Part 3 Christmas in Flores, Guatemala; Tikal and camping in the jungle

So we bid farewell to our jungle hut cabana in the Lacandon community of Lacanja and began our trek towards Guatemala. The journey out of Mexico and into the northern region of Guatemala takes you up the Usumacinta River on a boat to a non-descript bank on the river shore that you would pass if you didn't know it was there. We few international travelers walked up the muddy embankment and passed local women as they did their laundry by hand on the rocks in the river. Young girls carried water in jugs on their heads back to their homes. We had a "layover" here which consisted of us basically standing around a small general goods store with thatched roof houses surrounding it and a parking lot. Local Guatemalans have made a business out of exchanging pesos and other currency for the Guatemalan Quetzal here. Once the buses that were going to take us further arrived we strapped our luggage to the roof of these dilapidated vehicles. We decided that we were in a sacred place, because this seems to be where Greyhound buses have come to die. Our bus' windows would rattle open from the bumps in the dirt road, the axles would squeak, the chairs would wobble, and the whole thing vibrated and made noises every kilometer we traveled. We tested the stamina of our glutes for about three hours on this painfully rough dirt road. We did make a couple pleasant stops- one to spot out a crocodile in a pond we were passing, and another to see a six-foot boa constrictor cross the road. Some of us got out and took pictures of the snake which had to be thicker than my bicep. Soon after the road became a paved one and we passed papaya plantations, milpas, and other forms of agriculture along the way. We were traveling with San Juan Travel and they man the buses with a representative who will inform you of all the tour options they offer once at your destination, which was Flores, Guatemala. Flores is a beautiful city on an island within a lake, Lake Peten. There is a bridge that connects the mainland to the island and the island has a very quaint European streets feel. Tuk Tuk's (little red three wheeled mini taxis) are the main form of transportation here. The lake is surrounded by pristine jungle with little isolated villages spotted along the waterfront. San Juan Travel has a monopoly in Flores and even takes the entire bus to hotels for the travelers to check out. This seems very convenient, but it is also to ensure that they know where you are staying so they can sell you a tour package for the next day. We ended up choosing the Hotel Lacandona. Our room was on the third floor, two beds, ceiling fan, electric heated shower, patio with chairs and an amazing view of the lake. We booked the room, paid the 120 Quetzales ($15 US) for it and arranged for our tour of Tikal the next morning.


"Take the sunrise tour" is all we had been hearing from the people who have talked about Tikal tours so we purchased a package from San Juan Travel, of course. We arranged for them to pick us up at 4:30 a.m. and take us to the Tikal ruins. The package included hotel pickup, an english tour guide, and hotel return. We were planning on camping near the Tikal ruins the next night (Christmas Eve) and were told we could use our return trip the next day.


4:30 a.m. is a pretty disgusting time of day especially after having sat in buses for hours the day before, but we were very excited about our day's plans. We were picked up, had our luggage strapped to the roof again, and drove to the Tikal ruins. We were then dropped off, had some coffee and were introduced to Luis Oliveros, our tour guide. Luis is a local legend. His father was a tour guide in Tikal and he grew up selling sodas to tourists. He learned his English by hanging around those tourists and all the archaeologists who came to do work on the sites. He now gives the most amazing tours of Tikal and you can truly sense his passion and connection to the ruins. He is also well known for his appearance on the reality show Survivor- Guatemala season. The sunrise tour is somewhat falsely advertised. The name makes it sound as if you will be on temple watching the sun come up over the horizon illuminating the vast rain forest canopy. Instead it is just the earliest tour of Tikal available, the sun comes up as you group together for the tour. We aren't complaining simply informing. We were not upset about the timing because we were present during the most active hour for the local wildlife. Tikal is not just a ruin site. Tikal is also an ecological preserve that protects the animals that live in the jungles surrounding the ruins. Tikal is about the size of Disneyland and hasn't been completely excavated or uncovered. You hike on thin trails through the jungle for over twenty minutes at time before coming upon a giant temple. It truly is that magnificently lush and full of plant life. Aside from the beautiful flora the fauna were out scrambling looking for breakfast. We came upon groups of coatimundis, ocellated turkeys, agoutis, spotted beautiful birds in the branches, spider monkeys, and even woke up a family of howler monkeys. Luis Oliveros is much more than just a tour guide. He is an expert on the living organisms within Tikal. He knew how to coax the coatimundis to get closer, pointed out the alpha males, explained which trees certain birds preferred and the most impressive was his howler monkey call. He clapped and grunted rapidly which set off a cacophony in our portion of the jungle. He stirred up those howler monkeys and got them to belt out some of the most primal screams I have ever heard. From my prior schooling in Biological Anthropology I learned that howler monkeys are different than their spider monkey neighbors, they have been pushed into the niche of eating unripened fruit and leaves which has lead them to evolve a chamber stomach system to help them ferment these greens. This requires a substantial amount of bodily function, reducing their ability to be quick and agile. To distinguish themselves and their territory they defend it audibly and have also evolved a bone in their chest cavity that resonates creating the beastly howl they are famous for. The screams of a howler monkey can be heard over a kilometer away.


We listened to Luis' wisdom and knowledge as we climbed up temple faces, housing structures, and ritual sites. The main temples of Tikal are being preserved, but can still be climbed through elaborate wooden staircase that have been built to reach the top portion of each temple. We were able to view the rain forest from a totally different perspective. We could see green tree tops as far as your eyes could see with a few temple tops piercing through and making their presence known above the canopy. Luis explained the reason of the positioning of each of these temples, the rulers they commemorate, and the interpretations of the history left in stone. It was an ethereal experience which we cannot fully describe with words. As we have been saying this whole time- you must feel it for yourself to understand.


Our tour ended in the Grand Plaza where the most picturesque and famous temples of Tikal are. We wanted to be able to spend more time inside the park, but had to get camp set up so we left to build camp. Once our tent was nicely set up under a thick palm we returned to the park for our own personal tour as the sun set. Back at camp we cooked Christmas Eve dinner with our backpacking stove, miniature cook set, all using filtered local tap water. We have a sophisticated filtration system which begins by filtering out the harmful elements in the water, then we use Ultraviolet light to kill all the living organisms and parasites. We dined on mac n' cheese with tuna and broccoli cheddar soup. In the middle of the night Faith needed to use the restroom, but only felt comfortable if I accompanied her. After some grumbles I opened the tent flap and stood outside to wait for her. Well, it seems we had placed our tent on either the home or trail of some very disagreeable fire ants. I had barely woken up and now I was jumping up and down because my feet felt as if they had spontaneously combusted. I jumped back into the tent, but then noticed that these ants knew no boundaries, they had began infiltrating our inner sanctum. We had to then start flinging these ants out the flap before they got the chance to sting us. We learned our lesson about underestimating the jungle, don't know what exactly we could do to prevent this from happening next time, but we now know that taking late night pee runs can be very tricky.

Our Christmas morning this year was unlike any either of us have ever had before. Waking up in a tent in a rain forest offers a myriad of sounds and smells unlike any previous Christmas' we remember as kids. We unzipped our flap, took in a deep breath of warm tropical air and couldn't stop smiling thinking about where we were and how this trip has been so far. As we were tearing down camp and stuffing all our goodies into our packs a colorful toucan with a green and yellow bill hung in the palm above us picking at the berries. It was time for us to have breakfast ourselves so we headed over to the Jaguar Inn restaurant and had a nice meal.

We took the first return bus back to Flores and booked a room at the Hotel Lacandona for the night. Looking out our balcony at the lake we saw kids jumping off a nearby dock, sounded like a pretty good idea to us so we quickly changed into our swimwear and joined them. We splashed in the cool clean lake water for a little while before we had lunch at a restaurant called Villa del Chef. Two German brothers started this restaurant and offer great ambiance accompanied by traditional Guatemalan cuisine including a fish they spear hunt nightly that is only endemic to Lake Peten. They are also humanitarians and have started a playground building project for the local schools. Our day wasn't all warm weather and good times though. We needed to get in touch with our families to wish them Happy Holidays, but finding a decent internet cafe on an island in the middle of a lake on Christmas proved to be a problem. We fought with computers that had Skype capabilities but the speakers didn't work, computers that had a USB port for our MagicJack but no Skype capabilities. We ran around town popping into every open internet shop until we found a hotel that offered a computer that wasn't built in the late 80's.

Christmas 2010 will forever be a special memory for us and we hope you were entertained by how unconventional it all was. We enjoyed our time in the Peten Region of Guatemala and spontaneously formulated the next portion of our journey- sharing a rented car and driver with our friends Ben and Nancy and going to Livingston which is a city on a river where it meets the Caribbean Sea.