Tikal - Tikal National Park, Guatemala
Tikal National Park, Guatemala
Monday 29th July
We woke at a normal time, for a change and went for breakfast, lovely fruit and scrambled egg. Our American colleague came to join us and off we set. As we went down to Teakettle, then Ontario I remarked on the number of old yellow American school buses we saw. Ah yes, Belize imports them when the Americans do longer want them. The same with cars- no one in Belize has a nice car (apart from the most wealthy in Belize City) because the roads mean it is not worthwhile.
We drove along the Western Highway passing rivers (Roaring River was indeed roaring now), farms, villages. An interesting shopping area (Orange Gallery), then Georgeville. We passed a large Government Agricultural Innovation Centre and Issi told us he had worked here as a bee-keeper for years. S asked what kind of bees (as he has a fascination with African bees) and he said yes- hybrid African-american bees. Surprisingly it turns out that these hybrids can be trained like our English bees to live in hives and produce honey. Issi still occasionally went to teach local farmers how to keep bees. We tried the honey later and it was OK (though not as good as Alps honey IMO). Then through Esperanza and red Creek. The road joined a river and for many miles we drove along the banks of the Mopan River to San Ignacio town. Here the Mopan and Macal Rivers meet and become Belize River, which itself heads down to the coast at Belize City. I loved the sign with its Town Centre this way, "Beyond" turn right. We turned to beyond and past small stall-shops to a one way bridge a few feet above the river (still the Macal). Once over we headed up and out of town along the river, past the Hand-cranked ferry to Benque Viejo town and shortly thereafter, the border (taking 1.5 hours). Our taxi, being Belizean, was not allowed to be a taxi in Guatemala, so we got out and headed to the border hangar by foot. All very easy- a stamp and we were through. We went right through to collect our Guatemalan taxi on the other side.
Now we were in Guatemala. The roads were good and we sped into the countryside towards the Maya Biosphere. It was higher than we expected, but then the Maya did live in the highlands in Guatemala. We passed quite a number of reasonable sized lakes, including Laguna Salpeten and Lake Peten Itza and its island town of Flores. We did notice quite a number of children in school uniform (cute- little checked dresses) and were told it was not school hols in Guatemala.
After a number of smaller settlements the paved road suddenly unpaved itself. Then was paved again, then unpaved... until we reached the Maya Biosphere Reserve park entrance arch where we bought a cheap map. Our entrance fees paid we drove to the car park at Tikal itself and parked in the shade (about 2 hour drive).
Our guide, Francisco, found us at once and off we set. Now, Francisco, cared deeply at Tikal and how it was managed. We noticed, throughout our trip, the lack of people there. It was SO empty- in Europe an attraction like this would have been heaving. I wonder how much advertising the Government/ local authorities did- they could have loads more people as the area was vast. Francisco himself, whilst very knowledgeable about the FACTS of Tikal and the Maya, was hugely opinionated too! He had his favourite (and otherwise) archaeologists, depending on how much they agreed with his pet theories. He was also a tad obsessed with astronomy and the Long Count.
Firstly we went to the museum/ shops area to look at the models of reconstructed Tikal (over 3000 excavated structures alone), then past the stalls to the outer area by the crocodile pond. We saw a small group of Ocellated Turkeys (wild) as we headed up the main tourist path. The path led past the most enormous ceibo tree, then bifurcated at an information sign and we headed right towards a Twin-Pyramid Complex Group Q. We saw the back of the pyramid as we came around the corner to the main area. Then we saw movement in the trees- a troupe of Geoffroys Spider monkeys were swinging towards us.
GROUP Q & TWIN COMPLEXES
The twin pyramids were in a good state as we looked at them. Our guide called us over to a tree- against the back was a HUGE hairy tarantula. Its OK, he said, it's just a BABY. Good grief- I’d hate to meet the mum then. Close by was a small building with a corbelled arch. The Maya never invented proper arches, so corbelling was de rigeur. Inside the building, under a small thatched roof were two pieces of carved stone- Stela 22 and Altar 10. Our guide pointed out (green spot) the royal (lordly) glyph on the stela.
WHAT ARE ALTAR & STELAE
We walked on through the jungle (paths were either badly marked or non-existent- thank goodness for a knowledgeable guide), past a pyramid mound (excavated but probably a Twin-pyramid complex Group R) and tumbled stelae. Then a thatch protected Stela 19 and Altar 6 in the corner, down tiny jungle paths to the rear view of Jaguar Temple. This temple head reared over the jungle impressively and made for a great start to the centre of Tikal. The Merchant Plaza to our right, we headed up a path to the main Royal Palaces area. Yes, Places, plural. This area, the Central Acropolis, had palaces built and extended over many generations. Few of the lord’s family would move out, so new sections were always being added. The Mahler Palace, named after XXX was very fine with beautifully cut stone work, which is amazing when you consider that the Maya had not metal tools (only stone) or wheels to move things. The Central Plaza of the Palace looked impressive as we headed up the steps at the far end and across towards Five Storeys Palace. The views of the temples (particularly Temple V) rising above the jungle were especially fine here. As we crossed, a coatimundi casually walked across our path, so we stopped and watched as it left. The Palace here was covered (outside) with small niches. We went inside the palace here to have the Maya air-conditioning demonstrated. Each bedroom area had a niche where their books would have been kept. Unlike the Inca, the Maya were a literate society and what evidence is left suggests that there were a LOT of scripts around. Sadly, the invading Spanish determination to wipe out any non-christian text meant that most of it was destroyed.
MAYA TEXTS
Then we walked around the back of the Mahler Palace and its second courtyard (no less fine than the first and with even nicer doorways) to arrive many metres above the Central Plaza. The view at this point is super- both pyramids (it is, at heart, a twin-pyramid complex), the giant pyramid-temple and the plaza itself. After a few pictures we headed down the stone steps to the Central Plaza itself. Our guide talked about the area briefly, then left us to explore the area itself. In front of us were a group of stelae and altars, some protected, others not, in two lines. Notable were Stelae 11, 10, 18, 40, 7 and 5. See below…
Looking up to the two temples we could see the remains of the decorative roof combs and the standard 6-room temple top.
TEMPLES- tallest Maya world
To the front was the huge temple complex, decorated with giant stone god-heads.
We walked up to the first platform for a view of the jungle, then realised it was time to find the guide again. As we rejoined him the plaza was particularly empty, so he demonstrated the brilliant acoustics of the plaza (as with all Maya plaza). A clap reverberated and grew around the whole Plaza.
A stall (selling water) was inevitably set up in the corner by the toilets! We headed straight past on our way to the El Mundo Perdido complex (when we remembered this meant The Lost World, Conan-Doyle jumped straight to mind and the scenery added to the effect). Francisco told the story of how it acquired this name (true or not) that a group of American researchers wanted to do some work on this complex. Do you need directions or a guide? asked the locals, “as its quite hard to find”. No, no replied the americans, we’ll have no trouble. … Three days later… Where are those Americans? Let’s see where they got to. Three days more. Aha, there you are. Did you get lost? Do you need a guide yet? Yes, no surprises there then!!
Past the ruined Temple III (currently unsafe as partly collapsed internally) and the Temple of the Skulls, we arrived at the side of the Lost World Temple. A vine made a natural swing and amazingly held S weight.
A note on El Mundo Perdido
El Mundo Perdido
Then off again to find the tallest temple in Tikal- Temple IV. We stopped at the concession at the base for a drink and toilet break, before starting th steps to the top (cleverly arranged in an up and a down side).
TEMPLE IV
At the top, 70 metres above the forest floor, the view was quite spectacular. We sat in the central room of the roof comb and admired the sight of Tikal’s Temples towering above the jungle foliage. We just enjoyed the views for a while before making our descent. A quarter way down I stopped to help a couple take a photo and this was fortuitous as a small group of Black Howler Monkeys took just that moment to visit the tall trees by the temple. They were not noisy as the adults were trying to sleep whilst three young ones were determined to play. At the bottom, we headed quickly through some areas we had missed to end up back at the entrance area for lunch. Next to our café was a Japanese research lab, but Francisco thought the money would be better spent on promoting the site. We had a fajitas style lunch with some super hot dipping sauce (which we later purchased for M to try). Outside some noisy birds sat and squawked at us. We decided to have a quick look in the shops for a souvenir before leaving. S found a nice jade dagger he fancied (since the Maya only used stone they were experts at utilising the properties of different types of stone). Then we saw a pretty jade pendant and earrings in a shop. We asked how much and they told us. Before we’d even said yes, they were put into a bag. No, no we said. We have only got a little bit of Guatemalan money and some Belize money- no credit cards (we’d forgotten them). We knew it wasn’t enough. But they kept trying to do a deal, as if we could magic up more money. We tried to explain we weren’t haggling- we just hadn’t brought much money! In the end they took all our money and gave up and let us have them. The guide said we’d got a bargain! It was late afternoon, so we drove back to the border and crossed over back to Belize (and boy, was it hot and humid outside the taxi).
We returned through San Ignacio over the other bridge, many metres above the river, arriving back at the lodge at early evening. S was too tired, he headed straight to bed, but I was hungry and not tired at all.
So, I went to find everyone- in the hut the night cameras were showing the animals that had been there last night, including a jaguar only a few hundred feet from our cabana. We all sat on the steps to admire the Milky Way- it was a moonless night so the stars were especially clear. No light pollution here meant an amazing view. As we chatted Ray set up a moth trap for later. We drank Belikins until it was time to eat. Buffet style as usual. We ended up having a strange discussion about contraception and abortion rights; how local people felt about them etc. The Mennonites (according to one staff member who was Maya but his daughter had married into the Mennonite community) did use contraception, but he was amazed that abortion was fairly easy in England. He, and other staff/ guests (none English except us) really admired our system, saying it saved a lot of heartache. Don’t know how, but this discussion ended up talking about evolution and the ridiculous idea that the earth was only 4000 (or whatever) years old. I had not realised what a hot potato topic this was in America.
Suddenly one of the kitchen staff screamed and we investigated. A huge (yes) snake was winding its way through the dining area. But it was fine- a harmless King Snake, which only wanted to leave.
We headed back to look at the stars and see what was in the moth trap. It was amazing how many types of moths were there. At this point I realised that wearing white might be a disadvantage. The moths thought I was great, especially with the fluorescent lamp close by. I was literally covered with big, small, medium, brown, black, blueish, greenish, even iridescent moths.
I did feel like I should check on S, so headed back (with many moths still attached) so find him.