures that track the equinoxes. The view from the top of the temple was great -- this is the tallest temple that is climbed by means of the temple's stairs.
We next visited Temple 5, the most recently renovated temple, being opened in 2002 after several years of work by a group of 50. It has the steepest slope of any of the temples and is climbed by wooden ladders. Needless to say, a nice view from the top
After this, we walked to the main residential area of the Mayan nobles, and crossed through to see central Tikal, the fully excavated Temples 1 and 2, and, lots of people. Because we were in shoulder season, and had started early, we didn't see very many people on the trip so far, which had been about 4 hrs up to that point, but the main part (it also being Sunday) was much more crowded. A few foreign tourist groups, but mainly groups of central american visitors. Not clear whether they were all Guatemalan; certainly could have been a fair share of tourists from Mexico or other surrounding countries. Because the central plaza is fully excavated, and the jungle has been removed, it is quite impressive. Temple 2 is available to be climbed (again, but wood stairs).
After a bit of lunch, we made our way towards the vistors center, and on the way, saw some toucans
Because there was still quite a bit of time until the bus to return, we decided to talke to Temple VI. The internet stories about Tikal invariably mention that because Temple VI (and some even mention Temple IV) are outside of the more heavily travelled area of the park, that the paths could be dangerous (i.e. banditry), and I, at least, was a bit anxious walking down the path to Temple VI. It's a decent walk and I was half expecting bandits to jump out of the jungle at any moment, but none did. Temple VI is certainly a bit anti-climactic compared to the other structures in the park, especially after a semi-long walk, but it's worth the walk to say you've done the whole park.
Back onto the main exiting road back to the vistor's center, we were passed by an ATV staffed by the tourist police, and I chatted to the couple who was taking the tour with us about how things must be more safe now. He related this story:
They were staying in Belize and were on a side trip to visit Caracol, a Mayan site in interior Belize. They were on a road being trailed by two other minibuses; a sort of impromptu convoy. They stopped for a pee break and were passed by these two vans. Later, they found out that these two vans were stopped sometime afterwards, by bandits, and robbed. Since they had also read of incidents on the Belize-Tikal road, they were having 2nd thoughts about coming into Guatemala, but of course, came in anyway.
To cap off our trip to Tikal, we visited their two small museums and then waited for the minibus out of the park. We were taking the minibus back only to the park entrance, however, because we were going to take a canopy tour. This isn't so much a canopy tour as an adventure ride down various wire ziplines while attached to a rolling mechanism via a harness. The way it goes is this (once secured into the harness, and high up a tree trunk): get clipped onto roller after some instruction about which hand does what, and how to brake, then sit down into the harness to suspend yourself off the platform, then get pushed down the wire. I didn't go first, and watching the first guy, it looks like he goes pretty fast. I'm slightly anxious. I'm next. I get pushed off and find that in fact, it doesn't feel that fast at all, though I do come in a bit hot and come onto the platform with a bit of speed still and have to get physically stopped by one of the guides (one guide goes first, to catch; the other goes last after sending everyone off).
But soon, I'm getting the hang of how to brake. The end guide gives you a signal as to when you should start to brake, so I watch for that, but soon am able to slow down just right so that I stop just as I'm standing upright and balanced on the platform. By the last but one wire, the guy doesn't even bother to be ready to catch me. "Bueno", he says. By the last wires, everyone else is doing ok, but because there actually really is speed, even though I'm not concious of it, some still slow down too early, or too much, and end up stopping a few feet before the platform. But it's fun for all (mostly fun anyway, for the acrophobic).
After a little wait for transportation, we were back at the hotel. Some shopping, a nice fruit smoothie and then dinner and bedtime.
The next day, we slept in, if 8am is sleeping in, had breakfast, and took a taxi to Ixanpajul, a private nature preserve that also had canopy tours. The canopy tour didn't exactly allow you to tour the canopy, it being at speed, so we took the "Skyway" hike, which is a combination of a hiking trail and some suspension bridges, some of which are quite high off the valley.
As we were driving along the entrance driveway, we passed two people walking along. Didn't pay them much attention. At the desk, we signed up for the Skyway package and we just getting ready to get onto the trail when one of the staff came up and said that there was another group who'd like to join us, if we didn't mind. We said "sure" and got introduced to them. They were a father and son, taking a trip together: Francisco and Francisco. Francisco IV (the son) spoke decent English; his father's was ok. Francisco III was a very exuberant personality, and strong and healthy at 60. We had a good time hiking with them and learned a few new things. Didn't see much wildlife here either though, nor the allspice tree which our guide in Tikal had shown us -- the sap smells wonderful (this tree was supposed to be along the hiking path somewhere).
After the hike, we had a short horse ride over the grounds on some well maintained and healthy looking horses. The final part of the package was a small lunch, and then we had a rest on their hammocks until the taxi came to take us to Flores.
Flores is the capital of the department of Peten. It's a small town on an island, just across the mainland, larger town of Santa Elena. Flores is quaint. Ramshackle, for the most part, but with character, and also one or two incongruous houses of the well-off. Imagine a California Spanish style stuccoed townhouse with modern windows and garage door next to cinderblock houses with peeling paint. Still, as a whole, quaintly picturesque. We walked around town a couple of times, had dinner, checked out the movie theatre (seats in front of a pull-down screen) which was showing "The Muse" with Sharon Stone. We decided to give it a pass.
The next day was the day we returned to the US. We flew down from Flores on the early flight to Guatemala City (Continental flys to Flores direct only on Saturdays), getting to La Aurora Airport at 9am. We checked in our bags and took at taxi into the city. Guatemala City is a city of a few million. We drove through a small section of it to the Palacio Nacional, where official state functions take place, and which is on the main square downtown. At that time was a demonstration publicizing the lack of medical care available to the poor. We took the 1/2 hour tour of the Palacio that runs every 15 minutes, and along the way, walked through another group comprising various Miss Central American country beauties (actually, Miss Teen Nicaragura and others; Miss Teen Nicaragura caught my eye and smiled a big smile at me as I walked by her group, and strangely, we didn't take any pictures of them).
We then walked a bit through the central market, in which vendors were selling various asundry things. Although I kept my hands on my pockets, it didn't seem that there were any pickpockets around. Perhaps at more crowded times -- this was a Tuesday morning. And then we got a taxi back to the airport. As I previously observed, if one makes an effort to start a conversation, most people open up very quickly. As was with the case with the taxi driver. Not much more than a trivial conversation, given my limited Spanish, but the driver was very friendly.
That hr or so of Guatemala City was quite enough though -- it's a dirty, very polluted city. My eyes were stinging from the fumes, especially since they were being assaulted after 2 days in pristine air in the Tikal region. And we saw the evidence of the crime rate. A few "Accion Rapido" police cars, a shotgun armed guard at a fabric store... A few days before, according to the newspaper, 3 bus drivers had been murdered in various parts of the city.
And so, with a farewell to the taxi driver, we spent our last quelzales at the airport and took off back to the US. It was a short but rewarding trip.