La Jungla and Tikal

Coming off all of our outdoorsy adventures in Lanquin, Sarah and I were ready to delve a little deeper and get even further off the "gringo trail." We headed north from Lanquin towards Flores, in El Peten, a city known mostly for being a traffic hub, a place to base your trips to the grand ruins of Tikal. The Peten area is huge and largely forested, only recently drawing much attention due to improved infrastructure and the wealth of Mayan ruins. We entered Flores thinking we would like to find a tour agency to organize a good long jungle expedition for us. We were hoping to hike to El Mirador, the two largest buildings discovered in the Mayan world, about a two day hike (one way) from the nearest small town. Our fantasy of being deep jungle explorers were dashed when we learned we would travel with 4 to 5 guides and a small army of pack horses. That and the trip would cost about what we spend here in a month. Not quite willing to give up on an jungle trek we explored some other options and found we could avoid the heavily traveled Flores to Tikal highway and hike from the small town of Cruce Dos Aguadas to a smaller ruin, El Zotz, and arrive in Tikal on foot, three days in all. Deciding that just one afternoon wouldn't do the ruins of Tikal justice we asked for an extension on our return bus ticket and packed up the tent and sleeping bag and hit the trail. We arrived at our first campsite after 5 hours of hiking on the first day. The day was nice and easy since our two pack horses carried all of the equipment and food, not to mention my pack with about 40 lbs worth of clothes and camping stuff. It dawned on us just how easy our trip was going to be as Carlos, our guide, and his helper set up camp and started cooking dinner refusing all help. I´d never been so pampered on a camping trip but Sarah and I just shrugged our shoulders and hung out with Selvin, Carlos´son who was with us on his last outing before school vacation ended. The hospitality and cooking couldn´t be faulted but whoever did the grocery shopping had purchased us a very "white trash" themed menu. Luckily Carlos caught on to the fact that we were much more into their tortillas than the processed white bread that was in such abundance (interesting note: here instead of Wonder Bread there is Pan Bimbo... are stupid names required for bad bread?). We started the next day with a fruit salad and a trip into the ruins of El Zotz. El Zotz is still mostly uncovered but you can gather the shape and size of the city because every hill in the area was an old stone building in a past age. Many looters have tunneled into the sides of these ruins and we passed through a few of the less invasive. The most thought provoking bit of El Zotz was the view from the top of their Temple 4. Across a large expanse of jungle you can see the top of Temple 4 in Tikal. It made me wonder what technologies the Mayans used to send messages between cities that were days apart. That afternoon we started out on the hike between the two cities. The jungle was filled with all sorts of fascinating plants and Carlos filled our minds with information as fast as we could receive it. If there weren´t plants with medicinal or ancient uses around Carlos would tell us some of the mythology of the jungle. It set a perfect tone for traveling long distances between ancient cities. After 3 hours of hiking our second day I dropped off quickly, dreaming of all the possibilities of the civilizations that had preceded us on this road. Our third and final day started early and without the horses. The horses and the fellow who minded them would head back the way we came and Carlos and Selvin would finish of the trip with us. The trek was a bit more difficult with 40 lbs on my back but the lush jungle was enough to distract me from my tired shoulders. We arrived at "Chico Tikal" about mid-day and ate a quick lunch (tuna fish on white bread and a Tang-like orange drink). Chico Tikal is a small one building ruin that has been a mid-point between El Zotz and Tikal for... 2500 years now? At least 1300. Three long days of hiking gave Sarah and I an entirely different feeling once we entered the Tikal ruins. We could see it for the center of commerce and religion it was. Our feet could feel a small part of the journey that so many Mayans would make to come to a bustling metropolis. It lent the ruins a gravity you couldn´t buy at the entrance. We ate a late lunch with Carlos and Selvin, said our goodbyes and pitched a tent. We spent the afternoon slowly meandering around the ruins, glad we had the whole next day to explore. We got on the sunrise bandwagon the next day, which involved getting up at 4:30 and bribing the guards (if twenty to thirty people do it everyday is it still called a bribe? maybe a payoff). We climbed Temple 4 and waited for the sun to make it´s appearance. Just before the sun tipped over the horizon all of the howler monkeys in the area of Tikal let loose with a greeting of the dawn aria. Amazing. We spent 12 hours running around Tikal; sketching, exploring, climbing countless stairs and enjoying quiet nooks all to ourselves. The Copan ruins were very finely carved and lovely but Tikal absolutely dwarfed them in size. I have seldom been as completely exhausted and entirely satisfied as I was at the end of this trip. A day or two to rest and it is on to Rio Dulce and the Carribean.
-Dirk